Vaughan Gething became the first black person to lead a national government in Europe on Thursday, a day after he was elected first minister of Wales.

Speaking to the Welsh Parliament, Mr Gething, who was born in Zambia, noted the historic nature of his election in a country where almost 94 percent of the approximately three million inhabitants are whitegovernment data shows.

“It is a matter of pride, I believe, for a modern Wales, but also a huge responsibility for me and one that I do not take lightly,” he said. “But today we can also expect a depressingly familiar pattern to emerge with abuse on social media, racist statements disguised with polite language, and people questioning my motives. And yes, they will still question or deny my nationality, while others will wonder why I am playing the race card.”

To those critics, Mr Gething said: ‘It’s very easy to not care about your identity when your own identity has never been questioned or held back. I believe that the Wales of today and tomorrow will belong to all those decent people who recognize that our parliament and government should look like our country.”

Gething, 50, was narrowly elected leader of Wales’ ruling Labor party this week and was subsequently elected first minister by the Senedd. He also received approval from King Charles III, a ceremonial administrative step.

Mr Gething’s appointment as First Minister of Wales means that for the first time none of the UK’s four governments will be led by a white man. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Great Britain is of Indian descent, and Humza Yousaf, the Prime Minister of Scotland, is of Pakistani descent. Michelle O’Neill became First Minister of Northern Ireland last month.

Mr Sunak’s government oversees the running of the civil service and government agencies and makes decisions for England, but some responsibilities are left to elected officials in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – the result of a decades-long process called devolution .

Mr. Gething did that spent much of his life in the politics. He became active in the Welsh Labor Party at the age of 17 and campaigned unsuccessfully in the 1992 general election. He became a trade union lawyer and eventually a partner at trade union firm Thompsons. He was also the first black person – and the youngest – to become president of the Wales Trades Union Congress, a consortium of dozens of trade unions.

In 2011, he became the first black minister to serve in one of the devolved nations of the United Kingdom and has since held various positions in the Welsh Parliament, including as Secretary of State for the Economy and Secretary of State for Health during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. Gething faced criticism for accepting 200,000 pounds (about $253,000) in donations for his leadership campaign from a recycling company run by a man found guilty of illegal dumping of waste on conservation land in South Wales. Asked about the donations in a BBC debate, he said they had been “checked and properly submitted to the Electoral Commission and declared to the Senedd.” The Guardian reported this.

In his speech on Thursday, Mr Gething said he wanted Wales to “thrive in the sunshine that hope and social justice can bring to all of us, regardless of our background, what we look like or who we love.”

He added: “We can embrace new optimism and new ambition for a fairer Wales, built by all of us.”

A former Connecticut state trooper was acquitted Friday of manslaughter and other charges in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old black man after a car chase four years ago.

The soldier, Brian D. North, was criminally charged in 2022 for the Jan. 15, 2020, killing of teenager Mubarak Soulemane. The killing occurred after Mr. Soulemane, who suffered from schizophrenia, led state troopers on a chase that ended in West Haven , Conn., where Mr. North, who is white, fired seven shots through the driver’s side window.

The six-member jury that heard the case in Milford found Mr North not guilty of all charges, including manslaughter and murder by criminal negligence. Mr. North’s lawyers gave him a slap on the back when the jury foreman announced the verdict.

“This was a difficult case,” State Superior Court Judge H. Gordon Hall told the jury. “The work you did was hard, and like I told you, you will never forget it.”

Mr. North was the first law enforcement officer in Connecticut to be charged in a fatal shooting in nearly two decades. The Connecticut Post reports this.

The defense focused on the finding that Mr. Soulemane was holding a knife in the car when Mr. North shot him, according to an investigation by the state Office of Inspector Generalwhich led to the indictment.

Before he was shot, the report said, Mr. Soulemane gestured upward with his arm and pointed his knife at the ceiling of the car. Mr. North shot seven times and then shouted, “Drop the knife!”

Despite Mr. Soulemane brandishing the knife, the inspector general’s office said in its report documenting the investigation that neither Mr. North “nor any other person was in immediate danger of serious injury or death” and that it “trooper’s use of deadly force not justified under Connecticut law.”

The inspector general, Robert Devlin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. North was charged on the first anniversary of the conviction of Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer who was found guilty of murder in the killing of George Floyd, a black man. Mr. Chauvin’s conviction paved the way for the case against Mr. North, Mark D. Arons, a lawyer for Mr. Soulemane’s family, said when the charges were filed.

