Officer in Breonna Taylor shooting fired
One of the three Louisville, Kentucky police officers involved in the March 13 shooting death of Breonna Taylor has been fired. The Louisville Metro Police Department on Tuesday announced Brett Hankinson’s firing, stating in his termination letter, in part, that he “displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he fired ten rounds into Taylor’s apartment while executing a no-knock warrant, shooting “into a patio door and window which were covered with material that completely prevented [Hankinson] from verifying any person as an immediate threat or more importantly any innocent persons present,” violating the force’s Obedience to Rules and Regulations guidelines, as well as the Use of Deadly Force rules. Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was shot eight times in her bed as she slept. During the incident, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, heard the plainclothes officers attempting to break down the door. Walker took out his licensed gun and fired it, according to investigators, prompting police to shoot. Earlier this month, the Louisville Metro Council unanimously passed Breonna’s Law, which outlaws no-knock warrants and requires that police body cameras be turned on before and after every search.
Charleston, S.C. removes monument to former VP John Calhoun
Just hours after the Charleston, S.C. city council on Tuesday night unanimously voted to remove it, workers began disassembling the towering public monument to former Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun in the city’s Marion Square. Workers labored overnight at the task, which continued as the morning dawned. The nearly 124-year-old statue of Calhoun sits atop a plinth that places it 115 above ground level, a measure taken in 1896 to prevent it from being vandalized, as the initial version was. The monument has been a recurring center of controversy ever since, more so in recent years, because of Calhoun’s staunch white supremacist and pro-slavery views. The city council’s resolution will see the statue head to an academic institution or a museum at a later date “where it can be contextualized,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said before Tuesday’s vote.
COVID-19 numbers
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections and deaths.
Latest reported numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 9,273,773
Global deaths: 477,807. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 121,225.
Number of countries/regions: at least 188
Total patients recovered globally: 4,645,628
Latest reported numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 2,347,102 diagnosed cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 121,225. New York State has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 31,232.
U.S. total patients recovered: 647,548
U.S. total people tested: 28,065,065
The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in New York, with 389,085 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 19.5 million. That is the most reported cases than in any other single region in the world.
COVID-19 headlines
New study finds COVID-19 antibodies may fade quickly in some
When the body successfully fights off a viral infection, the antibodies the immune system creates help safeguard the body from future infection. Such is the hope for those who have recovered from COVID-19 infection. But a new Chinese study, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, finds those antibodies may fade in as little as two months in COVID-19-positive people who remained asymptomatic. The antibodies lasted longer in people who tested positive for the virus and who also displayed symptoms of infection. The data suggest that asymptomatic people had a weaker immune response to the virus. Most people who have recovered from COVID-19 develop antibodies, but the extent and duration of that protection remains unknown.
Major League Baseball announces regular season to start next month
Good news for sports fans starving for some action during the pandemic. Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. announced Tuesday that Major League Baseball anticipates beginning its 2020 regular season on July 23 or July 24. MLB submitted a proposed 60-game regular season to the MLB Players Association for its review, to which the Players Association agreed, tweeting Tuesday night, “All remaining issues have been resolved and Players are reporting to training camps.” The schedule features mostly divisional play, ESPN reports, with the remaining portion of each Club’s games against their opposite league’s corresponding geographical division. It also emphasizes player safety amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including a COVID-19 injured list with no limit to the time that can be spent on it. Players will also be tested every other day for COVID-19, even if they show no symptoms.