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In measuring several different messages of various candidates without their names attached, Greenberg told Biden’s team that Warren’s message about a “rigged” system was “dominant” among the groups Biden needs, such as millennials who may feel disillusioned by the tumult of recent decades.
Greenberg’s analysis may be a surprise given that he is not exactly a left-wing firebrand. His most famous political clients include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Al Gore and Bill Clinton. He co-founded a firm with Democratic strategist James Carville and also co-authored a book with him in 2012. He has long criticized the Democratic Party on immigration, an appraisal he shared with Hillary Clinton, as she recounted in her post-2016 campaign book, “What Happened.”
“Stan also thought my campaign was too upbeat on the economy, too liberal on immigration, and not vocal enough about trade,” she wrote.
Greenberg’s polling is not an outlier. A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released this week showed Warren boosting Biden’s candidacy the most of any potential choice, particularly among people under 45 and black and Hispanic voters. And an April USA Today/Suffolk poll similarly found that 22 percent of Sanders voters would vote for a third-party candidate, Trump, or not vote at all.
“Above all else, [the Democratic Party] needs consolidation. That’s where the overwhelming percentage of votes are,” Greenberg argued.
In his presentation, which was titled “The obvious solution,” Greenberg wrote, “The biggest threat to Democrats in 2020 is the lack of support and disengagement of millennials and the fragmentation of non-Biden primary voters.”
The Biden campaign declined to comment on Greenberg’s presentation, and Greenberg wouldn’t say how it was received. (“Not off the record, either,” he added).
Biden has recently begun vetting several women for vice president. Some allies say three of his former rivals — Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris and Warren — have an edge because of their experience running for president themselves. He is also considering New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Florida Rep. Val Demings.
Former President Barack Obama, who has been advising Biden on the choice, also thought it was very important to pick someone who had already gone through the rigors of the presidential campaign trail. “There’s not going to be a lot of time to adjust,” Obama said at the time, according to former adviser David Axelrod’s book, “Believer.” “I’m afraid that if someone is experiencing this whole, crazy circus for the first time, it would be too much to ask.”
Greenberg’s argument that Warren would be the shrewdest choice politically cuts against much of the conventional wisdom, which holds that she may be a capable governing partner but does not bring much political upside. Among the raps against her: Her left-wing positions could alienate suburban voters the party needs, and Trump would have a field day going after her.
Many progressives have also argued that Biden should pick a black woman to help increase turnout among African American voters, particularly in Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Even some of Warren’s allies acknowledge that just because her message may resonate doesn’t necessarily mean that she will. She’s not the nominee, after all, and she failed to place first or second in any 2020 primary, including her home state of Massachusetts.
But Greenberg is unmoved.
“I think the data is clear,” he said.
Greenberg has never worked for Warren. He got to know her when they attended a handful of policy dinners with his wife, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), before the Great Recession more than a decade ago.
Greenberg also argues that there isn’t evidence that someone like Harris would obviously increase African American turnout more than Warren would.
“If you look at the African American vote in the primaries, they weren’t supporting Harris,” he said. “She never developed the base in the African American community against Biden.” The POLITICO/Morning Consult/ survey also showed Warren polling better among black and Hispanic voters than any other contender on the question of whether her selection would make them more likely to vote for Biden.
Underlying Greenberg’s case for Warren, however, is a more provocative analysis: that Democrats have a natural advantage as long as the party isn’t splintered and that Trump is running the GOP into the ground. He made that case in his recently published book, “R.I.P GOP.”
“The year 2020 will produce a second blue wave on at least the scale of the first in 2018 and finally will crash and shatter the Republican Party that was consumed by the ill-begotten battle to stop the New America from governing,” he wrote in the book.
Many Democratic operatives disagree with Greenberg and think Trump — with his gigantic war chest and knack for survival — might well win reelection.
Yet even as the global pandemic has upended the campaign, Greenberg said Democrats are still on track to win big if the party is united.
In “every trend [and in] every election since ’16,” he said, “the anti-Trump vote has played out stronger and stronger.”
President Trump can change the status by himself, through an executive order.
Congress, however, has increasingly pressed him to act. Last year, Mr. Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act after it was approved in both the Senate and the House by wide margins. The act requires government agencies to review Hong Kong’s autonomy from mainland China each year.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Connecticut State Police say 23-year-old Peter Manfredonia, a University of Connecticut student wanted for two murders, was arrested in Hagerstown, Maryland Wednesday night. It comes after a multi-state manhunt that had state police in Pennsylvania and New Jersey looking for the suspect.
The UConn engineering student is accused of killing 62-year-old Ted DeMers in Willington, Connecticut on Friday, then 23-year-old Nicholas Eisele, who police believe was an acquaintance of the suspect, in Derby, Connecticut on Sunday.
Police also say Manfredonia kidnapped Eisele’s girlfriend, who was found safe at a New Jersey rest stop Monday.
Officials say Manfredonia was spotted by authorities coming out of a wooded area behind a travel center on the 16000 block of Halfway Boulevard in Hagerstown. He was arrested shortly after 9 p.m.
On Sunday, the suspect was seen in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was captured on a security camera walking by some train tracks and carrying a duffel bag.
Police say Manfredonia stole a 2012 black Hyundai Santa Fe from Stroudsburg on Monday night. The SUV has since been recovered in a Sheetz parking lot in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, according to state police.
Investigators say surveillance video showed Manfredonia getting an Uber at the Sheetz and he then was driven to Hagerstown, Maryland.
