Archives for March 2021

Ample opportunities for viewers to follow Chauvin trial

NEW YORK (AP) — American news consumers have a multitude of options to follow the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer accused in the death of George Floyd, which began on Monday with a chilling rerun.

Opening the case in a Minnesota courtroom, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell relied heavily on video from last May showing white former officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee onto the neck of Floyd, a Black man. The widely seen video launched a worldwide reckoning on race.

Blackwell and defense attorney Eric Nelson’s arguments were shown live on at least 12 TV networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, HLN, Black News Channel, CourtTV, CSPAN, the Law & Crime Network and Newsmax.

Video also streamed on affiliated livestreams for many of those networks, along with TheRoot.com and PBS’ “NewsHour.” Websites for The New York Times and Washington Post streamed it on their homepages, and The Associated Press offered its subscribers a livestream.

“It’s a nerve-wracking moment for America,” said former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, now an MSNBC contributor.

The Chauvin case is probably the most high-profile criminal trial since George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2013, said Dan Abrams, the legal commentator who launched the Law & Crime Network four years after that.

Some of the networks, anticipating that video of Chauvin before Floyd’s death would be a major part of Blackwell’s argument, warned viewers of the sensitivity of what they were about to see.

“It was no easier to watch than when we were reporting on it 10 months ago,” said ABC News anchor David Muir.

The major broadcast networks dropped live coverage after opening arguments, along with Fox News. HLN, Black News Channel and Law & Crime are promising full coverage of all arguments, as is CourtTV, whose cameras are providing the pool feed of video from the courtroom.

One challenge for networks: what to call their coverage. Floyd’s name is more widely known than Chauvin’s, but calling it the “Floyd trial” would wrongly imply that the victim was the one on trial.

Most called it the Chauvin trial. But there were some awkward variations. CourtTV called it “The Death of George Floyd Murder Trial.” ABC said it was the “Derek Chauvin Trial, 10 Months After George Floyd’s Death.”

For some of the specialty networks, the trial offers a rare opportunity to increase viewership, both on the air and online.

“This is the sort of trial for which we designed the network,” Abrams said. “Having anchors who are all lawyers, most of them practicing, allows us to offer unique insight to our viewers on a trial of national and international significance.”

That’s also the case for streaming services at major networks. While ABC, CBS and NBC will likely offer special TV reports for big moments, they won’t be showing it on a regular basis. CNN and MSNBC showed Monday afternoon’s testimony, but whether that continues depends on how big a news day it is.

Instead, the CBSN streaming service plans full coverage, with Hulu and Amazon viewers being directed there, said Darius Walker, CBS News senior vice president. CBS’ website will carry its own coverage, along with that of the network’s Minneapolis affiliate, he said.

Research shows that CBSN’s audience, which has an average age of 38, is particularly interested in social justice issues that the trial brings to the forefront, Walker said.

He’s already absorbed in the testimony of the first witnesses, particularly video of vantage points not commonly seen before.

“These are all things that are new to the audience,” Walker said, “and I think it’s riveting.”

Witness Donald Williams was testifying about what he saw of Floyd’s arrest when the court’s livestream feed went off the air for several minutes near the end of the court’s day. Though proceedings continued to be broadcast by CourtTV, Judge Peter Cahill sent the jury home for the day and said Williams would return Tuesday.

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Find AP’s full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd

World leaders call for pandemic treaty, but short on details

LONDON (AP) — More than 20 heads of government and global agencies called in a commentary published Tuesday for an international treaty for pandemic preparedness that they say will protect future generations in the wake of COVID-19.

But there were few details to explain how such an agreement might actually compel countries to act more cooperatively.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and leaders including Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, Premier Mario Draghi of Italy and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda proposed “a renewed collective commitment” to reinforce preparedness and response systems by leveraging the U.N. health agency’s constitution.

“The world cannot afford to wait until the pandemic is over to start planning for the next one,” Tedros said during a news conference. He said the treaty would provide “a framework for international cooperation and solidarity” and address issues like surveillance systems and responding to outbreaks.

