Your Wednesday Briefing

U.S. protests enter second week

Lawmakers and former military leaders accused President Trump of fanning the flames of division, after he threatened to deploy the Army to end widespread protests against police violence and racial discrimination.

The rebuke came a day after peaceful demonstrators were tear-gassed in front of the White House so that the president could pose for a photograph with a Bible.

Demonstrators continued to march in cities across the U.S. more than a week after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. Protesters and police officers were injured as clashes cropped up at night, a shift from the largely peaceful daytime rallies.

Police officers in several cities have been fired or disciplined for their harsh tactics against protesters. In Atlanta, arrest warrants were issued for six officers after video footage showed them firing Tasers and dragging two college students out of a car on Saturday.

Chinese officials are trolling their American counterparts with protest slogans like “Black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe.” The U.S. unrest is giving Chinese leaders a natural line of counter attack as Beijing moves to rein in Hong Kong and crack down on pro-democracy activists there.

China’s propaganda push is the latest skirmish in a power struggle between China and the U.S.

Quotable: “The moral ground of the United States is indeed greatly weakened,” said Song Guoyou, a scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Analysis: After years of American unilateralism, European allies are turning their backs on President Trump, our chief diplomatic correspondent writes.

Bangladesh reports first virus death in a refugee camp

A 71-year-old Rohingya man died from the coronavirus on May 31 while undergoing treatment at a refugee camp’s isolation center, a Bangladeshi official said.

The first death in the camps, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees live, escalated fears about a potentially devastating outbreak in a community confined to tightly packed tents and shacks. At least 29 Rohingya have tested positive for the coronavirus so far.

Here are the latest updates and maps of where the coronavirus has spread.

In other news:

• The Indonesian government will not allow its citizens to attend this year’s hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, citing the pandemic.

• The Hong Kong government extended restrictions on public gatherings and travelers as the city recorded new local infections.

• Wuhan completed a push to test nearly 11 million residents in the span of a few weeks. The testing revealed no new symptomatic infections and about 300 asymptomatic infections.

• South Korea reported 38 new cases, all but one in the Seoul metropolitan area.

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If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

An adoptee seeks her roots

In 1984, a little girl who was found crying in a parking lot in central South Korea was flown to Michigan — one of the 7,900 children South Korea shipped out that year for overseas adoption, mostly to the U.S.

Today, that girl, renamed Kara Bos, an American citizen and mother of two, is at the center of the first paternity lawsuit filed in South Korea by an overseas adoptee. “I feel it’s a fundamental right for us as abandoned children to know our pasts,” she told our reporter.

Here’s what else is happening

Philippines: The government backtracked and suspended plans to terminate a longstanding military agreement with the U.S. that President Rodrigo Duterte had sharply criticized. The decision was made “in light of political and other developments in the region,” the foreign secretary said, without elaborating.

Ebola returns: A fresh outbreak of the Ebola virus has flared up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is already contending with the world’s largest measles epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic. Five new cases were discovered just as Congo was about to declare an official end to an Ebola epidemic in the east of the country that had lasted nearly two years.

What we’re reading: This article from Vulture on police TV shows. “It’s an interesting dissection of the genre in general, whether you are a devoted fan of police procedurals or don’t watch them a lot,” says Sanam Yar, from the Briefings Team.

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Mashed potatoes and greens come together in this Irish colcannon. Our food writer Melissa Clark says it’s among the most nourishing, comforting, filling dishes you can make.

Watch: Spike Lee’s work can be uneven, but it’s never uninteresting, writes our co-chief film critic A.O. Scott. Here’s a starter guide to the essential Spike Lee.

Cope: Studies show that gay couples, on average, resolve conflict more constructively than different-sex couples. Here are some constructive methods to handle disagreements, as observed by researchers of gay couples.

Do: If you’re starting to exercise again after lockdown, here’s expert advice on taking it slow to prevent injuries.

At Home has our full collection of ideas on what to read, cook, watch, and do while staying safe at home.

And now for the Back Story on …

What we’ve learned in six months

Much remains unknown and mysterious about the coronavirus, but these are some of the things we’re pretty sure of, after half a year of living with this pandemic. Our health and science teams shared their insights. Here are some of them:

1. We’ll have to live with this for a long time. The virus has shown no sign of going away: We will most likely be in this pandemic era for a year or more.

2. You should be wearing a mask. Researchers know that even simple masks can effectively stop droplets spewing from an infected wearer’s nose or mouth. There is also growing evidence that some kinds of masks protect you more than others, like N95 masks.

3. We can’t count on herd immunity to keep us healthy. The idea is simple: If enough of the population develops antibodies, the virus will hit many dead ends when it infects people. But that may not happen, even if a vaccine designed to help your body produce antibodies becomes available.

4. The virus produces more symptoms than expected. At first, doctors focused on the lungs, but in some patients, the virus propels the immune system into overdrive and damages other organs. A loss of the senses of taste and smell, along with gastrointestinal issues, have joined early symptom lists.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Melina and Carole

Thank you
To Melissa Clark for the recipe, and to Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the systems that protect U.S. police.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Greenish-blue color (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Nikole Hannah-Jones recently discussed how enduring racial inequalities explain the nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing on the CNN show “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”