A lawyer for Manfredonia’s family, Mike Dolan, said the suspect has struggled with mental health issues and has “sought the help of a number of therapists.”
New York is getting lapped on restaurant reopenings by a city that can’t even do pizza right.
Chicago has released a 13-page list of guidelines for how its eateries can safely resume on-premises service amid the coronavirus pandemic, while Big Apple Mayor Bill de Blasio remains short on answers.
The Windy City issued the pointers on Tuesday, according to Eater, painting a picture of what a night out in the city could soon look like.
Tables will be placed at least six feet apart, or have a permanent barrier, such as Plexiglas, installed between them, while parties at one table should be capped at six people, the pamphlet reads.
Patrons must always wear face coverings — except, of course, when eating — while employees should cover up in protective gear at all times.
Potential Petri dishes such as self-service food and drink stations will be packed away for the time being.
According to Eater, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said the city will begin outdoor dining before June 10.
New York City, by contrast, could enter phase one of its reopening as early as June 1, but de Blasio has been stingy with specifics on everything from getting around on public transit to what rules must be followed by those sectors eligible to resume, to the frustration of business owners and lawmakers.
While the first phase does not includes eateries — but rather low-risk industries like construction, manufacturing and curbside pickup retail — city restaurant and bar owners have still been among those clamoring for guidance.
(CNN)Two days after the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of a police officer, protesters marched in the streets of at least three major US cities.
China’s premier, Li Keqiang, tried to strike an optimistic note about the national security law, saying on Thursday that it would provide for the “steady implementation of the ‘one country, two systems’” political framework that has enshrined Hong Kong’s relative autonomy since the territory was reclaimed by China in 1997. The rules, the premier said at the conclusion of the annual session of the legislature, the National People’s Congress, would protect “Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”
MINNEAPOLIS — Two days after a black man in Minnesota died after being pinned by police, the University of Minnesota announced that it will limit its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department.
School president Joan Gabel made the announcement Wednesday in a letter that was sent to students, faculty and staff members, writing that the university no longer will use local officers to assist at major events, including Golden Gophers football games.
George Floyd, 46, died Monday night while in Minneapolis police custody. A bystander’s video showed officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck, even after Floyd pleaded that he could not breathe and stopped moving. Two other Minneapolis officers held Floyd down while a fourth officer stood nearby and interacted with bystanders who pleaded with the officers to get off Floyd.
All four officers involved in the incident were fired Tuesday. On Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey demanded criminal charges for the officers.
Protests were held in the city Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Our hearts are broken after watching the appalling video capturing the actions of Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers against George Floyd leading to his tragic death,” Gabel said in her letter. “As a community, we are outraged and grief-stricken. I do not have the words to fully express my pain and anger and I know that many in our community share those feelings, but also fear for their own safety. This will not stand.”
Gabel said she has directed school officials to “no longer contract the Minneapolis Police Department” for large on-campus events, including football games, and said the school will cut ties with the MPD for “specialized services” such as “K-9 explosive detection units.”
She went on to write that Minnesota will “limit our collaboration with the MPD to joint patrols and investigations that directly enhance the safety of our community or that allow us to investigate and apprehend those who put our students, faculty, and staff at risk.”
TCF Bank Stadium is about 5 miles from the site of Floyd’s death. At football games, Minneapolis police often had a strong presence accompanying the university’s police force.
One day before Gabel’s announcement, the university’s undergraduate student body president, Jael Kerandi, issued a letter and a petition demanding that the school sever its ties with the Minneapolis police.
“We no longer wish to have a meeting or come to an agreement, there is no middle ground,” Kerandi’s letter said. “The police are murdering black men with no meaningful repercussions. This is not a problem of some other place or some other time. This is happening right here in Minneapolis.”
Gabel is the University of Minnesota’s first female president. She was appointed in 2018, and her term began last year.
“We have a responsibility to uphold our values and a duty to honor them,” Gabel wrote. “I write to you to express our overwhelming sadness, and our demands for accountability and justice. Our campuses and facilities are a part of the communities in which they reside. University students, staff, and faculty are day-to-day participants in the life of every community in this state, and we must act when our neighbors are harmed and in pain.”
An outbreak model favored by White House officials projects the virus will cause approximately 32,000 additional deaths by Aug. 4. That would put the country’s overall toll at just under 132,000, according an update released Wednesday by researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday cited a study by Columbia University researchers that found that if social distancing measures had been implemented one week sooner, the U.S. could have avoided nearly 36,000 deaths nationwide as of early May. “This is a fateful milestone we should have never reached — that could have been avoided,” Biden said in a Twitter video.
Democrats haveblasted Trump’s handling of the pandemic, saying a lack of federal planning to organize testing and procurement of needed supplies has left states to fight with each other for scarce supplies on the private market.
The administration delivered a report to Congress over the weekend outlining its national coronavirus testing strategy, which suggests that conducting 300,000 tests per day and achieving a positivity rate under 10 percent is sufficient. But Democrats and public health researchersimmediately panned those numbers as inadequate.
The authors of an analysis published by Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics said the administration report distorted their work. The HHS plan “selectively adjusted assumptions” and “does not provide an accurate summary of the modeling supporting our recommendations,” researchers E. Glen Weyl and Divya Siddarth and Safra Center Director Danielle Allen said in a statement Tuesday.
They argue the U.S. needs to conduct1 to 1.5 million tests per day. “We have been arguing for and modeling a suppression strategy, which our numbers reflect,” Allen, Weyl and Siddarth said in a statement. “The administration appears to have embraced a mitigation strategy. We continue to encourage the administration to aim high. Mitigation should be but a stepping stone to suppression.”
