LONDON (Reuters) – The United States has evidence China is trying to slow down or sabotage the development of a COVID-19 vaccine by Western countries, Republican senator Rick Scott said on Sunday.
“We have got to get this vaccine done. Unfortunately we have evidence that communist China is trying to sabotage us or slow it down,” he said during an interview on BBC TV.
“China does not want us … to do it first, they have decided to be an adversary to Americans and I think to democracy around the world.”
Asked what evidence the United States had, Scott declined to give details but said it had come through the intelligence community.
“This vaccine is really important to all of us getting our economy going again. What I really believe is whether England does it first or we do it first, we are going to share. Communist China, they are not going to share.”
Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Jason Neely
A federal judge on Friday ordered Denver law enforcement to not use chemical agents and projectiles on peaceful protesters.
“The Denver Police Department [DPD] has failed in its duty to police its own,” Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote in his ruling, according to The Colorado Sun.
Jackson’s orders came late Friday evening, following nine consecutive days of demonstrations over police brutality and the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25.
“The Court has reviewed video evidence of numerous incidents in which officers used pepper-spray on individual demonstrators who appeared to be standing peacefully … none of whom appeared to be engaging in violence or destructive behavior,” the judge wrote in the order.
The order will be temporary but effective immediately.
The DPD posted a statement on Twitter acknowledging the temporary restraining order, adding, “We will comply with the judge’s directions, many of which are already in line with our community-consulted Use of Force Policy.”
(1/2) #ALERT#Denver – A federal judge issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) clarifying #DPD use of non-lethal dispersant devices. In the meantime, we will comply with the judge’s directions, many of which are already in line with our community-consulted Use of Force Policy.
— Denver Police Dept. (@DenverPolice) June 6, 2020
The Colorado Sun reported eyewitness accounts of law enforcement using tear gas and pepper balls against protesters and people without provocation over several nights of demonstrations.
The DPD has launched an internal investigation into one instance that occurred on May 29 when a man stopped his car at an intersection after a projectile hit it. Police then fired multiple pepper balls at his vehicle after he announced that his pregnant girlfriend was in the car.
The first day of Denver’s demonstrations saw buildings and vehicles vandalized as well as fires set, although recent nights of protests have reportedly been less confrontational.
Jackson wrote that officers can use force only after proper notice is given to demonstrators to disperse and adequate time to move is offered.
“If a store’s windows must be broken to prevent a protestor’s facial bones from being broken or eye being permanently damaged, that is more than a fair trade,” Jackson wrote. “If a building must be graffiti-ed to prevent the suppression of free speech, that is a fair trade. The threat to physical safety and free speech outweighs the threat to property.”
Tropical Storm Cristobal’s outer bands, packing high winds and rain, arrived on the Louisiana coastline early Sunday, with its eye forecast to make landfall south of Houma after 1 p.m., but only with top winds of 50 mph.
The storm’s center should slowly move north to a point just east of St. Francisville by 1 a.m. Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters continue to warn that, although the storm has not intensified, Cristobal continues to pose a significant threat for heavy rainfall, storm surge of as much as 6 feet above ground level outside of hurricane levees, and for tropical-storm-force winds. The Weather Prediction Center has listed the area east of Interstate 55 in Louisiana, stretching through south Mississippi as being at unusual high risk of flash flooding through Monday.
But Cristobal continues to be fairly disorganized, and is expected to stay that way until making landfall.
“Cristobal continues to resemble a subtropical cyclone more than a tropical cyclone,” said Senior Hurricane Specialist Jack Beven in a 4 a.m. forecast discussion message. “The convection near the center remains limited, although it has become a little better organized during the past several hours.”
He said recent data from Hurricane Hunter aircraft show that the radius of its maximum winds remains at or above 90 nautical miles from its center.
National Weather Service
Where is Tropical Storm Cristobal?
At 7 a.m., Cristobal’s center was about 70 miles south of Grand Isle, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, still moving directly north at 12 mph.
At 5 a.m., New Orleans Lakefront Airport was seeing wind gusts as high as 38 mph, almost tropical storm strength, while Houma measured gusts of 24 mph.
Forecasters don’t believe Cristobal will gain any additional strength before landfall, and it should drop below tropical storm strength by Monday morning.
“The broad nature of the cyclone and significant dry air entrainment is likely to prevent intensification before landfall, and the new intensity forecast holds the intensity constant at 45 knots (50 mph) until that time,” Beven said.
