Stranger Than Fiction

A brief daily note of things you might find interesting or useful

May 28, 2020

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TOP NEWS

  • China votes to remove Hong Kong’s autonomy. “China’s legislature approved a resolution to impose national-security laws on Hong Kong, overriding the territory’s partial autonomy in a bid to crush anti-Beijing protests that have challenged Chinese leader Xi Jinping.” - WSJ

  • Trump admin plans sanctions on China. “The Trump administration plans to cancel the visas of thousands of Chinese graduate students and researchers in the United States who have direct ties to universities affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army, according to American officials with knowledge of the discussions.” - NYTimes

  • One hundred thousand Americans dead in less than four months. Yesterday marked the milestone of COVID-19 passing 100,000 deaths in America. “It’s as if every person in Edison, N.J., or Kenosha, Wis., died. It’s half the population of Salt Lake City or Grand Rapids, Mich. It’s about 20 times the number of people killed in homicides in that length of time, about twice the number who die of strokes.” - WaPo

  • Finland has seen no evidence of the coronavirus spreading faster since schools started to reopen in the middle of May, the top health official said on Thursday.“The time has been short, but so far we have seen no evidence,” Mika Salminen, director of health security at the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, told a news conference. - Reuters

  • Trump seeks to limit protections for social media companies. “In essence, the White House draft order would make the case that tech companies should lose their Section 230 protection if they take action to discriminate against users or limit their access to a platform without providing a fair hearing, or in ways that aren’t spelled out in the platform’s terms of service, the people said.” - WSJ

  • George Floyd’s death draws condemnation from police. “William Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, which represents 241,000 officers across the country, called the incident egregious. “I don’t know the entire story, but I can’t see any legal justification, any self-defense justification, or any moral justification,” he said.” - WSJ

WHAT I’M READING + WATCHING + LISTENING TO

THE COMMENT

“President Trump and his minions relentlessly grind out despicable acts — gratuitous insults to war heroes, over 18,000 (and counting) false or misleading statements, many decisions courts have ruled illegal. But Trump’s wantonly cruel tweets about the tragic death in 2001 of Lori Klausutis are distinctive: They may constitute intentional torts for which a civil jury could award punitive damages against him.” - Peter H. Schuck, Yale Law Professor

THE STRANGEST

THE AV ROOM