Many people across the country used the first holiday of the summer to take advantage of looser restrictions amid the coronavirus crisis. But, health officials warn that many might have put themselves in danger. David Begnaud reports.
A man appearing to yell “I can’t breathe” as a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground and put his knee on the man’s neck for about eight minutes died Monday night, prompting the FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to step in and investigate.
Video of the incident shows that a white police officer had a black man pinned to the ground next to the back tire of his patrol car with his knee on the man’s neck.
“Please, please, please I can’t breathe,” the man begs. “My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Please, please. I can’t breathe.”
Onlookers outside the Minneapolis deli urge the officer to get off the man.
“You’re stopping his breathing right now, you think that’s cool?” one man says. “His nose is bleeding, look at his nose!” says a woman.
The officer doesn’t budge.
And then the man goes silent. More people begin to intervene and call for the officer or his partner to check for a pulse. The officer remains on the man’s neck, even as he lay apparently unresponsive, for a total of about eight minutes before paramedics arrive and the man is placed on a stretcher.
“The man looked already dead before the ambulance even got there. He was clearly trying to tell them he couldn’t breathe and they ignored him,” Darnella Frazier, one of the people who filmed the incident, told NBC News.
NBC News does not know what happened before the video recording began.
A statement from the Minneapolis Police Department released early Tuesday said the officers had responded to a report of a forgery in progress and found the suspect in his car. He stepped out of the car when he was ordered to, police said, but then physically resisted officers.
“Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress,” the statement said. “Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later.”
Initially, police said that the department had called in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to independently investigate. A short time later, the department announced the FBI would also be investigating.
“We put out the information that we believed to be wholly honest and true. As we dug into it deeper, we realized that in fact it would be appropriate to have the FBI be apart of this investigation as well,” said the department’s director of public information, John Elder.
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo added during a news conference Tuesday morning, “There was additional information that I had received, quite frankly, from a community source that just provided more context than what I had preliminarily, originally.” This prompted him to get the FBI involved “knowing that there could be a question civil rights.”
Federal agents were on the ground, Arradondo said, and would be taking the lead on the investigation. Body camera video was available, but has not been made public.
He said the officers involved were on paid leave. Neither of the officers in the video or the man who died have been identified by the police.
“What we saw was horrible, completely and utterly messed up,” Mayor Jacob Frey said of the video during the news conference. “I believe what I saw, and what I saw was wrong at every level.”
“This man’s life matters,” Frey said. “He should not have died, he was a human being and his life mattered. … Whatever the investigation reveals, it does not change the single truth that he should be with us this morning.”
“Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” Frey said. “When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help, and this officer failed in the most basic human sense.”
The former cabinet secretaries and Federal Reserve chairs in the Zoom boxes were confused, though some of the Republicans may have been newly relieved and some of the Democrats suddenly concerned.
“Everyone looked puzzled and thought I had misspoken,” Furman said in an interview. Instead of forecasting a prolonged depression-level economic catastrophe, Furman laid out a detailed case for why the months preceding the November election could offer Trump the chance to brag — truthfully — about the most explosive monthly employment numbers and GDP growth ever.
Since the Zoom call, Furman has been making the same case to anyone who will listen, especially the close-knit network of Democratic wonks who have traversed the Clinton and Obama administrations together, including top members of the Biden campaign.
Furman’s counterintuitive pitch has caused some Democrats, especially Obama alumni, around Washington to panic. “This is my big worry,” said a former Obama White House official who is still close to the former president. Asked about the level of concern among top party officials, he said, “It’s high — high, high, high, high.”
And top policy officials on the Biden campaign are preparing for a fall economic debate that might look very different than the one predicted at the start of the pandemic in March. “They are very much aware of this,” said an informal adviser.
Furman’s case begins with the premise that the 2020 pandemic-triggered economic collapse is categorically different than the Great Depression or the Great Recession, which both had slow, grinding recoveries.
Instead, he believes, the way to think about the current economic drop-off, at least in the first two phases, is more like what happens to a thriving economy during and after a natural disaster: a quick and steep decline in economic activity followed by a quick and steep rebound.
