Every Wednesday at All the Pretty Birds, we recap the most important headlines to keep you up to speed on global news. This week we unpack a medley of essential headlines to continue to be an informed member of the global community. Read on for the noteworthy mentions from the historic 2021 Oscars wins to the ongoing injustices we must keep on our radar and proactively fight.

Historic Oscar Wins for The Asian Community

Chloé Zhao became the first Asian woman and only second woman ever to win the Academy Award for best director, for Nomadland. The film also won best picture. Yuh-jung Youn became the first Korean to win an acting Oscar for her role in Minari.

Just two women have won Best Director in the Academy Awards 93-year history. This year marked the first time two women were nominated in the category at the same time with Zhao competing against Emerald Fennell, the British director of Promising Young Woman.

Zhao was born in China and lived in Beijing until age 14, when she went to boarding school in London. She later moved to Los Angeles where she finished high school and then attended film school in New York.

Yuh-jung Youn, 73, was the first South Korean actor or actress to win an Oscar. Last year, director Bong Joon-Ho won best director as well as best film award for his dark comedy thriller Parasite.

Global News in America: The Fight for Justice Continues

Andrew Brown Jr. Family Lawyers Say Video Shows An ‘Execution’

Sheriff’s deputies shot and killed Andrew Brown, a 42-year-old Black man, while carrying out search and arrest warrants at his home in Elizabeth City, N.C.

Attorneys for Andrew Brown Jr.’s family said they were frustrated only to be shown 20 seconds of body camera footage of sheriff’s deputies shooting and killing Brown last week. But what they did see amounted to an “execution,” family attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter told reporters.

A state of emergency is now in effect in Elizabeth City, the county seat. The city also closed all its government offices for the day, citing the potential for public unrest once the video becomes public.

The Elizabeth City mayor is calling for North Carolina to change its laws to streamline the release of footage from officer-worn cameras, saying a delay of up to 48 hours should be sufficient.

Seven sheriff’s deputies have since been placed on administrative leave. Three others resigned, though the sheriff’s office said the resignations were not related to the shooting.

U.S. to Send Covid-19 Support to India

The U.S will immediately deploy supplies and other assistance to India, the White House said, following a call between the National Security Advisers of two countries, Ajit Doval and Jake Sullivan.

The U.S.’s assistance will include making raw materials for COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’ immediately accessible and pursuing options to generate oxygen “on an urgent basis.” However, there was no mention of the U.S. shipping ready-to-use vaccines from its stockpiles. The Biden administration had faced growing criticism for not doing and saying enough about the situation in India.

India reported a record number of Covid-19 cases for the fifth straight day while the official death toll also jumped.

Official data showed there were 352,991 new reported cases over a 24-hour period as total infection numbers crossed 17 million.

Some Democrats — including Democratic primary candidates, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — had asked President Biden to support a waiver of intellectual property rights to facilitate the production of COVID-19 therapeutics globally.

India has begun receiving supplies from several countries. Singapore sent oxygen cylinders on Saturday and the UAE, Russia, and the EU are also in the process of sending medical supplies. Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan, tweeted a message of “solidarity with the people of India”.

Israel Accused of Apartheid by Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Israeli government of committing crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians in a new report.

HRW said the report was intended to compare Israeli law and government policy against legal standards, governing the crimes of apartheid and persecution.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague announced it was pursuing a war crimes investigation against Israel with a focus, among other things, on Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank.

2020 U.S. Census Results

New York state came just 89 residents short of maintaining all of its congressional districts. It joins California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia in losing a congressional seat, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. As a result of the agency’s count, it also loses an Electoral College vote.

Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat in Congress.

More detailed data will also be released in the coming months that states will use to help draw the boundaries of their congressional districts. The agency has said those redistricting counts are expected to be released by the end of September.