title: School meal

text: A recent advocate of nutritional lunches was Michelle Obama. Since the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Michelle Obama has worked diligently to defend the importance of healthy school lunches but, has not been successful in her efforts. Schools, specifically in the United states, are having difficulty enforcing nutrition values in fear of being wasteful because children are no longer eating their lunches. Information gathered from students, schools, and food service experts prompted that they cannot meet the regulations required for the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Providing schools with whole grains, whole milk, and reduced sodium levels was a part of the act, but the Senate would not fully comply. To compromise, they agreed to serve more fruits and vegetables, more whole grains and reduce the sodium levels. The levels of sodium were to be reduced but these efforts have been postponed for at least 3 years due to inappropriate planning. To avoid further conflict between the senate and the administration, the USDA has tolerated exemptions pertaining to the whole grain standard and allowed schools to do what they find necessary to finding a more fitting solution.


title: School meal

text: Vending machines in schools are also a major source of competitive food for students. Under pressure from parents and anti-obesity advocates, many school districts moved to ban sodas, junk foods, and candy from vending machines and cafeterias. Various laws have also been passed to limit foods sold in school vending machines. With increasing concern over traditional vending machines in schools, healthier vending options have gained popularity and are steadily being adopted by schools around the nation. Marketing for such "healthy vending machines" states that they allow students to perform better in school while also attaining better health.


title: School meal

text: In April 2012, the State of Osun in Nigeria pioneered a statewide school meals programme for all public elementary school pupils. It is called the O'Meals programme (an acronym for the Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme). As of July 2014, it was providing lunch to over 252,000 children in 100% of Osun's elementary schools. In addition to staples such as rice, beans, and yams served with stews, soups, and vegetables, the programme provides daily fruits. Its estimated cost is N50 (USD $0.31) per child per day.


title: School meal

text: All food items are sourced locally from farmers and others on the supply chain, enhancing employment within the state. Addressing child malnutrition has raised students' academic performance, and has increased school enrollment by 24% compared to figures from before April 2012.


title: School meal

text: In 2015, the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) advocated for the adoption of a nationwide free meal plan. Since he became President, Muhammadu Buhari has made the implementation of this policy one of his foremost priorities. A national School Meals programme is the subject of a budgetary proposal before the National Assembly. Also, the government of Kaduna State has implemented a school feeding programme.


title: School meal

text: The Healthy Kids Association (previously The Healthy Kids School Canteen Association) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental, health promotion organization based in Sydney, Australia. It is a peak organisation for school canteens in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).


title: School meal

text: In Australia, many school canteens have returned to offering junk food, or pupils have started buying fast food outside their schools. The association has developed policies intended to counter these trends; in some schools, they have taken over providing school food.


title: School meal

text: In response to the 2002 Childhood Obesity Summit, former Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr launched the "Fresh Tastes NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy." Healthy Kids has become a key partner of the Ministry of Health in developing this plan. The strategy is to develop a taste for healthier foods among schoolchildren by promoting and featuring healthier menu options, while limiting the availability of less nutritious foods. The program's menu guide was partially created by Rosemary Stanton.


title: School meal

text: In 2012, Hone Harawira MP had a private member's bill to provide free breakfast and lunches for all children in decile 1 and 2 schools in New Zealand was drawn from the ballot. The Education (Breakfast and Lunch Programmes in Schools) Amendment Bill, better known as the "Feed the Kids Bill", has been supported by a broad-based Community Coalition for Food in Schools. A TV One opinion poll found 70 percent support for the Bill's proposal.


title: School meal

text: Until 2020, New Zealand did not have any school meal programme, aside from board-run school breakfasts that were not provided by central government. After assuming office, New Zealand's Labour-led government announced 20,000 children would benefit from school lunches by 2021. Jacinda Ardern has said this programme will be dramatically expanded to 200,000 students by the end of 2021 (25% of national school rolls) should she retain office.


title: Gender Development Index

text: GDI, together with the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), was introduced in 1995 in the Human Development Report written by the United Nations Development Program. The aim of these measurements was to add a gender-sensitive dimension to the Human Development Index (HDI). The first measurement that they created as a result was the GDI. The GDI is defined as a "distribution-sensitive measure that accounts for the human development impact of existing gender gaps in the three components of the HDI" (Klasen 243). Distribution sensitive means that the GDI takes into account not only the averaged or general level of well-being and wealth within a given country, but focuses also on how this wealth and well-being is distributed between different groups within society. The HDI and the GDI (as well as the GEM) were created to rival the more traditional general income-based measures of development such as gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP).


title: Gender Development Index

text: The GDI is often considered a "gender-sensitive extension of the HDI" (Klasen 245). It addresses gender-gaps in life expectancy, education, and incomes. It uses an "inequality aversion" penalty, which creates a development score penalty for gender gaps in any of the categories of the Human Development Index (HDI) which include life expectancy, adult literacy, school enrollment, and logarithmic transformations of per-capita income. In terms of life expectancy, the GDI assumes that women will live an average of five years longer than men. Additionally, in terms of income, the GDI considers income-gaps in terms of actual earned income. The GDI cannot be used independently from the HDI score, and so, it cannot be used on its own as an indicator of gender gaps. Only the gap between the HDI and the GDI can actually be accurately considered; the GDI on its own is not an independent measure of gender gaps.


title: Gender Development Index

text: Below is a list of countries by their Gender Development Index, based on data collected in 2018, and published in 2019. Countries are grouped into five groups based on the absolute deviation from gender parity in HDI values, from 1 (closest to gender parity) to 5 (furthest from gender parity). This means that grouping takes equally into consideration gender gaps favoring males, as well as those favoring females.


title: Gender Development Index

text: In the years since its creation in 1995, much debate has arisen surrounding the reliability, and usefulness of the Gender Development Index (GDI) in making adequate comparisons between different countries and in promoting gender-sensitive development. The GDI is particularly criticized for being often mistakenly interpreted as an independent measure of gender gaps when it is not, in fact, intended to be interpreted in that way, because it can only be used in combination with the scores from the Human Development Index, but not on its own. Additionally, the data that is needed in order to calculate the GDI is not always readily available in many countries, making the measure very hard to calculate uniformly and internationally. There is also worry that the combination of so many different developmental influences in one measurement could result in muddled results and that perhaps the GDI (and the GEM) actually hide more than they reveal.


title: Gender Development Index

text: More specifically, there has been a lot of debate over the life-expectancy component of the GDI. As was mentioned previously, the GDI life expectancy section is adjusted to assume that women will live, normally, five years longer than men. This provision has been debated, and it has been argued that if the GDI was really looking to promote true equality, it would strive to attain the same life-expectancy for women and men, despite what might be considered a biological advantage or not. However, this may seem paradoxical in terms of policy implications, because, theoretically, this could only be achieved through providing preferential treatment to males, effectively discriminating against females. Yet, UN provide a number of strategies and plans giving preferential treatment to women and girls, not only for health issues but also for education or job opportunities. Furthermore, it has been argued that the GDI does not account for sex-selective abortion, meaning that the penalty levied against a country for gender inequality is less because it affects less of the population (see Sen, Missing Women).


title: Gender Development Index

text: Another area of debate surrounding the GDI is in the area of income gaps. The GDI considers income-gaps in terms of actual earned income. This has been said to be problematic because often, men may make more money than women, but their income is shared. Additionally, the GDI has been criticized because it does not consider the value of care work as well as other work performed in the informal sector (such as cleaning, cooking, housework, and childcare). Another criticism of the GDI is that it only takes gender into account as a factor for inequality; it does not, however, consider inequality among class, region or race, which could be very significant. Another criticism with the income-gap portion of the GDI is that it is heavily dependent on gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP). For most countries, the earned-income gap accounts for more than 90% of the gender penalty.


title: Gender Development Index

text: As was suggested by Halis Akder in 1994, one alternative to the Gender Development Index (GDI) would be the calculation of a separate male and female Human Development Index (HDI). Another suggested alternative is the Gender Gap Measure which could be interpreted directly as a measure of gender inequality, instead of having to be compared to the HDI as the GDI is. It would average the female-male gaps in human development and use a gender-gap in labor force participation instead of earned income. In the 2010 Human Development Report, another alternative to the GDI, namely, the Gender Inequality Index (GII) was proposed in order to address some of the shortcomings of the GDI. This new experimental measure contains three dimensions: Reproductive Health, Empowerment, and Labor Market Participation.


title: April Rose Haydock

text: April Rose (Haydock) (born November 3, 1987) is an American model, and actress. After being voted "Maxim"s "Hometown Hotties" winner in 2008, she has been featured in magazines such as "Maxim Canada" as the cover girl, and has also appeared as herself in television shows such as "Guy Code", "Girl Code", "Chicago Faceoff with April Rose", and "Chicago Huddle". She has also appeared in various feature films such as "Grown Ups 2" and appeared on the Speed channel as a co-host for Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction.


title: April Rose Haydock

text: Haydock acquired an emergency medical technician certification from Oakton Community College and a cardiovascular technologist license from PCCTI in Chicago. She was also certified as a medical crisis counselor for Rape Victim Advocates (RVA).


