Important | 1 | | “He followed every instruction.” So said Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard about Rayshard Brooks, who was fatally shot in the back last week by Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe. The former officer has been charged with 11 offenses including murder. Howard said Brooks, who fled after officers questioned him for sleeping in his car in a fast food drive-thru, did not pose a mortal threat to Rolfe. The former officer reportedly said “I got him” and kicked Brooks as he lay bleeding. Rolfe’s partner has also been charged with aggravated assault. OZY asks: Can racism be outlawed? | |
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| 2 | | It was “obstruction of justice as a way of life.” So said former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton in The Room Where It Happened, his memoir on his 17 months in the White House. While the U.S. government has sued to block the book’s release, newspapers have published excerpts from advance copies, revealing Bolton’s account of a “stunningly uninformed” president who sought China’s help to win reelection and suggested stopping criminal investigations as “personal favors to dictators he liked.” President Donald Trump lashed out at Bolton on Twitter, calling him a “Wacko” and a “dope.” | |
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| 3 | | After Monday’s bizarre hand-to-hand Himalayan clash, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned that a “befitting reply” awaited those who provoke India. The verbal missile was aimed at Beijing, whose troops fought, without firearms, with New Delhi’s on India’s disputed northern frontier. Like India, China implied that its neighbor was to blame, demanding that Indian forces, which lost 20 troops, were “directly responsible” and should be “severely punished.” Meanwhile, tensions with China have led a U.S. government committee to recommend blocking a proposed trans-Pacific internet cable backed by Facebook and Google. OZY examines what’s behind tensions across Asia. | |
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| 4 | | From the staid offices of London to the supermarket shelves of Minneapolis, it’s no longer business as usual amid a surging civil rights movement. A 131-year run of the slave “mammy” stereotype dominating America’s pancake mix and syrup will end as PepsiCo announced it’ll stop using its Aunt Jemima brand. Other such branding born of racist culture, like Mrs. Butterworth’s, Uncle Ben’s and Cream of Wheat, are also being reevaluated. Meanwhile, the centuries-old underwriter Lloyd’s of London has apologized for insuring slave ships. Read this OZY op-ed on racism’s threat to national security. | |
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| Intriguing | 1 | | As reports from John Bolton’s book emerged about President Trump’s communications with President Xi Jinping, Trump signed a measure that could sanction Chinese officials. The Uighur Human Rights Policy Act, passed unanimously in Congress, requires the U.S. to investigate China’s crackdown on ethnic Uighurs and consider sanctions. While human rights advocates celebrated the move, critics suggested it came in response to Bolton’s claim that Trump told Xi the camps were “exactly the right thing to do” as he sought to complete a 2019 trade deal. Beijing responded with warnings of “consequences” for interfering in its domestic affairs. | |
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| 2 | | Who exactly is in the driver’s seat here? With normal in-person Department of Motor Vehicles services suspended due to the coronavirus, Georgia and Texas, along with a pilot program in Wisconsin, have experimented with giving teenagers driving licenses without passing a road test, OZY reports. A teen in New Jersey unsuccessfully petitioned for his state to do the same — and now Georgia is rolling back its plans after facing criticism, saying that teens awarded such licenses must still pass a road test by the end of September. | |
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| 3 | | Maybe Canada should build some kind of wall. Americans without symptoms of COVID-19 are allowed to cross the Canadian border, closed since March, if they’re on their way to Alaska. But officials in the Great White North are investigating multiple reports of U.S. vacationers who say they’re headed to the 49th state and then stay in Canada instead. The U.S. coronavirus outbreak is the worst in the world, with upwards of 2 million confirmed cases and a recent surge, so the border is set to remain closed until July 21. Read OZY’s dossier about COVID-19 and globalism. | |
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| 4 | | A few documentaries and dramas, notably HBO’s Watchmen, have already depicted the 1921 riot when white people destroyed an affluent section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as Black Wall Street. But as the 100-year anniversary approaches, several docuseries on the massacre are in the works, including projects backed by LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. While Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt initially invited President Trump to tour the neighborhood where the massacre occurred when he’s in Tulsa for his June 20 rally, Stitt now recommends against it, saying it could be disruptive to the city’s Juneteenth celebrations. | |
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| 5 | | After his high-profile anthem protests against police brutality, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick left the NFL in 2016 after six seasons. But in the light of recent anti-racism protests, he’s back on everyone’s radar: Commissioner Roger Goodell admitted that protesting players should have been heard, and the Chargers said they’d consider signing Kap as a free agent. Now President Trump, who’s been vocally against kneeling protests as recently as this month, said he’d support Kaepernick’s return to the NFL “if he deserves it,” suggesting the QB’s performance was behind his blacklisting. Listen to OZY’s podcast on the journey from MLK to Kaepernick. | |
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