10 things you need to know today: June 7, 2020

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1. Tens of thousands gather throughout U.S. for protests
2. Global coronavirus deaths surpass 400,000
3. 2 Buffalo police officers charged with assault
4. Bush among prominent Republicans who reportedly won't support Trump's re-election
5. OPEC, allies agree to extend oil production cuts
6. Sheriff's deputy killed in alleged ambush in California
7. Libya's U.N. forces launch offensive as Haftar calls for ceasefire
8. Crowd heckles Minneapolis mayor after he rejects the idea of defunding police department
9. Marines Corps to remove, ban Confederate battle flag
10. Tropical Storm Cristobal nears Gulf Coast

published 7 June 2020

1. Tens of thousands gather throughout U.S. for protests

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets Saturday in several major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., New York, and Seattle, as well as smaller towns across the country to protest against police brutality two weeks after George Floyd was killed in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The movement has also spread around the globe. Demonstrations have been occurring throughout the U.S. for days now, but Saturday's rallies stood out for their sheer size, especially the one in the nation's capital where the crowd worked its way to the White House. Most of the events also took place without major incident after more than a week of sometimes violent discord between police officers and protesters.

The confirmed global coronavirus death toll has surpassed 400,000, per data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed infections worldwide is approaching 7 million. The United States, which is nearing 2 million infections, accounts for more than a quarter of the global death total, with nearly 110,000 since the outbreak began. The United Kingdom has the second highest fatality count at 40,548, followed by Brazil, Italy, and France. Brazil on Saturday stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus infections and deaths, though it reportedly still shows the figures from the previous 24 hours. Cases continue to grow in several other countries, including Russia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

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Two Buffalo police officers, Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski, were both charged with one count of second-degree assault Saturday, prosecutors said, after they were seen on video Thursday shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground during protests against police brutality. The officers have pleaded not guilty and were released without bail. The video sparked outrage across the country, which intensified when the Buffalo Police Department said the protester, Martin Gugino, tripped and fell. Gugino was hospitalized with a head injury resulting from the fall. He is now in "serious, but stable condition" and is "progressing in his recovery." McCabe and Torgalski were suspended without pay Friday, prompting their 57 colleagues on the Buffalo Police Department's emergency response team to resign from the unit — but not the police force altogether — in their defense.

Former President George W. Bush won't support the re-election of President Trump, The New York Times reports. The news isn't shocking, considering Bush didn't vote for Trump in 2016, but the Times notes the reproach "carries a different weight when an incumbent and his shared agenda with Senate leaders are on the line." Other prominent Republicans who reportedly won't or may not vote for Trump are Jeb Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). It's unclear if any of them will vote for the Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, though McCain is expected to.

OPEC and its allies agreed Saturday to extend their record oil production cuts until the end of July, while Iraq and Nigeria agreed to extra cuts from July to September after exceeding production quotas in May and June. In April negotiations led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, OPEC agreed to slash oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day between May and June to prop up prices that collapsed as a result of the coronavirus crisis. While the limits were expected to loosen at the end of June, the group decided it was best to remain cautious amid an uncertain global demand. U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette praised the agreement.

Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, a Santa Cruz County, California, sheriff's deputy, was killed, and two other officers injured Saturday, in what law enforcement officials described as an ambush. Gutzwiller was 38. Several deputies responded to a call about a suspicious van parked in the Santa Cruz mountains that the caller said had guns and bomb-making materials inside, Sheriff Jim Hart said. When the deputies arrived, the van drove off, and they followed but were met with gunfire and explosives. The suspect fled the scene, but was eventually found and arrested. Hart said Gutzwiller, who was married with one child and another on the way, was a "beloved figure" at the sheriff's office.

Libya's United Nations-backed Government of National Accord said they launched an offensive against renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar's forces Saturday to seize the strategic city of Sirte, which is the last major settlement between the country's west and east. Beyond it are Libya's main oil export ports, Haftar's most important asset in the conflict. Haftar, meanwhile, has called for a ceasefire to begin Monday morning, along with one of his key allies, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. But the GNA did not appear to be receptive, responding that Haftar started the war, "but we will choose the time and place when it ends."

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mayor Jacob Frey was booed by protesters Saturday after they marched to his home to ask if he would commit to defund the city's police department in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Frey, a former civil rights attorney who vowed to improve the police department's strained relations with minorities, said that he did not support defunding the police. In response, the crowd chanted things like "go home, Jacob" and "shame" as he walked away. Frey later said he favors "massive structural reform to revise a structurally racist system," but he does not support "abolishing the entire police department."

The United States Marine Corps on Friday issued a directive to remove and ban displays of the Confederate battle flag at Marine installations, including items such as mugs, posters, and bumper stickers. The announcement comes at a time when protests responding to issues like police brutality and racial injustice have taken hold over much of the U.S. "Current events are a stark reminder that it is not enough for us to remove symbols that cause division — rather, we must strive to eliminate division itself," Gen. David Berger, the commandant of the Marine Corps, said in a statement earlier this week. The Marine Corps, in a statement on Twitter on Friday, said the Confederate battle flag has "all too often been co-opted by violent extremists and racists groups" and has "no place in our Corps.

Tropical Storm Cristobal advanced toward the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday. The storm is expected to make landfall at some point during the day with threats of flooding and tornados. Heavy rain has already hit parts of Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia, and is expected to continue up the Mississippi Valley and into the Upper Midwest early this week. A tornado also hit near downtown Orlando, Florida, on Saturday night, just missing a group of protesters. No injuries were reported. Cristobal had weakened to a tropical depression while moving over Mexico, but was upgraded to a Tropical Storm again after gaining steam while over the Gulf. The storm will likely continue to strengthen until it makes landfall, but it is not expected to grow into a hurricane.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.