“Cristobal remains a broad and asymmetric storm,” he said. “Therefore, one should not focus on the exact forecast track, as the associated winds, storm surge, and rainfall will extend well away from the center.”
Watches and warnings?
A tropical storm warning remains in effect for all of southeastern Louisiana, extending west to Intracoastal City in Vermilion Parish.
A storm surge warning is in effect for coastal areas from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Ocean Springs, Miss., and a storm surge watch is in effect from east of Morgan City to the mouth of the Mississippi. The Slidell NWS received reports Sunday morning of storm surge on shoreline roads in Waveland and Pass Christian, Miss.
National Weather Service
What are the risks?
“The immediate concerns for our area continue to be heavy rain and surge,” said forecasters with the Slidell office of the National Weather Service in a morning forecast discussion message. “Wind impacts surely cannot be ruled out as well as some isolated tornadoes.”
All of southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi remains under a flood watch through Tuesday morning. The biggest risk of heavy rain will be east of Interstate 55, where rainfall could total 8 inches, with isolated higher amounts. To the west, rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches are expected.
Forecasters have posted flood warnings for a number of locations on North Shore rivers, as the rainfall is likely to cause them to leave their banks by Monday.
When is the next update?
The next advisory is expected at 10 a.m. from the National Hurricane Center.
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Vice President Mike Pence joins Jesse Watters to discuss President Trump’s photo-op at St. Johns Episcopal Church.
Vice President Mike Pence addressed President Trump’s visit earlier this week to St. John’s Episcopal Church while appearing on Saturday’s “Watters’ World” for an exclusive interview, and he also slammed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for not addressing the victims of the looting and rioting.
“We see in Joe Biden a willingness to align himself with people that are rioting on the streets, destroying the property and livelihoods, claiming the lives of innocent civilians and law enforcement officers, and yet not speaking a word on behalf of those that have been victims,” Pence told host Jesse Watters. “It’s all a part of the predictable, divisive politics of the American left.”
Pence said Trump’s church visit showed that America would not tolerate violence during peaceful protests.
“What that said to me was that here in America, we will not tolerate burning churches, rioting and looting or taking advantage of what would otherwise be peaceful protests to pursue criminal aims,” Pence said of the symbolism of the event.
The president and Attorney General William Barr received backlash for ordering law enforcement to forcefully move peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park for what critics called a “photo-op,” using smoke canisters and pepper balls. It was later reported that it was Barr who ordered the protesters removed. Trump was also criticized for using the Bible as a “prop.” The church’s leaders had also spoken out against the president.
Pence also defended Trump against the criticism of former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who blasted the president in a statement to The Atlantic this week, accusing him of dividing the country in the wake of George Floyd‘s death.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mattis had said. “Instead he tries to divide us.”
The vice president said he hasn’t spoken to Mattis but that the former defense secretary is “wrong.”
“What this president has done in recent days is what every American expects a president to do in times of crisis,” Pence told Watters. “And that is put the lives and the property and the liberty of every American first.”
Some of those tactics and a remark he made in an empty room at City Hall on Monday, with reporters watching remotely because of COVID-19, have left him scrambling to preserve all he has worked for as a chief staking his legacy on repairing frayed relationships with black and Latino residents.
Minutes after saying that looters were as responsible for Floyd’s death as were the Minneapolis police officers who held down his neck with a knee or watched it happen, Moore walked back the words.
But no matter how much he repeated and rephrased the apology, the damage was done.
The following day, he sat silently at a Police Commission meeting for nine hours as citizen after citizen — several hundred in all — demanded his resignation. While Mayor Eric Garcetti and other officials have expressed support for Moore, a petition calling for him to be fired because of the remark has more than 42,000 signatures.
The comment and the uneven response to the unfolding unrest have put Moore on the defensive.
As the situation spiraled out of control in the Fairfax District last weekend, Moore ordered officers to stop striking protesters with batons. On Tuesday, Garcetti said he has instructed the LAPD to minimize the use of foam bullets and batons, and “if we can, to not use them at all.”
Moore has tried to show another side of the LAPD, sympathizing with the public outcry over Floyd’s killing, acknowledging the racial inequities in American society and sometimes kneeling in front of protesters to show his willingness to listen.
