Sunday,  May 31st, 2020

Supreme Court rejects church’s challenge to California’s religious services restrictions  In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a California church’s challenge to the state’s limits on attendance for religious services during the coronavirus pandemic. For now, California can enforce the rules as a public health measure. The court was split on ideological lines with Chief Justice John Roberts, who often serves as the swing vote, siding with the liberal faction. In the ruling, Roberts wrote that “the precise question when restrictions” should be lifted during the pandemic “is a dynamic and fact-intensive matter subject to reasonable disagreement” and the “Constitution principally entrusts ‘the safety and the health of the people ‘ to the politically accountable officials of the states.” Source:  The Los Angeles Times

Merkel turns down Trump’s G-7 invitation  German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday turned down President Trump’s invitation to attend the Group of Seven summit in person because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. The White House has said the summit will go forward in late June in Washington, D.C., rather than at Camp David as previously planned. “As of today, considering the overall pandemic situation, [Merkel] cannot agree to her personal participation,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told Politico. The chancellor will reportedly continue to monitor the coronavirus situation, however. Trump and Merkel haven’t always seen eye to eye, and the leaders reportedly had heated disagreements over NATO, China, and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline during a phone call last week, though it’s unclear if that conversation had any bearing on Merkel’s decision about the summit. Source: Politico

Russian President Vladimir Putin announces the adoption of a new package of measures to support the Russian economy and citizens in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. This payment does not cancel but supplements the previously introduce support measures. Additionally, Putin proposed to establish a monthly payment of 5 thousand rubles for families with children under three years of age. (RT)

Kellie Chauvin, wife of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, files for divorce. (The West Australian)

A Federal Protective Service officer is killed and another injured in an overnight drive-by shooting outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland, California, amid protests over the death of George Floyd five days prior. (NBC News)

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti implements an 8:00 PM curfew meant to prevent a second night of riots. (KTLA)

Protests against police brutality escalate nationwide  Protesters gathered in several cities across the U.S. on Friday night to demonstrate against police brutality and institutional racism. Protests in Brooklyn, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; San Jose, California; Washington, D.C.; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, started peacefully, with attendees demanding justice in the case of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis after a police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes on Monday. Some protesters clashed with police — in Brooklyn, where a heavy police presence awaited protesters, officers reportedly used tear gas on crowds, meanwhile in Atlanta, a police car was reportedly set on fire. In San Jose, protesters blocked freeway traffic; and in D.C., the White House was briefly on lockdown as demonstrators arrived in the area. Source: CNN

Hundreds of Minnesota National Guard are deployed in Minneapolis to enforce a night curfew, after Mayor Jacob Frey declared a state of local emergency amid civil unrest, but rioting and arson fires continue. (Star Tribune)

In Detroit, police use tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesters and make several arrests, including one person who drove their car at a police officer. A man killed near the protest may be an unrelated targeted murder. (Detroit Free Press)

In Houston, at least 137 people are arrested, eight police officers are hospitalized, and 16 police vehicles are vandalized in a riot. (KHOU)

Several other protests against police brutality and systemic racism take place in large cities across the United States, some of which included arson, vandalism, and looting. (CNN)

The End 

Saturday,  May 30th, 2020

Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, who was recorded on video kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for several minutes and eventually causing his death, is taken into custody by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and charged with third-degree murder and second degree manslaughter. (KSTP)

Hundreds of Minnesota National Guard officers are deployed in Minneapolis–Saint Paul to enforce a night curfew, after Mayor Jacob Frey declared a state of local emergency amid civil unrest. (Star Tribune)

Protesters vandalize the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, while several Atlanta Police Department vehicles are attacked and set on fire as protests spread. Seven people are reportedly arrested. (Newsweek)

Several other mostly peaceful protests against police brutality and systemic racism take place in large cities across the United States. (CNN)

U.S. President Donald Trump says he is terminating the country’s relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the WHO has become a “puppet of China” and that American funding will be redirected to “other global public health needs”. (Reuters)

Protests against police brutality escalate nationwide  Protesters gathered in several cities across the U.S. on Friday night to demonstrate against police brutality and institutional racism. Protests in Brooklyn, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; San Jose, California; Washington, D.C.; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, started peacefully, with attendees demanding justice in the case of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis after a police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes on Monday. Some protesters clashed with police — in Brooklyn, where a heavy police presence awaited protesters, officers reportedly used tear gas on crowds, meanwhile in Atlanta, a police car was reportedly set on fire. In San Jose, protesters blocked freeway traffic; and in D.C., the White House was briefly on lockdown as demonstrators arrived in the area. The National Guard sought to enforce a curfew in Minneapolis. Source: CNN

