Wednesday,  June 17th, 2020

According to John Hopkins University, the death toll from COVID-19 in the United States has surpassed that of the casualties during the First World War. (CTV News)

Atlanta officer who killed Rayshard Brooks charged with murder  Garrett Rolfe, the former Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in a Wendy’s parking lot Friday evening, has been charged with felony murder and 10 other offenses, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. said Wednesday. Brooks, a 27-year-old man black man, was asleep in his car when Rolfe and another officer, Devin Brosnan, had him take a sobriety test. A scuffle ensued, and police said Brooks grabbed one of the officer’s nonlethal tasers before running away when Rolfe shot him twice in the back. Prosecutors also said Brooks “never presented himself as a threat” and that Rolfe kicked him after the shooting, an action Howard said suggests Rolfe wasn’t fearful of Brooks. Brosnan, meanwhile, has been charged on three counts. Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

GOP senators unveil police reform bill Republican senators, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), unveiled the party’s police reform bill Wednesday in response to nationwide protests against police brutality. The package incentivizes the restriction of tactics like chokeholds by withholding federal grants to localities that don’t comply with the policies. While this doesn’t outlaw chokeholds, Scott said it’s a de facto ban. No-knock warrants also aren’t banned in the bill, though Scott said it could be considered after collecting data on the issue. The bill requires states and local governments to collect relevant data annually, and tasks the Justice Department with developing training on alternative de-escalation methods for officers. The policy does not end qualified immunity for officers, which the White House reportedly considers a non-starter. Democrats have already expressed concerns the bill doesn’t go far enough. Source: The Washington Post

Tuesday,  June 16th, 2020

Beijing closes all schools, locks down several residential estates and imposes a partial travel ban, urging residents not to leave the city, after 27 more COVID-19 cases are confirmed in the city, bringing the total to 106 new cases in the last five days. The new outbreak is linked to the Xinfadi Market. (The Nations)

Brazil’s Ministry of Health reports a record 34,918 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,282 more deaths in the last 24 hours. Despite the record daily rise, Chief of Staff of the Presidency Walter Souza Braga Netto says the virus is now under control. (Reuters)

Russian investigators accuse Valery Mitko, President of Arctic Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and one of the country’s leading Arctic researchers, “of treason” after alleging that he gave a document containing state secrets to Chinese intelligence in early 2018 at China’s Dalian Maritime University, where he was a visiting professor. Mitko and his lawyer Ivan Pavlov deny any wrongdoing and say that all the materials were openly available. (CNN)

The End

Tuesday,  June 16th, 2020

Beijing closes all schools, locks down several residential estates and imposes a partial travel ban, urging residents not to leave the city, after 27 more COVID-19 cases are confirmed in the city, bringing the total to 106 new cases in the last five days. The new outbreak is linked to the Xinfadi Market. (The Nations)

Brazil’s Ministry of Health reports a record 34,918 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,282 more deaths in the last 24 hours. Despite the record daily rise, Chief of Staff of the Presidency Walter Souza Braga Netto says the virus is now under control. (Reuters)

6 states report record highs in new coronavirus infections Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas all reported on Tuesday record daily highs in the number of new coronavirus cases, with Arizona health officials reporting 2,392 new cases — nearly double the state’s previous record. All of the states except Nevada recorded all-time highs last week; Nevada’s previous high was reported on May 23. The numbers have been climbing as states have been reopening, and health officials attribute the spikes to businesses opening and people gathering for events on Memorial Day weekend. Hospitalizations are also surging or have reached record highs, and at the Tucson Medical Center in Arizona on Monday night, only one of the 20 beds set aside for COVID-19 patients was available. Source: Reuters

The total cases surpass eight million worldwide, as infections surge across the Americas and China grapples with fresh outbreaks. (RNZ)

U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order aimed at curtailing the use of police chokeholds, except in cases where “deadly force is allowed by law”. (CNBC)

