The investigation was launched in April 2021 after a white former police officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murdering George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes after he had been handcuffed.

The city has agreed to negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department on reforming the police department known as a consent decree, which will be overseen by a federal judge, the DOJ said.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the findings at a press conference outside the federal courthouse in Minneapolis alongside Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

The killing of Floyd in May 2020, captured in a bystander’s cellphone video, sparked protests across the US decrying police brutality and racism in the criminal justice system. In Minneapolis, protesters damaged property, including a police precinct house that was set ablaze.

Many people in Minneapolis complained that Chauvin’s excessive use of force against Floyd was not exceptional, and that the city’s police officers had long abused the rights of Black residents.

The Justice Department’s investigation was launched to see if the city government or the police department had a “pattern or practice” of using excessive force or discriminatory policing. – Rappler.com

In a meeting at Beijing’s Diaoyutai state guest house, where China’s leaders have traditionally received senior foreign visitors, Xi said he was very happy to see the Microsoft MSFT.O co-founder and philanthropist after three years, and that Gates was the first American friend he had met this year.

“I often say the foundation of US-China relations lies with its people. I place my hopes on the American people,” a video published by state broadcaster CCTV showed Xi as saying.

“With the current global situation, we can carry out various activities beneficial to our two countries and people, activities that benefit humanity as a whole,” he said.

Gates, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, June 14, said he was “honored” to have the chance to meet. “We’ve always had great conversations and we’ll have lot of important topics to discuss today…. It’s very exciting to be back.”

In a post on his personal blog, Gates said he and Xi had discussed global health and development challenges such as health inequity and climate change.

Xi stopped traveling abroad for nearly three years as China shut its borders during the coronavirus pandemic and his international meetings since the reopening have mostly been with other state leaders.

A number of CEOs have visited China since it reopened early this year, but most have met with government ministers.

Gates stepped down from Microsoft’s board in 2020 to focus on philanthropy in the fields of global health, education and climate change.

The last reported meeting between Xi and Gates was in 2015, when they met on the sidelines of the Boao forum in Hainan province. In early 2020, Xi wrote to Gates thanking him and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for pledging assistance to China, including $5 million for its fight against COVID-19.

Xi also discussed the global rise of artificial intelligence(AI) with Bill Gates and said he welcomed US firms including Microsoft bringing their AI tech to China, two sources familiar with the talks said.

One of the sources said they also discussed Microsoft’s business development in China.

Not pursuing hegemony

The mood of the foreign business community towards China has turned more cautious as Sino-US tensions intensify and Xi increases China’s focus on national security.

Gates’ visit comes ahead of a long-delayed trip to China by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at stabilizing relations between the world’s two largest economies and strategic rivals.

Blinken had a tense call with China’s foreign minister Qin Gang on Wednesday, during which Qin urged the United States to stop meddling in its affairs and harming its security.

During his meeting with Gates, Xi said China would not follow the old path of a “strong country seeking hegemony” but would work with other countries to achieve common development, according to the People’s Daily newspaper. China often accuses the United States of pursuing hegemony.

Apart from meeting Xi, Gates gave a speech at the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute about the need to use technology to solve global health challenges during his visit.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Beijing municipal government, which founded the institute with Tsinghua University, also pledged to each provide $50 million to bolster the institute’s drug discovery capacity. – Rappler.com

Blinken will hold meetings in China on June 18-19 and may meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, sources said. He will be the highest-ranking US government official to visit China since Biden took office in January 2021.

In a pre-trip briefing on Wednesday, June 14, US officials said they have no expectation the trip will yield a breakthrough in how the US and China deal with each other. That followed a tense evening phone call with Blinken on Tuesday during which Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told the US to stop meddling in China’s affairs.

The visit, which could set the stage for a flurry of other diplomatic engagements including a meeting between Xi and US President Joe Biden later in the year, would show that the two rivals have not given up on diplomacy.