Twitter labels Trump tweets about looting and shooting as ‘glorifying violence’  President Trump tweeted Friday that he “can’t stand back” and watch as protests in Minneapolis against the police killing of George Floyd bleed into looting and arson. Trump threatened to send in the National Guard, which Gov. Tim Walz (D) had activated Thursday, adding: “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. … Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” Twitter added a warning to that second tweet stating it “violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence,” but left it up because “it may be in the public’s interest for the tweet to remain accessible.” The official White House Twitter account later quoted and posted the tweet. Trump signed an executive order on Thursday “challenging the liability protections that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech on the internet,” The Associated Press writes. The move comes after Twitter labeled two of Trump’s tweets on mail-in ballots as misleading. Source:  Axios

Consumer spending dropped record 13.6 percent in April  On Friday, the government reported that consumer spending in April plunged 13.6 percent from the month prior, which Bloomberg says is “the sharpest drop in Commerce Department records back to 1959.” Meanwhile, the personal savings rate, which describes the amount of a person’s disposable income that they are putting into savings, hit 33 percent in April, “by far the highest since the department started tracking in the 1960’s, and [surpassing the] consumer savings during the Global Financial Crisis,” CNBC reports. The high personal savings rate, combined with the extremely low consumer spending, reflects Americans’ jitters about spending money during the pandemic. Personal income, meanwhile, rose 10.5 percent in April, a record boost due to the federal stimulus payments and unemployment benefits, while economists had expected a decrease of 2.1 percent. Source: Bloomberg

A Minneapolis Police Department station is abandoned by police after being overran by protesters and is then looted and set on fire. An MPD spokesman confirmed the Third Precinct building had been evacuated “in the interest of the safety of our personnel”. (Politico)

The End

 

Friday, May 29th, 2020

The death toll from COVID-19 in the United States now exceeds 100,000. (CNN)

A manhunt is launched after hundreds of people, some with COVID-19, escape from quarantine centers in Zimbabwe and Malawi, with authorities worried that they will spread COVID-19 in countries whose health systems can be rapidly overwhelmed. (AP News)

More than 40 million Americans filed unemployment claims in 10 weeks  The Labor Department on Thursday said another 2.1 million initial unemployment claims were filed last week, which brings the total over 10 weeks to 40.7 million. This was the tenth week in a row that weekly unemployment claims totaled more than one million. Prior to the coronavirus crisis, weekly unemployment claims had never passed one million before; the record was 695,000. The number of first-time claims has, however, declined for the past eight weeks. This unfortunate milestone comes less than 24 hours after another grim milestone, as on Wednesday, the United States hit 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths. The U.S. unemployment rate in April reached 14.7 percent, the worst since the Great Depression. Source:  NBC News

America passes a grim milestone: 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths  The United States on Wednesday surpassed 100,000 reported deaths from COVID-19. The grim milestone comes after the U.S. passed 50,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths on April 24. In March, the White House had warned that the U.S. might be facing between 100,000 and 200,000 coronavirus deaths even if Americans did everything “almost perfectly,” as Dr. Deborah Birx said, although President Trump in April suggested the death toll could be between 50,000 and 60,000. Later, Trump said “we’re going to lose” up to 100,000 people total. Reported cases and hospitalizations are still on the upswing in many states. Every U.S. state has now begun the process of reopening their economies, even as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country stands at over 1.6 million. Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center

Minnesota governor activates National Guard as protests continue over death of George Floyd  As demonstrators continue to protest the death of George Floyd, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Thursday declared a state of emergency in Minneapolis and St. Paul and activated the Minnesota National Guard. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on Monday after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Protesters have filled the streets of Minneapolis, demanding justice for Floyd and calling on authorities to arrest the officer, who was fired on Tuesday. On Wednesday night, the peaceful protests turned chaotic, with about 30 buildings set on fire and others damaged. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds, and some protesters threw bricks and bottles at squad cars. Walz said in a statement Floyd’s death “should lead to justice and systemic change, not more death and destruction.” Source: Star Tribune

Protests continue for a second day in Minneapolis and two other U.S. cities after an unarmed man, George Floyd, died while being arrested. Some of them have escalated into a riot, including looting and arson. A protester is shot dead by a man, who has been arrested. (CNN)

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