International regulations governing health and implemented by WHO already exist — and can be disregarded by countries with few consequences. Despite an obligation for nations to share critical epidemic data and materials quickly with WHO, for example, China declined to do so when the coronavirus first broke out.

And with no enforcement powers, WHO officials had little means of compelling them to share details, an AP investigation last year found.

Steven Solomon, WHO’s principal legal officer, said the proposed pandemic treaty would need to be ratified by lawmakers in the participating countries.

“Specifics about enforcement will be up to member states to decide on,” Solomon said.

European Council President Charles Michel first laid out the idea of a pandemic treaty at the U.N. General Assembly in December. Joining Tedros at Tuesday’s briefing, Michel said the global community needs to “build a pandemic defense for future generations that extends far beyond today’s crisis. For this, we must translate the political will into concrete actions.”

Gian Luca Burci, a former WHO legal counsel who is now a professor at the Graduate Institute of international affairs in Geneva, described the proposal as an attempted “big fix” involving information sharing, preparedness and response, saying the concept is “like a Christmas tree, frankly.”

“But to me, the risk is that it diverts attention from the tool that we have” — WHO’s existing International Health Regulations, Burci said recently. He said his fear was those regulations would get short shrift and receive “cosmetic improvements, but fundamentally remain a weak instrument.”

Although the 25 signatories of the commentary called for “solidarity,” and greater “societal commitment,” there was no indication any country would soon change its own approach to responding to the pandemic. China, Russia and the United States didn’t join in signing the statement.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. has concerns about the current push for a new pandemic treaty.

“We do have some concerns, primarily about the timing and launching into negotiations for a new treaty right now, and we believe that could divert attention away from substantive issues regarding the response, preparedness for future pandemic threats,” Psaki said Tuesday. “That should be our focus currently.”

WHO legal officer Solomon said the pandemic treaty might also address issues such as the sharing of vaccine technology and vaccine supplies, but gave no indication how that might happen. Despite WHO’s calls for patents to be waived during the pandemic, rich countries have continued to oppose efforts by poor countries to compel them to share vaccine manufacturing technology.

Tedros pleaded with rich countries last week to immediately donate 10 million COVID-19 vaccines so that immunization campaigns could start in all countries within the first 100 days of the year. Not a single country has yet publicly offered to share its vaccines immediately. Of the more than 459 million vaccines administered globally, the majority have been in just 10 countries — and 28% in just one. WHO didn’t identify the countries.

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Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Dapper Labs, creators of NBA Top Shot, get $305M in funding

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Canadian blockchain technology company Dapper Labs has secured $305 million in private funding — some of it from current and former NBA players, including Michael Jordan — to scale up its virtual NBA trading card site, the company said Tuesday.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Dapper says NBA Top Shot has rung up $500 million in sales and registered more than 800,000 accounts since its public beta testing phase began in October.

The virtual cards come in the form of a floating digital cube that includes a video highlight of an NBA player and come with a non-fungible token, backed by blockchain technology, certifying its authenticity and scarcity. A LeBron James dunk highlight sold for $210,000 recently but more common cards can often be had for less than $10.

Besides the NBA, Dapper partners include Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, and UFC. The company says the new round of funding will help it expand its NFT and blockchain products to a wide range of businesses.

“We want to bring the same magic to other sports leagues as well as help other entertainment studios and independent creators find their own approaches in exploring open platforms,” said Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou.

The most recent round of funding was led by New York-based private equity firm Coatue Management and brings Dapper’s total capital raised to $357 million.

Current players listed as investors in Dapper include Kevin Durant, Kyle Lowry, Spencer Dinwiddie and Klay Thompson. The company also says some current and former NFL and MLB players have put money in, as well as the rapper 2 Chainz.

Epic Games complains about Apple to UK competition watchdog

LONDON (AP) — Epic Games submitted a complaint Tuesday about Apple’s alleged “monopolistic practices” to the U.K. competition watchdog, which is investigating the iPhone maker over concerns it has a dominant position in app distribution.

