🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️NewsHero | 'One-person pickets' arrested in Moscow; China, others criticize US attack on WHO; Biden meets with demonstrators, black leaders; Protests over George Floyd death reach far
🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️NewsHero | June 1, 2020 - Issue 110
Welcome to today’s free edition of NewsHero for June 1, 2020.
Going forward, Monday editions will be available to all readers—free of charge, while the remainder of the week’s newsletters will be available to subscribers only.
At NewsHero we put the heroes in the headlines and give them the attention that they deserve. Our coverage puts the focus on those who are helping, over those causing harm. Here you’ll find the same top-priority issues, but you won’t find clickbait, and what you read won’t be driven by ad sales.
Dawid Mycek and Jakub Kwiecinski wear rainbow-patterned face masks on a street in Gdansk, Poland on April 8, 2020. (David Mycek and Jakub Kwiecinski/via Reuters)
NewsHero Notes
LGBTQ advocates - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Today, June 1, kicks off Pride month in the U.S. And while restrictions on public gatherings remain in place amid the coronavirus pandemic, Allison Hope says in an op-ed piece for CNN that “…Pride is a feeling, not merely a parade. It is a long-fought, hard-earned prize produced by a community and the momentum we have created together.”
SpaceX, NASA - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
SpaceX delivered two astronauts—test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken—to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, in yet another first for Elon Musk’s company, AP News reports. “The whole world saw this mission, and we are so, so proud of everything you have done for our country and, in fact, to inspire the world,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a call from Mission Control in Houston.
Police officers detain Russian photographer Victoria Ivleva, center, during a solo picket in support of journalist and activist Ilya Azar outside the Moscow police headquarters in Moscow, May 28, 2020.
Afternoon Brief
Demonstrators in Moscow - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Demonstrators who were holding one-person pickets outside the headquarters of Russia’s main criminal investigative agency were detained on Sunday by Moscow police, reports the Associated Press.
The OVD-Info organization that monitors political arrests says at least seven people were detained and some of them were charged with violating the prohibition on holding public events during the coronavirus lockdown.
Ilya Azar, a 35-year-old local legislator and journalist was sentenced on May 25 after being found guilty of repeatedly violating Russia's strict protest laws, reports VOA.
Calling Azar's detention a “cowardly act,” Amnesty International accused the authorities of “crushing activism and impinging on human rights to silence critics.”
“In the midst of a global pandemic, the government is enforcing muzzles instead of protective masks, and solely for its own protection,” Natalia Zviagina, the London-based watchdog's Russia director, said in a statement.
WHO supporters - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
In opinion piece for PassBlue, independent coverage of the U.N., Barbara Crossette following news as Donald Trump intends to sever ties between the U.S. and the World Health Organization, it’s the U.S. that will be the victim.
“Until now, the U.S. government and its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been leaders in global public health, and direct threats to the WHO, crowned by the precipitous withdrawal from the organization, were stunning and worrying,” writes Crossette.
Hajer Naili writes in an op-ed for CNN: “By not giving the WHO time to consider some improvements, Trump demonstrates bad faith and a desire to scapegoat an international organization. His feud with the WHO is yet another diversion, aimed at distracting the American public from his catastrophic failures to prevent more than 100,000 Covid-related deaths in the United States.”
China said today the U.S. was “addicted to quitting” following its decision to leave the WHO and said the withdrawal reveals a pursuit of power politics and unilateralism., reports Reuters.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters during a daily briefing that the international community disagreed with what he described as the selfish behavior of the United States. “The U.S. has become addicted to quitting groups and scrapping treaties,” said Zhao.
Five coronavirus-related items worth a look:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will resume its regular briefings on COVID-19 following a three-month hiatus during which the nation's top health agency became less visible in an unprecedented crisis, states CNN.
In “Elevating the Voice of Science amid COVID-19,” Science editor-in-chief Holden Thorp is featured in conversation with Xiao-Wei Wang for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Thorp is a 1991 Packard fellow.
An ER doctor has filed a lawsuit to get his job back at St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Wash. He was fired in late March after criticizing his hospital’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, says NPR. “This is about people on the front line being given the opportunity to speak out without being terminated and being reprimanded,” says Dr. Ming Lin.
A report from Slate details the U.S. Supreme Court Friday night rejecting a church’s challenge to California’s COVID-19 restrictions, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with liberal judges in a 5-4 decision. “Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent, by contrast, falsely accused the state of religious discrimination in an extremely misleading opinion that omits the most important facts of the case. Roberts went out of his way to scold Kavanaugh’s dishonest vilification of the state,” the report says.
The latest edition of the Corona Daily newsletter, “‘I can't breathe’ but it is not from COVID-19,” links to an updated “U.S. states reopening risk map,” and highlights a report from The Hill: “Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the ‘underlying problems’ of racial inequity in the U.S. need to be addressed in order to stop the coronavirus pandemic which is impacting communities of color at disproportionate rates.”
Biden Meets With Del. Protesters, City Mayors, Black Leaders
‘Open season on the free press’—journalists covering protests are targeted
A boy holds a sign during a protest in downtown Los Angeles, Friday, May 29, 2020, over the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa)
Protests continue throughout the U.S. and across the world following the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for several minutes on May 25. That officer has been arrested and charged with murder.
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday met with protesters at a site in Wilmington, Del., his home state, reports Politico. “We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us,” Biden wrote on Instagram.