“We see the hurt. We know and recognize the pain, the anguish,” Moore said in an interview with The Times. “We’re disgusted, and we share so many of the same emotions with regard to this latest episode that George Floyd represents and with regard to issues of black people and all communities of color and their standing in America and the inequities that exist today and the history that has made that existence seem forever.”
But his Monday comments, while focused on looters, were perceived by many as at odds with that ethos.
“We didn’t have protests last night. We had criminal acts,” Moore said. “We didn’t have people mourning the death of this man, George Floyd. We had people capitalizing. His death is on their hands as much as it is those officers.”
Moore said he spoke off the cuff, on little sleep after a long day, and “entirely made the wrong connection” in searching for an analogy.
He meant to say that the looters were distracting from the focus on racism in policing sparked by Floyd’s death and the nationwide protests that followed, he said.
“I regret that that misstatement and that mistake has taken as much time away from focusing on the true issues and true concerns of police reform, of societal reform, of how we make our society fair to all, and particularly addressing the injustices involving our black communities,” he said.
Moore is not known for being a stylish orator. His statements often devolve into bureaucratese. But he chooses his words carefully and is not prone to gaffes. That made the remark all the more striking.
Some community leaders say it reminded them of something an LAPD leader would say in the 1980s and early 1990s, at a time of widespread police abuse targeting minorities. Moore was a young officer back then and rose through the ranks of a department that spent two decades enacting wrenching reforms, trying to repair relationships with communities of color and working to build a more diverse police force.
“Was he in a candid moment actually telling the truth? If so, that candid moment told me one thing,” said longtime civil rights leader Earl Ofari Hutchinson. “Has this department, with its promises of reform, is there a danger of showing the old face of the LAPD? Is there a danger of slipping back into that?”
Hutchinson said he is not calling for the chief to step down, despite his grave concern over the remark. But he said Moore has work to do to build back his credibility.
“What the chief doesn’t want is to be the second coming of Daryl Gates,” Hutchinson added, referring to the former police chief known for his hard-charging crime-fighting tactics, including Operation Hammer, with officers attacking apartment buildings with battering rams and rounding up thousands of people in South L.A. in 1988.
Many protesters and Black Lives Matter leaders say it’s time for him to go.
Paula Minor, an organizer for Black Lives Matter, said Moore’s remark shows that his mindset is closer to Gates’ than to a reformer who will work with activists to change policing in the city.
“He may sound better, look better and use better words,” Minor said. “But the mentality, the attitude is the same. It’s a ‘them,’ it’s a ‘those people’ philosophy. That’s why our policing system truly has bias against black people.”
Moore appears to have survived the crisis, for now. Garcetti has rallied behind him, as have City Council members.
Garcetti said he has known Moore for decades, and the chief could not possibly have meant that looters are “the equivalent of murderers.”
“If I believed for a moment that the chief believed that in his heart, he would no longer be the chief,” Garcetti said.
But Moore’s misstep highlights the fragility of the progress the LAPD has made since the 1992 riots, which still haunt him and other veteran officers, and the enormity of the task ahead, once the protesters go home and the shattered windows of looted businesses are replaced.
The Times reported Thursday on a growing number of videos showing disturbing behavior by officers against protesters. While he contended that violent individuals have “intermixed” with peaceful protesters at some scenes, Moore conceded that footage of officers swinging at people with batons and firing foam bullets has given him pause and will be investigated.
On Friday, U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) wrote a letter to the civilian Police Commission demanding an investigation into how the department responded to peaceful demonstrations in the Fairfax District last Saturday.
“Folks who loot or commit arson or assault police officers are committing crimes, and that cannot be condoned or tolerated. At the same time, you can’t attribute what some folks did on one day and then deal with peaceful protesters on a different day and hit them with batons,” Lieu said Friday.
In addition to the investigations, Moore must remake the department following the outline described by Garcetti and the civilian Police Commission on Wednesday, including increased training, more emphasis on community policing, greater scrutiny of officers’ use of force and $100 million to $150 million in cuts out of an overall $1.86-billion budget.
Informing his actions will be the demands, grievances and raw emotions of the protesters he spoke with on the streets, as well as the needs of his 10,000 police officers, some of whom were upset by the vitriol directed at them during the unrest and some of whom were injured in the chaos.
Since becoming chief in June 2018 after more than three decades with the LAPD, Moore has attended countless community events — violence prevention groups, life skills meetings for formerly incarcerated people, Sunday church services, black university alumni gatherings.