The Covid-19 recession started with a sudden shuddering of many businesses, a nationwide decline in consumption, and massive increase in unemployment. But starting around April 15, when economic reopening started to spread but the overall numbers still looked grim, Furman noticed some data that pointed to the kind of recovery that economists often see after a hurricane or industry-wide catastrophe like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Consumption and hiring started to tick up “in gross terms, not in net terms,” Furman said, describing the phenomenon as a “partial rebound.” The bounce back “can be very very fast, because people go back to their original job, they get called back from furlough, you put the lights back on in your business. Given how many people were furloughed and how many businesses were closed you can get a big jump out of that. It will look like a V.”
Furman’s argument is not that different from the one made by White House economic advisers and Trump, who have predicted an explosive third quarter, and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who said in late April that “the hope is that by July the country’s really rocking again.” White House officials were thrilled to hear that some of their views have been endorsed by prominent Democrats.
“I totally agree,” Larry Kudlow, the head of the White House National Economic Council, replied in a text message when asked about Furman’s analysis. “Q3 may be the single best GDP quarter since regular data. 2nd half super big growth, transitioning to 4% or more in 2021.” He called Furman, who he said he knows well, “usually a straight shooter. Hats off to him.”
“I have been saying that on TV as well,” said Kevin Hassett, a top Trump economic adviser, who pointed to a Congressional Budget Office analysis predicting a 21.5 percent annualized growth rate in the third quarter. “If CBO is correct we will see the strongest quarter in history after the weakest in Q2.”
Peter Navarro, a Trump trade and manufacturing adviser who’s a Harvard-educated economist, called the high unemployment America is currently facing “manufactured unemployment, which is to say that Americans are out of work not because of any underlying economic weaknesses but to save American lives. It is this observation that gives us the best chance and hope for a relatively rapid recovery as the economy reopens.”
(Asked about his new fans in the White House, Furman responded, “They get the rebound part, but they don’t get the partial part.”)
A rebound won’t mean that Trump has solved many underlying problems. Since the crisis started, many employers have gone bankrupt. Others have used the pandemic to downsize. Consumption and travel will likely remain lower. Millions of people in industries like hospitality and tourism will need to find new jobs in new industries.
The scenario would be a major long-term problem for any president. But before that reality sets in, Trump could be poised to benefit from the dramatic numbers produced during the partial rebound phase that is likely to coincide with the four months before November.
That realization has many Democrats spooked.
“In absolute terms, the economy will look historically terrible come November,” said Kenneth Baer, a Democratic strategist who worked in a senior role at the Office of Management and Budget under Obama. “But relative to the depths of April, it will be on an upswing — 12 percent unemployment, for example, is better than 20, but historically terrible. On Election Day, we Democrats need voters to ask themselves, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ Republicans need voters to ask themselves, ‘Are you better off than you were four months ago?’”
One progressive Democratic operative pointed out that recent polling, taken during the nadir of the crisis, shows Biden is struggling to best Trump on who is more trusted to handle the economy. “Trump beats Biden on the economy even right now!” he said. “This is going to be extremely difficult no matter what. It’s existential that we figure it out. In any of these economic scenarios Democrats are going to have to win the argument that our public health and economy are much worse off because of Donald Trump’s failure of leadership.”
The former Obama White House official said, “Even today when we are at over 20 million unemployed Trump gets high marks on the economy, so I can’t imagine what it looks like when things go in the other direction. I don’t think this is a challenge for the Biden campaign. This is the challenge for the Biden campaign. If they can’t figure this out they should all just go home.”
The Biden campaign seems to recognize the challenge. “The way that Biden talks about the economy is not just tied to the Covid crisis, it’s also about the things that Donald Trump has done to undermine working people since the day he took office,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager. “But secondly, it’s also highly likely that under any economic circumstances in the fall, Trump is likely going to be the first modern president to preside over net job loss.”
Between now and Election Day, there will be five monthly jobs reports, which are released on the first Friday of every month. The June report, covering May, is likely to show another increase in unemployment. But after that, Furman predicts, if reopening continues apace, the next four reports could be blockbusters. “You could easily have one to two million jobs created a month in those four reports before November,” he said.
He added, “And then toward the end of October, we will get GDP growth for the third quarter, at an annualized rate, and it could be double-digit positive economic growth. So these will be the best jobs and growth numbers ever.”