title: April Rose Haydock

text: From 2011 to 2014 April Rose wrote and hosted MAXIM weekly web series. She is an original cast member of MTV2 series "Guy Code" and its sister spinoff MTV's "Girl Code". She hosted MTV Spring Break 2014 from Cancun, Mexico alongside "Guy Code" castmate Andrew Schultz. She was cast as Kasey Knox 'Hot Dance Teacher' in the feature film "Grown Ups 2", where she plays a Russian dance instructor and girlfriend of Tommy Cavanaugh played by Stone Cold Steve Austin. She became an on-air contributor for Speed live coverage of the Barrett-Jackson Auction in 2011. She stayed with them as they transitioned to Fox Sports Networks. She has been an on-air contributor for Comcast SportsNet Chicago since 2009. She also hosts and writes a Chicago-based hockey show that airs on Comcast SportsNet Chicago called "Chicago Face-Off with April Rose" that will run through eight episodes featuring a different Chicago Blackhawks player each week.


title: April Rose Haydock

text: In 2012, she was listed as #82 in MAXIM’s definitive list of the world's most beautiful women the "HOT 100 List" In 2008, she won Maxim’s search for the hottest girl next door in America the MAXIM HomeTown Hottie contest.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: The 2020 AFC Champions League was the 39th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 18th under the current AFC Champions League title.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: Ulsan Hyundai won their second Champions League title by defeating Persepolis 2–1 in the final. Ulsan automatically qualify for the 2021 AFC Champions League (although they had already qualified through their domestic performance), the first time since 2008 that the AFC Champions League holders were guaranteed automatic qualification in the following year. They also earned the right to play in the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: The tournament was the last to involve 32 teams during the group stage, which increased to 40 teams in 2021.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: The competition was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia after group stage matches on 4 March 2020, and restarted on 14 September 2020. All matches after the restart were played in Qatar, with the final played at the Al Janoub Stadium.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia were the defending champions, but the club effectively withdrew from the competition when they could not name the required 13 players for their final group stage match, as all but 11 players had tested positive for COVID-19. For the first time, the video assistant referee (VAR) system was in use from the quarter-finals onwards.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: The 46 AFC member associations (excluding the associate member Northern Mariana Islands) were ranked based on their national team's and clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions, with the allocation of slots for the 2019 and 2020 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2017 AFC rankings (Entry Manual Article 2.3):


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: For the 2020 AFC Champions League, the associations were allocated slots according to their association ranking which was published on 15 December 2017, which took into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup, as well as their national team's FIFA World Rankings, during the period between 2014 and 2017.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: "In the following table, the number of appearances and last appearance count only those since the 2002–03 season (including qualifying rounds), when the competition was rebranded as the AFC Champions League."


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: The schedule of the competition was as follows. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only some of the group stage matches on matchdays 1–3 in February and March were played as scheduled, and all matches on matchdays 4–6 were postponed until further notice. The round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals were also initially moved to 10–12 and 24–26 August, 14–16 and 28–30 September, and 20–21 and 27–28 October.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: The AFC announced the calendar of the remaining matches on 9 July 2020, with all matches before the final played at centralised venues, and all knockout ties played as a single match. On 10 September 2020, the AFC announced the new dates for the East Region matches and the final.


title: 2020 AFC Champions League

text: Note: Abderrazak Hamdallah finished ahead of Júnior Negrão to win the Top Scorer award despite scoring the same number of goals, and also having the same number of assists (first tiebreaker), since he played fewer minutes throughout the competition (second tiebreaker).


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: Christian V (15 April 1646 25 August 1699) was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 until his death in 1699.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: Well-regarded by the common people, he was the first king anointed at Frederiksborg Castle chapel as absolute monarch since the decree that institutionalized the supremacy of the king in Denmark-Norway. Christian fortified the absolutist system against the aristocracy by accelerating his father's practice of allowing both Holstein nobles and Danish and Norwegian commoners into state service.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: As king, he wanted to show his power as absolute monarch through architecture, and dreamed of a Danish Versailles. He was the first to use the 1671 Throne Chair of Denmark, partly made for this purpose. His motto was: "Pietate et Justitia" (With piety and justice).


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: Prince Christian was born on 15 April 1646 at Duborg Castle in the city of Flensburg, then located in the Duchy of Schleswig. He was the first legitimate child born to the then Prince Frederick of Denmark by his consort, Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Calenberg. Prince Frederick was a younger son of King Christian IV, but the death of his elder brother Christian, Prince-Elect of Denmark in June 1647 opened the possibility for Frederick to be elected heir apparent to the Danish throne.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: After the death of King Christian IV in 1648, Frederick thus became King of Denmark and Norway as Frederick III. Prince Christian was elected successor to his father in June 1650. This was not a free choice, but "de facto" automatic hereditary succession. Escorted by his chamberlain Christoffer Parsberg, Christian went on a long trip abroad, to Holland, England, France, and home through Germany. On this trip, he saw absolutism in its most splendid achievement at the young Louis XIV's court, and heard about the theory of the divine right of kings. He returned to Denmark in August 1663. From 1664 he was allowed to attend proceedings of the State College. Hereditary succession was made official by Royal Law in 1665. Christian was hailed as heir in Copenhagen in August 1665, in Odense and Viborg in September, and in Christiania, Norway in July 1666. Only a short time before he became king, he was taken into the Council of the Realm and the Supreme Court.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: On 9 February 1670, King Frederick III died at the age of 60 at the Copenhagen Castle after a reign of 22 years. At the death of his father, Frederick immediately ascended the thrones of Denmark and Norway as the second absolute monarch at the age of just 24. He was formally crowned on 7 June the following year in the chapel of Frederiksborg Palace, which thereafter became the traditional place of coronation of Denmark's monarchs during the days of the absolute monarchy. He was the first hereditary king of Denmark-Norway, and in honor of this, Denmark-Norway acquired costly new crown jewels and a magnificent new ceremonial sword.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: It is generally argued that Christian V's personal courage and affability made him popular among the common people, but his image was marred by his unsuccessful attempt to regain Scania for Denmark in the Scanian War. The war exhausted Denmark's economic resources without securing any gains. Part of Christian's appeal to the common people may be explained by the fact that he allowed Danish and Norwegian commoners into state service, but his attempts to curtail the influence of the nobility also meant continuing his father's drive toward absolutism. To accommodate non-aristocrats into state service, he created the new noble ranks of count and baron. One of the commoners elevated in this way by the king was Peder Schumacher, named Count of Griffenfeld by Christian V in 1670 and high councillor of Denmark in 1674.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: Griffenfeld, a skilled statesman, better understood the precarious situation Denmark-Norway placed itself by attacking Sweden at a time when the country was allied with France, the major European power of the era. After some hesitation, Christian V initiated the Scanian War (1675-1679) against Sweden in an attempt to reconquer Scania which Denmark had lost under the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. As Griffenfeld predicted, Sweden's stronger ally France was the party that dictated the peace with Denmark's ally the Netherlands, and in spite of Danish victory at sea in the battles against Sweden in 1675–1679 during the Scanian War, Danish hopes for border changes on the Scandinavian Peninsula between the two countries were dashed. The results of the war efforts proved politically and financially unremunerative for Denmark-Norway. The damage to the Danish-Norwegian economy was extensive. At this point, Christian V no longer had his most experienced foreign relations counsel around to repair the political damage — in 1676 he had been persuaded to sacrifice Griffenfeld as a traitor, and to the clamour of his adversaries, Griffenfeld was imprisoned for the remainder of his life.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: After the Scanian War, his sister, Princess Ulrike Eleonora of Denmark, married Swedish king Charles XI, whose mother was a stout supporter of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. In spite of the family ties, war between the brothers-in-law was close again in 1689, when Charles XI nearly provoked confrontation with Denmark-Norway by his support of the exiled Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp in his claims to Holstein-Gottorp in Schleswig-Holstein.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: Like Charles XI of Sweden, who had never been outside Sweden, Christian V spoke only German and Danish and was therefore often considered poorly educated due to his inability to communicate with visiting foreign diplomats. Christian V was also often considered dependent on his councillors by contemporary sources. The Danish monarch did nothing to dispel this notion. In his memoirs, he listed "hunting, love-making, war and maritime affairs" as his main interests in life.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: Christian V introduced the Danish Code ("Danske Lov") in 1683, the first law code for all of Denmark. He also introduced the similar "Norske Lov" (Norwegian Code) of 1687 to replace Christian IVs Norwegian Code from 1604 in Norway. He also introduced the land register of 1688, which attempted to work out the land value of the united monarchy in order to create a more just taxation.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: During the reign of Christian V, Denmark's trade in cattle that had declined due to catastrophic fires and wars had been restored, and livestock and crop exports had also surpassed Frederick III, with thousands of cattle entering and leaving Jutland through the Oxen Way. After entering and fattening in the Danish King's German enclave County of Oldenburg, the cattle reached the big market in Wedel. From there, cattle are resold to all parts of North Germany via Stade, Hamburg and Lübeck. As the population continues to soar at the end of the seventeenth century, demand for beef, grains and fish is increasing, both throughout North Germany and on the Baltic coast alone. In terms of the number of livestock shipped to the South, in 1680 each market had reached 40,000 cattle. Traditional export commodities, including fish and grains, have increased their exports since the beginning of the seventeenth century.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: The agricultural products exported by Denmark, especially cattle, have made a lot of money from Germany and the Netherlands for the Danish royal family, the aristocrats and the town residents. During his reign, science witnessed a golden age due to the work of the astronomer Ole Rømer in spite of the king's personal lack of scientific knowledge and interest. He died from the after-effects of a hunting accident and was interred in Roskilde Cathedral.