Scott Gottlieb, Trump’s former FDA commissioner, cautioned over the weekend that the coronavirus is not yet contained, notingthat the number of people hospitalized nationwide per day has begun to increase after a two-week decline.
“Some uptick in cases was expected as we re-opened but raises concern,” Gottlieb tweeted Sunday. “Risk is we don’t better contain spread, get slow burn, and bigger re-ignition in Fall.”
Hong Kong (CNN)China’s legislature has approved a proposal to impose a highly contentious national security law in Hong Kong, in an unprecedented move that critics say threatens fundamental political freedoms and civil liberties in the semi-autonomous territory.
Until this week, Trump had issued only threats to regulate or penalize Facebook, Google-owned YouTube and Twitter over a range of claims, even suggesting at one point that the industry tried to undermine his election. Previously, however, the White House has backed down, even shelving prior versions of its executive order targeting social media companies.
A key architect of the nation’s first coronavirus shelter-in-place order is criticizing California’s increasingly fast pace of lifting stay-at-home restrictions.
In particular, Dr. Sara Cody, health officer for Santa Clara County — home to Silicon Valley and Northern California’s most populous county — said she was concerned by the decision to allow gatherings of up to 100 people for religious, political and cultural reasons.
“This announcement to authorize county health officers to allow religious, cultural and political gatherings of 100 people poses a very serious risk of the spread of COVID-19,” Cody told the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Even if just one infected person showed up to such an event, the virus could easily be transmitted to many people and overwhelm local health officials’ ability to investigate all related cases, she warned.
Cody has been credited with helping to spearhead the San Francisco Bay Area’s regional shelter-in-place order. Issued March 16, the mandate that affected 6.6 million people in six counties initially stunned the nation. But it quickly became a model for the rest of California and other states, with Gov. Gavin Newsom enacting a statewide stay-at-home order March 19 and New York state following suit three days later.
Santa Clara County, with a population of 1.9 million people, is not required to relax its order — among the strictest in California — to the state standard. When local and state orders differ, the stricter standard applies. But Cody expressed concerns that California risks a surge in cases if it reopens too many sectors of society too quickly.
Since early May, “the state has shifted away from the stay-at-home model and has made significant modifications with increasing frequency,” Cody said. “The pace at which the state has made these modifications is concerning to me.”
Cody said it’s important to wait at least 14 days — the time it can take for an infected person to show symptoms — after easing restrictions to see what effects the relaxed policy has on increased coronavirus illnesses. It would be even better to wait 21 days, she added.
Reopening so fast, she said, means there isn’t enough time to implement new procedures to make reopened activities safe.
Within hours of Newsom’s announcement Tuesday allowing counties to reopen hair salons and barbershops, some stylists already had customers in their chairs.
“Making changes too frequently leaves us blind. We can’t see the effect of what we just did,” Cody said. “Our social and economic well-being are best served by a more phased approach that allows activities to resume in a manner that allows people to actually be relatively safe while engaging in the newly open activity.”
Experts say the Bay Area’s early action dramatically slowed the spread of the highly infectious coronavirus in the region, which had been one of the nation’s earliest hot spots of the virus.
As of Tuesday night, the six Bay Area counties had reported a coronavirus death rate of six fatalities per 100,000 residents; Los Angeles County has a death rate of 21 fatalities per 100,000 residents. Statewide, California has a death rate of about 10 fatalities per 100,000 residents. Across the nation, New Jersey’s rate is 126 fatalities per 100,000 residents, while New York’s is 149 fatalities per 100,000 residents.
The latest rules issued by the California Department of Public Health this week say churches that choose to reopen and in-person political protests must limit attendance to 25% of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower.
New Jersey, by contrast, limits such gatherings to 25 people, and New York, 10, Cody said.
Newsom said Tuesday that he understood he would be criticized in deciding to allow religious gatherings to resume on a restricted basis.
“I know some people think that’s too much too fast too soon. Others think, frankly, that it didn’t go far enough,” the governor said. “But suffice it to say, at a statewide level, we now are affording this opportunity again with a deep realization of the fact that people will start to mix … and that is incumbent upon us to practice that physical distancing within these places of worship.”
Newsom has come under political pressure to allow churches to reopen. On May 18, he said rules to allow church congregations to meet were “a few weeks away … if everything holds.” Later that week, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the Newsom administration warning that the state’s stay-at-home order may discriminate against religious groups and violate their constitutional rights.
Also last week, more than 1,200 pastors vowed to hold in-person services May 31, Pentecost Sunday, intending to defy Newsom’s stay-at-home order.
President Trump then made an unexpected announcement that he was designating churches “essential” businesses so they could immediately reopen. Hours after Trump’s comments, Newsom vowed Friday to provide plans on Memorial Day that would allow in-person religious services.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that large gatherings played a major role in the early widespread transmission of the virus across the nation. In particular, the CDC said Mardi Gras celebrations in Louisiana, a biotech conference in Boston with about 175 attendees and a funeral with more than 100 attendees in small, rural Dougherty County in Georgia played an outsize role in the illness’ spread.
Churches have also been the site of outbreaks large and small. In Washington state’s Skagit County, one symptomatic person attended a 2½-hour choir practice at a church attended by 60 other people; local officials later documented that 52 people fell ill, including two who died — a virus attack rate of 87%, according to the CDC. Singing can easily spread infected droplets from one person to another.