Furman noted that there is one major obvious caveat: “If there’s a second wave of the virus and a really serious set of lockdowns, I wouldn’t expect to see this. But I think the most likely case is the one I just laid out.”
When Obama ran for re-election in 2012, during the recovery from the Great Recession, he was able to point out that the unemployment rate was dropping about one point every year. But in a V-shaped recovery it would be much faster. “The Trump argument will be he’s producing the fastest job growth and fastest economic growth in history. If he has any ability to do nuance he would say, ‘We are not there yet, reelect me to finish the job,’” Furman said. “The Biden argument will be the unemployment rate is still 12% and even with those millions of jobs we are still down 15 million jobs and the only way for this to be fixed is new economic policies.”
Austan Goolsbee, a predecessor to Furman as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama White House, said the recovery would be more like a reverse checkmark, rather than a V, and that Biden and Democrats would need to point out that the explosive numbers predicted for the late summer and fall will not erase all of the damage.
“I view it as Trump left the door open and five rats came into the kitchen and you’re going to brag, ‘Look I got two of the rats out?’” Goolsbee said. “There’s a high risk you look completely out of touch if you still have double-digit unemployment rates.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who is close to Biden, said he’s been studying numerous economic forecasts and isn’t convinced that a V-shaped rebound is certain. “It seems pretty unlikely to me that we’re going to have a really robust recovery in the next few months,” he said. “Of course, we all hope there will be. Frankly, no matter what the recovery looks like, I expect President Trump to either take credit for things he had nothing to do with or to avoid blame for things he helped cause.”
Furman is an economist, but he had some strategic advice for the Biden campaign. “Don’t make predictions that could be falsified. There are enough terrible things to say you don’t need to make exaggerated predictions,” he said. “The argument that we are in another Great Depression will look like it was overstated. Trump can say, ‘Two million deaths didn’t happen, Great Depression didn’t happen, we are making a lot of progress.’”
Democrat “squad” member Ilhan Omar says she believes sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden but would vote for him anyway to defeat Donald Trump.
In a Tweet defending her support of accuser Tara Reade, the Minnesota congresswoman said that “believing survivors is consistent with my values”.
“With that said, in this interview I did on 6 May, we talked about that and quotes aren’t always in context. I will vote for him and help him defeat Trump,” she said.
Download the new Independent Premium app
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
“This is the most important election cycle of our lifetimes and we aren’t going to have a chance if we don’t spend our energy in mobilising and building enthusiasm against Trump.”
Ms Omar was responding to criticisms of her comments in an interview with The Sunday Times in which she said she believes Ms Reade, who has filed an official police complaint alleging Mr Biden put her up against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers while she was a senate staffer in the early 1990s.
While Ms Omar suggested “quotes aren’t always in context”, The Sunday Times Washington bureau chief Josh Glancy told The Independent there was nothing in her quotes that had been taken remotely out of context.
“But luckily this was all on the record. Take a look and judge for yourself,” Mr Glancy said.
When asked if she believed Ms Reade, Ms Omar’s full response was: “There’s a lot of unsavoury stuff. It is troubling, I do believe Tara Reade, I believe it’s important for us to give space for women to come forward and share their stories. It takes years and years for sexual assault survivors to come forward. Justice can be delayed but it should never be denied.”
When asked if that means Mr Biden should not be the candidate: “If considerations [over the candidate] were something I had influence over, just candidly here, we’d probably have a different candidate.”
Ms Omar is the latest high-profile supporter of Mr Biden to receive criticism for saying they would vote for the former vice president even if they believed allegations to be true or they thought he was the wrong candidate, with the Nation columnist Katha Pollitt receiving heavy criticism for saying she would vote for Mr Biden even if he boiled babies and ate them.
“He wasn’t my candidate, but taking back the White House is that important,” Ms Pollitt wrote.
No hype, just the advice and analysis you need
Biden has denied the claims and said if Americans believe Tara Reade, “they probably shouldn’t vote for me”.
‘I wouldn’t vote for me if I believed Tara Reade,’ he added in the MSNBC interview.
Ms Reade’s attorney Douglas Wigdor resigned from her case on Friday following the publication of new details of her past, including questions over whether or not she lied about graduating from Antioch University in Seattle.
Mr Wigdor said it was not a reflection on whether the allegations against Mr Biden were true, and that much of the reporting on Ms Reade was intended to victim shame and attacked her credibility on unrelated matters.