title: Christian V of Denmark

text: Christian V had eight children by his wife and six by his Maîtresse-en-titre, Sophie Amalie Moth (1654–1719), whom he took up with when she was sixteen. Sophie was the daughter of his former tutor Poul Moth. Christian publicly introduced Sophie into court in 1672, a move which insulted his wife, and made her countess of Samsø on 31 December 1677.


title: Argon2

text: Argon2 is a key derivation function that was selected as the winner of the 2015 Password Hashing Competition. It was designed by Alex Biryukov, Daniel Dinu, and Dmitry Khovratovich from the University of Luxembourg. The reference implementation of Argon2 is released under a Creative Commons CC0 license (i.e. public domain) or the Apache License 2.0, and provides three related versions:


title: Argon2

text: While there is no public cryptanalysis applicable to Argon2d, there are two published attacks on the Argon2i function. The first attack is applicable only to the old version of Argon2i, while the second has been extended to the latest version (1.3).


title: Argon2

text: The first attack shows that it is possible to compute a single-pass Argon2i function using between a quarter and a fifth of the desired space with no time penalty, and compute a multiple-pass Argon2i using only / (≈ /2.72) space with no time penalty. According to the Argon2 authors, this attack vector was fixed in version 1.3.


title: Argon2

text: The second attack shows that Argon2i can be computed by an algorithm which has complexity O( log()) for all choices of parameters (space cost), (time cost), and thread-count such that =∗. The Argon2 authors claim that this attack is not efficient if Argon2i is used with three or more passes. However, Joël Alwen and Jeremiah Blocki improved the attack and showed that in order for the attack to fail, Argon2i v1.3 needs more than 10 passes over memory.


title: Argon2

text: Argon2 makes use of a hash function capable of producing digests up to 2 bytes long. This hash function is internally built upon Blake2.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Pemphigus vulgaris is a rare chronic blistering skin disease and the most common form of pemphigus. Pemphigus was derived from the Greek word "pemphix", meaning blister. It is classified as a type II hypersensitivity reaction in which antibodies are formed against desmosomes, components of the skin that function to keep certain layers of skin bound to each other. As desmosomes are attacked, the layers of skin separate and the clinical picture resembles a blister. These blisters are due to acantholysis, or breaking apart of intercellular connections through an autoantibody-mediated response. Over time the condition inevitably progresses without treatment: lesions increase in size and distribution throughout the body, behaving physiologically like a severe burn.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Before the advent of modern treatments, mortality for the disease was close to 90%. Today, the mortality rate with treatment is between 5-15% due to the introduction of corticosteroids as primary treatment. Nevertheless, in 1998, pemphigus vulgaris was the fourth most common cause of death due to a skin disorder.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: The disease mainly affects middle-aged and older adults between 50–60 years old. There has historically been a higher incidence in women.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Pemphigus vulgaris most commonly presents with oral blisters (buccal and palatine mucosa, especially), but also includes cutaneous blisters. Other mucosal surfaces, the conjunctiva, nose, esophagus, penis, vulva, vagina, cervix, and anus, may also be affected. Flaccid blisters over the skin are frequently seen with sparing of the skin covering the palms and soles.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Blisters commonly erode and leave ulcerated lesions and erosions. A positive Nikolsky sign (induction of blistering in normal skin or at the edge of a blister) is indicative of the disease.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Pemphigus is an autoimmune disease caused by antibodies directed against both desmoglein 1 and desmoglein 3 present in desmosomes. Loss of desmosomes results in loss of cohesion between keratinocytes in the epidermis, and a disruption of the barrier function served by intact skin. The process is classified as a type II hypersensitivity reaction (in which antibodies bind to antigens on the body's own tissues). On histology, the basal keratinocytes are usually still attached to the basement membrane leading to a characteristic appearance called "tombstoning". Transudative fluid accumulates in between the keratinocytes and the basal layer (suprabasal split), forming a blister and resulting in what is known as a positive Nikolsky's sign. This is a contrasting feature from bullous pemphigoid, which is thought to be due to anti-hemidesmosome antibodies, and where the detachment occurs between the epidermis and dermis (subepidermal bullae). Clinically, pemphigus vulgaris is characterized by extensive flaccid blisters and mucocutaneous erosions. The severity of the disease, as well as the mucosal lesions, is believed to be directly proportional to the levels of desmoglein 3. Milder forms of pemphigus (like foliacious and erythematoses) are more anti-desmoglein 1 heavy.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: The disease arises most often in middle-aged or older people, usually starting with a blister that ruptures easily. It can also start with blisters in the mouth. The lesions can become quite extensive.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Because it is a rare disease, diagnosis is often complicated and takes a long time. Early in the disease patients may have erosions in the mouth or blisters on the skin. These blisters can be itchy or painful. Theoretically, the blisters should demonstrate a positive Nikolsky's sign, in which the skin sloughs off from slight rubbing, but this is not always reliable. The gold standard for diagnosis is a punch biopsy from the area around the lesion that is examined by direct immunofluorescent staining, in which cells are acantholytic, that is, lacking the normal intercellular connections that hold them together. These can also be seen on a Tzanck smear. These cells are basically rounded, nucleated keratinocytes formed due to antibody mediated damage to cell adhesion protein desmoglein.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Pemphigus vulgaris is easily confused with impetigo and candidiasis. IgG4 is considered pathogenic. The diagnosis can be confirmed by testing for the infections that cause these other conditions, and by a lack of response to antibiotic treatment.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive medications have historically been employed to reduce pemphigus symptoms, yet steroids are associated with serious and long-lasting side effects and their use should be limited as much as possible. Intravenous immunoglobulin, mycophenolate mofetil, methotrexate, azathioprine, and cyclophosphamide have also been used with varying degrees of success.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: An established alternative to steroids are monoclonal antibodies such as rituximab, which are increasingly being used as first-line treatment. In summer 2018, the FDA granted full approval to rituximab for this application, following successful fast track evaluation. In numerous case series, many patients achieve remission after one cycle of rituximab. Treatment is more successful if initiated early on in the course of disease, perhaps even at diagnosis. Rituximab treatment combined with monthly IV immunoglobulin infusions has resulted in long-term remission with no recurrence of disease in 10 years after treatment was halted. This was a small trial study of 11 patients with 10 patients followed to completion.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Rituximab demonstrated superior efficacy compared to mycophenolate mofetil in a Phase III clinical trial, results of which were published in 2021.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Pemphigus vulgaris is a relatively rare disease that only affects about 1 to 5 people in 1 million in the United Kingdom, with an incidence of 1-10 cases per 1 million people across the world. There is an estimated prevalence of 30,000-40,000 cases in the United States. Cases of P. vulgaris usually don't develop until after the age of 50 or so. The disease is not contagious which means it cannot be spread from person to person. There is currently no way of knowing who will be affected with P. vulgaris in their life as it is usually not a genetic disorder and is usually triggered later in life by environmental factors. Men and women are both equally affected and the disease has been found to affect people of many different cultures and racial backgrounds, especially Ashkenazi Jews, people of Mediterranean, North Indian and Persian descent. There has been no found difference in the rate of disease when looking at socioeconomic factors as well.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: If left untreated, 8 of 10 people with the disease die within a year with a cause of death being infection or loss of fluids, which is very common for raw, open sores that are characteristic of P. vulgaris. With treatment, only about 1 in 10 people with the disease die, either from the condition, or side effects of the medicine.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: An effect of the disease being so rare is that there is not enough evidence to prove that the treatments currently being used are actually as effective as they could be. Doctors are trying to find effective steroid-sparing agents to use in the treatment, to decrease the side effects of long term steroid treatment. The small amount of case numbers make it hard to test statistical significance between the affected and the control groups when testing if these types of systematic treatments are effective.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Research into using genetically modified T-cells to treat pemphigus vulgaris in mice was reported in 2016. Rituximab indiscriminately attacks all B cells, which reduces the body's ability to control infections. In the experimental treatment, human T cells are genetically engineered to recognize only those B cells that produce antibodies to desmoglein. In PV, autoreactive B cells produce antibodies against Dsg3, disrupting its adhesive function and causing skin blistering. By expressing Dsg3 on their surfaces, the CAAR-T cells lure those B cells in and kill them. The Dsg 3 CAAR-T cells eliminated Dsg3-specific B cells in lab dishes and in mice, the researchers reported at the time.