In another outbreak, pre-symptomatic tourists from Wuhan, China — the global epicenter of the pandemic — visited a church in Singapore on Jan. 19 and started showing symptoms several days later. Three other people who attended the same church on the same day also got sick, including one who sat in the same seat as the tourists, according to the CDC.
Newsom defended his administration’s actions in moving quicker than the pace Cody suggested. The governor said he was guided by what his health officials were telling him was appropriate. He said the state has the time to test the theory behind the relaxed orders and “to make adjustments if, indeed, we need to dial it back, or loosen them more into the future.”
But Santa Clara County and its neighbors in the Bay Area have chosen a different approach. After the Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara jointly decided to allow the resumption of all construction and businesses such as gardening and landscaping to resume May 4, the counties waited a full two weeks before allowing the reopening of many retail businesses for pickup service in the week of May 18.
By contrast, most other California counties have moved more quickly to reopen businesses as soon as Newsom has allowed it. Los Angeles County, for instance, joined most other California counties in reopening retail businesses for pickup service on May 8, the first day it was allowed.
Los Angeles County has also begun allowing the reopening of houses of worship and in-person political protests, shortly after state rules were relaxed. Retail stores and malls got the green light to in-person shopping in L.A. County but must operate at 50% of capacity.
By contrast, the six core Bay Area counties are still allowing retail stores to be open for pickup service only.
Cody also noted that the pandemic is disproportionately affecting communities of color and those who are most affected by poverty and overcrowded housing. For example, Latinos make up 26% of Santa Clara County’s population but comprise 40% of its coronavirus cases and 32% of deaths. Disease rates are particularly high in East San Jose, which is lower income and largely Latino.
Black people make up 2% of Santa Clara County’s population and account for 6% of the county’s coronavirus deaths.
“COVID-19 has unmasked some very severe preexisting inequities in our community. If we let the virus just go and don’t stay on top of it, the people that are going to be hurt the most are people who are living in places where they’re working low-wage jobs, they live in crowded households, they may have less access to care,” Cody added in remarks broadcast Wednesday on Facebook.
Reopening too quickly will disproportionately risk the lives of people of color and those with lower incomes, Cody said. “That is the group of people that will be disproportionately in the hospital and that will see disproportionate numbers of deaths. And that’s not acceptable.”
“We are going to suppress the level of transmission to the lowest levels that we can, with every ounce of our energy, and we are going to stay at it. We’re going to go slow, and we’re going to be safe, and we’re going to protect the people that most need to be protected,” Cody said.
She said if the overall rate of disease transmission remains stable in the Bay Area, officials will be able to continue easing restrictions on a regular schedule with at least two weeks between each phase.
“We all want to reopen our economy, get back to our lives, get back to work,” Cody said. “But the truth is: We are in the greatest global crisis since the Second World War…. We want to be able to reopen safely.”
Times staff writers Phil Willon, Eli Stokols, Matthew Ormseth and Alex Wigglesworth contributed to this report.
Hagerstown Police Chief Paul Kifer said he got a text message at 9:26 p.m. after his investigators learned Peter Manfredonia, 23, was in custody. Police were told Manfredonia walked out of a wooded area behind a truck stopand turned himself in, Kifer said.
The U.S. Marshals Service and Washington County Sheriff’s Office were at the scene along with state police, authorities said.
Connecticut State Police said Manfredonia is wanted in the machete killing of 62-year-old Ted DeMers and wounding of another man in Willington on Friday. Manfredonia went to another man’s home, held him hostage and stole his guns and truck, then drove about 70 miles southwest to Derby, Connecticut, state police said.
In Derby, police found Manfredonia’s high school friend, Nicholas Eisele, 23, shot to death in his home. Authorities believe Manfredonia then forced Eisele’s girlfriend into her car and fled the state. The girlfriend was found unharmed with her car at a rest stop on Interstate 80 in New Jersey, police said.
Manfredonia then took an Uber to a Walmart in East Stroudsburg, not far from the New Jersey border, Pennsylvania State Police said.
A lawyer for Manfredonia’s family said he has struggled with mental health problems, but did not show signs of violence.
Hagerstown Police were notified Wednesday afternoon that Manfredonia might have come into the area, Kifer said. That was more than a day after Manfredonia was dropped off downtown, he said.
Information from the Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg Police Department and U.S. Marshals Service revealed Manfredonia abandoned a stolen vehicle in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, according to a Hagerstown police news release. Authorities discovered the stolen vehicle on Wednesday. The other agencies investigating determined Manfredonia then took an Uber to Hagerstown.
Pennsylvania State Police on Wednesday afternoon said they had received a tip about a possible sighting of Manfredonia in Chambersburg. Witness descriptions and surveillance video images matched that of Manfredonia, according to police.
Attorney General William Barr, pictured at a press briefing in March, has voiced opposition to the latest surveillance legislation after backing an earlier version.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Attorney General William Barr, pictured at a press briefing in March, has voiced opposition to the latest surveillance legislation after backing an earlier version.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Updated at 9:44 p.m. ET
Work on reviving a group of federal surveillance authorities halted at another political impasse on Wednesday after an unusual rejection by the Department of Justice.
The House was set to vote on an amended version of a Senate-approved bill that would have revived the lapsed surveillance powers. But lawmakers wrapped up their session Wednesday night without voting on the bill.
Even if had passed in the House, the legislation would have needed to ping-pong back over to the Senate because of House changes.
But the Justice Department seemed to cut off even the viability of that effort with a statement that not only reiterated how it considers the current legislation unacceptable, but promised that Attorney General William Barr would recommend that President Trump veto it. The president tweeted Wednesday evening that he would, in fact, veto the bill if it was sent to him.
