Vox Sentences - “Safe, beautiful, elegant justice”

Trump signs an executive order on police reform; a clash between India and China turns deadly.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Cameron Peters.

• On Tuesday in the Rose Garden, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on policing to establish a national police misconduct database, as well as a handful of other reforms. [Vox / Cameron Peters]
• The order will leverage discretionary grants from the Justice Department to incentivize state and local law enforcement to participate in the database and improve training on use of force and deescalation among other topics. [NPR / Amita Kelly and Brian Naylor]
• It also addresses how police handle mental health issues, addiction, and homelessness by outlining a “co-responder” program that partners officers with social workers who are better trained to address those issues. [Washington Post / Felicia Sonmez, Mike DeBonis, and David Nakamura]
• The order follows weeks of protests against police brutality and racism in the US and around the world in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. In many cities, the protests have continued this week. [Vox / Zeeshan Aleem]
• In remarks before signing the executive order, however, Trump stressed familiar “law and order” rhetoric and defended police officers from criticism. “We must support the brave men and women in blue who police our streets and keep us safe,” he said. [CNN / Kevin Liptak]
• But some critics argue that the order doesn’t do enough. Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered a eulogy for Floyd last week in Houston, called the order “toothless and meaningless” in a tweet. [Twitter / Al Sharpton]
• Tuesday’s executive order is also less sweeping than what Democrats in Congress have pushed for. Last week, House Democrats introduced the Justice in Policing Act, which will be marked up by the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. [Twitter / Hugo Lowell]
• But a police reform bill likely won’t pass until July at the earliest. Senate Republicans are currently working on their own legislation, but GOP leadership said Monday that a floor vote would probably have to wait until after the July 4 congressional recess. [Politico / Andrew Desiderio and Burgess Everett]

• Tensions between India and China reached the crisis point Tuesday after a clash between the two countries late on Monday in the Himalayas left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead. [CNN / James Griffiths, Swati Gupta, Ben Westcott, and Rob Picheta]
• Much is still unclear about the incident, which is the first deadly clash between the two nuclear-armed powers since 1975. Both sides claimed that no shots were fired, despite the high death toll. [BBC]
• There’s no official India-China border in the Himalayas, but a “Line of Actual Control” — the de facto border, albeit a disputed one — was established as part of a truce between the two countries in 1962. [NYT / Marc Santora]
• The Chinese military alleges that Indian troops crossed that disputed border, a claim which India’s foreign ministry rejected in a statement. Either way, however, experts say the clash was a damaging escalation that will be hard to back down from. [Vox / Alex Ward]
• And the conflict could set off a longer period of hostilities between the two countries. “It beggars belief to think that they can magically de-escalate after a deadly exchange with such a higher number of fatalities,” one expert told the AP. “This crisis isn’t ending anytime soon.” [AP / Aijaz Hussain]

[Washington Post / Rick Noack]

• Scientists at the University of Oxford announced Tuesday that the drug dexamethasone appears to reduce coronavirus deaths, though the study still needs to go through peer review. [NYT / Benjamin Mueller and Roni Caryn Rabin]
• The House is set to pass a DC statehood bill next week. Though the measure is unlikely to survive the Senate, it would still be a historic moment. [Politico / Heather Caygle]
• “You are entering free Capitol Hill”: Seattle’s police-free zone, explained [Vox / Katelyn Burns]

[Activist Miski Noor on how ongoing protests against racism and police brutality have changed what’s possible / Vox]

What we know about police reform and its limits [Spotify / Jane Coaston, Dara Lind, and Matthew Yglesias]