title: Pemphigus vulgaris

text: Penn's Aimee Payne, M.D., Ph.D., and Michael Milone, M.D., Ph.D., a co-inventor of Novartis’ CAR-T cancer therapy Kymriah, pioneered the CAAR-T idea and have founded biotech Cabaletta Bio, hoping to bring their therapies through clinical studies to the market. The MuSK-CAAR-T is the second candidate in its pipeline; the company has already received FDA clearance to test its lead project, DSG3-CAAR-T, in patients with mucosal pemphigus vulgaris (PV), and a phase 1 trial is expected to start in 2020.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Notorious for his frequently controversial brand of black comedy, Sadowitz has said that audiences going to see a comedian should suspend their beliefs. He has influenced a generation of comedians, but states that "politically incorrect comedy is no genre: it's me, and it's been ripped off by loads and loads of comics". In 2007, he was voted the 15th-greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's "100 Greatest Stand-Ups". In the 2010 list, he was voted the 33rd-greatest stand-up comic.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Sadowitz is also widely acclaimed as one of the best close-up magicians in the world and an accomplished practitioner of sleight of hand, having written several books on magic and invented several conjuring innovations.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Sadowitz was born in June 1961 in New Jersey, the son of a Scottish-Jewish mother named Roslyn and a Jewish-American father who worked as a scrap metal merchant. His parents split up when he was three, and he moved with his mother back to her native Glasgow when he was seven. Sadowitz attended Calderwood Lodge Primary and then Shawlands Academy. He took an interest in magic at the age of nine, and by the age of 11 decided that he wanted to become a magician, acquiring books from Tam Shepherd's Magic and Joke Shop. Sadowitz was encouraged by his mother to research magic at his local library, and he was once kicked out of a school exam after the examiner discovered his deck of cards and thought he was cheating. He has suffered from ulcerative colitis since childhood.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Sadowitz made his comedy debut in 1983 at a Glasgow club and secured a regular stand-up slot at the Weavers Inn pub on London Road in Glasgow. The pub was run by future comedian Janey Godley, and he got the gig after her brother Jim begged her to put him on. Sadowitz began travelling to London to perform at The Comedy Store every two weeks for two years, making the 400-mile journey via Stagecoach express coach. He moved to the city permanently in 1986, living with his mother in Hampstead until 2005. There, he began his first job working in Selfridges.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In the early days, Sadowitz was managed by comedian and club proprietor Malcolm Hardee. As a bet with fellow comic Nick Revell, he produced one of his most famous lines of that era: "Nelson Mandela, what a cunt. Terry Waite, fucking bastard. I dunno, you lend some people a fiver, you never see them again." For a time Sadowitz was considered part of the alternative comedy movement, but his act proved too objectionable with "The Guardian" stating that Sadowitz "shook up the right-on values of the 80s alternative comedy circuit with his willingness to say the unsayable". Sadowitz has described Bernard Manning as "the good cop" to his bad.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Sadowitz's 1987 Edinburgh Fringe show "Total Abuse" was filmed at the Assembly Rooms and also released in audio as the album "Gobshite". The album was quickly withdrawn from sale due to fears of being sued for libel by Jimmy Savile as Sadowitz references rumours of the TV personality being a paedophile. Following Savile's death in 2011, hundreds of reports of sexual abuse by him became public.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: After a brief run as a columnist for "Time Out" magazine, he embarked on the "Lose Your Comic Virginity" tour in 1989. At this time he was being managed by Jon Thoday's fledgling Avalon Entertainment Ltd. The tour culminated in a show at the Dominion Theatre in London, at the end of which he appeared from the rear of the auditorium wearing a kilt and a huge plastic phallus from which he sprayed the audience.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In 1991, Sadowitz was knocked unconscious by an audience member during a performance at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, where he mocked French Canadians, starting with the greeting "Hello moosefuckers! I tell you why I hate Canada, half of you speak French, and the other half let them." The rarely quoted follow-up line, which Sadowitz claims is what actually led to him being attacked was "Why don't you speak Indian? You might as well speak the language of the people you stole the country off of in the first place."


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In 1992, Sadowitz appeared in his own television show "The Pall Bearer's Revue". In the same year, he appeared in the music video of The Shamen's UK number 1 hit "Ebeneezer Goode". Sadowitz later expressed regret over his appearance in the video, stating that "it shows how stupid I am. I didn't even know that song was about drugs. I don't take drugs and had I known I wouldn't have done it". He also befriended Derren Brown, who he met while working the International Magic shop in Clerkenwell, London. He helped Brown in his early career by putting him in touch with H&R publishers and Objective Productions, a production company founded by the television magician Andrew O'Connor. which led to his breakthrough show "Mind Control" in 2000.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Between 1994 and 1998, Sadowitz performed as part of the double act "Bib & Bob" with Logan Murray. His work with Murray took the form of sketches aimed at alienating almost everyone, with the duo stamping on a blow-up doll of the recently deceased Linda McCartney, and tipping Murray, dressed as Superman, out of a wheelchair into the audience (a reference to the paralysis of Christopher Reeve). At one show, Sadowitz spat in the face of a drunken heckler who was constantly interrupting the show. His final act was to strip naked and run across the stage, prompting a mixture of disgust and hilarity from the audience. The "Herald" described the show as featuring "Pyrotechnical swearing. Lavatorial straining noises. Wanton foodstuff-smearing. Simulated sodomy. Gratuitous adoption of Indian accents, plus spitting, shouting, and penile dismemberment".


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In 1998, Sadowitz joined the newly launched Channel 5 network, hosting his own panel show, "The People vs. Jerry Sadowitz". The show featured Sadowitz sitting at a desk inviting members of the audience to join him and talk about a topic close to their heart and trying to get Sadowitz to agree with them. If they succeeded in winning Sadowitz over, they were invited back at the end of the show for a chance to compete for a £10,000 cash prize. If Sadowitz was not convinced or became bored during the audience member's time, he would ring a bell on the desk signalling for the show's resident bouncer Dave Courtney to escort them from the stage. Contestants on the show were regularly verbally abused by Sadowitz, and over the course of the series no one managed to win the cash prize. The show led to the channel being reprimanded by the Broadcasting Standards Commission, after they concluded that the repeated use of the words "fuck" and "cunt" "had a cumulative effect that was both excessive and unnecessary". In the same year, a full-frontal nude shot of Sadowitz appeared in "Esquire" magazine as part of a 14-page "uncensored sex special". Despite the reprimand, Sadowitz continued to work with Channel 5, co-presenting "The Jerry Atrick Show" between 2000 and 2002.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In 2005, Sadowitz performed two separate shows at that year's Edinburgh Fringe: a stand-up comedy show ("Not For The Easily Offended") at The Queens Hall, and "Jerry Sadowitz – Card Tricks & Close Up Magic" at The Assembly Rooms. The comedy show included a character named "Rabbi Burns", a cross between a Jew and the famous Scottish poet. He performed a similar series of shows at the Soho Theatre in London between December 2006 and January 2007.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In 2006 he toured his "Equal Opportunities Offender" show and broke the Soho box office record for ticket sales when he performed his close up magic show at the Soho Theatre. In 2007, he performed his Edinburgh Festival show "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath" to a sold-out crowd at the Udderbelly.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In March 2008, as part of the Glasgow Comedy Festival, Sadowitz sold out the Theatre Royal. He performed the show "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath 2: Because I Still Have to Pay the Rent" at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in 2008. In this show he celebrated the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, making stereotypical references to Chinese people. In December 2008, Sadowitz sold out the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, London.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In 2008, Sadowitz published an open letter to reviewers asking them not to quote his material stating that "a very important element of comedy is surprise, and it can often make the difference between a show that works and one that does not". He also protects his intellectual property, removing clips of himself from YouTube and torrent sites within hours of their appearance.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Since 2010, Sadowitz has performed several runs at the Leicester Square Theatre in London. In April 2011, Sadowitz recorded two of these performances with the intention of releasing a DVD. The release was shelved after he changed his mind about releasing anything, stating that "I don’t want people looking at me on a DVD for the first time – and there are loads of people who haven’t seen me – and thinking: "Oh, he’s a bit like Frankie Boyle. Oh, he’s a bit like Ricky Gervais, he’s a bit like Jimmy Carr or Chubby Brown. I’ve heard Doug Stanhope do that..." So I don't want people saying that about me."


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Sadowitz appeared in the 2012 Kathy Burke comedy-drama "Walking and Talking" on Sky Atlantic, playing the character Jimmy the Jew.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: A stand up tourette, "Comedian, Magician, Bawbag!", in February 2013 and close up magic and comedy "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath!" in early 2014, when Sadowitz was promoted by an unknown friend, seemed to put Sadowitz back on the circuit with several sold-out shows including Manchester, Leeds, Brighton, Glasgow and Inverness. In 2016, Sadowitz launched the "Trick of the Month Club" in which he teaches a new card trick every month to paying subscribers. In late 2016 Sadowitz tour "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath!" visited London, Glasgow, Manchester and Wolverhampton.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: In 2019, Sadowitz toured the UK with his show "Make Comedy Grate Again" (a reference to Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again"). A gig in Liverpool during this run of shows was covered on comedy website Chortle after an audience member collapsed due to excessive laughter. Sadowitz also took his "Comedian, Magician, Psychopath 2019" show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Sadowitz's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe show was cancelled after one night because staff members—and, reportedly, audience members–at the Pleasance theatre found the material incredibly offensive. The venue later clarified that this was due to "racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny" and that "the material presented at his first show is not acceptable and does not align with our values"; Sadowitz defended himself against those who made the decision, accusing them of "cheapening and simplifying" his act. In the aftermath of Sadowitz's show at the Fringe being cancelled, his tour of the UK saw increased ticket sales and a date being added at London's Hammersmith Apollo.