That was a wholesale reversal for Barr, who supported reauthorizing sections of the now-infamous Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, and helped draft an earlier version of the bill.
And veto threats usually come directly from the White House or the president, not the Justice Department.
Barr had said he was willing to accept some changes to FISA practices.
But Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, who manages the department’s relationship with Capitol Hill, says now it can’t go along with the legislation as it stands in the House.
“We have proposed specific fixes to the most significant problems created by the changes the Senate made,” Boyd said. “Instead of addressing those issues, the House is now poised to further amend the legislation in a manner that will weaken national security tools while doing nothing to address the abuses identified by the DOJ Inspector General.”
IG reports have documented problems with the FBI’s submissions to the secret court that authorizes clandestine surveillance, including the collection on a former member of Trump’s campaign during the Russia investigation.
Political intrigue
A group of FISA authorities lapsed earlier this year when lawmakers couldn’t agree on broader changes and also turned their focus on the pandemic.
The so-called business records, lone wolf and roving wiretap provisions are intended to help with counterterrorism and counterespionage cases.
They weren’t connected to the Russia investigation, but the ongoing fallout from that imbroglio has complicated the politics and made “FISA” radioactive for many politicians.
A coalition in the Senate wanted to use the opening afforded by the then-impending FISA expiration to make more changes to federal surveillance practices in light of the Russia era.
That meant amending an earlier House bill, which the Senate did earlier this month, requiring that House members concur. That set the stage for the vote scheduled on Wednesday — but the House bill now has additional amendments, which then would require another Senate vote.
Then Barr’s veto recommendation — and apparent general opposition to the bill by Trump — suggested that more negotiations are likely in order before the Democrat-controlled House, Republican Senate and Trump can reach a consensus.
The president wrote on Tuesday that he hoped no Republicans in the House would support the FISA legislation there to send a statement about what he called government abuse.
I hope all Republican House Members vote NO on FISA until such time as our Country is able to determine how and why the greatest political, criminal, and subversive scandal in USA history took place!
In the meantime, the Justice Department has been left without the use of these national security tools.
There hasn’t appeared to be much urgency about getting them back into effect. Members of Congress turned their attention to pandemic-relief earlier this year and then got into the intra-Capitol volleying over amending the FISA legislation.
Republican leaders on Wednesday made clear that they consider the House bill too problematic to go ahead in its present form and said they not only would oppose it, but they believed the Democratic majority should not go ahead with a vote.
MINNEAPOLIS — Two days after a black Minnesota man died after being pinned by police, the University of Minnesota announced it will limit its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department.
School president Joan Gabel made the announcement Wednesday in a letter that was sent to students, faculty and staff members, writing that the university no longer will use local officers to assist at major events, including Golden Gophers football games.
George Floyd, 46, died Monday night while in Minneapolis police custody. A bystander’s video showed officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck, even after he pleaded that he could not breathe and stopped moving. Two other Minneapolis officers held down Floyd, while a fourth officer stood nearby and interacted with bystanders who pleaded with the officers to get off Floyd.
All four officers involved in the incident were fired Tuesday. On Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey demanded criminal charges for the officers.
Protests were held in the city Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Our hearts are broken after watching the appalling video capturing the actions of Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers against George Floyd leading to his tragic death,” Gabel said in her letter. “As a community, we are outraged and grief-stricken. I do not have the words to fully express my pain and anger and I know that many in our community share those feelings, but also fear for their own safety. This will not stand.”
Gabel said she has directed school officials to “no longer contract the Minneapolis Police Department” for large on-campus events, including football games, and that the school also will cut ties with the MPD for “specialized services” such as “K-9 explosive detection units.”
She went on to write that Minnesota will “limit our collaboration with the MPD to joint patrols and investigations that directly enhance the safety of our community or that allow us to investigate and apprehend those who put our students, faculty, and staff at risk.”
TCF Bank Stadium is about 5 miles from the site of Floyd’s death. At football games, Minneapolis police often had a strong presence accompanying the university’s police force.
One day before Gabel’s announcement, the university’s undergraduate student body president, Jael Kerandi, issued a letter and a petition demanding that the school sever its ties with the Minneapolis police.
“We no longer wish to have a meeting or come to an agreement, there is no middle ground,” Kerandi’s letter said. “The police are murdering black men with no meaningful repercussions. This is not a problem of some other place or some other time. This is happening right here in Minneapolis.”
Gabel is the University of Minnesota’s first female president. She was appointed in 2018 and her term began last year.
“We have a responsibility to uphold our values and a duty to honor them,” Gabel wrote. “I write to you to express our overwhelming sadness, and our demands for accountability and justice. Our campuses and facilities are a part of the communities in which they reside. University students, staff, and faculty are day-to-day participants in the life of every community in this state, and we must act when our neighbors are harmed and in pain.”
The United States death toll from the coronavirus has surpassed 100,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The country now has more than 1.69 million confirmed cases.
Brazil’s death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 25,000 people on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said. Deaths from the disease caused by the coronavirus over the last 24 hours were 1,086, while the number of cases rose by 20,599, reaching 411,821.
The number of coronavirus cases in the Arab Gulf region, which includes Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Oman, has passed 200,000, as the largest economies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have begun to ease restriction.
More than 5.68 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed around the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. At least 355,575 people have died, while about 2.4 million have recovered.
Here are the latest updates:
Thursday, May 28
03:45 GMT – Germany’s coronavirus cases rise by 353 to 179,717
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 353 to 179,717, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.