If convicted, Mr. North faced a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Frank Riccio, one of Mr.’s attorneys. North, told a Connecticut television station that the shooting would haunt Mr. North for the rest of his life.

“He’s still shaken,” Mr. Riccio said. “This is not something he will ever live on. It was a very traumatic experience.”

Mr. North still faces a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by Mr. Soulemane’s family. In statements made outside the courthouse on Friday, Mr Arons said it was “a terrible day for everyone inside.” He was flanked by members of Mr Soulemane’s family, who were present at the sentencing.

“We commend the jury for listening to all the evidence and taking it seriously,” Mr Arons said. “We obviously do not agree with the outcome.”

Ron Dong was just two years old when his Chinese-American parents moved to Coronado, California, a change that was only possible because a black couple defied anti-Asian segregation by renting a house to his family.

More than 80 years later, Ron and his younger brother, Lloyd Dong Jr., 81, are continuing the legacy of that couple, Gus and Emma Thompson, by donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Coronado house and an apartment complex. next door to support Black students at San Diego State University.

The university said the brothers’ donation, expected to total $5 million, would be “by far” the largest ever made to the Black Resource Center. The center will be renamed in honor of the Thompsons.

Ron Dong, 86, said it was “amazing” that the money “could do things we never expected our assets could do.”

The brothers decided to donate the money to the university’s Black Resource Center after learning more about the Thompsons, who rented their home to the Dong family in 1939.

“It was a real boost for the Dongs to be able to live there,” said Ron’s wife, Janice Dong, 86.

Coronado, an island across San Diego Bay known for the red-roofed Hotel del Coronado, was only accessible by ferry or a long drive across the strip of land that connects it to the mainland, near the border with Mexico, up to a bridge. opened in 1969.

In 1939, Lloyd Dong Sr. and his wife, Margaret Dong, in San Diego, while working six days a week as a gardener for wealthy Coronado residents. All were born in the United States to Chinese immigrant parents, Lloyd Dong Jr. said.

The family wanted to live in Coronado to avoid Lloyd Dong Sr.’s commute. to shorten, but was confronted with anti-Asian racism.

The Chinese Exclusion Law The treaty signed in 1882 blocked the Chinese people from immigrating to the United States, although many still entered illegally. The action, that was withdrawn in 1943 and replaced with a quota system that allows about 105 visas per year, and other laws institutionalized anti-Asian discrimination.

This racism was also ingrained in housing policy. In the early 20th century, house deeds could contain clauses known as racial restrictive covenants that prevented people of certain races and religious groups from purchasing homes or living in certain neighborhoods. This language was banned in 1968 under the Fair Housing Act, but it still appears on many property documents.

Kevin Ashley, a local amateur historian, said the Thompsons most likely built their home in 1894 or 1895, although property records show it was built in 1901.

“When the real estate agents came in in the 1920s and 1930s, the black community started to disappear,” says Ashley, who has researched black history in Coronado and share his findings online and in one Coronado Historical Association exhibit.

Mr Ashley contacted the Dongs in 2022 after learning about their connection to the Thompsons, who had been a prominent couple in business and society. The brothers knew the Thompsons had helped their family, but little else until Mr. Ashley informed them.

Gus Thompson was born into slavery in Cadiz, Ky. sometime between 1859 and 1862. according to Mr. Ashley. Years after slavery was abolished, Mr. Thompson moved to Coronado and worked for E. S. Babcock, an industrialist who founded the Hotel del Coronado.

He built a livery stable next to their house with a boarding house above it for black people who needed a place to sleep in Coronado, such as laborers and drivers who had driven their customers to the island. The Thompsons rented their home to the Dongs after moving to San Diego.

“You still allowed the Thompsons to keep their property amid this heightened period of racial restrictions against African Americans, Chinese, Mexicans and others,” Mr. Ashley said.

After the Dongs, who had four children, bought the house from the Thompsons in 1955, they replaced the stable with an eight-bedroom apartment building, which is also for sale. The brothers eventually moved to other parts of California and their two sisters passed away, so the family is ready to sell.

Lloyd Dong Jr. said the properties were worth an estimated $7 million to $8 million. He and his brother are donating their share of the sale proceeds, which he said would “give some deserving people a head start.”

San Diego State University said: “The donation is a confirmed $5 million and will come from the sale of two properties, which are now in the final stages.”