“Both sides want to show the rest of the world that they are managing the relationship responsibly,” said Andrew Small, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Asia program.

“For China, the most important audience is the global south. For the US, it’s partners and allies. So even going through the motions has some utility for both Washington and Beijing.”

Bilateral ties have deteriorated across the board, raising concerns that their rivalry could veer into conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its own. The two are also at odds over issues ranging from trade and microchips to human rights.

Particularly worrisome for China’s neighbors has been its reluctance to allow regular military-to-military talks between Beijing and Washington, despite repeated US attempts. US officials said on Wednesday that setting up crisis communication channels to reduce risk was a top priority.

“Anything that would lead to greater cooperation, greater dialogue and a lessening of tensions between Beijing and Washington is to be welcomed,” United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday.

While Blinken’s main goal will be “candid, direct, and constructive” discussions, the US officials said, breakthroughs are not likely on any major issues, including the flow of fentanyl precursors and Americans detained in China.

Eyeing Biden-Xi meeting

A meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit last November in Bali briefly eased fears of a new Cold War, but following the dispute over an alleged Chinese spy balloon in February, high-level communication between the countries has been rare.

Beijing, frustrated by what it sees as the Biden administration’s weaponization of economic policies, has sought to expand ties with countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Xi has recently received several European leaders including French President Emanuel Macron and made a diplomatic push to court others, including US ally Saudi Arabia.

US officials expect Blinken’s visit will pave the way for more bilateral meetings in the coming months, including possible trips by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

“Beijing agreed to the visit because it seems to be the one thing that is blocking many other things, such as working-level dialogues and the visits by other cabinet members,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

Those meetings could lead to one between the countries’ leaders when they attend a September G20 meeting in India and the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco.

“Xi does want to come to San Francisco,” said Sun. “[Aside from] APEC, he also wants a bilateral with Biden. That means the groundwork must be paved starting from now.” – Rappler.com

For Americans growing up between the 1950s and the 1980s, religion was a predictable presence on television: There were weekly Sunday morning shows and religious programming that issued end-time warnings, sought monetary contributions, or staged faith healings. But none of those covered news.

Pat Robertson, who died on June 8, changed this. Today, there are entire networks devoted to religious broadcasting, which include Christian television that reaches millions of Americans, often with a conservative perspective on current events.

As a scholar of religion and politics in America, I believe it is important to understand the impact of the medium, and how it came to have such influence.

The growth of Christian media

American Christians have historically used new media to spread the gospel. In the 19th century, evangelicals used pamphlets and advertising techniques. The early 20th century produced a religious radio subculture that is still thriving in programs like the ones offered by Focus on the Family or Moody Radio.

By the early 1950s, preachers like Robert Schuller and Billy Graham had energetically taken to television. Such programming thrived during the Cold War, and in 1966, Robertson’s The 700 Club debuted.

The 700 Club was distinct from other programs in its willingness to blend theological themes with political commentary and explicit engagement with news. In the 1970s, this approach became more widespread because of two related political trends.

Pat Robertson’s lasting influence on American politics: 3 essential reads

First, Protestant organizations, mostly fundamentalist ones like the Moral Majority, took to popularizing Christian conservatism. These organizations rallied national support to influence politicians to oppose abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment, among other causes.

Second, around the same time, beginning with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, conservative politicians started to harness evangelicals as a voting bloc. As a result, many of these politicians began paying closer attention to Robertson for indications of this bloc’s concerns.

The televangelists

These political changes were reflected in the rapid growth of Christian shows on cable television.

In addition to Robertson’s long-standing talk show, the end-times prophecy show Jack Van Impe Presents and others began to normalize the idea of addressing what was happening in the news from a Biblical perspective. Such shows claimed they were providing viewers with “real” explanations that media and liberal politicians covered up. These shows also presented conservative talking points as facts.

During this period, American “televangelists” experienced several withering scandals. Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, for example, was discovered with a prostitute, and televangelist Jim Bakker was convicted of fraud.

