Biden met with Mossad director in D.C. to discuss Iran
01 May 2021
President Biden met on Friday with the director of Israel's spy agency Mossad, Yossi Cohen, and discussed Iran, a source familiar with the details tells Axios.
Worth noting: The White House kept the meeting, first reported by Channel 12 news in Israel, a secret and didn't issue a statement.
- The White House has not yet responded to questions about the talks.
Driving the news: Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday morning about the Mount Meron stampede. It was unclear whether the meeting with Cohen took place before or after that call.
- A source familiar with the meeting said it wasn't planned in advance and was organized on short notice while Cohen was in Washington, D.C. for other purposes.
- Netanyahu briefed Cohen before the conversation with Biden on messaging regarding Iran and received an update from him after the meeting, the source said.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.