10 things you need to know today: July 18, 2020

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1. Civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis dies at 80
2. New York City enters final reopening phase as California, Florida cases surge
3. Report: Police didn't check on Breonna Taylor for 20 minutes after shooting her
4. Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she's being treated for a 'recurrence of cancer'
5. Justice Department carries out 3rd execution this week
6. Bowman defeats longtime Rep. Engel in Democratic primary
7. U.S. attorney requests DHS investigation into Portland arrests
8. Civil rights leader C.T. Vivian dies at 95
9. Pentagon effectively bans Confederate flag from military bases
10. French authorities investigating possible arson after fire at Nantes cathedral

published 18 July 2020

1. Civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis dies at 80

Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights leader and Democratic congressman from Georgia, died Friday after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80. Lewis worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. to organize non-violent marches and protests, including the 1963 March on Washington. In 1965, Lewis led the famous march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery to demand voting rights for African Americans. He was brutally beaten by police, and images of the attack broadcast to the nation "galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act," The New York Times writes. The act was passed eight days later. Lewis was elected to Congress in 1987, and was known to his colleagues as "the conscience of the Congress." He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Barack Obama in 2010.

New York City, once the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, will move to its final phase of reopening on Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced Friday. Malls, gyms, and cultural institutions will remain closed, as will indoor dining. Meanwhile things are going the other direction in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, though the latter two states' governors said they will not shut down businesses again. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Friday most schools will not reopen in the state. Florida recorded 128 new deaths from COVID-19 in the past day on Friday afternoon, its fourth day of death tolls over 100. And in Texas, FEMA sent in extra body bags and refrigerated trucks to prepare for a surging death toll.

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Breonna Taylor's boyfriend told investigators she was alive for at least five minutes after being shot by police, but records show she did not receive medical attention for more than 20 minutes, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by police in her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, in March while she was inside with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. Police were executing a no-knock warrant. According to the report, records show police "didn't radio in to dispatch about Taylor being inside the apartment until 1:10 a.m. — nearly a half-hour after she was shot by police." Officials have said they couldn't go back into the apartment until Walker was in handcuffs, and the coroner told The New York Times that Taylor likely died in "less than a minute."

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is receiving treatment following a "recurrence of cancer," she announced on Friday. In a statement, the 87-year-old Supreme Court justice said that she "began a course of chemotherapy" in May after a "periodic scan in February followed by a biopsy revealed lesions on my liver." The chemotherapy is "yielding positive results," she said, and a recent scan "indicated significant reduction of the liver lesions and no new disease." Ginsburg, who has battled cancer four times and in 2019 received treatment for pancreatic cancer, said she'll continue chemotherapy bi-weekly but remains "fully able" to stay on the Supreme Court. She was hospitalized earlier this week to treat an infection after experiencing "fever and chills."

For the third time this week, the Justice Department executed a federal inmate. Dustin Lee Honken was killed Friday by lethal injection at a federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, the same site where the two other executions took place, breaking a 17-year-old moratorium and federal executions. The 52-year-old Honken was sentenced to die in October 2005 after he was convicted on various charges, including five counts of murder, among them two small children, their mother, and two other adults. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the execution was "just punishment." She described him as a meth kingpin. Honken's lawyer said his client "repented for the crimes he committed" and argued "there was no reason for the government to kill him."

Jamaal Bowman, a middle school principal and progressive, officially defeated Rep. Eliot Engel in the Democratic race to represent the Bronx and parts of Westchester County in New York, The Associated Press declared Friday. Results had been pointing in Bowman's favor since the June 23 election, and with 100 percent of precincts reporting on Friday, Bowman was declared the winner with 55.5 percent of the vote to Engel's 40.4 percent. Engel has held his seat for more than 30 years, played a big role in Democrats' impeachment investigation, and received endorsements from top Democratic politicians. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) meanwhile endorsed Bowman. His win has been compared to Ocasio-Cortez's shocking upset of a longtime New York Democrat in 2018.

Billy Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Oregon District, on Friday requested an investigation into masked, camouflaged federal authorities who have been captured on video arresting protesters in Portland this week and putting them in unmarked vehicles. The request is aimed specifically at Department of Homeland Security personnel. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) have both called for the federal agencies to stop policing the protests, but the officers continued to do so Friday night, reportedly using tear gas at least twice to break up crowds. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, meanwhile, on Friday defended the agents, arguing they were protecting Portland from "violent extremists."

Rev. C.T. Vivian, an icon of the civil rights movement, died on Friday of natural causes at his home in Atlanta, The Associated Press reported. He was 95. Vivian's career as a civil rights leader goes back to his 1940s sit-in demonstrations, and he worked with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s serving as national director of affiliates for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 2013, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom; former President Barack Obama praised him for "pushing us closer to our founding ideals." Rev. Al Sharpton on Friday remembered Vivian as a "true trailblazer" who "made this nation and world a better place."

Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed a memo Thursday night specifically listing flags that are allowed to fly at U.S. military bases and institutions. The Confederate flag is not among them, effectively barring it without an explicit ban on the divisive flag President Trump has defended as a form of "freedom of speech." The U.S. and individual state flags, flags of allied nations, the POW/MIA flags, and flags of military units are allowed to fly at bases, the memo outlines. "The flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols," Esper said in the memo. The Associated Press characterized Esper's wording as a "way to avoid Trump's wrath" by not explicitly calling out the Confederate flag.

French authorities are launching an investigation into possible arson after the famed St. Peter and St. Paul cathedral in Nantes, France, caught fire Saturday. Pierre Sennes, the Nantes public prosecutor, said criminal motive is suspected because the fire had three different starting points throughout the cathedral. "It's not a coincidence," he said. "It's even a signature." The fire has been contained and does not appear to have inflicted severe, widespread damage damage unlike last year's devastating fire at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which was not set deliberately. But the organ was reportedly completely destroyed and the platform on which it rests is "very unstable and risks collapsing." The construction of St. Peter and St. Paul began in the 15th century, but was not completed until four centuries later.

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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.