News Headlines - 12 June 2020
▽Africa coronavirus tally doubles from 100,000 to 200,000 in just 18 days
The speed the new coronavirus jumped from 100,000 to 200,000 confirmed cases in Africa shows just how quickly the pandemic is accelerating on the continent, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
According to an AFP tally, Africa topped the 200,000 mark on Tuesday.
"It took 98 days to reach the first 100,000 cases, and only 18 days to move to 200,000 cases," Doctor Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO's regional director for Africa, told a video briefing hosted by the UN press association in Geneva.
▽Oklahoma City police release video of 2019 deadly arrest after protesters demand it - CNN
Oklahoma City police this week released body-camera video of a 2019 arrest of an armed black man who died not long after saying repeatedly during the encounter that he couldn't breathe -- footage that protesters had recently demanded.
The police footage of Derrick Scott's arrest was released to news media after demonstrators demanded the video in a recent Black Lives Matter protest in front of a city police station.
The demand came amid national uproar over last month's death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, who was not armed and had pleaded that he couldn't breathe as officers restrained him during an arrest. In that case, an officer is seen kneeling on the side of Floyd's neck, and this has moved some police departments around the world to start banning neck restraints.
▽Penny Lane signs defaced in Liverpool over slavery claims - BBC News
Road signs on Penny Lane in Liverpool have been defaced over claims they are linked to slave merchant James Penny.
The markers had the word Penny blacked out and the word racist written above them on Thursday night.
The city's International Slavery Museum said it was not certain whether the street, which was immortalised in a song by The Beatles in 1967, was named after the 18th Century slave merchant.
A spokeswoman said "more research is needed" to clarify the name's origin.
City tour guide Jackie Spencer, who runs Blue Badge Tour Guides, said she was "absolutely livid"... "We've researched it and it has nothing to do with slavery. James Penny was a slave trader, but he had nothing to do with the Penny Lane area."
Migros, Switzerland's largest supermarket chain and employer, has become embroiled in an online racism debate after removing the beloved, if controversial, ‘Mohrenkopf’ (Moor's Head) candies from its stores.
There were queues around the corner at many Migros outlets on Thursday following the announcement that it would no longer stock the popular confectionary, produced by Swiss firm Dubler.
▽It's official: Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announces bid for re-election | The Japan Times
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announced Friday that she aims to continue her fight against the novel coronavirus and help revive the capital’s economy by seeking a second term in the gubernatorial election on July 5... If elected, the incumbent said she would seek to improve the metropolitan government’s transparency, spending habits, child care policy and efforts to support women in politics.
Koike said she wants to focus her efforts on preventing, and preparing for, a possible second wave of coronavirus infections, and said she would prioritize the lives of residents amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic by bolstering the capital’s health care system through enhanced testing capacity and increasing the number of hospital beds.