The reported death toll rose by 62 to 8,411, the tally showed, according to Reuters news agency.
03:38 GMT – UN warns 14 million could go hungry in Latin America
The United Nations World Food Program is warning that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.
“We are entering a very complicated stage,” said Miguel Barreto, the WFP’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “It is what we are calling a hunger pandemic.”
03:08 GMT – China reports two new cases from abroad
China announced two new cases of coronavirus, both from abroad, on Thursday as it moves to close the annual session of its ceremonial legislature that had been delayed for more than two months by the outbreak.
No new deaths were reported and just 73 people remained in treatment, while another 518 remain under isolation and observation for either suspected of having the virus or testing positive without showing any symptoms, AP news agency reported quoting health officials.
China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths from COVID-19 among 82,995 cases.
02:49 GMT – Philippines task force backs easing one of lockdown
The Philippines’ coronavirus task force has recommended President Rodrigo Duterte ease one of the longest lockdowns in the world for residents in the capital who have endured nearly 11 weeks of restrictions.
Manila’s lockdown will this weekend surpass the 76-day quarantine of Wuhan, the Chinese city where the first outbreak of the highly infectious novel coronavirus was detected, according to Reuters news agency.
The recommendation came even as daily infections this week were the highest since April 6. Confirmed cases in the past six days comprise nearly 11 percent of the total 15,049 recorded, of which 904 led to deaths.
02:04 GMT – S Korea reports 79 new cases – largest rise since April 5
South Korea reported 79 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, the largest one day increase since April 5, according to the Reuters news agency’s tally.
The cases were as of midnight on Wednesday, and bring the country’s total to 11,344 cases and 269 deaths.
At least 69 of the new cases were domestic infections, and come as health authorities battle a growing outbreak linked to an e-commerce firm’s logistics facility.
01:50 GMT – China to allow flights from seven more countries
China will soon relax its border controls for seven more countries, the country’s civil aviation agency said, allowing domestic and foreign airlines to apply for the so-called “green channels” for chartered flights to the mainland.
Among those countries are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Switzerland. South Korea was the first country to establish the “green channel” with China earlier this month.
01:28 GMT – EU governments ban hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19
European governments moved to halt the use of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients, and a second global trial was suspended, further blows to hopes for a treatment promoted by US President Donald Trump.
The moves by France, Italy and Belgium followed a World Health Organization decision on Monday to pause a large trial of hydroxychloroquine due to safety concerns.
A UK regulator said that a separate trial was also being put on hold, less than a week after it started. The study, being led by the University of Oxford and partly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was expected to involve as many as 40,000 healthcare workers.
01:09 GMT – South Korea logistics centre reports spike in COVID-19 cases
South Korea on Thursday reported a continued spike in new coronavirus cases linked to a logistics centre in a city west of Seoul, according to Yonhap news agency.
A total of 69 cases had been traced to the logistics centre operated by the country’s leading e-commerce operator, Coupang Inc in Bucheon, as of early Thursday, Yonhap quoted health officials as saying.
The company said all employees at the facility who had contact with the patient were put under self-isolation and that the facility has been shut down.
00:38 GMT – Colombia to begin easing restrictions from the start of June
Colombia will begin easing restrictions put in place to control the spread of the coronavirus starting from June, President Ivan Duque has announced, though he asked the public to continue isolating at home and keep using measures to contain the disease.
Colombia has reported more than 24,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, as well as 803 deaths. The country began a nationwide quarantine in late March.
Egypt’s health minister announced 910 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 12 hours, the country’s highest daily rate of infections since the virus was detected in mid-February, according to The Associated Press.
The ministry also reported 19 new deaths from COVID-19. Wednesday’s figures have brought Egypt’s tally to 816 deaths among 19,666 confirmed cases.
Egypt, the Arab World’s most populous country, has the highest announced deaths from COVID-19 in the Arab World, and the third in the Middle East tailing Iran and Turkey, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
00:01 GMT – Turkey’s average number of cases hovers around 1,000 daily
Turkey’s health minister has announced 34 new deaths, bringing the death toll from COVID-19 to 4,431.
Fahrettin Koca tweeted Wednesday 1,035 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours. The total number of cases has reached 159,797.
Turkey ranks ninth in a tally by Johns Hopkins University for the number of cases, but experts believe the rate of infections globally could be much higher than reported. The average number of new cases has hovered around 1,000 this week, AP news agency reported.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Read all the updates from yesterday (May 27) here.
President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order related to social media Thursday after Twitter—his favored mode of direct communication to his supporters—attached a fact-check disclaimer to his tweets about mail-in voting this week.
What the order will say is not yet clear. However, two of Trump’s close GOP allies in Congress signaled earlier Wednesday a willingness to strip the social media giant of the special speech liability immunity it receives because of the fact-checking flap. Trump’s move, in the end, is widely expected to be a strong-arming of the platform into not flagging his tweets.
Trump declined to answer reporters’ questions about his plans after he returned to the White House following a trip to Florida on Wednesday. However, he expressed his frustration—on Twitter no less—about the messaging platform.
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow!”
One of Trump’s supporters, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday questioning the platform’s “unprecedented decision to single out the President for disfavor, based on his political speech.”
“Twitter’s ‘fact check’ raises serious questions about whether Twitter targeted the president for political reasons,” Hawley wrote in the letter.
Hawley’s office did not respond to Newsweek‘s query whether he had been in touch with the president ahead of Trump’s order, but the senator frequently confers with Trump about tech matters.