But those efforts at relationship-building and mutual understanding can be undone by police brutality caught on a video from halfway across the country — or by a leader’s jarring remark that he quickly retracted.
“We work hard for trust,” Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff said. “Look at it as a bank account, where deposits can be only made a dollar at a time, by doing the right things, but withdrawals are made from all over the country at a million dollars each.”
Soboroff said he views Moore in the context of his long career and his value to law enforcement. Contrary to his one unfortunate statement, Moore is a firm believer in community policing and deescalation techniques that reduce the use of force, Soboroff said.
Moore’s predecessor, Charlie Beck, was met at every weekly Police Commission meeting by Black Lives Matter activists calling for his firing.
Moore had escaped that treatment — until his remark about the looters.
Now, he has become the focus of ire. And it remains unclear how much the historic protests will change the political dynamics at City Hall. Garcetti has proposed cuts at the department, though only a fraction of what Black Lives Matter wanted.
Still, the protests are likely to significantly expand the clout of Black Lives Matter and other police reform groups.
Moore continues to have support from some black community leaders the department has cultivated in recent years.
As unrest unfolded around the city last weekend, Perry Crouch heard that young people were planning to loot a Smart & Final store near the Jordan Downs housing development in Watts.
Crouch, a longtime Watts resident and member of the Watts Gang Task Force, was determined to keep looting out of his neighborhood. He worked with the captain of Southeast station to coordinate the response and stood with police officers to protect the store.
It was a far cry from the days when some LAPD leaders were openly racist, Crouch said. Things started to change when Bill Bratton became chief in 2002 and assigned a new generation of police captains to work with community leaders on common goals, he said.
But despite the progress, the LAPD has much more work to do with young black residents who feel stereotyped and undervalued, Crouch said.
“Young people just want them to listen, to stop judging me as a gang member because I wear baggy pants, to stop judging me as a criminal, as a person not worthy of respect,” he said. “Talk to me. See what’s on my mind.”
Times staff writers Emily Alpert Reyes and David Zahniser contributed to this report.
Thousands of demonstrators fanned out on streets throughout Washington, D.C. for the largest day of protests since the death of George Floyd.
The intersection of 16 & H streets near the White House — the site of volatile confrontations earlier this week — instead was peaceful, as a diversity of marchers shouted Floyd’s name and other protest chants. Instead of one organized march, the day saw different groups break away to walk from the Capitol or the Lincoln Memorial.
The fence that now separates the intersection from Lafayette Square Park is now dotted with signs and messages from demonstrators, including one that read, “Defund MPD,” referring to the city’s Metropolitan Police Department.
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A smattering of officers were on the other side in the park — a more subdued presence in contrast to the line up of authorities in riot gear from earlier in the week. But the White House itself is now separated by fencing and concrete barriers, stretching a block or more on each side, and even extending to Constitution Avenue to the south.
Crowds packed onto 16th Street for blocks, at times breaking out in dance and song. At the order of Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, the words “Black Lives Matter” were painted in large yellow letters down 16th street to end at H Street, while the corner of 16th and I streets was renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza. The Motion Picture Association, which is located at the intersection, placed “Black Lives Matter” posters on its boarded up windows.
Bowser spoke to demonstrators briefly on Saturday, chiding the Trump administration for clearing away protesters in a chaotic clash on Monday, followed by the president’s walk across Lafayette Park to St. John’s Church, where he held up a Bible for camera.
“If you are like me, on Monday, you saw something that you hoped you would never see in the United States of America: Federal police moving on American people, peacefully protesting in front of the People’s House,” Bowser said.
She added, “If he can take over Washington, D.C., he can come for any state and none of us will be safe. So today we pushed the Army away from our city. Our soldiers should not be treated that way, should not be asked to move on American citizens.”
On Saturday, groups gathered at St. John’s to sit down or snap photos. At the front of the church, near where Trump stood just a few days earlier, one man dressed up as the Holy Bible, and waved a sign that read, “Use Me Not For Your Bigotry.”
Nearby, Basil Abdul Khabir, 57, of Washington, sat near the boarded up front entrance of the Hay Adams Hotel — one of the toniest in the city — and handed out crackers, cookies and water, a gesture to honor his deceased wife, he said.