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Commenting on his "imitators", he said that "I'm sorry I've given some very nasty people a good living."


title: Jerry Sadowitz

text: Outbursts of his savage comedy during his conjuring shows have sometimes alienated him from the more conservative magic community.


title: Violence and controversies during the George Floyd protests

text: Local protests in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area quickly spread nationwide in more than 2,000 cities and towns, as well as over 60 countries internationally in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In Minneapolis, destruction of property began on May 26, 2020, with the protests involving vandalism and arson. Demonstrations in many other cities also descended into riots and widespread looting. There was police brutality against protesters and journalists. Property damage estimates resulting from arson, vandalism and looting ranged from $1 to $2 billion, eclipsing the highest inflation adjusted totals for the 1992 Los Angeles riots.


text: The majority of the George Floyd protests, a series of protests and unrest which began in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 26, 2020, in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin, were peaceful; an estimated 93%–96.3% of demonstrations were peaceful and nondestructive, involving no injuries or no property damage. However, police made arrests in about 5% of protest events (deploying chemical irritants in 2.5% of events); 3.7% of protest events were associated with property damage or vandalism (including damages by persons not involved in the actual demonstration); and protesters or bystanders were injured or killed in 1.6% of events. Clashes and other forms of violence were at various times initiated by protestors, by counterprotestors, and by police, and were usually driven by opportunistic criminals rather than organized extremist groups.


text: There have also been numerous reports and videos of aggressive police actions using physical force including "batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters, bystanders and journalists, often without warning or seemingly unprovoked." These incidents have provoked "growing concern that aggressive law enforcement tactics intended to impose order were instead inflaming tensions." The police responded that such tactics are necessary to prevent vandalism and arson, and that police officers have been assaulted with rocks and water bottles. Amnesty International issued a press release calling for the police to end excessive militarized responses to the protests.


text: The social unrest surrounding the protests resulted in reinvigorated efforts by activists and sympathetic institutions to physically relocate or remove controversial monuments and memorials across the world associated with colonialism and slavery, or otherwise deemed racially or culturally insensitive. Many monuments were simply vandalized by protesters as well. In the U.S., renaming and removal efforts mostly surrounded monuments, relics, and memorials to the Confederacy and historical figures often associated with racism, segregation, or slavery, such as Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Pike. Outside of the U.S., monuments and symbols associated with European colonialism and the Atlantic slave trade were also vandalized or removed.


text: Similarly, various public and private organizations, institutions, and groups took to renaming buildings, streets, and brands due to public pressure or on their own initiative.


text: During a demonstration in Brussels on June 7, police officers were assaulted, and protesters broke the windows of several shops, which were subsequently looted. 28 police officers were injured, one of them seriously. During and after the demonstration, 239 arrests were made, including 7 judiciary arrests. The handling of the demonstration, which was tolerated but not authorized by burgomaster Philippe Close despite coronavirus lockdown measures, was criticized by various politicians. Close announced that the city of Brussels would sue the "delinquents," and Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès, who supported the demonstration, expressed her regrets as to the way it unfolded. Denis Ducarme, the minister in charge of self-employed workers, deplored the rampage and pillage of "numerous shops," and announced that he would ask the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior to explain why police were initially asked not to intervene.


text: In Antwerp on the same day, between 100 and 150 demonstrators were arrested after refusing to leave a public square in compliance with social distancing measures.


text: Scientists and health officials denounced the various demonstrations across the country, calling them dangerous for public health, with physical distance impossible to maintain. They also deplored the signal sent by the demonstrations to the Belgian people, who were asked to respect stringent limitations of their freedoms in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.


text: May 31: In Montreal, Quebec, thousands attended a protest outside the Montreal police headquarters. While the protests were largely peaceful, it eventually escalated into unrest, and police fired tear gas. Several store windows were damaged, and some items were stolen. Eleven arrests were made, including one for assault.


text: June 5: In Ottawa a few minor physical altercations between protesters and police occurred during the "No Peace Until Justice" march, a protest and march in the city center, which was attended by Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau.


text: July 4: In Winnipeg, Manitoba, following a Black and Indigenous Lives Matter rally, two women attacked protestors with hockey sticks.


text: June 2: In Paris, at the end of a large unauthorized demonstration that protested the murder of George Floyd and the death of Adama Traoré, rioters destroyed street furniture and set fire to construction equipment, and a large number of demonstrators attempted to block a boulevard. Police dispersed the crowd with tear gas and arrested 18 people.


text: June 3: In Toulouse, where the community feared violence following the chaos during the demonstration in Paris, small groups of hooded individuals degrading street furniture and setting fire to trash cans were pursued by riot police, who used tear gas. A paint bucket was thrown at the town hall, smashing a window and damaging the parquet floor, leading the mayor to express his anger and declare that his office would file a complaint. According to an unnamed witness, a small group of demonstrators moved on the police while it was retreating at the end of the demonstration. In total, four arrests were made.


text: June 6: In Metz, demonstrators attempted to force open the courthouse's doors, and threw a stone at the prosecutor of the Republic, lightly injuring his face. Four members of law enforcement were injured, and 13 protestors were arrested.


text: June 30: In Paris, an American confederate flag was spotted at the window of a police station, leading to speculation that it was displayed in opposition to the protests and the Black Lives Matter movement. Analysis of Google Street View images proved that the flag was displayed in the same window in July 2014, although the flag was missing in images from subsequent years.


text: June 3: In the evening, following the demonstration at Hyde Park in Central London, clashes erupted as part of the protest group advanced further into Central London on their way to Parliament Square. Protesters climbed onto window sills on the walls of the HM Treasury building, spraying Black Lives Matter graffiti on the Treasury and surrounding buildings. Thirteen people were arrested after physical altercations broke out outside the gates to Downing Street. Temporary barriers and bottles were thrown over the gates, and groups of protesters attempted to breach them. Objects including signs and a traffic cone were thrown at police.


text: June 6: In Central London, protests outside Downing Street started peacefully but later turned violent after a group started throwing bottles and other objects at the police. Mounted police were eventually sent in to push the protesters back, one mounted officer fell from her horse after it ran into a traffic light. In all, 14 police officers were injured during the clashes, including two with serious injuries, and at least 14 protesters were arrested.


text: June 7: In Central London, BLM protesters clashed with police near King Charles Street, forcing the deployment of the Met's public order unit to quell the violence. At least one policeman suffered an injury to his head.


text: June 13: An official Black Lives Matter protest was cancelled in London due to concerns that it could be countered by far-right groups, after right-wing activist movement the Democratic Football Lads Alliance had called for people to travel to London to protect monuments. Hundreds of counter-protesters, including members of far-right groups, gathered at several statue sites in London, and violently clashed with the police, leading to over a hundred arrests and the injury of at least six police officers.


text: On the same day, in Newcastle, counter-protesters hurled smoke bombs, bottles, flares and fireworks at Black Lives Matter protesters and Northumbria Police officers resulting in 13 arrests and 5 Black Lives Matter protesters being hospitalised.


text: May 29: On the heels of violence in Minneapolis, Minnesota, hundreds of protestors gathered at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, May 29, 2020, reaching "close to the doorstep of the White House," as "demonstrators tussled with Secret Service and other law enforcement officers," according to NBC reporter Jonathan Allen. Media reports are unclear about what occurred on the night of May 29–30, 2020. However, CNN reported "if the condition at the White House is elevated to RED and the President is moved to the Emergency Operations Center[,] Melania Trump, Barron Trump[,] and any other first family members would be moved as well." CNN also reported that due to the events occurring outside the White House, President Trump, the First Lady, and Barron Trump were all moved into the safety bunker and held there for a little under an hour. The Twitter hashtag "#BunkerBoy" and news stories regarding the hashtag immediately arose, mocking President Trump with accusations of running away from "protestors."


text: May 30: On the morning of Saturday, May 30, 2020, President Donald Trump voiced his support for the right of "every citizen to live without violence, prejudice or fear," adding that the voice of "law abiding citizens must be heard and heard very loudly" as well as stating during a speech later during the day that "I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace." President Trump strongly condemned the nighttime violence, burning, looting, and assault which occurred, stating his "firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the mission at hand." While officially disagreeing with President Trump, democrat mayor of D.C. Muriel Bowser agreed with the widely popular sentiment, stating she was "sending a very clear message to people that they have a right to exercise their first amendment rights [of speech], but not to destroy our city. So we saw a level of destruction and mayhem among some that was maddening."


text: That night, Saturday, May 30, 2020, a portion of Lafayette Square served as a dividing line between police and the hundreds of violent protestors. According to The Guardian's reporters who were on the ground, "hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday circled the White House grounds [...] overcame barriers near the White House and entered the park in front of it, but were driven out by police wielding shields, batons and pepper spray." Demonstrators "repeatedly attempted to knock over security barriers and vandalized six Secret Service vehicles," as well as throwing "bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks and other items at officers." Secret Service personnel were "directly physically assaulted as they were kicked, punched[,] and exposed to bodily fluids," and at least 60 Secret Service members were injured.


text: The Secret Service issued a statement via Twitter the following day summarizing the events which occurred that night and closed the statement by stating: "The Secret Service respects the right to assemble, and we ask that individuals do so peacefully for the safety of all."


text: May 31: D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser imposed an 11 p.m. curfew and activated the National Guard due to the ongoing and escalation of violence, fire, and physical attacks, and attempts to breach barriers at the White House. According to on the ground reporting, protestors "faced off" against the police in Lafayette square after curfew when "a few firecrackers were hurled from the crowd" and police responded with tear gas and rapidly advancing toward the crowd. The violence on the evening of May 31, 2020 "spiraled out of control again," according to the New York Times.


text: The protestors took over the portion of Lafayette Square which served as the dividing line the night before, though as the night progressed well past curfew, the police were able to push crowds back to H Street, where the hundreds of rioters began " a giant bonfire in front of St. John's Church." St. John's Church, an historic 1858 church across the street from the White House, was also set on fire. Also near the White House, the demonstrators overturned and destroyed a car, set fire to a vehicle on I Street, set road signs on fire, and scattered on the streets surrounding the White House and set numerous fires, firing three projectiles into a building 100 yards from the White House and breaking place glass windows. NBC Washington recorded video of smoke from multiple fires around the Washington Monument.