Ms Omar is the second “squad” member to directly address the allegations after Ayanna Pressley published an open letter calling on Mr Biden to address rape allegations with “empathy”.
“I reject the false choice that my party and our nominee can’t address the allegations at hand and defeat the occupant of the White House,” Ms Pressley wrote.
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.
Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer faced backlash from Republican lawmakers after a reported request from her husband to get the family’s boat out on the water before Memorial Day weekend — far from their home in Lansing.
Whitmer, a Democrat, famously has imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the country, sparking frequent protests. What’s more, she’s told people not living in Northern Michigan to stay away from vacation spots there during the holiday weekend.
In Facebook posts no longer visible to the public, NorthShore Dock LLC and its owner, Tad Dowker, focused on what Dowker said was a request last week by Whitmer’s husband, Marc Mallory. The posts caught the attention of Republican state lawmakers, who said the governor’s family may not have wanted to follow the guidance she’s issued for the rest of the state.
“This morning, I was out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat in the water before the weekend,” Dowker posted. “Being Memorial weekend and the fact that we started working three weeks late means there is no chance this is going to happen.”
He continued, “Our office personnel had explained this to the man and he replied, ‘I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?'” The docking company later noted that Mallory respectfully accepted that the accommodation would not be possible.
Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown refused to comment on the matter, saying the administration wouldn’t address “every rumor that is spread online,” The Detroit News reported.
Last Monday, Whitmer announced restrictions would be lifted in some regions of Northern Michigan, but urged those who didn’t live in the region to stay away. “If you don’t live in these regions… think long and hard before you take a trip into them,” she said. “A small spike could put the hospital system in dire straits pretty quickly. That’s precisely why we’re asking everyone to continue doing their part. Don’t descend on [waterfront] Traverse City from all regions of the state.”
The vacation property Whitmer and her husband have owned is about 25 minutes from Traverse City, according to The Detroit News, but the family permanently resides in Lansing, over 150 miles away.
State Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, said Whitmer had urged Michigan residents not to “descend” on the city. “Yet, what did her family try and do?” Barrett said.
“In the Army, we have a tradition that the leaders get in line for chow last behind everyone else in the unit,” he continued. “Here is the leader of our state. … Her family is trying to cut people in line.”
After rising to fame over her stringent coronavirus policy, Whitmer confirmed last week she had been in talks with the Biden campaign about a potential vice presidential candidate pick.
The governor attracted the attention of President Trump when she criticized the federal government’s response to the pandemic.
“I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic. Yet your Governor, Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!” he tweeted after her comments.
Images of a jampacked pool party at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri over the Memorial Day weekend prompted St. Louis County to issue a travel advisory and the Kansas City health director to call for self-quarantine of the revelers.
The advisory by the St. Louis County Public Health Department cited news reports of large crowds at Lake of the Ozarks, where hundreds of people were recorded squeezed closely together amid the coronavirus epidemic.
“This reckless behavior endangers countless people and risks setting us back substantially from the progress we have made in slowing the spread of COVID-19,” Dr. Sam Page, the county executive, said in a statement.
The health department expressed concern in its travel advisory that people from the St. Louis area were at Lake of the Ozarks over the weekend. “Any person who has travelled and engaged in this behavior should self-quarantine for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result for COVID-19,” the advisory said.
It also says that employers are already being asked to screen workers for health risks and that they should also ask workers about their recent travel. The Lake of the Ozarks region is about 150 miles west of downtown St. Louis.
Dr. Rex Archer, director of the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department, also tweeted his dismay.
“Anyone who didn’t practice CDC, DHSS, and KCMO Health Department social distancing guidance should self quarantine for 14 days if they have any compassion for others,” Archer wrote alongside a video of partying at Lake of the Ozarks.
DHSS is the state Department of Health and Senior Services, whose director, Dr. Randall Williams, said in a Memorial Day warning that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can be spread by those who show no symptoms but that when others get it, the virus can have tragic consequences.
Related
The owner of the bar where the pool party occurred had told NBC affiliate KSHB of Kansas City that it would try not to let large groups gather and would try to enforce social distancing, but “we don’t know who’s in groups, who’s in families. We expect them to do that on their own.”