Cheap, effective COVID-19 treatment has been found, researchers say Researchers say COVID-19 patients can be effectively treated with a cheap, widely available steroid called dexamethasone. On Tuesday, researchers in the U.K. announced they had found that the steroid treatment cuts the risk of death by a third for patients who are on ventilators, and by a fifth for patients receiving oxygen. There was no benefit to patients who did not require respiratory support, meaning the treatment should be focused on patients who are moderately to severely sick with COVID-19. Dexamethasone is already used to treat arthritis and asthma, among other conditions. Research suggests it could be used for patients in intensive care, while another drug, remdesivir, could also be used to reduce recovery time for less-severe patients. Source: BBC, Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding

Monday,  June 15th, 2020

Hundreds of French police are brought in as reinforcements to the city of Dijon, as over 150 Chechens from around France have gathered to avenge the alleged assault of a Chechen teenager by local drug dealers. During the violence, several people are reported injured and one person suffered gunshot wounds. (BBC)

The Fulton County medical examiner declares Rayshard Brooks’ death a homicide. Brooks was shot in the back by an Atlanta Police officer while fleeing from an attempted arrest for driving under the influence in which he stole an officer’s taser and fired it at him on June 12. (BBC)

Black Lives Matter activist Oluwatoyin Salau is found dead in Tallahassee, Florida, US, after going missing on June 6. Shortly before her disappearance, Salau tweeted that she had been sexually assaulted by a black man. Her death is currently being treated as a homicide. (CNN)

The End

Monday

1502 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.

1648 – Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1752 – Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity (traditional date, the exact date is unknown).

1844 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.

1878 – Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.

1944 – World War II: The United States invades Saipan, capital of Japan’s South Seas Mandate.

1972 – Red Army Faction co-founder Ulrike Meinhof is captured by police in Langenhagen.

Monday,  June 15th, 2020

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1271402812015104000

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-beijing-orders-wartime-mode-after-coronavirus-found-in-market-2020-6

9 states report record daily coronavirus infections  Nine states continued to report record numbers of new coronavirus infections over the weekend. Florida on Sunday reported its second straight day with more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases. Saturday’s total of 2,581 was a record for the Sunshine State, where the coronavirus outbreak is intensifying but authorities are opening more beaches. Alabama on Sunday reported a record number of new cases for the fourth straight day. Alaska, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and South Carolina also have reported daily infections hitting new highs in recent days, according to Reuters. Nationwide totals remained high, with the number of infections in the U.S. nearing 2.1 million with more than 115,000 deaths. Source: ABC News

The Fulton County medical examiner declares Rayshard Brooks’ death a homicide. Brooks was shot in the back by an Atlanta Police officer while fleeing from an attempted arrest for driving under the influence in which he took an officer’s taser and fired it at him on June 12. (BBC)

NYPD will disband its plainclothes anti-crime unit The New York City Police Departments’s plainclothes anti-crime unit, which has been disproportionately linked to officer-involved shootings within the force, will be disbanded and reassigned, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced Monday. About 600 officers work in the anti-crime unit, and will be reassigned to detective work and “community policing,” among other departments, Shea said. The move comes in direct response to ongoing protests against police brutality in the city, and widespread calls for reforming and rethinking policing across the U.S. Both Shea and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have been pressured to cut the NYPD’s budget amid the protests, but de Blasio has so far only introduced a series of reforms. Source: ABC News

The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its verdict in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. (BBC)

Florida reports two consecutive days of 2,000-plus new COVID-19 cases as more counties reopen their beaches. Miami’s mayor says this information does not include data from Memorial Day weekend and the George Floyd protests. (ABC News)

Poland’s Ministry of National Defence admits its army briefly invaded and occupied the Czech Republic for several days last month in a “misunderstanding”, the Polish soldiers took up positions near a chapel on the Czech side of the border in Moravia as part of coronavirus measures, and prevented Czech visitors from the site. (BBC)

The End