In the long term, however, these scandals did little to diminish the influence of such preachers. Robertson’s story demonstrates this.

To the surprise of many, Robertson entered the Republican presidential primary in 1988. Though he dropped out of the race somewhat early, his candidacy might have helped prove that far-right evangelicalism was now anything but marginal. Following this, Robertson co-founded, along with Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition, which worked to advance politically many of the key issues circulated in Christian media, such as concerns about abortion, anxiety around religious pluralism, and contesting the secularization of public institutions.

Influence of Christian media

Religious broadcasting grew hugely in the 1990s and 2000s. Christian media increasingly commented on current events. And, critically, it began to have an influence on the wider culture.

For example, from the mid-1990s, popular films and novels like Left Behind suggested that viewers with the “wrong” religious or political beliefs would suffer damnation. Such films and literature attracted tens of millions of viewers and readers.

Furthermore, the kinds of issues and arguments long advanced in Christian media – such as concerns about the content of popular entertainment, or resistance to changing family dynamics – regularly exploded into widespread public concern, and conservative critics began to influence political policy.

The 700 Club and the Christian Broadcasting Network regularly devoted airtime to critiques of educational policy, which in time gained ground in the Republican Party. Robertson was also instrumental in popularizing Christian schools, like his Regent University, rooted in the idea that public institutions were not trustworthy.

Why this matters

The power of these programs is more than simply the stories covered or guests interviewed – it is their social impact on religious beliefs.

At times, Christian news can present ideas that are often highly emotional and conspiratorial as facts. For example, on election night in 2016, Robertson floated the idea that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger conspired with Martin Luther King Jr. to orchestrate “black genocide.”

This way of viewing the world moved closer to the center of conservative politics since the 1980s, a period of time when the Christian right acquired more influence in American politics.

The themes central to Christian television were more consistently those of the Republican Party. Consider how in some corners of the media in the 1980s, Reagan began to be depicted as though he was God’s agent on Earth. In the 1990s, the growth of multinational corporations and trade deals was decried as part of a demonic “new world order.” And today, when Islamophobia is on the rise, some Christian television channels often depict and celebrate former president Donald Trump as a “fighter in chief” who defends Christians despite his personal faults.

These attitudes were reflected in many of the contemporary news programs themselves.

For example, Robert Jeffress of Dallas’ First Baptist Church called Islam a “false religion” that is “inspired by Satan himself.” Such claims have been widespread since September 11, 2001, alongside assertions – made by Robertson and Jerry Falwell two days after that event – that the attacks had occurred because America expanded gay rights, legalized abortion, and removed prayer from schools.

Such comments reached millions of people without facts ever being addressed.

Further, Christian Broadcasting Network news regularly featured stories about Christians persecuted globally, such as in Turkey.

While such persecution clearly does occur in places across the world, CBN and other outlets often framed these stories alongside claims that American Christians were censored or otherwise embattled by liberalism or secularism. These latter claims helped produce an overall sense that Christians were beleaguered in America.

Amplifying one view?

The growing regularity of such examples has significant implications for American politics.

First, assertions that religious liberty is being violated around the world are put out endlessly in what I call “the resonance chamber of American public life,” in which repetition, aided by social media, helps claims to achieve legitimacy. Second, stories on the Christian news channels are constantly tailored to the idea that viewers are being persecuted.

By presenting itself as authoritative, trustworthy journalism, Christian news reassures viewers that they do not need to consult mainstream media in order to be informed. More dangerously, I argue, it authorizes a particular, often conspiratorial way of viewing the world. It denounces neutrality or accountability to multiple constituencies as burdensome or even hostile to Christian faith. – Rappler.com

Jason C. Bivins is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University. He is the author of Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism and The Fracture of Good Order: Christian Antiliberalism and the Challenge to American Politics.

Data was “compromised” at two entities within the energy department when hackers gained access through a security flaw in MOVEit Transfer, the department said in a statement.

