Culture

National Guard Called in Ahead of Pro-Trump Protests & More in Today’s News

Lead Photo: National guard troops stand guard near of the Kenosha County Courthouse as they wait for an announcement from the Kenosha district attorney on whether charges would be filed against Officer Rusten Sheskey on January 05, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
National guard troops stand guard near of the Kenosha County Courthouse as they wait for an announcement from the Kenosha district attorney on whether charges would be filed against Officer Rusten Sheskey on January 05, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Las Notis is a daily news column that gets you up to speed on the political, media + other going ons in Latin America and the diaspora—all in one quick digest. 

Here’s your glimpse at what’s going on today:

  • Polls have opened in Georgia, where two runoff races will decide who controls the Senate. Incumbent senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are running against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, and early voting data predicts both races will be tight. [NYT]
  • Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced a confirmed case of a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus in upstate New York. The strain was first discovered in the United Kingdom and is expected to eventually make up a large share of infections in the U.S. New York is now the fourth state with a confirmed case of the variant. [The Hill]
  • Coronavirus health czar Hugo López-Gatell, who has been at the forefront of coronavirus safety measures and has urged Mexicans to stay at home rather than to travel, was spotted on vacation, sitting at an open-air restaurant without a face mask on. The photo caused outrage in the country, though it didn’t seem to concern President Andrés Manuel López Obrador too much. [ABC]
  • Venezuela will swear in Nicolás Maduro-backed legislators to its National Assembly, a political move that many feel could be used to crack down on government detractors. Questions also remain about how countries that recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who declared himself the country’s president in 2019, will continue to show support. [Miami Herald]
  • Pop Smoke’s brother Obasi Jackson opened up to Taraji P. Henson on her Facebook series “Peace of Mind” and discussed dealing with the death of the Brooklyn rapper. He said that Pop Smoke faced death threats before he was fatally shot on Feb. 19, 2020. [Complex]
  • AOC has declined to comment whether she will challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the senior Democratic senator from New York. “I’m not playing coy or anything like that. I’m still very much in a place where I’m trying to decide what is the most effective thing I can do to help our Congress, our [political] process, and our country actually address the issues of climate change, health care, wage inequality, etc.,” she said this week. [Independent]