April 6, 2021 News Brief

Good morning!

As Alise said yesterday, she and I are filling for Sarah this week for the News Brief while Sarah enjoys a much deserved vacation

I’m going to start this morning by discussing the updates from the Derek Chauvin trial. I do know that this topic can be emotionally taxing for communities of color, so I wanted to be transparent with my choice to cover the updates. The Minneapolis police chief, Chief Arradondo, testified against Chauvin yesterday and stated that Chauvin “absolutely” violated policy. Chief Arradondo fired Chauvin the day after George Floyd’s death, and publicly called his death a “murder” the following month. In addition, Chauvin’s former training director said Chauvin would have been taught to offer medical aid as part of his training and the emergency room doctor who tried to save George Floyd’s life testified that he believed he likely died from a lack of oxygen.

North Korea has decided to skip the Tokyo Olympics this summer, citing the reason of protecting athletes from COVID-19 – the New York Times reports that in addition to the impact on the athletes, this deprives South Korea and other nations an opportunity to meet with senior delegates of North Korea to meet and discuss issues beyond sports (link)

The G.O.P. governor of Arkansas, Governor Hutchinson, vetoed a bill that would make it illegal for transgender minors to receive gender-affirming medication or surgery – it should be noted that state legislators could still override the governor’s veto, but a G.O.P. veto of a bill of this nature seemed like a positive development to share

Good news: we have reached 3 millions shots a day in the US!

In the past five days alone, more than 5% of Americans have received a vaccine shot Nearly one-third of Americans have not received at least one shot Deaths continue to decline

The pandemic fatigue right now is real, but we’re not out of this yet and I know this community can come together to inspire others to keep the faith.

Masks on, attitudes up, have the best Tuesday available to you!

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