A DOE official said those entities were the DOE contractor Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant – the New Mexico-based facility for disposal of defense-related nuclear waste.

British energy giant Shell, the University System of Georgia, the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Health System were also hit, all three groups said in separate statements. The latter is a nonprofit that collaborates with the university and runs six hospitals and primary care centers.

The new victims add to a growing list of entities in the US, Britain and other countries whose systems were infiltrated through the MOVEit Transfer software. The hackers took advantage of a security flaw that its maker, Progress Software, discovered late last month.

The Russia-linked extortion group Cl0p, which has claimed credit for the MOVEit hack, earlier said in a statement that it would not exploit any data taken from government agencies, and that it had erased all such data. It did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The US Cybsecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it was helping several federal agencies that had been breached, but did not name them.

“At this time, we are not tracking any significant impacts to the federal civilian executive branch (.gov) enterprise but are continuing to work with our partners on this issue,” the agency said in a statement.

The energy department, which manages US nuclear infrastructure and energy policy, said it had notified Congress of the breach and is participating in investigations with law enforcement and CISA.

A Shell spokesperson said there was no evidence of impact to Shell’s core IT systems from the MOVEit Transfer-related breach. “There are around 50 users of the tool, and we are urgently investigating what data may have been impacted,” she added.

Johns Hopkins also said it was “investigating a recent cybersecurity attack targeting a widely used software tool that affected our networks.”

The University System of Georgia, which groups about 26 public colleges, said it was “evaluating the scope and severity of this potential data exposure” from the MOVEit hack.

Large organizations including the UK’s telecom regulator, British Airways, the BBC and drugstore chain Boots emerged as victims last week.

CISA did not immediately respond to requests seeking further comment. The FBI and National Security Agency also did not immediately respond to emails seeking details on the breaches.

A MOVEit spokesperson said the company had “engaged with federal law enforcement” and was working with customers to help them apply fixes to their systems.

Progress Software’s shares ended down 6.1% on Thursday. The company disclosed another “critical vulnerability” it found in MOVEit Transfer on Thursday, although it was not clear whether it had been exploited by hackers.

MOVEit Transfer is a popular tool used by organizations to share sensitive information with partners or customers. It could be used by a bank’s customers, for instance, to upload their financial data for loan applications, said John Hammond, a security researcher at Huntress.

“There’s a whole lot of potential for what an adversary might be able to get into,” he said earlier this month. – Rappler.com

US District Judge Edward Davila on Tuesday had set a June 22-23 evidentiary hearing in San Francisco and temporarily blocked the companies from completing the deal pending a decision by another judge on the same court on whether to grant a preliminary injunction.

The hearing will focus on whether to put the deal on hold while an administrative judge considers the case. But the companies said if a temporary hold is granted they would have to drop the deal altogether because the “glacial” pace of the FTC review would make waiting impractical.

“Time is of the essence,” the companies wrote in a court filing, noting that the agreement has a termination date of July 18 and contains a $3 billion termination fee that Microsoft would have to pay.

“Let there be no doubt, a preliminary injunction ruling is the only decision that matters under these challenging deadlines.”

The FTC declined to comment.

The companies asked the court to schedule a minimum of five days for an evidentiary hearing beginning on June 22 and running through the week of June 26. They also asked for a case management conference to be set for Thursday but emphasized they were not seeking to delay a resolution by asking for a longer evidentiary hearing.

If the court grants the FTC preliminary injunction “it will effectively block the transaction because the FTC’s process is ‘glacial’ and one no substantial business transaction could ever survive,” Microsoft and Activision wrote citing a 1986 case.

The hearing in the FTC administrative proceeding is set to begin Aug. 2.

The FTC has argued the transaction would give Microsoft’s video game console Xbox exclusive access to Activision games, leaving Nintendo consoles and Sony Group Corp’s PlayStation out in the cold.

