Minneapolis authorities yesterday charged three former police officers who stood by as Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin’s charge was increased to second-degree murder, and his colleagues stand accused of aiding and abetting the killing. Mostly peaceful protests continued throughout the nation Wednesday, amid calls from conservatives to respond aggressively against demonstrators President Donald Trump described as “killers,” “thugs” and “hoodlums.” Meanwhile, sympathetic protests continued around the world. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asked about Trump’s use of force, went viral with a 21-second pause before expressing “horror and consternation.”

Former defense secretary and retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis delivered a stinging rebuke of President Trump, saying his ex-boss ordered troops to “violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens.” Writing in The Atlantic, Mattis was addressing Monday’s move to violently clear peaceful protesters so Trump could pose with a Bible in front of a nearby church. The president responded by tweeting, “Glad he is gone!” But Mattis’ successor, Mark Esper, said yesterday that he opposed Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy soldiers against the protesters.

Join OZY in responding to the crisis over inequality and police brutality.

The victors write history. Every year since Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, people in Hong Kong have been allowed to commemorate the date — until now. For the first time, territorial authorities deployed 3,000 police to stop today’s vigil, citing the coronavirus outbreak. But pro-democracy lawmakers threw a foul-smelling liquid in Hong Kong’s legislature, which was debating a law against disrespecting the national anthem, saying, “A murderous state stinks forever.” Meanwhile, two of the city’s biggest banks have expressed support for Beijing’s proposed security legislation, widely seen as the end of Hongkongers’ right to free expression.

It’s just a single poll, but what Quinnipiac University found is remarkable: Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and President Trump are in a virtual tie in Texas, the beating GOP heart of the country. As the nation reels from competing crises, Trump’s own reelection campaign’s surveys are reportedly far from reassuring, showing states he won easily in 2016, like Ohio and Iowa, as being highly competitive in November. Other polls show Biden leading in Republican-leaning states like Florida and Arizona. Asked about the numbers, Trump cited “other polls where I’m winning,” but didn’t name them.

OZY looks at a voter turnout champ.

Authorities in Wuhan, China, say they’ve tested all 10 million inhabitants and found only 300 coronavirus infections. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared an emergency after 20,000 tons of diesel oil spilled from a power plant into a river within the Arctic Circle. And the Los Angeles City Council is proposing shifting up to $150 million from the city’s police budget to programs to “uplift disenfranchised communities.”

Coronavirus update: Despite registering a record daily death toll of 1,349, Brazil is pressing ahead with plans to loosen restrictions.

Did you know? A law meant to control women unexpectedly gave birth to a woman’s right to choose. Poorly written laws often have unintended consequences — none more than Connecticut’s 1879 anti-contraception law. Learn more about such unforeseen fallout by subscribing to Flashback, OZY’s chart-topping new history podcast.

The South is falling again. Today Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to announce plans to take down Richmond’s prominent statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which had survived recent years’ efforts against Confederate monuments. Anti-racism protesters have targeted the memorial as a symbol of “hate and oppression” for glorifying the South’s history of slavery. Yesterday Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced plans to remove other Confederate statues on city land, including monuments to Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson. He noted that times have changed and the city is now “filled with diversity and love for all.”

We’ve been here before. The current upheaval in America’s cities is unusual, but it’s not without precedent. The country’s civil and human rights timeline is punctuated with “significant flash points that have helped define American history,” notes Sean Braswell, host of OZY’s chart-topping Flashback podcast. That includes John Brown’s 1859 Harper’s Ferry uprising that helped spark the Civil War and end slavery. The Red Summer of 1919 saw 26 cities erupt in race riots and lynchings, and 1967’s Long, Hot Summer in 150 cities grew from many of the grievances, like police brutality and inequality, that echo in today’s nationwide protests.

What they didn’t know could hurt them. A class action lawsuit filed in a California federal court Tuesday alleges Google misled users into thinking their “Incognito mode” browsing was private. Along with openly collecting users’ shopping, dining and entertainment preferences, they claim the company also keeps embarrassing search activity in a data drove so extensive that “George Orwell could never have dreamed it.” The suit, seeking upwards of $5 billion, argues that “private” browsing is misleading, but Google said it clearly warns Incognito users that websites they visit might collect their information.

OZY reveals privacy-stealing apps.

Divine right is overrated. A federal judge has ruled that the Oklahoma zoo built by Joe Exotic, subject of Netflix’s hit Tiger King series, be handed over to his mortal enemy. Current owner Jeff Lowe must relinquish the 16-acre roadside attraction to Carole Baskin of Florida’s Big Cat Rescue to settle an intellectual property theft judgment. But the order doesn’t cover the tigers and other zoo captives, which still belong to Lowe. Meanwhile, Baskin’s drama also continues, with a Florida sheriff confirming that her missing husband’s will was forged.

Maybe he should have passed. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is taking hits after saying Wednesday that kneeling for the national anthem is “disrespecting the flag.” The umbrage even came from his peers: “It has NEVER been about an anthem or flag,” Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers responded. The protests, started in 2016 by San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, aimed to draw attention to the type of police brutality now being protested across the nation. While that apparently cost Kaepernick his career, some NFL pros seem ready to put the ball back in play.

OZY explores Kaepernick’s place in history.