“I think it is beautiful,” he said of the scene. “I think it is a good spirit that is going on. It is a good positive energy that is flowing through the crowd. We seem like a socialist country today, because everybody is out here helping one another. Everybody is out here passing out stuff, feeding people, being hospitable to one another. Everybody is on their best manners. Everybody is being very cautious and overly manner-able.”
He said that get grew up as a “militant young guy,” but that his father was involved in the 1963 March on Washington, as he worked for the company that made the signs for the event.
Khabir said that the recent protests gave him hope that voices are being heard, but he doubted that significant change would not happen without more tumult.
“What I am seeing is Dr. King’s dream and Malcolm X’s message come through, because Malcolm X’s message was that ‘By any means necessary,’ and Dr. King’s message was that we would see white kids and black kids hand in hand,” he said. “And that’s what we said.”
Near the fence along Lafayette Park, there was a heated argument between some demonstrators and a woman with a bullhorn holding a sign that read, “Democrats use Black lives to get votes.” But the situation did not escalate, after a man stood in the middle of the crowd and said it was “a waste of energy, a waste of time,” to argue with her, and told them to focus on the November election.
Other marchers included a group of medical professionals and students, calling themselves the White Coats for Black lives, a bit of a reminder that the protests are taking place in the middle of a pandemic. Most of the demonstrators throughout the city wore masks, but six-feet social distancing was difficult.
Ayah Davis-Karim, 49, of Oakton, VA, broke away from a stream of demonstrators making their way along Pennsylvania Avenue.
Asked why she felt it was important to come out on a hot day, she said, “We’re tired. I’m the mother for four black boys and one black girl,” said “When is it going to end? They are scared to go out. They are scared to interact with police. They’re asking, ‘Am I next?”
She added, “My eldest is 23, and my youngest is 10, and my youngest sent us a graphic the other day with all these names of black people who died as a result of police brutality. And it just broke everyone’s heart because it was like, he’s so young for that to be on his mind.”
Davis-Karim held a sign with the message of “We Built This” and an image of the American flag with the Stars and Stripes taking on the colors of the Black liberation flag.
“Clearly this country was built on the backs of enslaved Africans, on stolen land, and I just want to remind people when we say, ‘Black Lives Matter,” we have just as much if not more right in the say of how this country is run. The colors are the color of the Black liberation flag, and I just wanted to stress that we want freedom and we want it here in America.”
Aaron Torgalski, 39, and Robert McCabe, 32, turned themselves in Saturday, a day after footage of officers shoving 75-year-old Martin Gugino circulated widely. In the video, Gugino falls to the ground and appears to bleed from his ear.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in cities across the United States on Saturday in what were some of the largest protests yet seen in the unrest triggered by the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer.
At the same time, a long line of people, some chanting “No justice, no peace”, waited outside a church in North Carolina for a memorial service for Floyd as ceremonies to mark his life and mourn his death continued.
In Washington thousands gathered at numerous rallies , from the Lincoln Memorial, to Freedom Plaza, to Capitol Hill. The atmosphere was peaceful and full of chanting and shouting, though there was a heavy security presence, including members of the national guard.
The White House also now stands behind a new, reinforced fence, lending an element of siege to a presidency, city and country in turmoil after a fierce debate about racism and police brutality was triggered by Floyd’s death.
Washington had prepared by closing certain streets to vehicles and telling drivers to avoid coming into the city if possible.
Thousands gathered at different spots around the city in the early afternoon, and started to converge into one large demonstration. Hundreds of protestors kneeled for nine minutes outside a Senate office building, in homage to Floyd.
In some places in the city the atmosphere seemed almost like a street party, as TV showed images of demonstrators talking to soldiers standing in combat fatigues next to their Humvees. In another protest, players and staff members for the NFL’s Denver Broncos marched from the state capitol to the Civic Center park downtown.
“We as a black community need our white brothers and sisters to explain to the rest of the white brothers and sisters out there what it means for ‘Black Lives Matter’,” said player Justin Simmons.
In New York City, multiple protests emerged in the late morning, as they have every day for more than a week. A group of teachers marched in downtown Manhattan holding up a banner that read “Black Students Matter” and signs demanding an end to the school-to-prison pipeline.
A demonstration packed Washington Square Park with thousands later in the afternoon.
Protests unfolded in many other cities as the day continued.
Thousands marched through the streets of Chicago, chanting and waving signs. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was hopeful that peaceful protests would continue through the weekend, but a nightly curfew remained in effect. The city also hired three private security firms to protect shops, grocery stores and pharmacies.