Twitter and similar social media platforms receive a special carve-out from liability that traditional publishers hold under the Communications Decency Act because they are considered passive distributors of third-party content.
“Editorializing is what publishers do, like the New York Times and the Washington Post,” Hawley wrote in his letter to Dorsey. “Your company is treated very differently from publishers, as you know.”
Representatives from Twitter did not immediately respond to Newsweek‘s request for comment.
Another Trump ally, U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), said during his podcast,Hot Takes with Matt Gaetz, on Wednesday that he alo backs an effort to prevent social media giants like Twitter from fact-checking content on their platforms.
“Are we going to continue to treat entities like Twitter, like Facebook, like Google as unbiased platforms or are they going to take on more of the role of a news organization?” he said. “The initial play from twitter is that they’re not merely going to provide a place for people to share their ideas, they’re going to add their analysis to those ideas.”
A spokesman for Gaetz referred Newsweek back to Gaetz’s comments on his podcast.
Gaetz said on his podcast that social media platforms are protected from the types of repercussions that newspapers, TV stations and traditional media outlets face.
“They have special benefits as digital platforms because they’re not creating content for which they should be liable,” Gaetz said. “They’re not making decisions about content, they’re simply saying come one, come all with your content … they’re getting a bunch of protections.”
A day earlier, Twitter—for the first time ever—flagged two Trump tweets with a fact-check disclaimer that linked to a page with additional context about mail-in voting after the president tweeted “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.”
The fact check page led with a headline that read “Trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud” with notes calling Trump’s claims “false,” citing NBC News, CNN, the Washington Post and other fact checkers.
It sparked a backlash from the president and his campaign.
“Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!” Trump tweeted hours later.
“I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online,” he said in a preview clip shared on the network’s website. “Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.”
A Facebook spokesman told Newsweek the company had no further comment beyond Zuckerberg’s remarks in the interview.
Update (5/27, 9:45 p.m.): This article has been updated to include that Gaetz and Facebook had no further comment.
Joe Biden would sanction China if president for its plan to impose new national security rules on Hong Kong, his campaign said on Wednesday, and accused President Donald Trump of having “enabled” Beijing’s curbs on freedoms in the former British colony.
The United States had to “take a stand against China’s crackdown in Hong Kong,” said Tony Blinken, a senior foreign policy advisor for Biden, the likely Democratic nominee to take on Trump in November’s election.
He said the former vice president would rally American allies to pressure China, leverage he said Trump had “forfeited,” and criticized the Republican president for praising leader Xi Jinping in the face of pro-democracy protests that shook the territory last year.
A Biden administration would “fully enforce” the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, “including sanctions on officials, financial institutions, companies and individuals,” Blinken said in a statement.
The act, approved by Trump last year, requires the State Department to certify at least annually that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to justify the favorable U.S. trading terms that have helped it remain a world financial center.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Congress on Wednesday the proposed new legislation undermines Hong Kong’s autonomy so fundamentally that he could not support recertification.
It didn’t take much longer than 100 days for the coronavirus to claim the lives of 100,000 Americans, an unimaginable toll when the first death from COVID-19 took place in the U.S., believed to have been Feb. 6 in California.
The social distancing measures widely adopted throughout the country succeeded in slowing down the virus’ spread, as borne out by the diminished rates of new infections and deaths in May – but not enough to keep the U.S. from reaching the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.
Now, public health officials fear that the loosening of those restrictions – which have devastated the economy – will lead to a resurgence in cases and fatalities.
USA TODAY consulted experts in a variety of fields, including public health, business, history, social sciences and the hospitality industry, to get an assessment of what the new normal may look like in the next 100 days.
The consensus: It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
“There are going to be starts and stops,’’ said Alexander Bay, who chairs the history department at Chapman University. “Because of the lack of guidance from the federal government, it’s up to the states, and it will probably evolve into the cities and counties as well. Nothing’s going to be uniform. These people will stay closed, these people will open up. You’ll get some hot spots and flareups of infections.’’
The model assembled by Covid19-projections.com, which has shown a high degree of accuracy, predicts the U.S. will maintain a steady pace of about 1,000 deaths a day through June after dipping below four figures three days in a row May 24-26 for the first time since March. The model forecasts a total of 178,000 deaths by Aug. 4.
“We have deaths decreasing all the way into early June, even though most states have already been open for a while by that point,’’ said Youyang Gu, the data scientist who runs the COVID19-projections website. “This is because deaths lag infections by 3-4 weeks, so it will take weeks and perhaps even months to fully see the effects of the reopenings.’’
Some health experts believe the virus was spreading – and possibly leading to deaths – even before the first official fatality on Feb. 6. While we may never have the answer, what is known is the virus will be around for a while. As a race for a vaccine and new treatment therapies accelerates in the next 100 days, Americans will be walking a fine line weighing risks every time they venture out from lockdown.
Even the states most eager to reopen have imposed conditions to prevent new flareups, such as limitations on customer capacity at businesses, increased sanitation requirements and recommendations that the public stick to social distancing guidelines. Wearing masks is also encouraged.
What will our world, our workplace, the economy look like?
Though the specific regulations may vary by jurisdiction, it’s clear large gatherings like those for pro and college sporting events and concerts won’t be coming back anytime soon. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the White House Coronavirus Task Force has suggested as much.
Considerably smaller assemblies at places such as restaurants and cafes will have increased restrictions for the coming months: more space between tables, partitions, smaller parties and waiters wearing masks and possibly gloves. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted new guidelines that include some of those recommendations as well as enhanced cleaning, disinfecting and ventilation.
