Ripped from the Headlines: July 2020: This Week In Culture: July 4–10, 2020

Colin Kaepernick signed a first-look deal with Disney, which could include TV and/or movies on Hulu, ESPN, and Pixar. The announcement shows how much has changed in the country since Kaepernick was fired in 2016 for kneeling during the National Anthem before games. Augur is a Latin word for a person who interprets signs and omens as a way of predicting the future.

Two influential women in the fashion industry have organized a group called Black in Fashion to push designers and businesses to take effective, lasting action after the many statements of support for Black Lives Matter and related causes over the past weeks. Lindsay Peoples Wagner is Teen Vogue’s editor-in-chief and Sandrine Charles is a high-powered PR consultant, and the pair have created the Equality Index Score to rate brands and hold them accountable for their commitments to diversity.

A new study in Nature says that based on genetic analysis of people from a number of countries, Polynesians and Native Americans may have encountered each other as early as 800 years ago. It's unclear whether these contacts occurred on Pacific islands or the South American coast, or both, but some people living in in parts of Eastern Polynesia today share some DNA with people from the coast of Ecuador and Colombia.

WNBA players called for Atlanta Dream co-owner and current Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler to be removed from her position after the Senator made remarks disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement and protestors. Loeffler issued a statement opposing the team's decision to wear T-shirts with BLM slogans this season, and referred to protestors as "mob rule." Implicare is a Latin verb meaning "to entangle, involve, or connect closely."

Oprah Winfrey and Lionsgate Films are collaborating with the New York Times on a series of TV and film documentaries related to The 1619 Project, a magazine the newspaper published last year on the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans arriving in America. The series will explore the many ways in which slavery shaped the country in the past and present. The deal was announced this week, but no specific schedule was released.

Ennio Morricone, the legendary film composer with over 500 credits, died at 91. He first attained fame in the 1960s, scoring so-called "spaghetti Westerns" for his friend and fellow Italian Sergio Leone. He continued working, earning an Oscar, a Grammy, and countless other awards, all the way through Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight in 2015. His list of credits reads like a history of first-class filmmaking over the last 60 years, because it is.

Three Mars missions are launching in the next few weeks, and between them scientists hope to learn a great deal about the red planet. China, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. will all send missions. NASA's is called Perseverance, which will use a rover and a small helicopter to investigate an ancient river delta for possible signs of life. The tech on these robots is far superior to the cameras and sensors on Curiosity and Opportunity, so Mars watchers are excited for loads of new data.

Smart phones and other sophisticated electronics require certain rare minerals for some of their components, and many of those minerals come from remote, tropical parts of the world. That means that the people who mine for the minerals often encounter wild animals — either by eating them or being bitten — and thus may allow new viruses to make the jump into humans.

The singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, who performs as Waxahatchee, released her latest record just as lockdowns began around the country. Instead of touring, she'll be doing weekly digital concerts and donating some of the proceeds to Black Lives Matter. The origin of talisman is the Greek telesma, referring to an object believed to provide luck or protection. The word travelled through Arabic into the Romance languages and then English by 1638.

Some of today's biggest bands took advantage of federal loans as part of the CARES act passed by Congress to help small businesses cope with the pandemic shutdown. It's a long list, including everyone from Slipknot to The Eagles, and the groups say that the money will allow them to keep paying their large staffs and crews during the long period without live performances.