Talking Points
- Hongkongers marked the Tiananmen Square massacre
- The Bank of England began preparations for a no-deal Brexit
- The US unveiled a probe into countries toying with digital taxes
- A suspect was named in the Madeleine McCann case
- 39 people were injured in a Chinese kindergarten knife attack
- A survey found one-in-three Indian women suffers domestic abuse
- Khalifa Haftar's militia lost the battle for Tripoli airport
- European equities strongly lead Wall Street in the recovery phase
- More Ebola cases confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- The level of atmospheric carbon dioxide reached a new high
Deep Dive
It's hard to turn your head without reading, hearing, or watching some new outrage that finds its genesis in the murder of George Floyd. Coverage saturation aside, this story has found not only an audience, but also standard-bearers, across the globe. This week we'll examine why this death has galvanised so many.
In memoriam
EDITOR'S NOTE: Before we begin, please note that this column assumes you've already apprised yourself of America's blood-drenched history of slavery and racism. If you haven't, a good place to start is The 1619 Project, the Tulsa race massacre (the centenary of which will be marked next year), or here .
On Thursday, a memorial was held in a Minneapolis chapel for George Floyd. His family and friends bade farewell to "a gentle, peaceful person". In the crowd were figures central to black political culture : Reverend Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III. So too were Representatives Ilhan Omar, Sheila Jackson-Lee, and Ayana Pressley. And celebrities like T.I., Ludacris, and Kevin Hart. Sharpton, a civil rights icon, eulogised Floyd's story as, "the story of black folks... What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country – in education, in health services, and in every area of American life. It's time for us to stand up in George's name, 'Get your knee off our necks'". In a distant park in Brooklyn, another service was led by George's brother, Terence Floyd, who said, "power to the people; all of us".
That power has been on display as Americans have protested, sometimes violently, against the murder of George Floyd. It's worth remembering that no meaningful charge has ever been brought about without widespread disruption; and this week America offered another case in point. The nation's laser-like focus on the death of George Floyd forced prosecutors to raise the charge against his killer, Derek Chauvin, to second-degree murder . And on the day of his memorial, a judge set bail at $750,000 for each of the three remaining officers who had aided and abetted the murder. Outside the walls of the chapel, America was preparing to take to the streets for a ninth consecutive day. Although his body is prepared for internment, Floyd remains fixed in the public eye; suspended in time, the digital apparition of a victim pleading with his murderer. Another black man slain by white America.
In martyrdom
But this time was different. As has become abundantly clear over the last fortnight, George Floyd is not just another victim – he is a martyr. His killing has sparked enormous, nation-wide peaceful protests. At least 350 cities in every state of the union. Sadly, America's television stations have glossed over many of these, and overwhelmingly focused on the few that devolved into riots and looting.
Some of the protests have also become crime scenes of state-backed violence against the populace. To be fair, America's 11,000 disparate police departments have produced a plethora of responses. A notable few even marched alongside protesters in shows of sympathy and solidarity. But social media was awash this week with videos of unconscionable police violence. Over the past several years, US police departments have become increasingly well-armed ( the latest cash cow for the military industrial complex). They have also been guided by the experiences of recruits drawn from soldiers returning from Iraq an Afghanistan. So it shouldn't be a surprise that many of these departments have responded with the sort of heavy-handed treatment used to quell insurgencies rather than to pacify grieving communities. It should also not surprise us that America's president added a dystopian overtone to the week with his eagerness to deploy the National Guard and his standing army. So much so that notable figures from the armed forces publicly rebuked his bellicosity .
A much larger swathe of America has now had a taste of the police brutality that African-Americans are statistically likely to be subjected to. This is why these protests feel different. They have forced Americans to consider a dangerous question: What do I owe the state, when the state breaks our social contract? Perhaps in response to this question, or maybe just thanks to naked opportunism, several protests this week were also accompanied by looting. What has been interesting to observe is America's response to this theft and destruction. Unsurprisingly, it has been met with anger. But what calculus would you use to weigh the injustice of an unfairly taken life, against window repair bills, lost stock and inflated insurance premiums? One poll this week found that a plurality of Democrat voters support sending troops onto the streets. In a society that prides itself both on freedom and materialism, the latter appears to be the winner.
The protests spread far and wide. Berlin and London hosted significant demonstrations in George Floyd's name. Athenians cheerfully hurled molotov cocktails at the US embassy in their city. Marchers took to the streets in Tel Aviv (admittedly in greater numbers than when the Israeli Defence Force gunned down a disabled Palestinian man a few weeks ago). In Australia, which shares with the United States a bloody history of settler colonialism, Indigenous rights groups drew attention to the parallels with their own plight . Everywhere the sun touches, there are stories of lives made unbearable by racism, lives cut short by police violence, and lives unexamined by those who wield power.
Worldlywise
A modern day Exxon Valdez
Russia's industrial cities north of the Arctic circle do not have a strong environmental track record. Norilsk, a mining and refining hub on the tundra, is home to some 180,000 who for many years had the distinct dishonour of living in the country's most-polluted city. Last Friday saw another stain on Norilsk's reputation: a diesel storage tank at the local power plant was decompressed, compromised, and ruptured. Some 21,000 tonnes of diesel fuel is believed to have flooded out of the facility and into two nearby rivers. Those waters have carried the diesel slick across the plains and polluted 100,000 square metres of land. The spill is far worse than Russia's Kerch Strait spill of 2007. In fact, it's comparable in size to the enormous Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.