As they have during the pandemic, takeout and delivery orders will remain a crucial component of restaurants’ existence, even for high-end establishments.
“I don’t think three months from now it’s going to look anything like it looked in January,’’ said Alex Susskind, associate dean at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. “The social distancing and the dynamic of how services are delivered are going to have to change. Everyone knows that.’’
Likewise, authorities in the field say workplaces will look significantly different by the time most workers return. Part of that will come from the required physical separation to avoid spreading the virus – desks set farther apart, meetings with fewer participants – but also from a reduced number of employees at the office, both because of downsizing and telecommuting.
The drastic economic downturn has prompted a large number of companies to lay off workers, resulting in more than 36 million unemployment claims nationwide since mid-March.
Kevin Hallock, dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, says it would be foolhardy to expect a quick economic recovery.
“The labor market has suffered a catastrophic shock, and the next 100 days are going to be dark for millions of workers in the United States,’’ Hallock said. “The economy and the labor market came to a screeching halt in the last 60 days, more quickly than any time in recorded history and, unfortunately, there is absolutely no way the recovery will be as rapid.
“Even if a cure for COVID-19 were immediately available, and we know it is months or years away, the fear and unease from such a shock is going to lead many businesses to be more careful with investing and many workers much more careful in spending. More companies will fail, and more people will lose their jobs.’’
Amid such a bleak forecast, there may be some positive developments on the work front. Many of those who have retained their jobs have been working from home, and analysts say that’s bound to continue out of both convenience and necessity as employers try to provide more spacious workplaces.
Fewer commuters may in turn help ease the burden on mass transit systems – a major piece of the reopening puzzle – and diminish the deleterious impact on the environment of people driving to work.
Marissa Shuffler, associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology at Clemson University, said the telecommuting arrangement forced upon employers by the pandemic will lead to more workers being granted that option in the future. She believes companies and employees alike will benefit from that in the form of more effective work practices and a better work-life balance.
Shuffler cites workplace meetings as an area of much-needed efficiency that is being revised.
“We have started to more carefully scrutinize our meetings, with many being transitioned to other mechanisms (email, recorded video, shared file) that actually are better suited for efficiently conveying information and achieving goals,’’ she said. “Once we get back to our more ‘normal’ work settings, it is likely that we will continue these practices.’’
Will schools be able to reopen?
The challenge in reopening schools at all levels may be more complex, especially when considering the difficulty of keeping children a safe distance from one another. On college campuses, the traditional housing setup of cramped dorms is bound to face adjustments to prevent contagion, if universities open at all.
The Cal State system, the nation’s largest for four-year public universities with more than 480,000 students, announced May 12 that virtually all of its fall classes would be conducted remotely.
The CDC guidelines for schools are similar to those for businesses regarding social spacing and cleaning, in addition to requiring the ability to conduct health screenings for students and employees and establishing protocols for when any of them get sick.
Alternating days of in-person instruction, temperature checks, staggered meal times, separated desks, some online teaching and the widespread use of masks all figure to be part of the picture at most school levels in the fall semester.
Dr. Peter Gulick, an infectious disease specialist at Michigan State University, advocates a gradual reopening for society in general, though he points out more will be known about possible treatments for COVID-19 by the time schools are supposed to be back in session.
“We will still not have the therapy for prevention or a vaccine in 100 days, so essentially nothing changes as far as prevention,’’ Gulick said. “I feel strongly that those who are high-risk should practice strict precautions until things get more stable. Remember, we thought kids were not getting infected, and now suddenly there is an inflammatory condition – very much like Kawasaki disease – affecting children that we now know is COVID-19-related.’’
There are other pressing questions about reopening schools that need to be addressed, such as the safety of faculty and staff, who interact daily with students.
Hwaji Shin, who teaches sociology at the University of San Francisco, expressed concern about college employees feeling financial pressure to work in risky conditions, especially at a time of budget cuts prompted by the floundering economy.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a revised budget that would include $19 billion less in guaranteed funding for public schools and community colleges than was projected in the flush days of January.
That’s hardly the ideal setting for teaching the next generation how to prosper in the post-COVID world.
Our biggest challenge to this end is not the virus itself,’’ Shin said, “but the social inequality created long before the advent of the COVID-19 global pandemic.’’
Who will suffer the most?
Shin is among many who are convinced minorities and underprivileged people will suffer much of the brunt of the pandemic as a disproportionate number of African Americans and Latinos die from the virus.
Other analysts point to the pandemic as further exacerbating the country’s deep political polarization. A recent Gallup poll showed Republicans are much less likely to isolate themselves, adhere to social distancing guidelines and wear masks to avoid spreading the virus than Democrats.
Bay, the Chapman history professor, said the anti-lockdown protests in many parts of the U.S. – with some demonstrators in militia gear – and the refusal by some citizens to follow government guidelines raise questions about Americans’ willingness to adapt to the harsh realities imposed by the coronavirus.
“People can’t even take a month of shelter in place without thinking their rights are being fundamentally violated,’’ Bay said, adding that bridging the divide between preserving individual freedoms and respecting government mandates will be crucial in the response against the virus.
“That’s going to be another battle,’’ he said. “You want to be hopeful, but you look around at the state of the union, and it’s not necessarily promising.’’
While most Americans expect a vaccine to be available at some point in 2021, a new survey by the AP also finds many people in the country are skeptical about actually using it. Dr. Neeta Ogden joins CBSN to discuss what kind of consequences could we see if people don’t have confidence that a vaccine is safe and effective.
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