In Philadelphia, thousands of people demanding justice for Floyd marched peacefully through the city chanting “No justice, no peace!” Demonstrators gathered near the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its celebrated “Rocky” steps, then set off for city hall, where they chanted at police officers and national guard members.
About 100 protesters gathered at Donald Trump’s golf resort just outside Miami in a protest organized by Latinos for Black Lives Matter. Many carried signs saying “vote him out” and “don’t be a bunker boy”, the latter a reference to reports that the president went into the White House bunker when protests in Washington grew more violent.
While previous days of protests have seen violent crackdowns from police against protestors, Saturday’s huge demonstrations have so far appeared peaceful as huge crowds move through their city’s streets.
In North Carolina, a hearse carrying Floyd’s body arrived Saturday morning for a public viewing of his casket and private memorial held in Hoke county in the southern state. Hundreds of people from the area came to pay their respects. A group of mourners on horseback visited the church in tribute to Floyd.
Floyd was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina – a city just east of Hoke county. Though he spent much of his life in Houston, much of Floyd’s family is still there, the Charlotte Observer reported. Only family members were invited to a funeral to be held in the afternoon, though it was broadcasted live.
The governor of North Carolina ordered flags to be raised at half-staff on Saturday in Floyd’s honor.
The memorial in North Carolina is Floyd’s second. A memorial was held at a university in Minneapolis, two miles from where Floyd was killed. A third and final memorial will be held in Houston, where Floyd will be laid to rest.
Meanwhile, two Buffalo police officers pleaded not guilty to assault after video emerged of them pushing a 75-year-old to the ground during protests over Floyd’s death. The man was shown bleeding after striking his head as he fell.
When the police officers left the court building earlier on Saturday, they were greeted by dozens of their colleagues who were cheering for them.
Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe have both been suspended over the incident, which was viewed millions of times on social media and triggered widespread rage. Buffalo police initially said the man had tripped during a confrontation but the city’s mayor later condemned the incident.
On Friday night, the player directed an Instagram post to the president. “We can no longer use the flag to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities,” he said.
Reporting was contributed by Davey Alba, Livia Albeck-Ripka, Emily Badger, Mike Baker, Peter Baker, Kim Barker, Ken Belson, Katie Benner, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Julie Bosman, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Julia Carmel, Damien Cave, Emily Cochrane, Nick Corasaniti, Maria Cramer, Michael Crowley, Elizabeth Dias, John Eligon, Reid J. Epstein, Tess Felder, Lisa Friedman, Thomas Fuller, Matt Furber, David Gelles, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Katie Glueck, Erica L. Green, Anemona Hartocollis, Christine Hauser, Jack Healy, Shawn Hubler, Jon Hurdle, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Thomas Kaplan, Neil MacFarquhar, Iliana Magra, Sarah Mervosh, Benjamin Mueller, Richard A. Oppel Jr., Elian Peltier, Richard Pérez-Peña, Campbell Robertson, Katie Rogers, Simon Romero, Eric Schmitt, Mitch Smith, Carly Stern, Derrick Taylor, Neil Vigdor and Daniel Victor.
After months of fierce campaigning — and a worldwide pandemic interrupting the normal primary schedule — former Vice President Joe Biden has officially earned enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination for president.
Biden, who has been the presumptive Democratic nominee since Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out on April 8, earned the last few delegates he needed to reach the 1,991-delegate threshold for nomination following primary races in seven states and the District of Columbia Tuesday. He now has 1,995 delegates with eight states and three US territories still left to vote.
“It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded — and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party,” Biden said in a statement Friday evening.
The former vice president’s campaign got off to a slow start: He finished fourth in Iowa and left New Hampshire early, having finished near the bottom of the pack in that primary. His prospects turned around on the strength of a victory in the South Carolina primary, which kicked off successive wins across the South, giving him an insurmountable delegate advantage.
But the coronavirus pandemic interrupted Biden’s campaign plans, postponing many primary races, and forcing the candidate to run virtual events from his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Biden will officially be nominated at the Democratic National Convention, which was originally scheduled to be held in mid-July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — however, the pandemic forced the party to reschedule for the week of August 17. He won’t be able to use general election funds until his nomination is made official at the convention.
The Biden campaign, along with the Democratic National Committee, raised $60.5 million in April, the last month for which reported data is available. The fundraising haul brought them close to even with the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s fundraising efforts for that month, although the Republicans have a massive ($255 million to Biden’s $97.5 million) cash-on-hand advantage.