The move by the maker of the popular video game Fortnite is the latest salvo in its bitter battle over Apple’s App Store. Epic Games has also filed legal challenges in the United States and Australia, and an antitrust complaint in the European Union against Apple.

The game-maker’s complaint accuses Apple of anti-competitive behavior and setting strict rules on app distribution and payments in alleged violation of U.K. rules.

Apple said it wasn’t surprised by Epic’s U.K. complaint “as we have seen them use the same playbook around the world.”

The Competition and Markets Authority confirmed it received the complaint and said it would be considered as part of its investigation opened last month into whether Apple’s practices result in higher prices or less choice for consumers.

The dispute stems from Apple taking a 30% cut from some purchases made through apps, which music streaming service Spotify and other apps have also taken issue with. Epic tried to bypass the App Store with a direct payment system, but Apple responded by dropping the Fortnite app from the platform.

“By kneecapping the competition and exerting its monopoly power over app distribution and payments, Apple strips U.K. consumers of the right to choose how and where they get their apps, while locking developers into a single marketplace that lets Apple charge any commission rate they choose,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement.

“These harmful practices lead to artificially inflated costs for consumers, and stifle innovation among developers, many of whom are unable to compete in a digital ecosystem that is rigged against them,” Sweeney alleged.

Epic said it’s not seeking monetary damages but wants regulators to come up with fixes to prevent market distortion and manipulation.

Apple said Epic Games became hugely successful thanks to the App Store and now “wants to operate under a different set of rules than the ones that apply to all other developers. The result would be weakened privacy and data security protections for our customers, and we think that’s wrong.”

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For all of AP’s tech coverage, visit https://apnews.com/apf-technology

Virgin Galactic rolls out latest generation of spaceship

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Virgin Galactic rolled out its newest spaceship Tuesday as the company looks to resume test flights in the coming months at its headquarters in the New Mexico desert.

Company officials said it will likely be summer before the ship — designed and manufactured in California — undergoes glide flight testing at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. That will coincide with the final round of testing for the current generation of spacecraft, which will be the one that takes British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson to the fringes of space later this year.

CEO Michael Colglazier said the addition of the new ship marks the beginning of Virgin Galactic having a fleet that will one day be capable of ferrying paying customers and scientific payloads from spaceports around the globe. The company is still aiming for commercial operations to begin next year following testing and a few months of downtime for maintenance and other upgrades.

Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before — the first time from California in December 2018. The company marked its second successful glide flight over Spaceport America last June.

Virgin Galactic is one of a few companies looking to cash in on customers with an interest in space. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a new capsule in January as part of test as it aims to get its program for tourists, scientists and professional astronauts off the ground.

The mirror-like finish on Virgin Galactic’s new ship is as much about aesthetics as it is about function. A key part of the ship’s thermal protection system, Colglazier said it also was chosen so the craft could take on the look and feel of its surroundings — whether it’s on Earth, in the sky or in space.

The other task of the engineers was to create a new version that would be easier to manufacture and to maintain.

“Obviously for us to take tens of thousands of people to space, we need a number of ships. But it really matters then how often can each of these ships fly,” Colglazier said. “We expect as we get going on this to see a much quicker turnaround time and that really will help us grow the business.”

First, Virgin Galactic needs regulatory approval for the current generation and that means successful rocket-powered test flights.

The first powered test from Spaceport America was scheduled for December but computer trouble caused by electromagnetic interference prevented the spaceship’s rocket from firing properly. Instead of soaring toward space, the ship and its two pilots were forced to make an immediate landing.

The test was rescheduled for February but then scrapped as the team continued working on the interference issue. Colglazier said the flight now is scheduled for May.

The delay didn’t help stock prices. Colglazier said while it’s important to put points on the board and meet market expectations, the company’s focus is on safety at each step and the decades ahead.

“I think this is moving as we want it to move. It is stepwise — that is what we want to do with human spaceflight,” he said, “but you can also see the monument building. We’re excited for this unveiling today and we’re excited for May and we’re excited for the summer to come.”

Archives for March 2021

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