UPDATE | Biden says Chauvin's guilty verdict is a 'step forward'

MORE | 'We are a blessed country': Nikki Haley praises jury in Derek Chauvin trial.

UPDATE | Federal civil rights investigation into death of George Floyd is ongoing, AG Garland says.

And back to the possible restoration of the JCPOA.

Looks like one does not simply return to the 2015 nuclear deal, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared on Tuesday that the US and Iran could reach an agreement soon, as long as American negotiators proceed with “honesty” for the duration of the ongoing talks.

🚓 Burt Colucci, leader of the NSM - one of the largest Neo-Nazi groups in the US, was arrested in Chandler, Arizona on a charge of aggravated assault, two days after a rally in Arizona.

According to an alleged victim and an independent third-party witness, Colucci pointed his handgun at the individual, although Colucci claimed that he drew his handgun "to a low ready position" after the other men mentioned that they were in possession of weapons.

🔥 The iconic Domino Sugar factory in Baltimore's Inner Harbor caught fire on Tuesday, causing the roof of the storage area to collapse in upon itself.

All factory employees were evacuated, and no injuries or deaths among fire services has been reported.

However, it's obviously not the best event to mark the company's 120th anniversary.

❗️A '15-year-old' black girl, Makiyah Bryant, was shot and killed by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio, just after the announcement of the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial over the death of George Floyd.

Following the news of the tragic incident, locals gathered in downtown Columbus and near the CPD headquarters, demanding that the police and the mayor release the bodycam footage.

Andrew Ginther, the mayor of Columbus, urged residents to remain calm and announced that there would be "an independent investigation" into the shooting by the Columbus Police Department in which "a young woman tragically lost her life".

UPDATE | Columbus Police Department releases body camera footage of Makiyah Bryant shooting by police.

During a Tuesday news conference on Chauvin's conviction, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took a moment to look up at the sky and thank George Floyd...for his death.

"Thank you George Floyd for sacrificing your life for justice," she said on Tuesday, as lawmakers around her nodded in agreement.

The bizarre statement caused her to trend on social media almost immediately with netizens giving her the side-eye.

🤨 The Las Vegas Raiders football team received a backlash after its official Twitter account posted a picture, saying “I can breathe” just hours after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder in the death of George Floyd

Read more: https://sptnkne.ws/FZGm

🚀 Russia may transfer responsibility for its ISS segment to the United States after 2025; the negotiations have already started, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said

#URGENT | Moscow calls on Kiev, NATO to refrain from actions that could lead to further escalation in Donbass

#BREAKING | Russia will find a way to protect its interests if other countries refuse dialogue, Putin says.

The president's remarks come amid a new round of tensions between Russia and the West, including fresh sanctions against Moscow by Washington.

UPDATE | Moscow will find "asymmetric," speedy and tough ways to defend its national interests if other nations refuse dialogue, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said

MORE | "Russia will have the patience and professionalism for any retaliatory measures," the president said.

He warned all countries against crossing red lines in relations with Russia.

"The organisers of any provocations against Russia will regret it, as they have not regretted anything for a long time," Putin added.

❗️Russian Foreign Ministry summons Deputy Head of US Embassy

Catch up on our latest updates:

▪️ Former President Bush blasts GOP under Trump as ‘nativist’, urges ‘let’s open up the borders’

▪️ US House of Representatives votes to reject resolution to censure Maxine Waters

▪️Two hurt, one seriously, in ‘aviation mishap’ at US Army’s helicopter training base

▪️ Simon & Schuster decides to carry on with publishing Mike Pence's book despite staff pushback

▪️ Arizona Governor Doug Ducey deploys National Guard to southern border

🛫 Russia handed over to Bart Gorman, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Moscow, a note declaring 10 embassy's employees personae non gratae, they must leave Russia by the end of the day on 21 May, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that this measure is a mirror response to "the hostile actions of the US side against a number of employees of the Russian Embassy in Washington and the Russian Consulate General in New York, who were unfoundedly declared personae non gratae."

🏛 House Democrats have proposed legislation to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court. Given the Democrats' control of the White House and Senate, the move could allow the party to supersede the court's current conservative majority by "packing" it with liberal justices.

Sputnik spoke with Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor emeritus and Trump impeachment-defence veteran, on the Supreme Court’s status and the potential consequences of the reform for the two-party system in the US.

Click on the link to find out more: https://sptnkne.ws/Gafx

👨‍⚖️ Alan Dershowitz, the veteran celebrity lawyer who defended former President Donald Trump during his impeachment trials, and famously assisted the defence team in the 1995 OJ Simpson murder trial, has lashed out against California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, accusing her of using tactics from the Ku Klux Klan playbook to try to “intimidate” the Chauvin jury.

“The judge should have granted the motion for a mistrial based on the efforts of Congresswoman Waters to influence the jury. Her message was clearly intended to get to the jury. ‘If you acquit, or if you find the charge less than murder, we will burn down your buildings, we will burn down your businesses,’” Dershowitz said, speaking to conservative television network Newsmax TV.

“It’s borrowed precisely from the Ku Klux Klan of the 1930s and the 1920s, when the Klan would march outside of courthouses and threaten all kinds of reprisals if the jury ever dared convict a white person or acquit a black person,” Dershowitz alleged

❗️ URGENT | Blinken: White House working with Congress to provide $300mln in civilian aid to Afghanistan.

As the US prepares to withdraw the last of its troops from the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the Biden administration would work with Congress to send the Central Asian country additional financial aid