text: Democratic strategist and consultant Adam Parkhomenko shot and posted a video showing fire and thick smoke behind graffiti-covered cement barriers to his Twitter, captioning the video tweet by stating "It looks like a war zone outside the White house." An aerial photo and footage of the capital with numerous fires spread online and internationally, with headlines in the U.K. such as "Washington DC in flames as protesters start fires near White House." The Toronto Star published an article titled "American cities on edge as fires burn near the White House amid protests." Some local media around the United States Capitol, in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, posted clips of the aerial footage online. The Twitter hashtag "#BunkerBoy" and news stories regarding the Twitter continued.


text: May 27: In Minneapolis, from the main protest site, Calvin Horton Jr. died after being shot at a pawn shop that was being looted. The owner of the pawn shop was initially arrested at the scene, and later pled self-defense. After a six-month investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department, no charges were filed against the shop owner due to lack of witness cooperation and lack of evidence, video footage having been destroyed by the looters. Also on May 27, a man known as "Umbrella Man" dressed in black clothes and gas mask, carrying an umbrella and sledgehammer, was recorded on video breaking windows of an AutoZone store, spray painting graffiti, and encouraging looting. Some protesters confronted him and asked him to stop. Initial claims that the "Umbrella Man" was a Saint Paul police officer were debunked by surveillance video released by the Saint Paul Police Department. Police later received an anonymous tip via email that the man may be a 32-year-old man with ties to white supremacist organizations, according to an affidavit obtained by the media. However, the suspect in question has not been charged and the identity of the "Umbrella Man" remains unconfirmed.


text: May 28: In Minneapolis, on July 20, federal and state authorities recovered a body—which appeared to have suffered thermal injuries—at a pawn shop that was torched during protests a month prior. Max It Pawn, located several blocks east of the city's third precinct station and in an area of heavy rioting, was destroyed by fire on May 28. In June, a 25-year-old man from Rochester, Minnesota was federally charged with arson for the fire at the pawn shop. On October 20, the body was officially identified as that of 30 year old Oscar Lee Stewart Jr. Stewart died from thermal injury and inhalation of products of combustion.


text: June 3: In Bakersfield, California, Robert Forbes, a 50-year-old man was killed after being struck by a vehicle while marching between California Avenue and Oak Street. The incident was caught on video and distributed widely on social media. Forbes was transported to Kern Medical Center, where he remained in critical condition for three days before dying. Police deny that Forbes was hit intentionally, while others dispute this claim. The police did not restrain the driver with handcuffs and allowed him to smoke a cigarette, which caused indignation on social media. A candlelight vigil was held for Forbes on June 6.


text: June 20: In Seattle, a 19-year-old man, Lorenzo Anderson, was killed and another person was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after being fired on multiple times inside the city's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Police stated they were denied entry to the area to render aid; instead, Capitol Hill Organized Protest medics took the two victims to Harborview Medical Center. A later investigation by "KUOW" showed that miscommunication between Seattle Police and Seattle Fire delayed city response to the victim.


text: June 29: In Seattle, a 16-year-old boy was killed and a 14-year-old was critically injured in their Jeep Grand Cherokee after being shot in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone.


text: July 4: In Seattle, 24-year-old Summer Taylor died after being hit by a vehicle while protesting on Interstate 5. A second person also hit was in critical condition. A suspect was taken into custody a few hours later after the incident.


text: July 5: In Indianapolis, 24-year old Jessica Doty Whitaker was killed after she, her fiancé, and two other friends got into an argument with another group of people regarding the Black Lives Matter movement. The argument between the two armed groups allegedly began when someone in Whitaker's group used a slang version of the "N-word." Whitaker responded to chants of "Black lives matter" by saying "all lives matter". Although her fiancé seemingly deescalated the situation, as the two groups were parting, Whitaker was shot and later died in the hospital.


text: July 25: In Downtown Austin, 28-year old Garrett Foster was killed in a shooting at a Black Lives Matter protest. The incident happened around 9:52 p.m. near East Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, according to Austin-Travis County EMS. Police said initial reports indicate that Foster was carrying an AK-47 style rifle, and was pushing his fiancée's wheelchair moments before he was killed. Foster identified with the boogaloo movement and had expressed anti-racist, libertarian, and anti-police views in his Facebook posts. Witnesses on the ground reported a driver accelerating their vehicle into a crowd of people. The suspect then pulled out his own firearm and shot Foster. Foster was then taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The driver accused of shooting Foster was brought in by police for questioning, and his handgun and car were secured for evidence. The driver was released pending further investigation. Two memorials to Foster were built in downtown Austin within 24 hours of his death. On July 28, one of the memorials was defaced by an unidentified person.


text: August 29: In Portland, Oregon, Aaron J. Danielson was shot in the chest and killed on the night of August 29, amidst protests and riots in the city. Danielson wore a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in Vancouver, Washington that has clashed with protesters in the past. Michael Forest Reinoehl, responsible for the shooting, who was an anti-fascist activist and self-described supporter of antifa, writing "I am 100% ANTIFA all the way!" in an Instagram post in June, said in an Associated Press video interview earlier in the summer that he had provided security for other protesters. In a Vice News interview after the shooting and before being killed by the police. Reinohel clarified that "I am 100% anti-fascist. I'm not a member of Antifa. I'm not a member of anything", stating that he "had no choice" and acted in self-defense.


text: There have been numerous reports and videos of aggressive police actions using physical force including "batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters, bystanders and journalists, often without warning or seemingly unprovoked." These incidents have provoked "growing concern that aggressive law enforcement tactics intended to impose order were instead inflaming tensions." The police responded that such tactics are necessary to prevent vandalism and arson, and that police officers themselves have been assaulted with thrown rocks and water bottles. Amnesty International issued a press release calling for the police to end excessive militarized responses to the protests. Police have been found "overwhelmingly responsible for attacking journalists."


text: Several African American politicians, including State Senator Zellnor Myrie, U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin and Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce were reportedly pepper sprayed by police. Chicago Police Board President Ghian Foreman was reportedly beaten with batons during a police clash with protesters. A medical worker in Brooklyn, New York claimed to have been assaulted by police for no reason. In Asheville, North Carolina, a medic station was destroyed by police for unknown reasons. A Washington, D.C. man was praised worldwide for sheltering, in his home, more than 70 protesters fleeing arrest for protesting peacefully in front of the White House on June 1, 2020.


text: Lawyer T. Greg Doucette and mathematician Jason Miller have compiled a list of videos posted on Twitter showing police brutality, which as of June 6 contains 428 videos.


text: Two New York City Police Department (NYPD) vehicles were recorded ramming into protesters surrounding and throwing objects at the vehicles; New York City mayor Bill de Blasio defended the officers' actions and an investigation into the event was initiated.


text: In Atlanta, two police officers broke the windows of a vehicle, pulled a woman out of the car and tasered a man. After a video showing the incident came to light, the two police officers were fired for use of excessive force. Arrest warrants were issued for four other officers involved. One of the officers said in a police report that the actions were taken under the belief that either of the pair were armed, a statement that an attorney for one of the victims called an attempt at character assassination. One of the victims described the event as "the worst experience of my life"; the other wore a cast on his arm at a press conference. On June 3, six Atlanta police officers, including the two officers in the window-breaking and dragging incident, were charged for using excessive force during an arrest.


text: A woman participating in a protest in La Mesa, California was shot by the police with bean-bag round between her eyes, suffering serious injury. At a protest in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a viral video showed Grand Rapids Police pepper spraying a protester and then immediately firing a tear gas canister into their head. The Grand Rapids Police Department announced on June 2 that they would conduct an internal investigation of the incident.


text: In Seattle, an officer placed his knee on the back of the neck of a looting suspect; after onlookers shouted for him to remove his knee from the man's neck his partner pulled it off. The Seattle Office of Police Accountability received about 12,000 individual complaints regarding the police department's conduct during that weekend, including complaints about "[p]epper spraying a young girl," "[p]unching a person on the ground who was being arrested," "[p]lacing a knee on the neck area of two people who had been arrested," "[f]ailing to record law enforcement activity on body-worn video," and "[breaking] windows of a Target store."


text: On May 31, 20-year-old African American Texas State University student Justin Howell was shot in the head with a less lethal bean bag round by an APD officer while protesting outside police headquarters in Austin, Texas. Chief of Police Brian Manley said they were aiming at another protester and shot Howell by mistake. Fellow protesters were instructed by police to carry the injured Howell toward them for medical aid, however, those protesters were then also fired upon by police. Howell was left in critical condition, with a fractured skull and brain damage.


text: In Minneapolis, police cruisers were filmed spraying a chemical on crowds of protesters as they drove by.


text: On June 1, President Donald Trump visited the historic St. John's Episcopal Church, whose basement had been damaged by fire during the protests the previous night, and posed for pictures in front of it holding up a Bible. To clear the route so that he could walk there, police and national guardsmen had used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades to clear a crowd of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square, resulting in significant news coverage and denunciation by the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. In a press release the next day, United States Park Police said they had observed protesters throwing bricks and other dangerous projectiles, but journalists present claimed the protests were peaceful before police moved in.


