Important | 1 | | Ten days after the death of George Floyd, mourners gathered for his memorial in Minneapolis, standing in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time he was pinned down by police. Protests continued too, as did police violence: Two officers in Buffalo, New York, were suspended after journalists captured video of them shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground, though they initially claimed he tripped. Meanwhile, the death of Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man who died in Tacoma, Washington, police custody in March, has been ruled a homicide. His last words, like Floyd’s, were “I can’t breathe.” | |
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| 2 | | A Georgia judge has ruled that all three defendants in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery — an unarmed Black jogger whose death was captured on video by one of the men charged — will stand trial for murder. Father and son Travis and Greg McMichael, who pursued and attacked Arbery, as well as William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed the assault, will attend the trial by videoconference from their cells due to coronavirus safety measures. Bryan has maintained he was merely a bystander, while the McMichaels claim they were acting in self-defense. OZY explores some possible solutions to racist violence. | |
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| 3 | | Entities based in Iran and China have attempted to hack email accounts of campaign staffers for both President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, according to Google’s Threat Analysis Group. While no attempts were known to be successful, this adds to a growing series of claims about campaign hacking — a key issue after the 2016 election, when Russian groups stole Democratic campaign emails and posted them online. Experts say this may not be an attempt to sway the election, but to learn more about potential foreign policy priorities. Here’s why U.S. elections are so vulnerable to hacking. | |
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| 4 | | What’s that saying about crisis and opportunity? Andrew Bailey and François Villeroy de Galhau, governors of the central banks of England and France respectively, wrote a Guardianeditorial today warning countries that rebuilding after coronavirus must be done with climate change in mind. They encouraged officials to “build back better,” focusing on renewable energy rather than falling into old patterns that are already causing climate emergencies around the globe. Central banks have increasingly been factoring climate change in as a rising economic emergency. | |
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| 5 | | A man arrested by Mexican police for not wearing a face mask was found beaten to death hours later. The Texas GOP is calling for the resignation of a Republican official who suggested George Floyd’s death was staged. And Spanish porn star Nacho Vidal has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a man who ingested hallucinogenic toad venom. Try this: Feeling presidential after a week of briefings? Prove it with the PDB Quiz. Join the conversation: We’ve been so blown away by the power of the response we’ve seen from OZY subscribers who wrote in with their feelings, thoughts, ideas and critiques surrounding George Floyd’s murder, the subsequent protests and conversations, and the letter from OZY co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Carlos Watson about our next steps. In order to amplify some of your voices and continue the conversation, we have joined with our friends at the History Channel to create a special prime-time town hall discussion featuring thought leaders from the NAACP, popular culture and beyond — as well as several of you, OZY subscribers. The discussion will be airing at 8 p.m. ET on Monday, June 8 on HISTORY. Be sure to tune in to We Need to Talk: Race in America on Monday — and join the conversation by emailing us or weighing in on social media. |
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| Intriguing | 1 | | Prognosis: Yikes. On May 22, British medical journal The Lancet published a Harvard study that found not only does the malaria drug not help treat COVID-19, it’s associated with higher mortality rates. Alarmed, the World Health Organization paused trials of the drug. But now the journal has retracted the study at the request of three of its authors, who expressed concerns about the quality of the data — and Surgisphere, the company that provided it, has refused to transfer the full dataset. The retraction could fuel supporters of hydroxychloroquine like President Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. | |
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| 2 | | Is it too little, too late? After Facebook came under fire for enabling foreign misinformation ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, it’s now slapping labels on what it deems state-controlled media, like Russia Today and Iran’s Press TV. It’s unlikely to curb criticism lobbed at the platform internally and externally for refusing to label President Trump’s misleading or violent posts as Twitter is now doing. State-controlled outlets will eventually also be banned from buying Facebook ads in the U.S., though they’ll have the opportunity to appeal. OZY collects the tweeted story of the George Floyd protests. | |
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| 3 | | As widespread protests against police brutality call attention to racial inequality and violence in the U.S., people around the world are joining sympathetic protests — and other governments are using the moment to their advantage, OZY reports. It’s allowed officials in China and Turkey to denounce the inhumane treatment of George Floyd and dismiss U.S. criticism of human rights abuses abroad as hypocritical. And President Trump’s response to the protests has largely alienated him from European governments normally sympathetic to the U.S., which could leave America out on a limb by itself. | |
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| 4 | | The rapper known for off-the-wall statements has stayed quiet about the death of George Floyd. But his representative has now revealed that West has been putting his money where his mouth isn’t with $2 million in donations, plus creating a college fund for Floyd’s six-year-old daughter, Gianna. He’s also paying legal costs for the families of Ahmaud Arbery, who was chased and killed by white men while jogging, and Breonna Taylor, who was shot by police in her home. West has also pledged to contribute to Chicago-area Black-owned businesses. Read OZY on the voices who are resetting America. | |
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| 5 | | “I stand against racism 100 percent.” That’s what rookie Buffalo Bills quarterback Jake Fromm said yesterday after screenshots of a 2019 text conversation were posted online in which he joked that guns should be “very expensive so only elite white people can get them.” Fromm insisted in his tweeted apology that he did not mean to imply that he himself was an “elite white person.” In a statement, the Bills condemned Fromm’s words and said they’ll work with him to move forward. Meanwhile, Saints QB Drew Brees issued an apology yesterday for comments about protesters disrespecting the American flag. | |
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| caught up? now vault ahead ... | To get more fresh stories and bold ideas in your inbox, check out The Daily Dose. | | News + Politics What did two Hong Kong legislators do Thursday to protest new restrictions on free expression? | READ NOW |
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