One curious trait shared by iron-fisted rulers is that they don't like being left out of the loop. The flood-tide of diesel made its way down rivers for two whole days before President Vladimir Putin was made aware of it (and then, only by social media). He then promptly made the regional governor responsible for Norilsk aware of his own dissatisfaction. In a televised interview Putin snapped "what do you mean, report over?" after a particularly perfunctory explanation. The president went on to squeeze a pathetic prognosis from the governor: the only idea at hand was to burn the tens of thousands of tonnes of diesel.
Putin was clearly eager to rectify the situation and declared a state of emergency. It's just the kind of decisiveness that will likely see him win next month's constitutional amendment vote . If you are going to hold an election to make yourself president for life (or, in fairness to him, president for another 16 years), you want to be seen as a man of the people.
It's too late to apologise
Covid-19 has taught us that the best time to slow down is when you’re in a hurry. In the haste of our reactive pandemic approach, we have followed the advice of ill-equipped leaders and science imposters. Now, the deadly impact of these failures are coming to light.
Let’s start with Anders Tegnell. The architect of Sweden’s business-as-usual coronavirus strategy admitted this week that Sweden’s approach could have been better . As lockdowns and border closures swept the globe, Tegnell spat ridicule. He asked Swedes to follow “trust-based” measures : socially distance, work from home, and avoid the elderly. All the while, restaurants, gyms, grade schools and borders remained open . Sweden’s laws on communicable disease put the onus of prevention on the individual, meaning there was scant legal scope to close cities. These laws make sense in a nation with strong public trust – in the government, in the medical system, and among citizens. It’s also partly why Sweden’s voluntary immunisation is so high at 98%. Sweden’s Covid-19 toll might be enough to eradicate that trust, it is among the highest-per-capita globally. Meanwhile, its European neighbours, from Finland to the Netherlands, are emerging from their homes, into the summer of Covid-19 .
The world’s two largest medical journals, Lancet and New England Medical Journal , are also in the spotlight for bungled pandemic reactions. Both previously published studies based on data from a little-known Chicago-based group, Surgisphere , which claims to have data from thousands of hospitals globally. Its team includes a science fiction writer and an adult content model. And, strangely enough, it can’t account for any of its data or methodologies. The Lancet ’s study posited that hydroxychloroquine, the drug championed by Trump, increases mortality among Covid-19 patients. As a result, dozens of Covid-19 studies were halted. Including the World Health Organisation’s . Both medical journals and the WHO have now backpedalled on that claim.
The Best of Times
Rectangular prism schemes
Light aircraft armed with sophisticated lidar equipment have helped researchers unearth an absolutely colossal Mayan structure in Mexico. At 400m wide, 1,400m long and 10-15m tall, the rectangular raised platform dwarfs the scale of the later, famous Maya pyramids at Tikal and Palenque. Built early during that civilisation's reign (800-1000BC), this clay and earth structure bears none of the stylised images that demarcated castes found in latter-day Mayan culture. It suggests that this was a communal area for ritual gatherings of a flatter, less hierarchical society.
They've just remade The Invisible Man
And now scientists have actually managed to use extracts from a particularly opalescent squid to change the refractive property of human kidney cells to (nearly) match their environment. We strongly advise you to read this one . A huge break for the mad scientist community.
The Worst of Times
Snap back to reality
Chinese industry has returned and is drawing power from coal-fired power plants. The upshot is that pollution levels have not only met but exceeded those of a year ago. What blue skies? What coronavirus?
Their hearts smelted
The residents of New Madrid County, Missouri, know exactly what it feels like to get a lung full of sulfur dioxide on the way to work. This highly recommended story tracks how Trump's trade war helped reopen a smelter, and how it created the country's worst air pollution.
Weekend Reading
The image
The quote
"People at the grocery store seem more anxious than I remember."
– Daniel Thorson , with the understatement of 2020, emerged from a 75-day silent retreat into a slightly less-hinged America. The entire world could do with a vipassana crash course at the moment.
The numbers
2,300%
- The increase in Britons applying for German citizenship last year compared to the year before the Brexit referendum.
50%
- The amount coal earnings are set to collapse this year in the United States. As one Moody's analyst said, "Coal consumption will be crushed in 2020".
The headline
"Mysterious tombs in China found to be bitcoin mining operations" – Abacus .
The special mention
The ridiculous documentary series 'Tiger King' is a case-study in, shall we say, American entrepreneurialism. Having seen her nemesis jailed for taking out a hit on her, Carole Baskin emerged as the last woman standing in the celebrity private tiger zoo market. Baskin even took control of her rival's property. But in a delectable twist, local sheriffs have confirmed that Baskin's rise to power (thanks to a disappearing husband) was built on a forged will . Who said Shakespeare isn't relevant?
A few choice long-reads
- The Economist dives into race and politics ahead of the 2020 election
- Foreign Policy learns a new lesson from Tiananmen Square
- Businessweek gets in-between the the world's richest sibling rivalry
Tom Wharton
