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Good morning, Portland! Some news from the Oregonian: This week marks six months since the first Oregonian tested positive for COVID-19. Take a moment to stare blankly into space...
... and now, here are the headlines!
ā¢ Protesters once again gathered outside the building for the Portland Police Associationāthe union for rank-and-file Portland copsālast night. Police declared a riot and made a staggering 24 arrestsāand used aggressive force in the process, according to reporters on the scene.
Tear gas and some aggressive arrests that appear to have injured some of the protesters. pic.twitter.com/kgRFeqpQcf
ā Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) August 25, 2020
ā¢ Remember this past Saturday, when far-right demonstrators brought guns and bear mace to downtown Portland and our police force somehow managed to not involve themselves whatsoever? A whole two days later, Mayor Ted Wheeler released a statement about Saturdayābut an email he sent to a constituent is much more revealing than the official sound bite he provided the press. Our Alex Zielinski has the story.
ā¢ The Republican National Convention kicked off last night, and boy, was it a doozy! I only made it through about 30 minutes of it, but NPR reports that the GOP leaned heavily on lies and an "apocalyptic" vision of life under a Biden presidency. I also noticed a whiff of thinly veiled white supremacist talking pointsālike the idea that Donald Trump is the savior of Western cultureābut what else is new? Meanwhile, during a Republican roll call that was a sad approximation of the DNC's a week earlier, Oregon Republicans focused on Portland protests. Republicans are obsessed with us, Portland!
ā¢ Worth the read:
In rural Oregon, racial justice protests have been met by threats of violence, racist speech and a backlash from local community members, leaving some to wonder: Do Black lives matter to rural Oregonians? https://t.co/WHeww5Cdih
ā OPB (@OPB) August 24, 2020
ā¢ Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot in the back by the police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is now paralyzed.
ā¢ After tearing through the Caribbean, two tropical storms are heading toward the Gulf Coast. One is expected to grow into a hurricane, and could cause severe damage.
ā¢ Now that China has passed a national security law giving it greater power over Hong Kong, Chinese authorities are unleashing a "digital [surveillance] dragnet on activists, pro-democracy politicians and media leaders," reports the New York Times.
ā¢ Russian politician Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, is recovering in Germany after showing severe symptoms of being poisoned. While many assume the poisoning came straight from Putin himself, an expert in Russian politics write that the situation is a little more complicatedāand it all points to a complete "lack of the rule of law" in the Kremlin. Sounds familiar!
ā¢ A beautiful life:
Presenting Breonna Taylor for Vanity Fairās September issue, āThe Great Fire,ā guest-edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates. https://t.co/Gf9115GkGb pic.twitter.com/0TdNBeIOve
ā VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) August 24, 2020