Microsoft’s bid to acquire the Call of Duty video game maker was approved by the EU in May, but British competition authorities blocked the takeover in April. – Rappler.com

“President Trump Raises Over $6.6 Million and Counting Since Deranged Jack Smith Announced Political Prosecution,” Trump’s campaign wrote in an email to supporters on Wednesday, referring to the US special counsel investigating him.

Over $4.5 million came from digital fundraising while $2.1 million was raised from a donor event on Tuesday at Trump’s Bedminster Club in New Jersey.

A spokesman for Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, later emailed Reuters stating that fundraising had passed the bar of $7 million since the indictment was announced on Thursday.

In the indictment, Trump was accused of illegally retaining classified government documents after leaving the White House and then conspiring to obstruct a federal probe of the matter.

He has sought to frame the charges as a Democratic-led attack to knock him out of the 2024 race – and one ultimately designed to hurt Republicans, 30% of whom are considered unwavering Trump supporters.

“They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after YOU,” Trump wrote in a fundraising email earlier on Wednesday, the day after he was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts in court.

Polling suggests Trump’s strategy is working: A vast majority of Republicans – some 81% – believe the charges are politically motivated, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.

Trump also enjoyed a fundraising bump from charges in New York as part of a case involving hush money paid to a porn star. After word emerged in March that Trump was going to be charged, his campaign raised $7 million in three days, according to senior adviser Jason Miller.

Trump’s nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has a roughly $85 million political war chest, currently held in a state account. – Rappler.com

Two suspects were taken into custody, including one man wounded in the gunfire, which appeared to involve multiple weapons and stemmed from an altercation among several individuals, according to Denver police.

They said the violence appeared to be unrelated to the basketball celebration although several fans were hurt.

A precise motive for the shooting remained under investigation, but preliminary evidence pointed to gun violence precipitated by a conflict among illegal narcotics dealers, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas told a news conference.

All 10 people struck by gunshots were rushed by ambulance to Denver Health Medical Center, where four underwent emergency surgery, trauma surgeon Dr. Eric Campion told reporters.

He said five patients remained hospitalized on Tuesday, all listed in fair condition, and five were discharged. All were adults – nine men and one woman, according to police.

Five handguns were recovered from the area including one taken from the wounded suspect arrested after he fled on foot and another from the car of the second suspect, police commander Matt Clark told a news briefing. He said at least 20 rounds were fired.

Police also seized “significant quantities of fentanyl pills in the area” bundled in plastic bags, Clark said, adding “there appears to be a drug nexus” to the shooting.

“Our strong belief is that this was completely unassociated with the (Nuggets victory) celebration,” Thomas said.

“There were literally tens of thousands of people that were in the downtown area who were peacefully celebrating, and unfortunately there was a small group of individuals who chose to engage in some illegal behavior, and that went awry, and shots were exchanged.”

The chief said five or six of those wounded were innocent bystanders.

The shooting occurred about 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of the arena where the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat to win the NBA championship, the first in the franchise’s 47-year history.

The incident unfolded where a large crowd had earlier gathered to celebrate the team’s victory, though the throng had dwindled before the gunfire erupted, Clark told reporters.

After midnight the street “devolved into some physical fights and ultimately a shooting” and “a very chaotic scene,” despite the presence of about 100 police officers patrolling the area for crowd control, said Denver’s public safety director, Amando Saldate. – Rappler.com

Trump’s plea, entered before US Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman in a federal court in Miami, sets up a legal battle likely to play out over coming months as he campaigns to win back the presidency in a November 2024 election. Experts say it could be a year or more before a trial takes place.

Trump, wearing a blue suit and a red tie, frowned and leaned back in his chair but did not speak during the 47-minute hearing.

He was allowed to leave court without conditions or travel restrictions and no cash bond was required. Goodman ruled that he was not allowed to communicate with potential witnesses in the case.

Trump’s aide Walt Nauta, who is also charged in the case, appeared in court alongside Trump but will not have to enter a plea until June 27 because he does not have a local lawyer. He, too, was released without having to post bond and was ordered not to talk to other witnesses.