Jodi Akins, who attended the bash Saturday, told the station that guests’ temperatures were checked and that sanitizer was on hand.
“If you’re worried about getting sick, obviously, or you want to distance yourself, it’s pretty much to each their own,” Akins said.
Akins was identified as being from Blue Springs, Missouri, near Kansas City.
Camden County Sheriff Tony Helms said in a statement Monday that it was a “record weekend” at Lake of the Ozarks but that a lack of social distancing is not a crime and that his department had no authority to enforce it. Public health violations are up to health authorities, he said.
“We expect residents and visitors alike to exhibit personal responsibility at the lake,” Helms said in a statement.
The coronavirus can be spread in crowds, and health experts have stressed that people should keep their distance from others to slow its spread.
As of Monday, there had been more than 12,100 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Missouri, with 685 deaths attributed to the disease, according to the state health department’s website.
Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak
St. Louis County and the city of the same name are at the top of lists when it comes to total cases and deaths in the state. There have been 4,455 cases of COVID-19 with 386 deaths in St. Louis County, and 1,739 cases with 107 deaths in the city.
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson tweeted that many people enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend responsibly, but “too many did not,” and she noted that the virus can be spread by those who do not show any symptoms. She asked that anyone who did not socially distance or wear masks to stay home for 14 days.
Image caption
Joe Biden and his wife Jill visit the War Memorial Plaza in Delaware on Memorial Day
US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has made his first public appearance after more than two months in quarantine amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Wearing a black face mask, the former vice-president laid a wreath at a ceremony in his home state of Delaware.
It was part of event to mark Memorial Day – an annual holiday held on the last Monday of May in honour of those who died serving in the US military.
The date also marks the unofficial start of summer.
“It feels good to be out of my house,” Mr Biden told reporters through his mask, adding: “Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made. Never, ever, forget.”
Standing alongside his wife Jill, the 77-year-old then presented a wreath of white roses at Delaware’s War Memorial Plaza, before observing a moment of silence to commemorate the military personnel who fought in World War Two and the Korean War.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption
Mr Biden and his wife Jill pay their respects to fallen service members
Mr Biden last made a public appearance about 10 weeks ago. Shortly before defeating his Democratic rival Bernie Sanders in primary elections in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, the presidential candidate was forced to self-isolate because of the spread of coronavirus.
Following the election results, he gave a webcam speech appealing for Mr Sanders’ supporters from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he has continued his virtual campaign.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania also took part in a wreath-laying ceremony as part of Memorial Day commemorations.
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption
Mr Trump touches a wreath during ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption
Donald Trump attends a “socially distanced” Memorial Day ceremony at Fort McHenry in Baltimore
The president visited Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and then the historic Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
Mr Trump, who has been reluctant to wear a face mask but said recently he would do so “where it’s appropriate”, appeared without any face coverings at both events on Monday.
The US has more coronavirus cases than anywhere in the world. It has over 1.6 million known infections and is nearing 100,000 deaths linked to the virus.
All 50 US states have now partially reopened after a two-month shutdown. However, remaining restrictions vary across the country.
If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)
Demand for virtual private networks in Hong Kong surged more than six-fold last Thursday as Beijing proposed tough new national security laws for the financial hub, reflecting concerns over internet privacy, according to a VPN provider.
Atlas VPN said installations of the tool that helps people bypass web restrictions surged again on Friday, up more than three-fold from the previous day, while search interest in the keyword term “VPN” rocketed 1,680% on May 21 from a day earlier.
Search interest in the word “VPN” hit a record high on Friday, it added, citing data from Google Trends.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and is governed under a “one country, two systems” formula that guarantees it a high degree of autonomy not seen in mainland China, including freedom of expression.
The former British colony also enjoys unrestricted internet access, unlike on the mainland where the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter are blocked.
Beijing’s plans to directly enact national security legislation sent a chill through financial markets and drew a swift rebuke from foreign governments, international human rights and privacy groups, who fear it could lead to increased surveillance and censorship.
Black activists are warning Joe Biden not to pick Sen. Amy Klobuchar as his running mate; Fox News contributor Byron York reacts.
Presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is facing even more pressure to pick a woman of color as his running mate after his gaffe about black Trump supporters, Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said Monday.