Despite that financial disadvantage, Biden has enjoyed a steady lead in general election polling. A recent NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll of 1,062 US adults found Biden leading Trump 50 percent to 43 percent, a 7 percentage point lead — which is outside the margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.
The president’s approval rating has fallen as the twin crises of mass protests against police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the pandemic have deepened. Biden seemed to recognize the unsettling moment as he acknowledged reaching the delegate threshold Friday.
“I’m once again asking every American who feels knocked down, counted out, and left behind, to join our campaign,” he said in the statement. “Because we aren’t just building the movement that will defeat Donald Trump, we are building the movement that will transform our nation.”
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Aaron Torgalski, 39, and Robert McCabe, 32, turned themselves in Saturday, a day after footage of officers shoving 75-year-old Martin Gugino circulated widely. In the video, Gugino falls to the ground and appears to bleed from his ear.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos posted an email to Instagram Friday expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement in reply to an upset customer.
The screenshot of an email from a customer said it was “disturbing” and “offensive” that Amazon posted a message on its website in solidarity with the movement. The customer’s name was blurred, but he used the phrase “ALL LIVES MATTER!” which is considered offensive by many, as it seeks to supercede the intended message.
Retail storefronts and those in shopping malls can open for browsing — with requirements for masks and social distancing. No more than eight people, including employees, will be allowed for every 1,000 square feet of indoor space, or 40 percent of a store’s maximum occupancy.
For those shopping for makeup and clothes: There can be no “sampling or application of personal goods (i.e., makeup, perfume, lotion),” and fitting rooms for trying on clothes will be closed.
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Restaurants initially will only be allowed to offer outdoor dining for now. Tables must be 6 feet apart or be separated by walls or 6-foot-high Plexiglass dividers. Parties will be capped at six, and diners won’t be allowed to sit at the bar. Printed menus must be disposed of after each use, and tables must be sanitized between seatings.
Restaurant employees will need to wear masks, as will patrons walking the floors. But diners don’t need to wear their face covering while seated.
Restaurants also should get diners’ contact information, and in the event of a presumptive or positive case of COVID-19 in a worker, patron, or vendor, the restaurant must immediately shut down for 24 hours to be cleaned and disinfected.
Beer gardens, breweries, wineries, and distilleries have gotten the go-ahead to open if they are “providing seated food service under retail food permits issued by municipal authorities.”
Day camps and child care facilities — but not overnight camps — will be allowed to reopen after meeting requirements for keeping children and staff safe.
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Children and staff must have their temperatures checked every day before they enter. Parents will also have to answer a series of questions about the health of the child and others in their household, including specifics on individual symptoms, before the child can enter a day care space.
Children will be restricted to groups of 10 and must remain with the same staff and the same children throughout the day. Staff and children over 2 are encouraged to wear masks whenever 6 feet of physical distancing is not possible. The requirements cover all programs serving children and youths, including recreational summer programs, camps, home-based child care, and center-based child care.
The state will allow health care providers to incrementally resume elective procedures and services, including routine office visits. Beginning June 10, hospital patients will be allowed visitors, one at a time, and patients can bring a companion to any ambulatory care appointment.
Residents of nursing homes, group homes, and children’s facilities will also allow outdoor visits, on a staggered calendar. The state’s Soldiers’ Homes in Holyoke and Chelsea will begin allowing outdoor visits on June 15, as long as infection rates remain stable. Both facilities were hit hard by COVID.
Limited organized youth and adult amateur sports programs and activities will be allowed to resume. Adults can only play outdoors; supervised youth programs and activities can be held indoors.
Professional sports practice and training programs also can resume under Phase 2, though no games can yet be played.
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Hotels, motels, inns, and other short-term lodgings that were restricted to serving essential workers and vulnerable populations will be allowed to reopen to other guests.
Within guest rooms and suites, hotels must take out pens, paper, and any magazines, directories, and brochures. They are also required to sanitize all hard surfaces “at a minimum each time a guest checks out and before the next guest is admitted,” as well as launder all linens, bedspreads, and covers.
Car dealerships, playgrounds, driving ranges, flight schools, and funeral homes can open Monday.
Minor, nonconstruction-related home improvements also can resume, including the installation of carpets, home theaters, and security systems.
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