Supporters chanted “We love Trump” as his motorcade departed the courthouse at 3:55 pm EDT (1955 GMT), roughly two hours after it arrived.

It was the second courtroom visit for Trump in recent months. In April, he pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Trump is the first former president to be charged with federal crimes.

Authorities had prepared for possible violence, recalling the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told reporters that there had not been any security problems.

Trump has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and accuses Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration of targeting him.

During a stop at Versailles, a Cuban restaurant, after the hearing, Trump told supporters that the United States was “rigged,” “corrupt,” and “in decline.”

“We’ve got a government that’s out of control,” he said. Florida’s Cuban-American community is a substantial Republican voting bloc in the politically competitive state.

He then flew back on his private jet to his New Jersey golf club, where he was due to address supporters at 8:15 pm EDT (0015 GMT on Wednesday, June 14).

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is handling the case, accuses Trump of risking national secrets by taking thousands of sensitive papers with him when he left the White House in January 2021 and storing them in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate and his New Jersey golf club.

Photos included in a grand-jury indictment released last week showed boxes of documents stored on a ballroom stage, in a bathroom and strewn across a storage-room floor.

Those records included information about the secretive US nuclear program and potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack, the indictment said.

The 37-count indictment alleges Trump lied to officials who tried to get them back.

It also alleges Trump conspired with Nauta to keep classified documents and hide them from investigators. Nauta has worked for Trump at the White House and at Mar-a-Lago.

Republican voters, rivals line up behind Trump

Trump’s legal woes have not hurt his standing with Republican voters.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday showed Trump still led rivals for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election by a wide margin, and 81% of Republican voters viewing the charges as politically motivated.

Most of Trump’s Republican presidential rivals have lined up behind him and accused the FBI of political bias, in a sharp turn from the party’s traditional support for law enforcement.

Vivek Ramaswamy, one of those candidates, said outside the Miami courthouse that he would pardon Trump if he were elected.

Espionage Act cited in charges against Trump

Trump faces charges that include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of defense information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He would serve a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.

Legal experts say the evidence amounts to a strong case, and Smith has said Trump, who will turn 77 on Wednesday, will have a “speedy” trial.

The judge assigned to the case, Aileen Cannon, was appointed by Trump in 2020 and issued a ruling in his favor during the investigation last year that was reversed on appeal. Goodman, the magistrate judge who conducted Tuesday’s hearing, is not expected to play an ongoing role.

Experts say the complexities of handling classified evidence and legal maneuvering by Trump’s lawyers could delay a trial by more than a year. His defense team is in flux after two lawyers quit the case on Friday.

In the meantime, Trump is free to campaign for the presidency and could take office even if he were to be found guilty.

Trump accuses Biden of orchestrating the federal case to undermine his campaign. Biden has kept his distance from the case and declines to comment on it.

In his first presidential run in 2016, Trump called for imprisoning Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for using private email while serving as secretary of state, leading to chants of “lock her up” at campaign rallies. Then-FBI Director James Comey criticized Clinton for carelessness but did not recommend criminal charges. – Rappler.com

WASHINGTON, DC, USA – Three guests at the White House’s Pride party on Saturday, have been banned from future events after going topless on the South Lawn, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday, June 17.

“The behavior was simply unacceptable. We’ve been very clear about that. It was unfair to the hundreds of attendees who were there to celebrate their families,” Jean-Pierre said.

Rose Montoya, a transgender activist, posted video to her Instagram and TikTok accounts showing her with her dress pulled down, covering her naked breasts on the White House lawn during the party, standing next to trans men with their shirts off.

“Individuals in the video certainly will not be invited to future events,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that the event was intended to celebrate the LGBTQ community and families. Thousands of people were invited to the event.

“Going topless in Washington DC is legal,” Montoya said in a followup video on TikTok, addressive conservative critics. – Rappler.com