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, met today with black leaders in Delaware and later joined a virtual meeting with big-city mayors who are grappling with racial tensions and frustrated by a lack of federal support, reports AP News.
“Hate just hides. It doesn’t go away, and when you have somebody in power who breathes oxygen into the hate under the rocks, it comes out from under the rocks,” Biden told more than a dozen African American leaders gathered at a church in downtown Wilmington, his face mask lowered around his chin as he spoke.
Reporters across the nation are facing assault and arrest while reporting on widespread protests and unrest, says CNN. At least a half dozen different incidents were reported on Friday, starting with the wrongful arrest of a CNN crew in Minneapolis.
Following the arrest of the CNN crew, an apologetic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz promised that journalists would not be interfered with in reporting on violent protests following the death of George Floyd, reports AP News. “We have got to ensure that there is a safe spot for journalism to tell this story,” Walz said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued its CPJ Safety Advisory on covering U.S. protests over police violence, which provides a list of risks that journalists need to consider when on the job.
“Open season on the free press: Journalists targeted in attacks as U.S. protests rage,” reads a Reuters headline from Sunday. “The numerous, targeted attacks that journalists reporting on protests across the country have faced from law enforcement over the last two nights are both reprehensible and clear violations of the First Amendment,” said Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo spoke to CNN’s Sara Sidner at the scene where George Floyd was killed while in police custody. “This was a violation of humanity,” Arradondo said.
“Since the beginning of 2015, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department have rendered people unconscious with neck restraints 44 times, according to an NBC News analysis of police records. Several police experts said that number appears to be unusually high.”
Rylie Blue holds a sign during a Black Lives Matter march and rally Sunday, May 31, 2020, in Oshkosh, Wis. (William Glasheen/The Post-Crescent via AP)
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on Sunday that two police officers have been fired and three others placed on desk duty over excessive use of force during a protest arrest incident involving two college students, AP News reports. “Use of excessive force is never acceptable,” Bottoms told reporters. Police Chief Erika Shields called the footage “really shocking to watch.”
In a bystander’s video posted to Twitter, Houston Chief of Police Art Acevedo is seen speaking to a crowd about police support for demonstrators and the importance of remaining peaceful.
A Michigan sheriff joined protesters in Flint Township on Saturday, putting down his weapon and saying, “I want to make this a parade, not a protest,” reports CNN. Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson spoke with demonstrators who were met by police officers in riot gear, local affiliate WEYI reported. “The only reason we're here is to make sure that you got a voice—that's it,” Swanson said in video clips shown on Twitter.
Val Demings, a Democrat who represents Florida’s 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, writes in a piece for The Washington Post: “As a former woman in blue, let me begin with my brothers and sisters in blue: What in the hell are you doing?”
Looking to defuse anger after gunfire wounded at least seven people at a protest in Louisville, the mother of a black woman killed by police urged protesters Friday to continue demanding justice but do so “without hurting each other,” AP News reports. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear read the statement from Breonna Taylor’s mother hours after gunshots erupted during protests late Thursday outside City Hall. One person was in critical condition, Louisville Metro Police said Friday.
An officer in Louisville, Kentucky, (left) was protected by a human shield during a protest over the death of Breonna Taylor
Sources:
Pride is a feeling, not a parade (opinion) - CNN
SpaceX's historic encore: Astronauts arrive at space station - AP News
Trump Quits the World Health Organization. The Victim Is the United States. - PassBlue
China says U.S. 'addicted to quitting' over plan to withdraw from WHO - Reuters
The real cost of Trump's WHO pullout (opinion) - CNN
Russian Journalist Gets 15 Days in Jail for Violating Protest Laws - VOA
Protesting lawyers detained in Moscow for violating lockdown - AP News
CDC to resume coronavirus briefings after being sidelined by White House - CNNPolitics
Elevating the Voice of Science amid COVID-19 – A Conversation with Science Editor-in-Chief and 1991 Packard Fellow, Holden Thorp - The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
An ER Doctor Lost His Job After Criticizing His Hospital On COVID-19. Now He's Suing - NPR Roberts Upholds COVID-19 Restrictions on Churches, Scolds Kavanaugh - Slate
"I can't breathe" but it is not from COVID-19 - Corona Daily
Biden visits protest site in Delaware - Politico
Biden meets with black leaders at local church amid unrest - AP News
Joe Biden - Instagram
Minneapolis police chief on George Floyd killing: This was a violation of humanity - CNN Video
CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering U.S. protests over police violence - Committee to Protect Journalists
Journalists covering protests across the country are facing assault and arrest while doing their jobs - CNN
Open season on the free press: Journalists targeted in attacks as U.S. protests rage - Reuters
Minnesota governor apologizes for arrest of CNN crew - AP News
Europe George Floyd protests: Demonstrators gather in London, Berlin, Toronto - The Washington Post
Atlanta mayor: 2 officers fired in 'excessive force' arrests - AP News
Minneapolis police rendered 44 people unconscious with neck restraints in five years - NBC News
Art Acevedo, Houston Chief of Police video via Twitter
A sheriff put down his baton to listen to protesters. They chanted 'walk with us,' so he did - CNN
Mother of Louisville police shooting victim calls for peace - AP News
Val Demings: My fellow brothers and sisters in blue, what the hell are you doing? - The Washington Post