#and Polish women has been protesting since 2016 de facto

[fifi-goes-to-hollywood]

(Source on screen)

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[dispatchesfrom2020]

2020

Week 43: October 19-October 25

19: Trump is beefing with Anthony Fauci, the grandfatherly epidemiologist who has become a media-stay amid coronavirus coverage. As the United States’ leading infectious disease expert, he has become the de-facto voice for public health in America. Fauci drew the president’s ire after he denounced a pro-Trump political ad for misquoting him and using his words out of context to mislead voters into thinking that the president enjoys his support. Trump calls the infectious disease expert “a disaster” on call with campaign staff and reports, and complains: “Every time he goes on television, there’s always a bomb, but there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him”. And, in voting news, the Supreme court deadlocked over a decisions, ultimately enabling Pennsylvania election officials to extend the deadline for mail-in voting, allowing ballots received up to three days after the election to be counted. As mail deliveries lag under the leadership of the Trump loyalist he appointed to head up the postal service, many worry that Republicans are effectively trying to sabotage mail-in-ballots. This is a decision that will come back time and again during Trump’s prolonged ‘stop the steal’ campaign.

An October protest in Lagos, Nigeria - Temilade Adelaja/Reuters

20: Nigerians are calling for the end of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a branch of the national police notorious for brutalizing residents. Their long list of alleged abuses include conducting illegal searches, unlawful detention, brutally beatings, torturing detainees using stress positions, raping women, and committing extralegal executions. They often target young Nigerians with luxury products like exotic cars and iPhones and extort them for money or steal their belongings. Though the country has seen periodic protests agains SARS since 2016, momentum was sparked again in October by a brutal video of police shooting a young motorist before driving off in his vehicle. Police claimed the video is faked and arrest the man who posted it to twitter - which only further incised their opponents. On Tuesday, though, violence escalates as the Nigerian army opens fire on a group of peaceful protesters gathered at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos. At least 12 people are killed - witnesses claim the military blocked ambulances from attending to the wounded or removing the bodies of the dead. DJ Switch, a popular figure in the Nigeria’s local music scene, livestreams the shootings. Her videos counter the government’s denial of the event, and eventually force the military to acknowledge the massacre. By November, she will have fled the country after threats on her life, and will be successfully granted asylum in Canada.

Matt Slocum/AP

21: Obama joins the Biden campaign, delivering a blistering rebuke of the sitting President. Pointing to Trump’s fumbled handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Obama says: “Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself.” In Oklahoma, archaeologists searching for graves of the victims of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre uncover a mass burial containing ten sets of remains. And, in gay news, Pope Francis gives an interview in which he vocalizes support for same-sex civil unions and backs legal protections for homosexual couples. 

22: A Polish tribunal rules that abortion in the case of fetal defects is unconstitutional. When the ban comes into place, terminations will be restricted solely to instances of rape or incest, or where carrying the pregnancy to term will gravely endanger the life of the expectant mother. Poland has been slowly introducing more and more restrictions since the 1990s.  And it’s the night of the second presidential debate. It’s a more subdued and even-keeled event than the previous match-up. Trump’s answer to his plan to combat coronavirus is more self-congratulatory boasting about closing the borders with China and wishful thinking about the not-yet-developed vaccines. He claims the virus will “go away” and argues that the United States is “rounding the turn”. They’re not. Numbers are growing rapidly - and everywhere.

In San Francisco, motorists partake in a drive-in watch party to view the second and final Presidential debate - Jim Wilson/The New York Times

23: The President of Poland becomes the world’s latest leader to test positive for the coronavirus. In the United States a record-setting 85,000 new cases are reported and a study, published in Nature Magazine indicates that over 500,000 people could die of the virus in the United States by March 2021 [February 2021 hindsight says: yep]. The study projects that if just 85% of the population participated in mask-wearing, nearly 100,000 deaths could be prevented [February 2021 hindsight says: they wont]. And the FBI release a sworn affadavit by a member of the right-wing “Boogaloo Bois” militia stating that right-wing extremists infiltrated the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis in June. Posing as Black Lives Matter protesters, 26-year-old Ivan Hunter shot at police, looted the station, and helped set it on fire.

Department of Agriculture workers wear thick protective suits while they dismantle a Giant Asian Hornet nest containing approximately 500 live samples - Elaine Thompson/AP

24: You know what’s back? Murder hornets. Officials near Blaine, Washington announce they have successfully removed a nest of Giant Asian hornets - the first of its kind located in the United States. A handful of worker hornets and queens have been spotted in the region throughout 2020, although scientists had been unable to pin-point the hive’s location until earlier this week. Scientists predict there are likely other colonies still active in the Pacific Northwest. The recently-released Borat sequel has stirred up controversy after it dupes Giuliani into unwittingly appearing in its film by posing as a news crew. The young actress playing Borat teenaged daughter pretends to be a reporter and brings Giuliani to her hotel room for an interview. The former mayor of New York and present-day personal lawyer to the President, gets drunk and flirty. Giuliani untucks his shirt, and appears to touch himself through his trousers. If Sasha Baron Cohen and an unknown Bulgarian actress can pull one over on ol’ Rudy, many wonder what highly-trained foreign operatives could get...

25: Pope Francis names thirteen new cardinals... including the United States’ first Black cardinal, 72-year-old Wilton Gregory. The State Department reports that is has halted diversity and inclusion training programs following an executive order from the president calling such programs “divisive” and “fundamentally racist and sexist”.