Mom says MN police shot son after traffic stop for air fresheners – National & International News – MON 12Apr2021

Black man, 20, fatally shot by MN police. Feds move on Wall Street regulations. Iran vows revenge for nuke sabotage. Chinese official admits domestic vaccines less effective.

NATIONAL NEWS

Police shot Daunte Wright, 20, after stopping him for air fresheners, says mom

Police in a Minneapolis suburb fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man, during a traffic stop yesterday afternoon. The news sparked fresh protests and riots which carried on into Monday morning. At one point, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called in the National Guard to restore order. The city is already hosting the most divisive ongoing trial in the country, in which a former police officer stands accused of murdering another black man, George Floyd, last year.

Even as Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, and her family pleaded for calm, they are also still looking for answers as to what happened. According to Katie Wright, her son called her to say he’d been pulled over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror, which is an offense in Minnesota.

The details of what followed are still hazy. According to police, Daunte had gotten out of the car at some point after they pulled him over. Police then learned that Daunte had an outstanding arrest warrant. When they tried to arrest him, Daunte ran. According to Daunte’s girlfriend, who was present, police shot Daunte as he returned to his car. He then drove off and crashed shortly thereafter, having succumbed to his gunshot wound. It’s unclear what the prior arrest warrant was for and whether officers had reason to believe Daunte was armed.

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Biden agencies reverse Trump’s Wall Street-friendly regulations

The interim heads of several federal agencies are looking to quickly reverse or block measures taken by President Trump to relax regulation on Wall Street firms. The agencies are using quick legal fixes such as delaying enforcement of some rules, issuing informal guidance, retracting old policy statements or issuing new ones. When making the changes in 2017, Trump’s team claimed they were ending outdated regulations that hurt jobs. However, critics at the time said Trump’s rules changes seriously weakened oversight and consumer protections. They also curbed investors’ ability to influence firms’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies.

The rules changes call on firms to adapt to the policy changes, probably sooner than many of them had anticipated. Delays in manning Biden’s cabinet and agencies and gridlock in Congress could have slowed passage and enforcement of any new regulations, if it happened at all.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Iran vows retaliation over nuclear site sabotage

Yesterday, Iran’s underground nuclear site at Natanz was targeted in what Iran’s leaders are calling an act of “nuclear terrorism”. Iranian leadership quickly blamed the Israeli intelligence service Mossad for the attack and vowed revenge. Israel has not officially commented on the accusation, but radio reports in the country cited intelligence sources who said it was indeed a Mossad operation.

Reports have varied on the nature and extent of the damage. Iran initially reported at power outage at the plant. Israeli radio reported that the damage had been much more extensive than Iranian authorities were letting on. US intelligence sources claim that the facility’s internal power system had been complete destroyed in a large explosion. The US sources also believed that Mossad was behind the attack and that the damage would set back Iran’s nuclear program by nine months.

The attack comes at a sensitive moment as international powers attempt to broker a restoration of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal between the US and Iran. Israel vehemently opposes the deal and maintains that it has a right to carry out its own attacks on Iran and its facilities.

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China: Top health official admits domestic vaccines are duds

Gao Fu, the director of China’s CDC, has admitted that the country’s domestically-produced COVID vaccines have very low rates of protection. Gao told conference attendees that Beijing is considering advice to mix vaccines in hopes of improving protection.

Researchers in Brazil, where China’s Sinovac is widely in use, have found that it offers as little as 50.4% protection.

Gao’s statement is a rarity in China, whose leadership is famous for not tolerating any admission of weakness. On Sunday, the day after the comments, Gao tried to walk back his statement and said his comments had been misunderstood.

The low efficacy of Chinese vaccines may pose a much bigger problem. China has been engaging in vaccine diplomacy, gifting vaccines to many developing countries. Many of these countries are now largely dependent on Chinese vaccines. For example, the implications could be disastrous for Brazil. Brazil has bet heavily on Sinovac, and even allowed its developers to conduct trials there. The country’s infection and death rates continue to break records daily.

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