Brooklyn Center (Minnesota): A white police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb resigned Tuesday, as did the city’s police chief moves that the mayor said he hoped would help heal the community and lead to reconciliation after two nights of protests and unrest.

But police and protesters faced off once again after nightfall Tuesday, with hundreds of protesters gathering again at Brooklyn Center’s heavily guarded police headquarters, now ringed by concrete barriers and a tall metal fence, and where police in riot gear and National Guard soldiers stood watch. Murderapolis was scrawled with black spray paint on a concrete barrier.

Whose street? Our street! the crowd chanted under a light snowfall.

About 90 minutes before the curfew deadline, state police announced over a loudspeaker that the gathering had been declared unlawful and ordered the crowds to disperse. That quickly set off confrontations, with protesters launching fireworks toward the station and throwing objects at police, who launched flashbangs and gas grenades, and then marched in a line to force back the crowd.

You are hereby ordered to disperse, authorities announced, warning that anyone not leaving would be arrested. The state police said the dispersal order came before the 10 p.m. curfew because protesters were trying to take down the fencing and throwing rocks at police. The number of protesters dropped rapidly over the next hour, until only a few remained. Police also ordered all media to leave the scene.

The resignations from Officer Kim Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon came two days after the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center. Potter, a 26-year veteran, had been on administrative leave following Sunday’s shooting, which happened as the Minneapolis area was already on edge over the trial of an officer charged in George Floyd’s death.

Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott said at a news conference that the city had been moving toward firing Potter when she resigned. Elliott said he hoped her resignation would bring some calm to the community, but that he would keep working toward full accountability under the law.

We have to make sure that justice is served, justice is done. Daunte Wright deserves that. His family deserves that, Elliott said.

A decision on whether prosecutors will charge Potter could come as soon as Wednesday. Meanwhile, the cities of Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis and St. Paul imposed 10 p.m. curfews.

Gannon has said he believed Potter mistakenly grabbed her gun when she was going for her Taser. She can be heard on her body camera video shouting Taser! Taser! However, protesters and Wright’s family members say there’s no excuse for the shooting and it shows how the justice system is tilted against Blacks, noting Wright was stopped for an expired car registration and ended up dead.

Activists who attended the mayor’s news conference called for sweeping changes to the Brooklyn Center Police Department and sharply criticized the acting police chief, Tony Gruenig, for not yet having a plan.

Elliott said the department has about 49 police officers, none of whom live in Brooklyn Center. He said he didn’t have information on racial diversity at hand but that we have very few people of color in our department.

The modest suburb just north of Minneapolis has seen its demographics shift dramatically in recent years. In 2000, more than 70 per cent of the city was white. Today, a majority of residents are Black, Asian or Hispanic.

After stopping Wright for the expired license plates, police tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. The warrant was for his failure to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June.

Body camera footage released Monday shows Wright struggling with police when Potter shouts, I’ll Tase you! I’ll Tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser! She draws her weapon after the man breaks free from police outside his car and gets back behind the wheel.

After firing a single shot from her handgun, the car speeds away, and Potter says, Holy (expletive)! I shot him.

Wright died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the medical examiner.

Protests began within hours.

In her one-paragraph letter of resignation, Potter said, I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability, but I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately.”

Wright’s father, Aubrey Wright, told ABC’s Good Morning America that he rejects the explanation that Potter mistook her gun for her Taser.

I lost my son. He’s never coming back. I can’t accept that. A mistake? That doesn’t even sound right. This officer has been on the force for 26 years. I can’t accept that, he said.

Chyna Whitaker, mother of Daunte’s son, said at a news conference that she felt police stole my son’s dad from him.

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said in a statement Tuesday that no conclusions should be made until the investigation is complete.

DHAKA: Bangladesh is planning to enforce a nationwide general holiday on April 14 to contain the cases of coronavirus as the country reported 5,819 new cases of COVD-19 in the last 24 hours, including former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, a senior health official said on Sunday.

“There are plans to enforce a nationwide general holiday to contain the infection spike from April 14, tightening an existing lockdown,” the senior health official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

He said restrictions under the general holiday is being worked out. The total number of coronavirus cases in Bangladesh has so far reached to 6,84,756 cases with 5,819 new cases in the last 24 hours.

Zia tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, a year after she was released from jail temporarily amidst the pandemic.

The 75-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief’s samples were sent to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, for testing on Saturday, Maidul Islam Prodhan, Public Relations Officer of the Health Ministry, was quoted as saying in a media report.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir later at a media briefing acknowledged the test result saying she was now being treated at her house by a private doctor but said “her health condition is stable”.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Thursday let the ban on foreign workers visa, in particular H-1B, lapse as the notification issued by his predecessor Donald Trump expired, a move which is likely to benefit thousands of Indian IT professionals.

On December 31, Trump extended the order to March 31, 2021, noting that an extension was warranted as the pandemic continued to disrupt American’s lives, and high levels of unemployment and job loss were still presenting serious economic challenges to workers across the US.

Biden did not issue a fresh proclamation for the ban on H-1B visas to continue after March 31.

He had promised to lift the suspension on H-1B visas, saying Trump’s immigration policies were cruel.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The expiry of the Trump’s proclamation would now result in the issuing of H-1B visas by American diplomatic missions overseas that would result in US companies bringing in talented technology professionals inside the country.

No new proclamation was issued by Biden till Wednesday mid-night, resulting in the automatic end to the ban on issuing of fresh H-1B visas.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House will not renew a ban on H-1B and other work-based visas imposed last year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that is set to expire on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a Republican Senator from Missouri on Wednesday urged Biden to issue a fresh proclamation to continue with the H-1B visa ban.

“I write today to urge you to extend the freeze on temporary foreign worker entries into the United States that, without intervention, will expire today,” Senator Josh Hawley wrote in a letter to Biden.

“The presidential proclamation suspending entry of certain temporary workers into the US has protected Americans suffering from the pandemic-induced economic crisis. With millions of struggling Americans out of work — and millions more desperate to make ends meet — now is not the time to open the floodgates to thousands of foreign workers competing with American workers for scarce jobs and resources,” he wrote.

In his letter, Hawley wrote that the unemployment rate remains at 6.2 per cent  with nearly 10 million Americans out of work and looking for a job.

The pandemic has been especially devastating for low-income and working class Americans, many of whom have borne the brunt of the crisis — and stand to lose the most from misguided policy decisions, he said.

In periods of high unemployment, it makes no sense to allow a struggling labour market to be flooded with a wave of foreign competition, he said.

“What makes even less sense is to willingly introduce further competition for the US workers at the same time that a disastrous illegal immigration crisis grows on our southern border.

As at the border, failure to take meaningful action is, in itself, a policy decision with detrimental impacts for American workers.

“I urge you to extend the temporary foreign worker entry suspension until the national unemployment rate has meaningfully declined, and until your administration has conducted a thorough review of non-immigrant visa programmes to ensure that American workers are fully and effectively protected from harm,” Hawley added.