“He has already said that he’s guaranteed to choose a woman,” the Fox News contributor told “America’s Newsroom.” “And he’s under increasing pressure now for it to be a woman of color.”
York said Biden was “already under pressure” before making the gaffe last week in an interview with Charlamagne tha God.
“We’ve heard about Kamala Harris, we’ve heard about Stacey Abrams, we’ve heard about Val Demings and he said they are all on his list right now,” York said.
Biden made controversial comments in an interview Friday morning with “The Breakfast Club,” After host Charlamagne tha God said he had “more questions” for him before November, Biden defended his record with issues affecting black Americans.
“I tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” he said.
Biden walked back the remarks later the same day, saying: “I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.”
“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy … No one should have to vote for any party, based on their race or religion or background,” he said.
But the remarks drew swift criticism from across the political spectrum, in particular from the Trump campaign, which sought to highlight the remarks.
York said that “it is not good” for Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that a Politico report revealed that “black activists” warned Biden about her record with African-Americans. The report noted that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., – another on Biden’s shortlist – does not face such concerns.
York said the issues stem from Klobuchar’s handling of police shootings from her time as a prosecutor. Overall, York said Biden cannot afford to “alienate” any portion of the minority community if he hopes to win in November.
Reporting was contributed by Joshua Barone, Ellen Barry, Audra D.S. Burch, Stephen Castle, Damien Cave, Michael Cooper, Michael Corkery, Ben Dooley, Jesse Drucker, Melissa Eddy, Jack Ewing, Robert Gebeloff, Katie Glueck, Maggie Haberman, Sarah Kliff, Derek Kravitz, Mark Landler, Iliana Magra, Apoorva Mandavilli, Jennifer Medina, Raphael Minder, Benjamin Mueller, Richard A. Oppel Jr., Mariel Padilla, Michael Paulson, Kai Schultz, Knvul Sheikh, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Ben Sisario, Megan Specia, Michael Wilson, Zachary Woolfe and David Yaffe-Bellany.
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has risked undermining his entire coronavirus strategy in an apparent attempt to save the career of one man.
Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s top adviser, has long been the bête noire of opponents after he masterminded not only Johnson’s election win in December, but also the highly divisive Brexit vote of 2016, which saw the U.K. vote to leave the European Union.
Now Cummings has united foes and traditional allies in a white-hot fury after it emerged that he apparently broke his own government’s lockdown restrictions, traveling 264 miles from London with his family even though his wife had symptoms of COVID-19.
It has quickly morphed into the latest and perhaps most damaging crisis to batter Johnson’s government during a pandemic that’s seen his country suffer the second-highest number of deaths in the world, more than 36,000.
The rules are clear and have been blanketed across social media, television and billboards for months. They say people in Britain “must stay at home if you or someone you live with has symptoms of coronavirus.”
Dominic Cummings, special advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, answers questions from the media in London on Monday.Jonathan Brady / Pool via Reuters
Resisting widespread calls for his firing, Cummings said Monday that he believes his actions were justified because his were “exceptional circumstances.” His wife was suffering coronavirus symptoms, and he said they wanted to be nearer relatives who could provide child care in the event they were both incapacitated.
It’s true the guidelines say that “not all these measures will be possible” for people with children, and officials have said they can be overridden if “there is an extreme risk to life.”
But many people — including more than a dozen of Johnson’s own Conservative lawmakers, as well as several senior police and health officials — say Cummings hadn’t met that criteria.
“It makes it much harder for the police going forward,” Martin Surl, the top police commissioner for the English county of Gloucester, told the BBC on Monday. “This will be quoted back at them time and time again when they try to enforce the new rules.”
Stephen Reicher, a professor at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who sits on one of the government’s advisory panels, tweeted: “I can say that in a few short minutes tonight, Boris Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust” among the public to fight COVID-19.
John Wilson, whose wife died in March after she contracted the coronavirus, was among the many grieving relatives who said they felt angry for having followed the government’s rules — only to learn that they apparently had been flouted by one of its most senior officials.
“On the day she died I could not be with her to hold her hand,” Wilson said in a letter to his member of Parliament, which he posted on Twitter before Cummings spoke. He said he had delayed writing the letter to “let my rage subside so that I can be coherent and civil.”
