(NEW YORK) — Here are today’s In Crisis headlines:
Officer who shot Daunte Wright charged with manslaughter
Kim Potter, the white police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on Sunday, was charged Wednesday with second-degree manslaughter. Potter, 48, was arrested at about 11:30 a.m. local time and booked into the Hennepin County Jail. The 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department posted bond and was released from jail Wednesday evening. She’s scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. local time today, according to jail records. Potter submitted her resignation on Tuesday, though at last word it had yet to be accepted. Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon also submitted his resignation Tuesday, after saying earlier this week that Potter intended to deploy her Taser instead of her gun when she “accidentally” shot Wright. Wright family attorney Benjamin Crump and family members will hold a news conference in Minneapolis today at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Defense testimony in Derek Chauvin trial insists George Floyd death was from drug use, heart disease
Jurors at Derek Chauvin’s murder trial on Wednesday heard from a forensic pathologist who stressed that George Floyd’s heart and health conditions, his drug use, and the carbon monoxide released from a nearby police car, played a “significant” role in his death. The defense continued to try to sow reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case that Floyd died because of restraints by police officers, including Chauvin’s knee pressed on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during his arrest May 25 of last year. Dr. David Fowler, a former Maryland chief medical examiner, testified for more than five hours as a paid witness for the state. Upon cross-examination, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell got Fowler to acknowledge that he is neither a heart or lung specialist nor a toxicologist, that low oxygen levels played a role in Floyd’s death, and that he didn’t exhibit any signs of a fatal drug overdose. Blackwell also got Fowler to agree that police officers should have offered emergency medical care to Floyd.
Biden Administration announces sanctions against Russia
The Biden Administration on Thursday announced sweeping sanctions against Russia over election interference, cyber hacking and other “harmful foreign activities,” it said, including reports of Russia offering “bounties” for Taliban attacks against U.S. troops, and Russia’s occupation and alleged human rights abuses in Crimea. The U.S. sanctioned “16 entities and 16 individuals who attempted to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election at the direction of the leadership of the Russian Government,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The sanctions, the Treasury Department said, target “the private and state-owned companies” that “enable the Russian Intelligence Services’ cyber activities.” The U.S. is also expelling ten personnel from Russia’s diplomatic mission in Washington, including, the White House said, “representatives of Russian intelligence services.” The Treasury Department also prohibited U.S. financial institutions from certain dealings with Russian sovereign debt. The White House confirmed Wednesday that President Biden told Russia’s President Putin about the sanctions during their call Tuesday.
Lower than expected number of new unemployment claims filed last week
Some 576,000 applications for unemployment were filed in the week ending April 10, according to statistics released Thursday morning by the U.S. Labor Department. The number represents a new pandemic low and a sign that the job market is bouncing back. According to today’s numbers, there are 16,934,061 people currently claiming unemployment benefits through all government programs. While that remains a large number, it also is decreasing.
COVID-19 numbers
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections, deaths and vaccinations.
Latest reported COVID-19 numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 138,391,625
Global deaths: 2,975,830. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 564,406.
Number of countries/regions: at least 192
Total patients recovered globally: 78,825,421
Latest reported COVID-19 numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 31,422960 reported 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 564,406. California has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 60,717.
U.S. total people tested: 411,687,402
The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in California, with 3,708,716 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 39.51 million. This ranks second in the world after England, which has 3,826,495 cases. Texas is second in the U.S., with 2,841,021 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 29 million.
Latest reported COVID-19 vaccination numbers in the United States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a total of 250,998,265 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. Of those, 194,791,836 doses have been administered, with 123,917,385 people receiving at least one dose and 76,681,252 people fully vaccinated, representing 37.3% and 23.1% of the total U.S. population, respectively. The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines each require two doses to be effective. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires a single dose to be effective.
No decision from CDC advisory committee leaves Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause in place
An independent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel that convened Wednesday to review Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine data adjourned without voting on a new recommendation, leaving a vaccination pause in place until they get more information. Several doctors on the committee indicated they weren’t comfortable recommending the pause be lifted, or recommending that the vaccine be given only to specific age groups, without more data. Dr. Amanda Cohn, who heads the panel, said they will try to meet again in a week to 10 days. The pause was prompted by reports of six cases in the United States, all of them in women aged 18 to 49, of a rare and severe type of blood clot that developed about two weeks after the vaccine was administered.
CDC updates COVID-19 fatalities forecast
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated their COVID-19 deaths forecast, and is now estimating there will be a total of 574,000 to 598,000 reported fatalities by the week ending May 8. The previous forecast estimated a total of 565,000 to 585,000 COVID-19 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 would be reported by the week ending April 24. As of Thursday morning, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University puts the total number of reported COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. at 564,406. That continues to be the highest number of reported deaths of any country, and represents just under 19% of global fatalities.
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