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After weeks of nationwide protest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, another police killing has shifted the focal point of the Black Lives Matter movement to Atlanta. The family of Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old unarmed black man shot twice in the back by a white police officer last Friday, have demanded murder charges for the officer, Garrett Rolfe – and “drastic changes” to the Georgia city’s entire police department.
As Sam Levin reports from Los Angeles, years of incremental law enforcement reforms in cities across the US have largely failed to prevent widespread police violence, discriminatory conduct and killings, particularly of young black men and women. Advocates of defunding say the answer is not to toss out the “bad apples”, but to radically rethink policing, root and branch.
Tens of thousands marched for the rights of black transgender people on Sunday in cities across the US, to show support for a group at particular risk of violence, after two black trans women were killed in less than 24 hours last week.
Some 2,000 black people were lynched during Reconstruction
During the 12-year period known as Reconstruction, between the end of the civil war in 1865 and the collapse of federal efforts to protect the lives and voting rights of black Americans in 1876, supposedly freed slaves were lynched at a rate of almost one every two days.
A harrowing new report by the Equal Justice Initiative documents more than 2,000 such killings, to add to the 4,400 known lynching victims from the post-Reconstruction period up to 1950. The campaign of terror led by confederate veterans and former slave owners, writes Ed Pilkington, put paid “to the hope that emancipation offered millions of black people”.
The hanging of a 24-year-old black man in California will be closely investigated at the urging of community members, after the death of Robert Fuller was initially labeled a suicide.
Covid-19 can damage its victims’ lungs beyond recognition
People who have died with the coronavirus after more than a month in hospital suffered “complete disruption of the lung architecture,” a professor of cardiovascular science has told the British parliament, in further testimony to the uniquely harmful pathology of Covid-19. Imperial College London will this week begin clinical trials of a potential vaccine in 300 people.
In the US, the FDA has revoked its emergency authorisation for anti-malarial drugs touted by Donald Trump as Covid-19 treatments, amid growing evidence that they are ineffective and could cause serious side effects. California is continuing to reopen malls, museums and movie theatres, despite recording more than 2,000 new infections over the weekend.
New Zealand recorded its first new cases of coronavirus for 24 days after two women who entered the country from the UK were found to be infected.
Beijing has ramped up its lockdown measures in response to an “extremely severe” new outbreak of the disease in the Chinese capital.
Mexico’s most devout catholics are continuing to attend clandestine masses despite the country’s rising death toll and restrictions on religious gatherings.
A conservative justice just gave LGBTQ+ rights a big win
The US supreme court has delivered the biggest legal victory for LGBTQ+ rights since it upheld marriage equality in 2015, ruling that employers cannot fire or discriminate against LGBTQ+ workers on the basis of their sexual orientation. Confounding expectations, the Trump-appointed conservative justice Neil Gorsuch joined his liberal colleagues in the 6-3 ruling, and wrote the majority opinion. It’s a rare bit of good news for progressives, writes Moira Donegan:
The ruling signals a caution and unwillingness on the part of the court to move too quickly on a rollback of LGBT rights. It is particularly interesting that the majority opinion was issued by the arch-conservative Justice Gorsuch.
Gay rights and globalisation. As Mark Gevisser reports, great global strides have been made in attitudes towards sexual equality and gender identity in recent years. But in many places, such progress has been met with a fierce conservative backlash.
In other news…
The ex-cop accused of being the ‘Golden State Killer’ will plead guilty to avoid the death penalty, the LA Times reported on Monday. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, is charged with 13 murders dating back to the 1970s.
Trump is taking legal action to stop John Bolton’s book being published. The former national security adviser’s White House memoir is set for release on 23 June. His publisher, Simon & Schuster, is also behind a “harrowing and salacious” book about the president by his niece, Mary Trump, due to come out in August.
The rights of garment workers in Cambodia are being eroded during the pandemic, say labour rights activists, after a young woman was jailed for posting on Facebook about her employer’s decision to sack dozens of workers.
Six former senior eBay employees were charged with cyberstalking on Monday, over accusations that they waged an intimidation campaign against a couple who ran an online newsletter critical of the company – including sending live spiders and cockroaches to their home.
Great reads
Heat is killing more Americans than hurricanes
Rising temperatures are among the biggest public health threats in the US. In most recent years, deadly heat has claimed more American lives than hurricanes, tornadoes or floods. And the CDC’s prevention efforts have been woefully insufficient, as Columbia Journalism Investigations and the Center for Public Integrity found.
How Trump’s campaign of fear and loathing echoes 1968
Richard Nixon ran for president promising law and order against a backdrop of riots and assassinations. Trump is copying Nixon’s playbook amid the unrest of 2020. Ed Pilkington asks whether the parallels with 1968 are valid, and how deep they really run.
Opinion: Vogue won’t fix its race problem with a few black models
Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor, has apologised to black creators for failing to give them the space they merit in the magazine she has edited for three decades. But if Wintour really understood systemic racism, argues Priya Elan, she would already have made changes to the system.
The lack of evolved conversations around black and brown identity can be starkly felt around the fashion industry. Major brands are being called out for racism that is visible on the shop floor and systemic and coded.
Last Thing: the Premier League’s new rules
The English Premier League returns to action on Wednesday, with a new set of rules to go with the ones governing the game itself. Players cannot spit or surround match officials over a contentious decision. The stadiums will be empty, so they must direct their goal celebrations to a designated “celebration camera”. And they will all wear Black Lives Matter badges.
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