Radio phone-in shows have been flooded with calls from angry Britons. And the Daily Mail, a conservative tabloid that doesn’t often agree with The Guardian’s editorial line in the partisan world of British newspapers, ran with the headline “What planet are they on?” alongside pictures of Johnson and Cummings.
The incident itself may have been forgotten with a swift apology. However, it’s Johnson’s defense of Cummings — saying he “acted responsibly, legally and with integrity” — that has led the episode to dominate headlines in Britain and around the world.
To put an end to the story, Cummings called a news conference in the garden of No. 10 Downing Street on Monday, an unusual move for an unelected official who usually works behind the scenes. He offered little contrition, instead urging people to “not believe everything they read in newspapers or see on TV.”
He added that “many have been angry about what they have been seeing in the media about my actions,” saying he “made the right judgment, but I understand that others may disagree.”
It was familiar rhetoric from an iconoclastic political enforcer who has never hidden his disdain for the media and much of the political establishment that he now advises.
At the news conference, Cummings detailed how, at the end of March, his wife had become ill and they had driven to a property on his father’s farm in Durham, in the north of England. He wanted to be close to his younger family members, who live in a separate building on the farm, in case he and his wife became too ill to care for their son.
He soon suffered symptoms himself, but neither he nor his wife were ever tested, nor were their symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization. His son did briefly go to the hospital after having felt unwell but tested negative for COVID-19.
He also confirmed that he had made a second trip while in Durham to the nearby town of Barnard Castle about 30 miles away. That was at a time when nonessential journeys were strictly prohibited.
Cummings said that his eyesight had suffered during his illness and that his wife wanted him to try a shorter drive to test his vision before making the long trip back to London.
Questions still hang over that journey: It wasn’t clear why his wife, who by that time had fully recovered, didn’t drive back to the capital herself, nor why Cummings didn’t attempt a shorter test drive around the family farm.
Memorial Day is commemorated on the fourth Monday in May. While serving as the unofficial start of summer, it is mainly a time set aside to honor those who died in service to their country.
The purpose of Memorial Day and Veterans Day – marked each year in November – are very different.
Here’s the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day:
Memorial Day
Memorial Day traces its roots back the tradition of Decoration Day in the 1860s, in which the graves of war dead were decorated with flowers. Decoration Day was observed in both the North and South in the days following the Civil War.
The first large observance was held in 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery. Congress officially established Memorial Day on 1971.
Memorial Day is a time set aside for remembering and honoring military personnel that died in the service of their country, particularly those killed in battle.
Memorial Day has several unique traditions. On December 2000, Congress passed a law establishing a “The National Moment of Remembrance. The day encourages Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. for a moment of reflection.
Memorial Day has a special flag tradition as well. On Memorial Day, the flag should be flown at half staff from sunrise until noon, then raised briskly to the top of the staff until sunset in honor of the nation’s battle heroes.
Veterans Day
Veterans Day is on Nov. 11, a tradition that marks the end of World War I. The day was later expanded to include veterans of all wars, both living and dead.
Veterans Day honors all those who served in the U.S. military, whether in war or peacetime.
The U.S. has also been vocal about its support for Taiwan, incurring the wrath of Beijing, which has said that the island is the most sensitive issue in the Sino-American relationship.
On Sunday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said the U.S. should not challenge China’s red line on Taiwan.
“There’s growing concern in the mainland around the potential for Taiwan to enhance its international standing in part as a result of support from the United States, but also frankly from the outstanding job that Taiwan has done in battling the Covid-19 pandemic,” Elizabeth Economy, C.V. Starr senior fellow and director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Friday.
With the latest developments in Hong Kong, the Taiwanese people are likely to be even more wary about China’s pursuit.
Major political parties in Taiwan have rejected the “one country, two systems” model that China has been trying to sell the island. Hong Kong operates under that framework, which is supposed grant the city legal and economic systems that are separate from those of the mainland.
“I don’t think anyone in Taiwan, (or) very few people will believe in the ‘one country, two systems’ formula. So this means that Taiwan is going to drift much more out of the category of the One China complex,” said Orville Schell, Arthur Ross director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society.
“That’s very, very fraught, because then you end up with a cross-strait situation and a potential military conflict should Taiwan drift far enough that China feels it has to take some kind of demonstrative, (or) at least symbolic action to prevent it,” Schnell told CNBC on Friday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom | AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, Pool
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom gave California churches the green light Monday to reopen, three days after President Donald Trump threatened to “override” states that continued to block in-person religious services due to the pandemic.