Janice Dong said the couple had considered using their share of the proceeds to fund scholarships, but discovered that students from underrepresented groups often need support beyond just financial aid, and chose to direct the money to the Black Resource Center to send. Ron Dong worked as a high school math and science teacher before retiring, and Janice Dong was a high school special education teacher.

Gus and Emma Thompson’s great-grandson, Ballinger Kemp III, 76, said he was “thrilled” by the donation. “It’s a beautiful thing,” he said.

Mr Kemp said his great-grandparents’ decision to help the Dongs fit with the family ethos of doing good deeds without fanfare.

“Given what I know about my great-grandparents through my grandmother, I don’t think this was something they thought much about,” Mr Kemp said. “It was exactly the right thing to do.”

The nature of the Dongs’ donation is all the more special to Mr. Kemp because he comes from a family of educators, including his wife, mother and many aunts. He said he didn’t have the temperament to teach himself, but for decades he represented teachers in private practice and as a staff attorney for a teachers union. His beloved grandmother and Gus and Emma Thompson’s daughter, Edyth, had also sent three girls to school in Los Angeles, he said.

“We could use more of that right now – the spirit of the Thompsons and the Dongs,” he said.

Tonika Green, San Diego State vice president for campus community affairs and professor, said in a statement that the donation This was previously reported by NBCwould be used for mentorship and career development programs.

“The Dong family will change lives with this gift,” said Dr. Green.

Mr. Ashley, the historian, said the donation was especially important amid efforts to cancel diversity and inclusion programs in the United States and discussions about reparations.

“A lot of people want us to forget the difficult history, right? It is easier to forget than to remember,” said Mr. Ashley. “And the Dongs say, ‘We won’t forget.’”

Kitty Bennett research contributed.

He has repeatedly accused three black prosecutors investigating him of “reverse racism.” He told a gathering of black Republicans that black people like him because he too has been charged by the criminal justice system. And he has suggested that black people recognize themselves in his mugshot.

There is a fundamental tension in Donald J. Trump’s efforts to sway black voters. He repeatedly traffics in stereotypes about black Americans, but he is counting on them and aggressively courting them to help him win back the White House in November.

His campaign is predicated on making modest gains among black voters — or moving some away from President Biden and toward a third-party or independent candidate like Cornel West or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and it’s part of his calculations for 2024. Public polls show him doing better with black voters than any Republican presidential candidate in decades.

According to data from the Pew Research Center, Trump currently receives nearly four times as much support from black voters in the polls than the 6 percent who actually voted for him in 2016. He is vying for victories in states with large cities with large black populations, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Winning margins are expected to be narrow in those four states, where Trump hopes to offset his potential weaknesses with independent voters and suburban women.

Still, to Democrats’ concern, Trump’s economic and cultural tone to black voters, whom he has often referred to as “the blacks,” has resonated early.

“The polls are coming and they’re saying, ‘Wait a minute, there must have been a mistake here.’ Black people really love Trump. There must have been a mistake,” Mr. Trump said last month at a Black Conservative Federation event, a preview of his message that the country — and the wallets of black voters — would have been better off when he was president.

Even if Mr. Trump converts few black voters to his side, he could simply benefit by depressing turnout among black voters for Mr. Biden. It was a core strategy for the Trump team in the 2016 general election against Hillary Clinton.

“I think the biggest threat to Biden’s ability to rebuild his 2020 coalition, which looked like the 2012 coalition, is not Donald Trump with black voters. It is frustration and cynicism that will lead to an outflow of third-party candidates. said Cornell Belcher, a pollster who worked for Barack Obama.

Even as Trump overwhelmingly lost black voters in 2020, he gained ground compared to 2016, according to exit polls. He performed stronger among black men, winning 19 percent; it was double its share among black women.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, accused Mr. Biden and his campaign of “trying to distract from the fact that Black Americans are turning their backs on their destructive policies,” and said that “President Trump, on the other hand, has policies for Black Americans,” including a criminal justice reform bill and funding for Black colleges and universities.

But Trump’s record is more complicated than it seems when he and his campaign try to sell it.

He signed a renewed funding bill for Black higher education institutions, which was passed by Congress. But while Mr. Trump signed a criminal justice reform bill and took credit for black unemployment, critics during his presidency say his pro-police rhetoric often undermined his work on criminal justice reform, and that he overestimated his role in the poor rule of law. unemployment rate. Other Trump policies undermined black Americans, including weakening a fair housing rule put in place by his predecessor, Mr. Obama.

