| THE BIG STORY
Top Rochester police officials are stepping down in response to Daniel Prude’s death
After days of protests, the entire command staff of the Rochester Police Department is resigning.
Here’s the background: Daniel Prude’s death at the hands of police officers in March was captured on video, but the video was only recently released. The unarmed Black man was naked in the street when officers restrained him by pinning his face to the ground for two minutes after covering it with a “spit mask.”
He was taken off life support seven days later and the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by asphyxiation.
Since the video emerged last week, protesters have been marching nightly, demanding the resignation of Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren and Police Chief La’Ron Singletary.
Protesters are accusing the Rochester government of a cover-up because the details of Prude’s death were not released for five months.
STAYING ON TOP OF THIS She challenged Europe’s last dictator in Belarus and was forced into exile. She says she’s the country’s “chosen president”
Alexander Lukashenko has had a 26-year grip on power in Belarus. He claims to have won the country’s latest election with 80% of all votes — an election that the US and the EU say was neither free nor fair.
In the wake of the election results, the country has descended into protests against Lukashenko’s regime. His main opponent, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was forced to flee to Lithuania.
But Tikhanovskaya does not like being called the opposition leader. The 37-year-old who has inspired a massive political movement says, for one thing, “we are the majority.” And for another, she says she was the winner of the August election.
Tikhanovskaya spoke to us in an exclusive interview. “My role now can be described as national leader, I think. And, of course, as the national, chosen president,” she told us.
Darius Mataitis / Reuters SNAPSHOTS A major coronavirus vaccine trial has been put on hold. The trial, led by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, has been paused due to an “unexplained illness” in someone who received the vaccine.
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was a massive COVID-19 superspreader event, a new study claims. The study claims that the rally, which brought more than 460,000 people to a tiny city in South Dakota, was responsible for more than 260,000 new cases of COVID-19 across the US.
Judges confirmed under Donald Trump are splitting with other Republican appointees in cases against police. Judges confirmed during Trump’s first term have taken more conservative positions than their Republican-appointed peers on issues including policing, guns, abortion, immigration, and discrimination, as well as how Trump and administration officials have exercised their power.
TMZ’s newsroom is a hotbed for racism, misogyny and verbal abuse, ex-employees say. Former employees describe the celebrity breaking news site as a toxic workplace where the staff regularly endures verbal abuse, misogyny, racism, and other inappropriate behavior.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians is ending. In lengthy Instagram posts, Kim Kardashian West, Kris Jenner, and Khloe Kardashian said Season 20, the final season, is set to air in early 2021. I mean, it’s like, the end of an era.
THE LOST YEAR At 17, Noel’s college football dreams are up in the air. What else will he lose this senior year?
This week, to mark six months of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve launched a new series called The Lost Year, which looks at the pandemic through the lives of six people from six different age groups.
Today’s story is Noel’s. Noel should be playing football and going to dances with his girlfriend at his Chicago high school. But instead, he finds himself trying to help his parents earn money and his siblings focus on their Zoom classes.
Without football, Noel doesn't know how he’ll afford college. “If I lose my whole senior year, I just feel like we lost a lot of potential, you know,” he told us.
Noel’s mom said, “I wanted my kids to enjoy their youth because you’re only a kid for so long. You’re an adult for the rest of your life.”
Read how the coronavirus has changed Noel’s last year of high school, and left his future uncertain.
BEAUTIFUL WORDS Lupita Nyong’o shared a moving tribute to Chadwick Boseman on her Instagram
Nyong’o, who was Boseman’s co-star in Black Panther, said she was struggling to think and speak about her friend in the past tense. “The news of his passing is a punch to my gut every morning,” she wrote.
Read her full tribute, it’s incredibly moving.
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