text: On June 4, police shot tear gas at an unarmed couple waiting at a traffic stop in Denver. When the man came out of the vehicle to confront the officers because his pregnant wife was in the vehicle, the officers ordered him to move along. He refused and the officers opened fire on him and the vehicle with pepper balls.


text: In Buffalo, a 75-year-old man with a cane was left bleeding from the head after approaching police officers and being shoved by police, causing him to fall to the ground. A video of the encounter shows an officer leaning down to examine him, but another officer then pulls the first officer away. Several other officers are seen walking by the man, motionless on the ground, without checking on him. Initially, a police press statement claimed that the man "tripped and fell" which led to further criticism. The victim, identified as Martin Gugino, remained in a serious condition by the end of the day. Two of the officers were suspended, as they yelled "move!" and "push him back!" against the victim, before they hit him.


text: On June 5, all 57 officers of the Buffalo Police Department resigned from the department's Emergency Response Team, either in solidarity with the two officers who were suspended for this event, or because the union was no longer willing to provide legal support for the officers. The two officers involved were charged with second-degree assault.


text: On the night of May 30, a video was posted online showing a man being assaulted by protesters in Dallas. According to "Fox Business", the man appeared to defend a store, reportedly armed with a machete, and skirmished with rioters throwing rocks at him. The man was injured, but taken to the hospital and considered to be in a stable condition. Trump called the act of violence "terrible" and demanded arrests and "long term jail sentences" for protesters. The protesters claimed they acted in self-defense, and that the video was edited to give a "false impression".


text: According to "BlackSportsOnline.com", Charles C.A. Shoultz later claimed to be the man who was attacked by these protesters, saying he instigated the fight, explaining he was "trying to protect the bar he likes". Dallas Police said the incident was part of an ongoing investigation.


text: On July 25, an individual drove through a group of protesters blocking I-225 in Aurora, Colorado to demand action against the death of Elijah McClain. One individual fired a weapon in response, and at least one protester was struck, but was in stable condition. At least two other individuals were injured during the incident. Police have said the vehicle was soon towed and that they are looking into what happened.


text: On July 25, a man was stabbed in downtown Portland, near the scene of recurring protests outside Portland's federal courthouse. The suspect was taken into custody on the same day. According to "The Oregonian", the victim was a vocal black supporter of Trump who was videographing the protests and had been trailed by a group of people.


text: U.S. Press Freedom Tracker recorded at least 49 arrests, 192 assaults (160 by police), and 42 incidents in which equipment was damaged during the protests. In comparison, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented between 100 and 150 such incidents per year for the past three years. Many journalists described being intentionally targeted by police even after they identified themselves as press. One journalism professor suggested that the unusual aggressiveness toward journalists might relate to Trump's repeated public attacks on the press as "enemies of the people"; in a May 31 tweet, Trump blamed the "lamestream media" for the protests and said that journalists are "truly bad people with a sick agenda."


text: Journalists at several protests were injured and arrested by police while trying to cover the story, being shot by rubber bullets, or sprayed by tear gas. As of May 31, Bellingcat had identified and documented at least 50 separate incidents where journalists were attacked by law enforcement officials during the protests. According to Bellingcat, "law enforcement across multiple cities, but especially in Minneapolis, are knowingly and deliberately targeting journalists with less lethal munitions, arrests and other forms of violence."


text: On the evening of May 28, officers fired pepper bullets at several employees of "The Denver Post" who were reporting on protests in Denver, Colorado. A photographer was struck twice by pepper bullets, sustaining injuries on his arm. The photographer believed it was not accidental, saying, "If it was one shot, I can say it was an accident. I'm very sure it was the same guy twice. I'm very sure he pointed at me." Another journalist said an officer shot at least one pepper bullet at her feet.


text: Omar Jimenez, a CNN reporter, and his news crew were arrested while giving a live television report on May 29 in Minneapolis by the Minnesota State Patrol, and then released about an hour later. After the incident took place, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that he deeply apologizes for what happened and would work to have the crew released, calling the event "unacceptable" and adding that there was "absolutely no reason something like this should happen."


text: CNN called the arrests a "clear violation of their First Amendment rights" in a tweet posted the same day. After the incident the Minnesota State Patrol tweeted that "In the course of clearing the streets and restoring order at Lake Street and Snelling Avenue, four people were arrested by State Patrol troopers, including three members of a CNN crew. The three were released once they were confirmed to be members of the media," however the CNN crew had already informed the troopers that they were members of the media before and during the arrest and carried the relevant paperwork and identification with them. The Minneapolis Police Department falsely stated both while performing the arrest and via Twitter that his crew had not adequately responded when asked what they were doing.


text: Linda Tirado, a freelance photo journalist, was hit in the eye with a rubber bullet or a pellet by the police in Minneapolis, and following surgery was left permanently blind in that eye.


text: Also on May 29 in Louisville, Kentucky, an officer fired pepper bullets at a reporter from NBC affiliate WAVE who was reporting live on air for her station. The station manager issued a statement strongly condemning the incident, saying there was "no justification for police to wantonly open fire." A 29-year-old mother of two was peacefully protesting in Sacramento when police shot her in the right eye with a rubber projectile; she was permanently blinded in one eye.


text: On May 30, members of a Reuters crew were fired on with rubber bullets in Minneapolis shortly after a curfew they were reporting on began. One reporter was hit in the arm and neck while another was hit in the face, which deflected off his gas mask. Also in Minneapolis, France 2's U.S. correspondent Agnès Varamian said her photojournalist, Fabien Fougère, was hurt by non-lethal bullets as she shouted "press" to the police. Expressen's U.S. correspondent Nina Svanberg was also hit in the leg with rubber bullets. Meanwhile Deutsche Welle journalist Stefan Simons and his team were shot at by police in Minneapolis. In another incident that day, police also threatened to arrest Simons.


text: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, a reporter for Los Angeles NPR/PRI affiliate KPCC was hit in the throat with a rubber bullet, on May 31. Ali Velshi and his MSNBC crew were hit with rubber bullets live on air in Minneapolis. CBC News correspondent Susan Ormiston was also hit by rubber bullets during live coverage there. Michael George from the same network also reported his sound engineer being hit by a rubber bullet in the same city. Sarah Belle, an independent journalist, was hit by a rubber bullet in Oakland.


text: "Los Angeles Times" reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske reported reporters and camera crews being at the receiving end of tear gas by Minnesota State Patrol, while the same happened to a KABC-TV news crew in Santa Monica. Several "Detroit Free Press" journalists were pepper sprayed by the city's police, as was KSTP reporter Ryan Raiche along other journalists. Michael Adams from "Vice News" also reported that happening to him and other journalists present. "HuffPost" journalist Christopher Mathias was arrested in Brooklyn, as were independent journalist Simon Moya-Smith in Minneapolis, and CNN's Keith Boykin in New York.


text: A BBC cameraman, Peter Murtaugh, was purposely attacked by police on May 31 outside the White House. Murtaugh filmed a line of police officers charging without warning, whereby a shield-wielding officer tackled Murtaugh to the ground. A fellow BBC journalist stated that the attack had occurred before a curfew was imposed.


text: In Minneapolis, for the second day in a row, police shot at Deutsche Welle journalist Stefan Simons and his crew.


text: During a live television broadcast for the Seven Network covering protests near the White House on June 1, Australian journalist Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers were assaulted by a charging United States Park Police line as the area was cleared for Trump to visit St. John's Church. Brace was clubbed with a police baton while Myers was hit in the chest by a riot shield and then punched. Brace said she and Myers were also shot by rubber bullets. Brace said at the time, "You heard us yelling there that we were media but they don't care, they are being indiscriminate at the moment." In response, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia would launch an investigation into the incident. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the actions of the police and said they had "a right to defend themselves." Park Police acting Chief Gregory Monahan announced that two officers involved had been assigned to administrative duties while an investigation took place.


text: On June 2, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced that they would be investigating the alleged assault of a "Wall Street Journal" reporter, that took place on May 31, by members of the New York Police Department.


text: In Atlanta on May 29, 2020 the CNN Center which also houses a police precinct of the Atlanta Police Department was attacked and damaged by protesters.


text: In the District of Columbia on May 30, 2020, a Fox News crew was attacked outside the White House by a group of protesters while reporting on the scene. The crew was chased for several hundred meters until the police intervened.


text: A news reporter was struck in the head with a bottle during overnight riots in Birmingham, Alabama on May 31, 2020.


text: The director of Minneapolis's Lake Street Council estimated that damage to the city's small businesses not covered by insurance was estimated around $200 million. An estimate by the company Property Claim Services, obtained by the news website "Axios", estimated that nationwide, the cost of property damage from arson, vandalism and looting would "result in at least $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims."


text: The FBI and ATF investigated 164 structure fires from arson that occurred May 27–30, 2020, during the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Some fires spread to adjacent structures or damaged multi-use buildings. Most of properties affected by arson were commercial businesses. Arson fires also damaged a variety of buildings containing schools, non-profit organizations, government services, and private residences. In the weeks and months after the rioting, authorities had difficulty identifying those responsible for destruction. By May 2021, a year after the unrest, federal investigators had only filed arson charges against 17 people for damages at 11 properties in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan region. Only one federal charging document noted any ties to an extremist organizationthe Boogaloo movement.