Newsom also was facing pressure from more than 1,200 California pastors who vowed to resume services this upcoming Sunday regardless of what the governor decided. At the same time, a lawsuit filed by a Southern California church reached the U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday night.
Advertisement
Church services, which had been banned since Newsom’s March 19 order, would look dramatically different under new state Department of Public Health guidelines. Religious services and funerals can host a maximum of 100 people, or 25 percent of building capacity, whichever is lower.
The state also advised caution around church singing. A religious choir practice in Washington state became a “superspreading” event in March that resulted in the majority of attendees contracting Covid-19 and two deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Congregants engaging in singing, particularly in the choir, and group recitation, should wear face coverings at all times and when possible, these activities should be conducted outside with greater than 6-foot distancing,” state the CDPH guidelines.
While Newsom is allowing churches to resume in-person services, counties have the ability to impose stricter rules than the state and can still prohibit them.
CDPH announced that retailers are allowed to reopen statewide for in-store shopping. The vast majority of counties — 47 of 58 — had already received state permission to open in-store retail. But some of the most populous counties, including Los Angeles and several in the San Francisco Bay Area, had not requested that flexibility, either by choice or because they had not met the state’s criteria for entering “Stage 2.”
It was not immediately clear Monday how many of the 11 counties still in “Stage 1” would allow in-store retail. The latest guidelines are subject to county public health departments’ approval and will be revised in 21 days, when the state Department of Public Health will “review and assess” the impact of reopening, taking into account Covid-19 incubation periods.
Use of face coverings, social distancing, extra sanitation and temperature checks for staff are recommended for all businesses and organizations now allowed to open their doors. Retail does not include personal services such as hair salons, nail salons and barbershops.
“Together, our actions have helped bend the curve and reduce infections in our state. As sectors continue to open with changes that aim to lower risk, remember that Covid-19 is still present in our communities,” State Public Health Officer Sonia Angell said in a statement. “As more of us may be leaving our homes, keeping physical distance, wearing face coverings in public, and washing your hands frequently are more important than ever to help protect yourself and those around you.”
The new guidance issued Monday also includes guidelines for protests and “political expression,” limiting attendance using those same parameters and recommending protesters wear face coverings. The state is not prohibiting protests but warned of the health implications of mass gatherings and “strongly” recommended those acts happen online instead of in person.
“Activities like chanting, shouting, singing and group recitation negate the risk-reduction achieved through six feet of physical distancing,” CDPH said. “Failure to maintain adequate physical distancing may result in an order to disperse or other enforcement action.”
President Trump on Monday presented a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate Memorial Day.
Trump crossed the Potomac River by motorcade to lead the solemn morning ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
The president saluted the tomb as the National Anthem played. At his left, Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Mark Esper stood holding a hand over their chests.
President Donald Trump participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery
REUTERS/Erin Scott
President Donald Trump arrives with Vice President Mike Pence
REUTERS/Erin Scott
President Donald Trump participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery
PA/Chris Kleponis /POOL
President Donald Trump participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery
Getty Images/Nicholas Kamm
First lady Melania Trump watches as President Donald Trump salutes while participating in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery
Trump then approached the wreath, paused in reflection and touched it before rejoining Pence and Esper, again saluting during a playing of “Taps.”
Cabinet members including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao joined Trump at the event.
Later on Monday, Trump is scheduled to visit Fort McHenry, a retired island fortress outside Baltimore whose defiance of a British attack in 1814 inspired Francis Scott Key to write the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Trump’s trip to Baltimore faces opposition from some local officials, and comes as Trump encourages states to reopen their economies after more than two months of coronavirus-triggered shutdowns. Baltimore remains under a stay-at-home order.
The Fort McHenry trip is one of the first Trump has taken as he resumes domestic travel. This month he twice visited Camp David in Maryland and toured a mask factory in Arizona, a protective gear distribution center in Pennsylvania, and a ventilator production facility in Michigan.
This is a widget area - If you go to "Appearance" in your WP-Admin you can change the content of this box in "Widgets", or you can remove this box completely under "Theme Options"