Mr. Trump also has a long history of racist statements. In 2020, he echoed the words of a Miami police chief, saying, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” during Black Lives Matter protests over the killing of George Floyd. During an immigration meeting at the White House, he called African countries and Haiti “shithole countries.” He told congresswomen of color who were born in the United States to go back and own their country.

But Mr. Trump has secretly tried to limit the damage, while allies on the far right have stoked the idea that he and his political movement are racist.

In January, one of Trump’s closest allies, Charlie Kirk, a young conservative activist who founded Turning Point USA, sparked outrage when he questioned the qualifications of Black pilots, saying on his show: “I’m sorry if I’m a Black pilot , I’ll say, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.'” He had previously met Martin Luther King Jr. attacked and claimed on social media that a ‘myth has been created’ that has ‘got completely out of hand’. .”

Mr. Trump told several advisers and allies that he was unhappy with Mr. Kirk’s comments, according to people with direct knowledge of the remarks. Among those he complained to was Darrell C. Scott, a Cleveland pastor who is one of Trump’s most outspoken black supporters and who Kirk had labeled racist.

“We don’t need this,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Scott of Mr. Kirk’s comments, in a conversation described by a person familiar with what was said. “I want it to stop.”

Contacted to comment for this article, Mr. Scott initially denied speaking to Mr. Trump about Mr. Kirk. He later said he could neither confirm nor deny that such a conversation took place.

Mr. Trump spoke to Mr. Kirk himself about the issue at one of his golf courses, according to a person familiar with the matter. But it was unclear whether the former president, who often avoids direct interpersonal conflict, expressed this displeasure directly.

Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Mr Kirk, described it as “an impromptu meeting that lasted about 30 minutes” and said it was “a 10 out of 10 warm, friendly meeting between two old friends catching up.” He said they talked about vice presidential hopefuls and “things that really matter, not some contrived, non-controversy.”

Mr. Cheung did not directly answer questions about the meeting, but said it is time for Republicans to rally behind Mr. Trump.

Mr Biden’s team hoped to try to strengthen its own standing with black voters, with events in major cities and targeted radio ads. His advisers see investing in historically black colleges and universities, forgiving $138 billion in student loans and expanding Pell grants as concrete achievements to campaign for.

Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign’s communications director, said Mr. Trump’s policies had damaged black communities.

“He thinks celebrating his mugshot, making fun of his racist record and selling fake sneakers that no one would be caught dead in is his path to victory with black voters,” Tyler said. “But he is walking straight into a dead end of racist stupidity.”

Some Democratic pollsters say private polls show Trump has lower support among black voters than public polls.

And yet the polls make it clear that Trump has an opening. Polls show that Black voters, who have been hit hard by the post-pandemic period and by inflation, overwhelmingly disapprove of the way the economy is performing, and Democratic strategists acknowledge that younger Black voters in particular do not feel that Mr. Biden has consistently acted. about policies that have improved their lives.

Meanwhile, a super PAC supporting Mr. Trump has been running targeted ads on black radio stations in three swing states. The ads portray Mr. Biden as allowing a fentanyl crisis through his border policies and suggested Mr. Trump had delivered for Black voters.

Mr. Trump signed a criminal justice reform bill, the First Step Act, that was disliked by many Republican voters. As a result of the negative reactions, he had privately criticized it for years. Now his aides have told him it could be a political asset, and he’s starting to mention it in his rally speeches.

“President Trump is being proactive with the Black community when it is NOT an election season,” Mr. Scott, the Cleveland pastor, said in a text message, saying Mr. Trump had implemented measures that benefit Black voters came. At the Black Conservative Federation’s gala event, before a predominantly black audience, Mr. Trump explicitly tied his charges to the fact that he was receiving black support.

“That’s why black people are on my side so much now,” said Mr. Trump, who has been indicted four times. “Because they see what happens to me, happens to them. Does that make any sense?”

He joked about having trouble seeing familiar faces in the crowd, making light of his history of inflammatory statements about race. “The lights are so bright in my eyes that I can’t see that many people,” Trump said, to laughter from the audience. ‘But I can only see the black one. I don’t see any white ones, you see?’

As the crowd cheered, he added, “I’ve come this far. That’s a long way, isn’t it?

The crowd cheered again after he years ago ridiculed Mr. Obama about the costs of a proposed new Air Force One program.

“Would you rather have the black president or the white president who got a $1.7 billion cut?” he said, “I think they want the white man.”