text: In Oakland, California on May 29, two Federal Protective Service officers were shot while patrolling the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building as protests occurred several blocks away. Officer David Patrick Underwood died from the gunfire. Steven Carrillo, an active-duty U.S. Air Force sergeant, was charged with Underwood's murder, as well shooting two Santa Cruz County deputies on June 6, killing Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller. Carillo and his accomplice, Robert A. Justus Jr., both have ties to the far-right boogaloo movement. The FBI stated, "Carrillo elected to travel to Oakland to conduct this murder and take advantage of a time when this nation was mourning the death of George Floyd. There is no evidence that these men had any intention to join the demonstration in Oakland. They came to Oakland to kill cops."


text: In Philadelphia, a bike officer was run over by a group of looters in a car. He suffered broken bones and is recovering in Jefferson Hospital.


text: In Atlanta, around 10:30 p.m., APD officer Maximilian Brewer was struck by an ATV. He was taken to the intensive care unit at Grady Hospital. The driver was identified as 42-year-old Avery Goggans. Three Denver, CO police officers were hospitalized after being struck by a vehicle during late night protests on May 30. Driver Anthony Knapp was taken into custody in relation to the incident.


text: In Tulsa, Oklahoma protesters were demonstrating on I-244 while blocking traffic. In videos posted to social media, a red truck pulling a horse trailer can be seen attempting to continue along the interstate but being stopped by the protesters while the car ahead of it was allowed through. The truck attempted to follow the other vehicle causing some protesters to attempt to stop the truck and others attempted to disperse the crowd in front of it. Some protesters were injured when the truck drove through the crowd, and one protester was paralyzed after being pushed off the interstate during the chaos.


text: In Minneapolis, a Minnesota National Guard soldier fired 3 rounds at a speeding vehicle that attempted to run over police officers and soldiers.


text: In Buffalo, New York, a car rammed a police line near where protesters had gathered on June 1. Two officers were seriously injured and subsequently hospitalized, with three people being arrested. 30-year-old Deyanna Davis was arrested. In St. Louis, a Missouri State Trooper responding to a riot was struck by a bullet that lodged in his helmet's face-shield. The Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) shared images of a bullet hole in the shield Tuesday, saying the trooper “narrowly averted serious injury.”


text: In Las Vegas, Nevada, police officer Shay Mikalonis was hospitalized in critical condition after being shot by Edgar Samaniego, while Mikalonis and other officers were arresting protesters near Circus Circus Hotel and Casino.


text: In New York City, in the early hours of June 2, two NYPD officers were struck in two separate hit-and-run incidents while responding to looting.


text: In Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 15, Steven Ray Baca shot one of a group of protesters attempting to remove a statue of Juan de Oñate at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. Video shows protesters attempting to pull down the statue with a chain or rope and a pickaxe and Baca shoving a female protester to the ground while trying to protect the memorial. Baca was then aggressively pursued by enraged protesters before being tackled. Protester Scott Williams struck Baca with a long board before Baca fired several shots with at least one striking Williams in the torso.


text: In response to rioting, looting, and the targeting of federal buildings and public monuments by protesters during the height of the unrest, the Trump administration deployed federal law enforcement details to select cities with the stated purpose of protecting "monuments, memorials and statues" and federal property. The deployments drew controversy and outrage when protesters in Portland, Oregon began to be detained by unidentified federal agents in unmarked vehicles, often not on or near federal property; the federal agent activity briefly increased the size of the protests.


text: In September 2020, the Trump administration began efforts to revoke federal funding to Portland, Oregon, Seattle, New York City, Washington, D.C. and other cities deemed by Trump as "anarchist jurisdictions", accusing the local governments of allowing themselves to "deteriorate into lawless zones".


text: The unrest was followed by an unprecedented number of firearms being transferred inside of the United States. Background checks for legally purchased firearms reached record highs in May with year-on-year numbers up 80.2%. In June 2020 the FBI reported running 3.9 million NICS checks for persons purchasing a firearm or firearms. This represented the highest monthly number of firearms transfers since the FBI began keeping records in 1998.


text: Firearms retailers surveyed by National Shooting Sports Foundation in May estimated that 40% of their sales came from first-time gun buyers, 40% of those first-time gun buyers were women, a relatively high rate for that demographic group. Though gun sales have been up across the country, a rise in first-time gun buyers in left-leaning states like California have helped fuel the national uptick in firearms and ammunition purchases. June 2020 represented the largest month of firearms purchases in United States history, with Illinois purchasing more firearms than any other state.


text: The last days of May and first week of June, there were more than 90 attempted or successful burglaries of gun stores, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. More than 1,000 guns were stolen in that window of time. On May 31 alone the BATF reported 29 separate burglaries targeting licensed firearm retailers.


text: There have been allegations of foreign influence stoking the unrest online, with the role of outside powers being additive rather than decisive as of May 31. The founder and CEO of Graphika, which helped the U.S. Senate form its report on Russian social media influence during the 2016 elections, noted "very active engagement" from account clusters from Russia, Iran, and China, and as of May 31 noted that his team was launching an investigation on the matter of possible foreign influence. However, on June 3, 2020, Graphika released a report concluding that "State-controlled media outlets and official public diplomacy accounts in China, Iran, and Russia are focusing on the anti-racism protests in the United States, but they are primarily doing so in a way that furthers their existing narratives, rather than stoking American divisions," adding that "there is no evidence as yet to suggest a large-scale, covert interference campaign". Several analysts have said that there was a lack of evidence for foreign meddling – whether to spread disinformation or sow divisiveness – but suggest that the messaging and coverage from these countries has more so to do with global politics.


text: On May 30, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, the current acting Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, asserted "very heavy" social media activity linked to "at least three foreign adversaries," noting that while they "didn't create these divisions," they are "actively stoking and promoting violence". On May 31, after being asked about Rubio's comments, the National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien said that there may be Russian activists who are exploiting the situation, but also, in reference to Chinese officials posting on social media, that the difference is that "... it's open. It's coming straight from the government."


text: The former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, acknowledging that she had no evidence, stated that the violence that was emerging was "right out of the Russian playbook". The claim drew angry responses from Russian officials, including Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova who said that Rice is trying to blame Russia again for the United States' own domestic problems instead of facing her own people. Pro-western commentators have also criticized Rice for blaming domestic problems on foreign machinations. On June 9, the Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said "We consider it to be a domestic affair of the United States and we don’t want to interfere," adding that "When we first saw the outbreaks of those riots in the U.S. the first thing we heard is one of the voices saying ‘well, probably, Russia is staying behind those riots’. It's very hard for us to understand these comments and the reason for them."


text: Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy at Facebook, stated that they found no evidence of foreign interference on their site, even though its security teams were actively searching for signs of it.


text: In a virtual press conference on June 4, Mayor of Miami-Dade Carlos A. Giménez and the head of the County Police Freddy Ramírez announced that the FBI has taken over work on the question of foreign financing of the protests, as it is a federal, not state, matter. The FBI announced on June 3 that it had arrested in Miami and elsewhere groups of Venezuelans, Haitians (from "Little Haiti"), Cubans, and Hondurans who were being paid to cause violence at demonstrations. Those arrested admitted they had been hired by unidentified "activists", who even provided funds for transportation to the demonstrations. Two carried large quantities of cash; the FBI is trying to determine the origin of the money, and "Cuban and Venezuelan intelligence agencies" is a possibility they are investigating. The presence of the [Bolivian] "Che Guevara Brigade" was noted. Those arrested allegedly included a Sandinista from Nicaragua, Venezuelan supporters of President Hugo Chávez (who died in 2013), and a supporter of revolution in Bolivia.


text: There have been accusations of various extremist groups using the cover of the protests to foment general unrest in the United States. There are claims that groups are placing bricks and other materials nearby areas of unrest to escalate protester action, although multiple people on Twitter suggested that these were deliberately left unattended by police.


text: FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, United States Attorney General William Barr, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Seattle Police Guild President Mike Solan, and Huntsville, Alabama Police Chief Mark McMurray blamed anarchists and "far-left extremist" groups, including antifa, for inciting and organizing violent riots. According to a Justice Department spokesperson, Barr came to this conclusion after being provided with information from state and local law enforcement agencies.


text: On May 31, Trump announced that he planned to designate "Antifa" as a terrorist organization. Some government and non-government officials argued that antifa could not be designated a terrorist group due to the idea that it is "not an organization" and that designating domestic terrorist groups is prohibited by the First Amendment and federal law restricting the designation of terrorist organizations to foreign entities due to concerns pertaining to the First Amendment's speech and assembly rights.


text: During a press conference, Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert said he was "willing to bet his check" that "there's a lot of people who are anarchists" who cause "damage and injury". He added that "[i]t's just a damn shame that they took advantage of the situation, for something [that] happened in another state where somebody died who shouldn't have died, and they hijacked that message for their own". In Pittsburgh, a man was arrested for allegedly starting riots over the weekend that ended in violence. The police chief said that anarchists' likely hijacked peaceful protests downtown". Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism of the NYPD John Miller said there is a high level of confidence within the department that unnamed "anarchist groups" had planned to commit vandalism and violence in advance. On June 4, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray stated in a press release that "anarchists like Antifa" are "exploiting this situation to pursue violent, extremist agendas." In July 2020, Wray testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the agency "considers antifa more of an ideology than an organization", contradicting Trump's remarks about antifa and putting him at odds with the Trump administration. This resulted in Trump publicly criticizing Wray, hinting that he could fire him over Wray's testimony about antifa and Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections.