GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City flattened three buildings and killed at least 23 people on Sunday, medics said, making it the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and the territory’s militant Hamas rulers nearly a week ago.
The Gaza Health Ministry said another 50 people were wounded in the attack. Rescuers were racing to pull survivors and bodies from the rubble.
Earlier, the Israeli military said it destroyed the home of Gaza’s top Hamas leader in a separate strike. It was the third such attack in the last two days.
Israel appears to have stepped up strikes in recent days to inflict as much damage as possible on Hamas as efforts to broker a cease-fire accelerate. A U.S. diplomat is in the region to try to de-escalate tensions, and the U.N. Security Council is set to meet Sunday.
The military said it struck the homes of Yehiyeh Sinwar, the most senior Hamas leader inside the territory, and his brother Muhammad, another senior Hamas member. On Saturday it destroyed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a senior figure in Hamas’ political branch.
Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman confirmed the strike on Sinwar’s house in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis to army radio. The army spokesman said the home of Sinwar’s brother, who is in charge of Hamas’ “logistics and personnel,” was also destroyed.
Hamas’ upper echelon has gone into hiding in Gaza, and it is unlikely any were at home at the time of the strikes. Hamas’ top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, divides his time between Turkey and Qatar, both of which provide political support to the group.
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group have acknowledged 20 fighters killed since the fighting broke out Monday, while Israel says the real number is far higher.
The latest round of fighting — the worst since the 2014 Gaza war — has killed at least 145 Palestinians in Gaza, including 41 children and 23 women. Eight Israelis have been killed, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.
Hamas and other militant groups have fired some 2,900 rockets into Israel since Monday, when tensions over a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families boiled over.
About half of those projectiles have fallen short or been intercepted, according to the Israeli military, but rockets have reached major cities and sown widespread panic.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across the impoverished and blockaded territory, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians, and brought down a number of high-rise buildings, including one that housed The Associated Press’ Gaza office.
Early on Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck several buildings and roads in central Gaza City. Photos circulated by residents and journalists showed the airstrikes punched a crater that blocked one of the main roads leading to Shifa hospital, the largest medical center in the strip.
The Health Ministry said the latest airstrikes left at least two dead and 25 wounded, including children and women. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Since the conflict began, Israel has leveled a number of Gaza City’s tallest office and residential buildings, alleging they house Hamas military infrastructure. On Saturday, it turned to the 12-story al-Jalaa Building, where the offices of the AP, the TV network Al-Jazeera and other media outlets are located, along with several floors of apartments.
“The campaign will continue as long as it is required,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech Saturday. He alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building.
Israel routinely cites a Hamas presence as a reason for targeting certain locations in airstrikes, including residential buildings. The military also has accused the militant group of using journalists as human shields, but provided no evidence to back up the claims.
The AP has operated from the building for 15 years, including through three previous wars between Israel and Hamas. During those conflicts as well as the current one, the news agency’s cameras from its top floor office and roof terrace offered 24-hour live shots as militants’ rockets arched toward Israel and Israeli airstrikes hammered the city and its surroundings.
“We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building,” AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement. “This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk.”
In the afternoon, the military called the building’s owner and warned a strike would come within an hour. AP staffers and other occupants evacuated safely. Soon after, three missiles hit the building and destroyed it, bringing it crashing down in a giant cloud of dust.
“The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today,” Pruitt said. “We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza.”
“This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life,” he said, adding that the AP was seeking information from the Israeli government and was engaged with the U.S. State Department to learn more.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken later spoke by phone with Pruitt, offering his support for independent journalists and media organizations, and the White House said it had communicated directly with Israel to urge safety for journalists.
President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority is confined to parts of the occupied West Bank, on Saturday. The Biden administration has affirmed its support for Israel while working to de-escalate the crisis. U.S. diplomat Hady Amr has been dispatched to the region as part of efforts to broker a truce.
The tensions began in east Jerusalem earlier this month, when Palestinians protested attempts by settlers to forcibly evict a number of Palestinian families from their homes and Israeli police measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque, a frequent flashpoint located on a mount in the Old City revered by Muslims and Jews.
Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem late Monday, triggering the Israeli assault on Gaza.
The turmoil has also spilled over elsewhere, fueling protests in the occupied West Bank and stoking violence within Israel between its Jewish and Arab citizens, with clashes and vigilante attacks on people and property.
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Krauss reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Isaac Scharf in Jerusalem contributed.
Schools should continue to require face masks “at all times, by all people in school facilities” for the rest of the academic year, according to updated CDC guidance issued Saturday.
Strict rules requiring mask use and physical distancing should remain in schools nationwide “regardless of the level of community transmission” of coronavirus, the CDC insisted.
That’s because “students will not be fully vaccinated by the end of the 2020-2021 school year,” the document explained. In addition, it said, school systems will need time to make “systems and policy adjustments” relating to their mask rules.
The CDC is still recommending schools to keep social distancing in schools as well.Mark Lennihan/AP
No coronavirus vaccine has yet been authorized for children under age 12, and the Pfizer two-dose jab won approval for 12-to-15-year-olds just days ago — not enough time before the school year ends for full immunity to kick in.
In addition, mask rules should be followed by school administrators, teachers and visitors, even if they are fully vaccinated — to “encourage modeling of correct and consistent mask use” for students, the agency said.
After nearly a week of searching, and enough legal twists and turns to write a movie plot, the tiger seen roaming the streets of a neighborhood in Houston has been found.
The tiger, named India, was found unharmed Saturday evening, after the pet’s owner got in contact with the Houston Police Department and said she wanted to surrender the animal.
“We are happy to report that the missing tiger seen in a Houston neighborhood last week has been found and appears to be unharmed,” the police department wrote on Twitter.
The tiger was brought to BARC Houston, the city’s animal shelter, by the woman, police said.
“I think the public thought that it would be easy to catch a tiger, but it wasn’t at all,” HPD Cmdr. Ron Borza said at a press conference Saturday night. “I presumed right that it was still in Houston and I’m glad it worked out this way.”
Borza said the woman who surrendered the tiger was the wife of Victor Cuevas, who was previously taken into custody Monday night at his mother’s house in Richmond, Texas, according to the Houston Police Department.
The Houston Police Department also shared video of someone feeding the tiger after it was recovered.
Emily Ehrhorn, with the Humane Society of the United States, told ABC News they expect to move India from Houston’s Animal Control to their sanctuary at some point Saturday night.
“Just because we got India back today, doesn’t mean there aren’t other exotic animals in the city of Houston,” Borza said. I’d like to round them all up and put them in a safe environment, because it’s not safe in an apartment, it’s not safe in a house. They need to be with other animals.”
It is illegal to own a tiger in the city of Houston, officials said. Borza said India is only 9 months old and already weighs about 175 pounds.
The saga of the loose tiger began Sunday night when users on the Nextdoor app in west Houston began sharing news of seeing the big cat. Soon after, video of the cat began to emerge on social media.
In one video, a man who is allegedly Cuevas is seen approaching the cat, kissing it on the nose and taking it back inside a nearby house.
Cuevas, 26, allegedly fled the scene in a vehicle with the tiger Sunday night just as police were arriving, but he no longer had the tiger when police arrested him.
Cuevas was charged Monday with felony evading police.
Police said at the time of his arrest that Cuevas was the owner of the animal, though he has denied that throughout the week. Borza reiterated it was Cuevas’ tiger Saturday night, and said they don’t plan to charge his wife at this time.
Most recently, Michael Elliott, Cuevas’ attorney, said Friday after a court appearance that the cat did not belong to his client.
“Basically, as we’ve said all along, the cat was not Victor’s, and he was one that was a caretaker of the cat on occasion.”
“I think the cat probably still is with the owner, the information that we had from before is that the owner also loved India. So this literally was like a dog,” Elliott added Friday, prior to the cat’s return.
The tiger climbed a fence and escaped the property on Sunday night, Elliott said.
Cuevas’ bond was increased to $300,000 at the court appearance on Friday.
Cuevas was previously arrested in July 2020 and charged with murder stemming from a 2017 fatal shooting outside a sushi restaurant in Fort Bend County, Texas, according to police. He has pleaded not guilty and was free on bond at the time of his arrest this week.
“I know there is a family out there that they lost somebody, I’m not unsympathetic to them,” Elliott said Friday of the murder charge. “But at the same time, the allegation is that Victor intentionally killed this person. … His contention, from the beginning … this was an instance of self-defense in which I was attacked and defended myself.”
ABC News’ William Hutchinson, Zohreen Shah and Abby Shalawylo contributed to this report.
PHOENIX — The Republican who now leads the Arizona county elections department targeted by a GOP audit of the 2020 election results is slamming former President Donald Trump and others in his party for their continued falsehoods about how the election was run.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Saturday called a Trump statement accusing the county of deleting an elections database “unhinged” and called on other Republicans to stop the unfounded accusations.
“We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country,” Richer tweeted.
Richer became recorder in January, after defeating the Democratic incumbent.
The former president’s statement came as Republican Senate President Karen Fann has demanded the Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors come to the Senate to answer questions raised by the private auditors she has hired. The Senate took possession of 2.1 million ballots and election equipment last month for what was supposed to be a three-week hand recount of the presidential race won by Democratic President Joe Biden.
Instead, the auditors have moved as a snail’s pace and had to shut down Thursday after counting about 500,000 ballots. They plan to resume counting in a week, after high school graduation ceremonies planned for the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, which they rented for the recount.
Trump’s statement said, in part, that “the entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED! This is illegal and the Arizona State Senate, who is leading the Forensic Audit, is up in arms.”
Richer and the board say that statement is just plain wrong. In recent days, both he and the board have begun aggressively pushing back at what they see as continuing falsehoods from Republicans who question Trump’s loss.
“Enough with the defamation. Enough with the unfounded allegations,” Richer tweeted Thursday. “I came to this office to competently, fairly, and lawfully administer the duties of the office. Not to be accused by own party of shredding ballots and deleting files for an election I didn’t run. Enough.”
The board, led by Republican Chairman Jack Sellers, have been aggressively using Twitter in recent days to push back, firing off a series of messages slamming the private company doing the audit. The board plans to hold a public hearing Monday to further to refute lies and lay out facts about these issues.”
“I know you all have grown weary of lies and half-truths six months after 2020 General Elections,” Sellers said Friday in announcing Monday’s meeting.
Fann sent Sellers a letter on Wednesday requesting that county officials publicly answer questions at the Senate on Tuesday, but she stopped short of her threat to issue subpoenas.
Fann repeated the Senate’s demand for access to administrative passwords for vote-counting machines and internet routers. County officials say they have turned over all the passwords they have and have refused to give up the routers, saying it would compromise sensitive data, including classified law enforcement information held by the sheriff’s office.
Fann proposed allowing its contractor to view data from the routers at county facilities under supervision of the sheriff’s office. “The Senate has no interest in viewing or taking possession of any information that is unrelated to the administration of the 2020 general election,” she wrote.
The county says the passwords the Senate is seeking are maintained by Dominion Voting Systems Inc., which makes the vote-counting machines and leases them to the county. The company said in a statement Thursday that it cooperates with auditors certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and did so for two prior audits of 2020 results in Maricopa County, but won’t work with Cyber Ninjas.
Fann has hired Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based cybersecurity firm, to oversee an unprecedented, partisan review of the 2020 election in Arizona’s largest county. They are conducting a hand recount of all 2.1 million ballots and looking into baseless conspiracy theories suggesting there were problems with the election, which have grown popular with supporters of Trump.
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Associated Press reporter Jonathan J. Cooper contributed.
President Joe Biden entered office poised to oversee a record recovery and a return to the booming economy and all-round stability of pre-pandemic life. Instead, he’s turned out to be a master of disaster, with self-inflicted crises across the board threatening to set America back to the 1970s — with that era’s infamous “stagflation” as well as a foreign policy in flames.
When Biden took office in January, the nation was on the mend from a post-holiday surge in COVID cases and seeing a light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccines produced at unprecedented speed and nearly a million jabs a day going into American arms. With the unemployment rate — 3.5 percent — at a five-decade low in February 2020, Biden inherited a strong pre-pandemic economy that was already bouncing back strong as the pandemic and lockdowns began to end.
President Donald Trump had also done him a favor at the southern border, getting what was once a real crisis under control by prioritizing strong border security, negotiating a Remain in Mexico policy that saw asylum-seekers await the conclusion of their cases outside the country and instituting a public-health order that kept migrants out while we focused on eradicating the virus.
Biden even looked set to negotiate more peace deals in the Middle East, building on Trump’s Abraham Accords, the first deals in decades between Arab nations and Israel.
But barely four months into his presidency, it’s disaster after disaster as Biden wastes every opportunity his predecessor left him.
US consumer confidence fell unexpectedly this month as rising prices, a hiring slowdown and energy uncertainty hit hard. On Friday, the University of Michigan said its Index of Consumer Sentiment declined to 82.8, from 88.3 in April. Economists had predicted it would rise to 90.4.
It wasn’t the first disappointment for prognosticators this month. Economists expected the country to tack on 1 million jobs in April after seeing gains of 770,000 in March. Instead, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported just 266,000, as the unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent.
And then it announced that consumer prices rose 4.2 percent year-over-year in April — far worse than economists had predicted. It was the largest such jump since September 2008, when the financial crisis was at its height. Oh, and core inflation rose 0.8 percent from March to April, the biggest rise in nearly four decades.
You can thank Biden’s focus on expanding government at the expense of everyone else. Democrats (alone) passed his $1.9 trillion COVID “relief” bill — which had little to do with either — in March, as things were finally picking up. Throwing money into the economy without much consideration of its necessity directly led to the inflation we’re seeing now, with the money supply up by 25 percent over last year.
That “relief” bill also extended the $300 weekly federal unemployment supplement to Sept. 6, meaning nearly half of people getting checks make more by staying home than going back to work. Employers coast to coast have cited it as a reason they’re having trouble hiring.
Biden claims the jobs numbers show his two other big proposals ($5 trillion total for “infrastructure” and “families”) are desperately needed, but that “medicine” would mean more disasters, not least because they’re (partly) paid for via huge tax hikes on investments and business.
He’s also adding fear and gloom now, by refusing to rule out making his planned tax hikes retroactive.
Gas prices were already on the rise under Biden before the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline led to long lines at the pump. It now costs $1.05 more per gallon than it did a year ago. With Biden closing the Keystone XL Pipeline on his first day in office and generally vowing to wage war on all fossil fuels, it’s no wonder there’s uncertainty and higher prices.
Nowhere is the self-inflicted nature of Biden’s disasters more plain than on the border. He put a moratorium on deportations his first day in office and ended the Remain in Mexico program as well as all construction on any border barriers. Border apprehensions were at a 20-year high last month, but deportations were at a record monthly low.
And the feds have a record number of unaccompanied minors in custody — around 22,000 — because Biden ordered the public-health rule keeping migrants out to be lifted for solo kids.
Meanwhile, Hamas and its allies have gone on the attack against Israel, leaving it no choice but to defend itself. As Jonathan Schanzer notes, the Biden team’s drive to restore the Iran nuclear deal plainly inspired Tehran’s terrorist clients to start firing, even as it makes Israel less willing to listen to Washington’s efforts to broker a ceasefire.
It’s stunning how much success Biden has managed to reverse in not even four months. With long lines at the pump, slowing growth and rising inflation, it’s looking like the Jimmy Carter era — except that it took Carter years to produce the disasters that this president has fostered in scant months.
Hong Kong (CNN)The men crouched inside the cave, their faces streaked with dust, occasionally flinching involuntarily at the explosions overhead, which seemed to shake the entire mountain.
Detainees were held without charge and subjected to widespread abuse, including torture, with Washington claiming that the prison, located on a US Naval Base in southern Cuba, was not covered by the constitution, an argument the Supreme Court rejected in 2004. Following that ruling, multiple prisoners, including many of the Uyghurs, filed habeas corpus cases, forcing the US government to present the evidence it had against them, a move that often resulted in their eventual release.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Westwood on Saturday to demonstrate support for Palestinians amid violence that has claimed a spiraling casualty toll in Gaza.
The march started around noon outside the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard and wound its way through area streets, clogging traffic.
A handful of pro-Israel counterprotesters also gathered, and police officers kept the groups separated.
No injuries were reported, and no arrests were made, said Officer Norma Eisenman of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The protest led to some traffic congestion, with the Police Department tweeting that people should avoid the area of Wilshire Boulevard near the 405 Freeway due to street closures.
Although battles in Gaza have garnered more attention, analysts say, the ongoing strife poses a graver threat in the long term.
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The event was one of dozens staged across the country to mark the 73rd anniversary of what has come to be known as the “nakba,” or catastrophe, a reference to Palestinians’ displacement in the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, organizers said in a statement.
“To this day, colonization and dispossession remain ongoing processes, where Palestinians continue to endure land theft and encroachments on their basic rights,” said the statement signed by dozens of groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition and the Free Democratic Palestine Movement.
The groups are calling on the U.S. government to stop providing military aid to Israel, remove the U.S. Embassy from Jerusalem and reverse former President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the statement said.
President Biden has urged a de-escalation of the violence but has publicly backed Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas rockets fired from Gaza. Since Monday night, Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes.
The outburst of violence has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab fighting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.
In Gaza, at least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children and 22 women; in Israel, seven people have been killed, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.
The Biden administration has “communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote in a tweet on Saturday.
The president of the Associated Press, in a statement Saturday, said a dozen AP journalists and freelancers evacuated the building before the strike, but a “terrible loss of life” was narrowly avoided even with advance warning from Israel that the building would be hit.
“We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza,” said AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt. “They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit.”
“This is an incredibly disturbing development,” Pruitt said of the airstrike.
Al Jazeera’s director general accused Israel of trying to silence the media and condemned the airstrike as a war crime, calling on the international community to hold Israel accountable.
“The destruction of Al Jazeera offices and that of other media organizations in al-Jalaa tower in Gaza is a blatant violation of human rights and is internationally considered a war crime,” said Dr. Mostefa Souag, acting director general of Al Jazeera Media Network, in an article posted on the news agency’s website.
“We call on the international community to condemn such barbaric actions and targeting of journalists and we demand an immediate international action to hold Israel accountable for its deliberate targeting of journalists and the media institutions,” Souag said.
“The aim of this heinous crime is to silence the media and to hide the untold carnage and suffering of the people of Gaza,” Souag said.
At least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children, in Gaza. And in Israel, eight people have been killed as conflict escalates.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement Saturday called for a “full accounting of actions that have led to civilian deaths and destruction of media outlets.”
“All political and military leaders have a responsibility to uphold the rules and laws of war and it is of the utmost importance for all actors to find ways to deescalate and reduce tensions,” he said. “This violence must end.”
— Reuters and Associated Press contributed reporting
But others have moved on from questioning Biden’s legitimacy. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), one of Trump’s strongest allies, said: “Yeah, he’s the president. I’ve said that all along.” At the same time, like many Republicans, he went on to question the system that elected Biden, saying, “I do think we should look at the election results, but yeah, he’s the president of the United States.”
Fully vaccinated Americans can now safely shed their masks and skip social distancing, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week, sparking a flurry of questions about how the new guidelines will be implemented at businesses, schools and other places where fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people mingle.
“We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday. “Based on the continuing downward trajectory of cases, the scientific data on the performance of our vaccines and our understanding of how the virus spreads, that moment has come for those who are fully vaccinated.”
The CDC’s recommendations are guidance — not a mandate — and it’s up to states whether to adhere to them.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday that Michigan will follow the federal recommendations, announcing that as of Saturday morning anyone who is fully vaccinated can shed their masks in public — both indoors and outdoors.
Here’s what it all means.
What does the CDC guidance say?
MASKS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING: Fully vaccinated people can go out — even in crowds — without wearing a mask or social distancing and “resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic,” the CDC says.
You can take off your mask in most places, indoor and outdoor, though there are exceptions. At hospitals and other health care settings, mask requirements still apply to staff, patients and visitors, no matter the person’s vaccination status.
The same goes for when you’re using public transportation such as planes, trains and buses, and at prisons, jails and homeless shelters.
Businesses, libraries and other establishments also can require you to wear masks even if you’ve been vaccinated, and can still ask you to maintain up to 6 feet of social distance at their discretion.
TRAVEL: Planning to take a summer vacation? If you’re fully vaccinated and traveling in the U.S., you do not need to get a COVID-19 test before or after you go on your trip or self-quarantine afterward.
If fully vaccinated people are planning international travel, the CDC says you should check in advance to learn the travel requirements for your destination. Unless the destination country requires a negative COVID-19 test, you do not need a test before you go. However, before you can board an international flight to return to the U.S., you will still need to show a negative COVID-19 test result or proof of recovery from the virus.
International travelers who are fully vaccinated do not need to self-quarantine after arriving in the U.S.; however, the CDC recommends a COVID-19 test three to five days after returning.
COVID-19 EXPOSURE: If you’ve been exposed to someone who has COVID-19 and you are fully vaccinated, the CDC says you no longer need to quarantine or get tested unless you develop symptoms.
Exceptions are fully vaccinated people who work in a correctional or detention facility or a homeless shelter and are exposed to someone with COVID-19. They should still get tested, even they don’t have symptoms.
What does the new Michigan public health order say about masks?
Although Whitmer announced Friday morning that Michigan would repeal the mask mandate for fully vaccinated people starting Saturday, her office had not released official language for the updated order until late Friday night.
It requires all unvaccinated Michiganders to wear a face mask when gathering indoors, but includes exceptions for children younger than 2 and for people who cannot medically tolerate a mask. Other exceptions include instances when people are:
Eating or drinking while seated in a designated area or at a private residence.
Swimming.
Receiving a medical or personal care service for which removal of the face mask is necessary.
Asked to temporarily remove a face mask for identification purposes.
Communicating with someone who is deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing and whose ability to see the mouth is essential to communication.
Actively engaged in a public safety role, including but not limited to law enforcement, firefighters, or emergency medical personnel, and where wearing a face mask would seriously interfere in the performance of their public safety responsibilities.
Engaging in a religious service.
Giving a speech for broadcast or to an audience as long as the audience is at least 12 feet away from the speaker.
Engaging in an activity that requires removal of a mask not listed in another part of this section, and are in a facility that provides ventilation that meets or exceeds 60ft³/min of outdoor airflow per person.
The new mandate requires businesses, offices, schools, organized events “or other operation(s)” to prohibit indoor gatherings unless there is a “good faith effort” to ensure everyone, including employees, comply with the mandate.
The order remains in effect through 11:59 p.m. May 31.
Do masks need to be worn while playing sports?
Starting 9 a.m. Saturday, no masks will be required for outdoor sports — regardless of a person’s vaccination status.
For indoor sports, those who are not fully vaccinated or meet other exceptions listed above will be required to wear a mask.
COVID-19 testing requirements still apply to athletes ages 13-19.
How will people know who’s been vaccinated and who hasn’t?
For the most part, you won’t.
“It’s impossible in terms of a business and its customers,” said Peter Jacobson, professor emeritus of health law and policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “There’s no way to know. We’re not carrying around our vaccination cards. We don’t have a scarlet V on our foreheads.”
That could make the weeks ahead pretty messy, said Lance Gable, an associate professor at the Wayne State University Law School.
“It’s going to create a real challenge for a lot of people because you don’t know that the person who comes into your business or the person you see on the street … whether they’ve been vaccinated or not,” Gable said.
For families with kids who are not yet eligible for vaccines and for people who have compromised immune systems, it’s a tricky time to be out in the world.
“They’re not going to know if the person walking next to them or the person who is in the grocery line with them is not wearing a mask because they’re vaccinated and are safe or because they’re refusing to wear a mask and are not vaccinated and therefore pose a risk,” he said. “It creates a lot of complexity, and … I think it’s going to raise some significant problems.”
People could become confrontational.
“I think we can predict what’s going to happen,” said Jacobson, who also is the co-director of the Mid-States Region Network of Public Health Law. “There’s the potential for violence, a lot of belligerence.”
Can businesses still enforce mask wearing?
“Private businesses can still decide that they want to keep the mask requirements in place; they’re still permitted to do that” even for fully vaccinated people, Gable said.
“It’s going to be really difficult for them to tell who is not wearing their masks because their fully vaccinated and who is not wearing their masks because they are just opposed to wearing a mask and, maybe, still posing a risk of spreading the disease to other people.”
Kroger announced Thursday that customers will still be required to wear masks in all of its stores. The company also is offering $100 to employees who take the vaccine. Other major retailers that will continue requiring masks include Starbucks, Target and CVS.
Others, such as Trader Joe’s and Walmart, are letting go of the mask requirements. And the Detroit Tigers announced via Twitter Friday that fans won’t have to wear masks outside at Comerica Park or when in their seats.
What about other public places? Can they still require masks for vaccinated people?
Yes. Every state court in Michigan is still mandating masks for employees and visitors, according to a memo released Friday from the state court administrator.
Court Administrator Thomas P. Boyd acknowledged state COVID-19 trends are improving and the CDC guidance would allow people who are vaccinated to not wear masks. But “such advice, in the absence of any way to identify who is vaccinated and who is not, creates an unacceptable level of risk.”
Every court has different rules about exceptions to the mask rule. Check this list for more information on your local court.
Can business owners require employees to disclose their vaccination status?
“The simple answer, from a management standpoint, is you can definitely ask your employees” about their vaccination status, Jacobson said.
“Certainly, the employers can ask about vaccination and ask for proof of vaccination to ensure that the employer is properly following CDC guidelines and to protect other employees and the general public. There’s no other way to know.”
Can businesses require workers to get COVID-19 vaccines?
Yes, they can. “There is nothing in the law that prevents” companies from mandating COVID-19 vaccines, Jacobson said. But if a company does require workers to be vaccinated, it could be sued.
“It hasn’t been challenged yet” in the courts, Jacobson said.
Already, some companies require workers to get the annual flu vaccine. But with COVID-19 vaccines being so new, he said, “I think the legal issue is going to be whether or not you consider the vaccines experimental.”
All three coronavirus vaccines in use in the U.S. have emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. They haven’t yet won full federal approval.
For that reason, Jacobson said, he knows of no company that mandates employees to take the COVID-19 vaccines — yet.
That may change soon.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said in a CNN interview this week that any new employees the company hires must be fully vaccinated. Some colleges and universities, including the University of Michigan, have enacted policies that require immunization for students who want to live in on-campus housing.
It’s likely other companies, including hospital systems and others in the health care industry, could follow suit.
However, businesses that mandate vaccines might have to provide flexibility to workers who ask for exemptions or accommodations because of underlying health issues or religious objections, Gable said.
“There are going to be some employers who, because of the nature of the workspace, may have a stronger argument that mandatory vaccination is essential,” Gable said. “Health care employers might be able to enforce that more rigorously because they can justify the value of having the protection for vulnerable patients.
“And so what they might be able to say is a person who refuses to get a vaccine or is unable to get a vaccine may not be able to work in a setting where they’re exposed to particularly vulnerable people, for example, people who are immunosuppressed.”
Who qualifies as fully vaccinated?
People are considered fully vaccinated if:
Two weeks have passed since the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccines.
Or two weeks after a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.
However, the CDC notes that for people who take immune-weakening medications or who have health conditions that weaken the immune system, they may not be completely protected from the virus even after they’ve been fully vaccinated.
For those people, the CDC suggests talking to a health care provider about the best ways to stay safe from COVID-19.
Should families with young children take off their masks in public?
Joshua Petrie, an assistant research professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, said it might be a “bit early” to lift mask-wearing requirements. That’s especially true if you have family members who are vulnerable, such as young children who aren’t yet eligible for vaccines or loved ones with compromised immune systems.
“The science does tell you that the vaccinated people are protected, but … it kind of gets back to what is the right message for the overall public? To me, it is still: You should still be cautious and if that means continuing to wear a mask even as the vaccinated person to give yourself a sense of safety as well as other people around you, I think that’s a great thing to be doing,” he said.
“I think giving people a clear message: If they’re vaccinated, they’re protected and people around them are protected, that’s all good. Where it gets complicated is probably in states like Michigan. We’ve been in a decline for at least a month now, but we’re still at fairly high case levels.
“People should continue to be pretty cautious because we do have high case levels, especially people who are unvaccinated. And so keeping that sense of caution, I think, is helpful certainly for people who are working at restaurants or in the public or wherever … you don’t know who is vaccinated and who is not.”
While children don’t typically get severe cases of COVID-19, they sometimes can get extremely ill. Others can go on to develop a condition known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome-children (MIS-C) or have long-term complications even if they had a mild case of coronavirus initially.
“Children are … getting infected, and a small percentage of them are requiring hospitalization and a smaller percentage of them are ending up in the ICU (intensive care unit) and some of those patients have MIS-C,” said Dr. Rudolph Valentini, a pediatric nephrologist at Children’s Hospital of Michigan and group chief medical officer for the Detroit Medical Center.
“If you have two teenagers and a 7-year-old, get the teenagers vaccinated and when the 7-year-old has the green light to get vaccinated, do the same.”
Until vaccines are authorized for use in younger children, which could come as soon as this fall, Valentini said: “Your 7-year-old will be vulnerable to get the infection. Your 7-year-old will be vulnerable to transmit the infection, but if the rest of the family is vaccinated, all of those folks will be protected both ways. They’ll be protected against getting the infection and they’ll be protected against transmitting the infection. So it sort of breaks the cycle.”
How close are we to herd immunity?
Public health experts don’t agree about what vaccination threshold the nation needs to reach to get to a place where the risk of spreading COVID-19 drops to a level where vulnerable people are protected.
Some have suggested getting 70% of the population vaccinated would be enough. Others have said that with more contagious variant strains of the virus circulating, that percentage might need to be higher.
As of Friday, 36.2% of the total U.S. population was fully vaccinated and 46.8% have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. In Michigan, 37% of the total population is fully vaccinated and 45.1% have had at least one dose.
But the outlook is better than that, Jacobson said.
“You have to consider not just number of people who are fully vaccinated, but those who have had one shot,” he said, “because we know that after two weeks of getting either a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, you’re about 80% protected, which is pretty good in its own right.”
State health officials are using data from the CDC to tie first-dose vaccination rates among residents 16 and older to easing COVID-19 restrictions. When the rate is calculated using the population 16 and older in Michigan, 55.7% have had at least one dose as of Friday.
“Second, you have to take into account those who already have had COVID
or tested positive,” Jacobson said. “They need to be counted toward herd immunity.”
That number is harder to deduce because not everyone who’s had the virus has been tested. As of Friday, the state health department reported 873,335 Michiganders have had confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began.
Free Press staff writers Chanel Stitt, Susan Selasky, Nour Rahal and Frank Witsil contributed to this story.
Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.
Damon Weaver, who at age 11 became one of the youngest people to interview a sitting president and later gained attention for scoring other high-profile interviews with celebrities such as Dwyane Wade and Oprah Winfrey, died on May 1. He was 23.
The death was confirmed by Candace Hardy, Mr. Weaver’s sister. The cause was not made known.
Ms. Hardy told WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla., that her brother had texted her while she was at work that he was in the hospital. By the time she went to see him, he had already died, she said.
In 2009, Mr. Weaver, then 11, conducted a sit-down interview with President Barack Obama in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, questioning him on topics like the Obama administration’s efforts to improve education in lower-income areas such as Mr. Weaver’s hometown, Pahokee, Fla., and Mr. Obama’s basketball skills.
“You did a great job at this interview, so someone must be doing something right at that school,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Weaver after the 11-year-old extended an invitation to come visit him at Kathryn E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary School in South Florida.
Kristin Tate, an analyst for the nonprofit Young Americans for Liberty, provides insight.
President Biden is marking Police Week with a statement that includes language about the “deep sense of distrust” toward cops by Black and brown Americans and the “trauma” caused by deaths in police custody — a statement described as “beyond disappointing” by one police group.
Biden’s proclamation marking both Police Week and Peace Officers Memorial Day, begins by praising law enforcement for their wide range of duties in securing public safety.
“Every morning, our Nation’s law enforcement officers pin on a badge and go to work, not knowing what the day will bring, and hoping to come home safely,” the president says, before noting the impact of COVID-19 on the men and women in blue.
“As we recognize Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, we honor those who lost their lives in the line of duty, and thank them on behalf of this grateful Nation for their service,” he says.
But after promising to support law enforcement “and work to ensure they have the resources and research tools they need to do their jobs successfully and the funding necessary to enhance officer safety and wellness,” the statement begins talking about the alleged harm caused to minority communities by police.
“This year, we also recognize that in many of our communities, especially Black and brown communities, there is a deep sense of distrust towards law enforcement; a distrust that has been exacerbated by the recent deaths of several Black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement,” he says.
Biden has pushed for police reform in the wake of the death of George Floyd, for which the police officer was convicted of murder, and his Department of Justice has returned to the Obama-era practice of issuing consent decrees to crack down on police departments — amid claims by activists and many Democrats that such deaths are caused by systemic racism.
“These deaths have resulted in a profound fear, trauma, pain, and exhaustion for many Black and brown Americans, and the resulting breakdown in trust between law enforcement and the communities they have sworn to protect and serve ultimately makes officers’ jobs harder and more dangerous as well,” Biden wrote. “In order to rebuild that trust, our State, local, and Federal Government and law enforcement agencies must protect constitutional rights, ensure accountability for misconduct, and embrace policing that reflects community values and ensures community safety. These approaches benefit those who wear the badge and those who count on their protection.”
The statements are in stark contrast to those from the overwhelmingly positive proclamations issued by the Trump administration, and even the Obama administration — where a 2016 proclamation included no explicit reference to such controversies and said that cops “care deeply about their communities, and together with our partners in law enforcement, we must work to build up our neighborhoods, prevent crime before it happens, and put opportunity within reach for all our people.”
Biden’s proclamation comes amid a police week that was barely marked by the White House — although Biden did invite illegal immigrants protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to the White House, amid a number of non-cop related events.
“This week we pause to pay respect to our law enforcement officers, particularly those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect their communities,” Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund told Fox News. “It is beyond disappointing to see the president of the United States continue to perpetuate false and hurtful myths about police, rather than uniting as he claimed he would during the campaign. “
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, accused Biden of expressing a “Bash the Blue” attitude toward law enforcement.
“I’m still DISGUSTED that Biden would use his official Police Week statement to suggest that every Cop is a racist. Democrat hatred for our police is outright REPULSIVE,” he tweeted.
The controversy comes as Biden faces continued pressure on policing from the left of his own party, who have pushed for police departments to be defunded entirely.
Fox News reported that Missouri Democratic Rep. Cori Bush on Thursday praised a Black Lives Matter activist who advocated “death” for police officers in 2014 and tweeted the BLM chant “pigs in a blanket fry ’em like bacon.”
Joe Biden has vowed to make every effort to work with Republicans until progress is impossible. Right now, he and conservative lawmakers see an infrastructure bill as still within the realm of possibility.
If so, it would mark a significant step forwards for Biden in passing a large part of his legislative agenda aimed at sparking the recovery of the pandemic-hit US economy. Biden’s team has consciously drawn comparisons to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s effort to lift America out of the Great Depression through government programs and big public works projects.
Over the past week, Biden has engaged in one-on-one sit-downs and group discussions with the highest-ranking Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Congress, and more conservative members of the Democratic party.
Those discussions have been the the most visible movement among both Biden officials and Republicans on coming to an infrastructure deal, as the president looks to pass his roughly $2tn American Jobs Plan.
Biden has promised to work with Republicans until gridlock occurs. For years, Republicans and Democrats have groused that if only an administration would undertake a serious bipartisan stab at updating the nation’s roads, bridges, transportation and electrical grid. Biden is trying to do just that.
On Thursday Biden met with five Republican senators helping to lead the negotiations alongside the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, and commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo.
“We had a very productive – more than courteous – give-and-take. We did talk specifics, and the president has asked us to come back and rework an offer so that he can then react to that and then reoffer to us,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the point-person for Republicans negotiating an infrastructure deal with the White House, said after the meeting on Thursday.
She added: “So we’re very encouraged. We feel very encouraged by the bipartisan shift that we think this infrastructure package can carry forward and again I’m grateful and his staff for the give-and-take that we shared in the Oval Office.”
The discussions are still in nascent stages and lawmakers have kept mum on the sticking points.
Two broad points of division have been the total price tag. The Biden administration has been pushing for an infrastructure package at about $2tn while Republicans have vacillated on their ideal number. Last month that number was at about $586bn, but more recently Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, said a bill shouldn’t cost more than $800bn. Capito’s initial infrastructure blueprint was sparse on how it would be financed.
Details on the sticking points between Republicans and Democrats have been scant but Republicans have been hoping to fund a final infrastructure compromise through user fees, such as raising taxes on gas and electric vehicles. Some of the more conservative Democrats in the chamber have expressed openness to this, while other members of the caucus have warned that user fees could effectively be taxing poorer Americans.
Biden, who likes to portray himself as a consummate broker, has also expressed openness to a compromise.
“We didn’t compromise on anything. I laid out what I thought we should be doing, and how it should be paid for, and my colleagues in the Senate came back to me and said they’ll come back with a counteroffer of what they are prepared to do, and how to fund it. And then we’ll talk again next week,” Biden said after the Thursday meeting.
Building Back Together, the pro-Biden administration outside group, has been airing ads across the country touting infrastructure. Biden officials have also been speaking to lawmakers to suss out their positions on a deal.
Biden has also held one-on-one meetings with Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the two most conservative Democrats in the Senate caucus. He has also met with Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, who chairs the environment and public works committee. In the meetings with Carper and Sinema the discussions veered toward using user fees as funding methods.
“We didn’t talk specifics. He understands, and he’s up on everything – he knows what’s going on. He’s well versed in what’s going on,” Manchin said. “He understands and he just thinks … he wants to make sure that we all want something good to happen for our country.”
Asked when he planned to meet with Biden again Manchin said: “Whenever he calls me.”
Biden and other Democrats would prefer to pay for the infrastructure bill by raising the corporate tax to 28% from 21% – a move Republicans are unlikely to embrace easily.
It’s still unclear exactly what a compromise would look like, or if it can happen by Memorial Day, a deadline the president would prefer.
“Initially our goal was sometime this summer, maybe by the fourth of July recess to try to report a bill out of committee,” Senator Carper said in an interview. “We’ve moved it up like a month and a half. If we can get out of committee on a bipartisan vote by Memorial Day that would be great.”
The Biden administration has “communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote in a tweet on Saturday.
The president of the Associated Press, in a statement Saturday, said a dozen AP journalists and freelancers evacuated the building before the strike, but a “terrible loss of life” was narrowly avoided even with advance warning from Israel that the building would be hit.
“We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza,” said AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt. “They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit.”
“This is an incredibly disturbing development,” Pruitt said of the airstrike.
Al Jazeera’s director general accused Israel of trying to silence the media and condemned the airstrike as a war crime, calling on the international community to hold Israel accountable.
“The destruction of Al Jazeera offices and that of other media organizations in al-Jalaa tower in Gaza is a blatant violation of human rights and is internationally considered a war crime,” said Dr. Mostefa Souag, acting director general of Al Jazeera Media Network, in an article posted on the news agency’s website.
“We call on the international community to condemn such barbaric actions and targeting of journalists and we demand an immediate international action to hold Israel accountable for its deliberate targeting of journalists and the media institutions,” Souag said.
“The aim of this heinous crime is to silence the media and to hide the untold carnage and suffering of the people of Gaza,” Souag said.
At least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children, in Gaza. And in Israel, eight people have been killed as conflict escalates.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement Saturday called for a “full accounting of actions that have led to civilian deaths and destruction of media outlets.”
“All political and military leaders have a responsibility to uphold the rules and laws of war and it is of the utmost importance for all actors to find ways to deescalate and reduce tensions,” he said. “This violence must end.”
— Reuters and Associated Press contributed reporting
“At no time, having known Joe Biden for quite some time, does he have the energy of Donald Trump. We both know it,” McCarthy said.
“Donald Trump didn’t need to sleep five hours a night, and he would be engaged. If you called Donald Trump, he would get on the phone before staff would,” McCarthy added.
The three spent the interview attacking Biden and his policies.
“I am excited about Elise Stefanik joining the leadership team because Joe Biden is not just ignoring the problems; he’s igniting them,” McCarthy said.
Stefanik told Hannity that she “agrees with all the items” the host laid out as a part of the “Trump agenda” when he asked her about fears from others that she isn’t conservative enough.
“We are experiencing multiple crises under President Biden and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.]. We have a border crisis. We have an economic crisis and a national security crisis in the Middle East. Republicans are going to fight on behalf of American families that are concerned about the radical direction this administration is taking us,” Stefanik said.
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The Squad member ranked No. 427 out of 437 lawmakers analyzed, according to the Bipartisan Index of the 116th Congress (2019-2020) from The Lugar Center in collaboration with Georgetown University.
Other members of the group of progressive congresswomen also ranked low: Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts ranked at No. 426, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ranked at No. 424 and Rashida Tlaib ranked at No. 414, the study found.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who helped lead impeachment efforts against former President Donald Trump, ranked at No. 423.
Republican Reps. Gary Palmer of Alabama, Rick Allen of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Larry Bucshon of Indiana, John Rose of Tennessee, Michael Cloud of Texas and Tom McClintock of California all ranked in the bottom 10 overall.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pauses while speaking as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) listen during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)
The rankings are nonpartisan and are based on how often members of Congress work across the political aisle.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., ranked No. 1 overall; John Katko, R-N.Y., ranked at No. 2 and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., ranked at No. 3, according to the study.
“I’m honored to once again be recognized by the Lugar Center for my work across parties lines,” Katko said in a May 4 statement. “Since coming to Congress, I’ve successfully worked in a bipartisan manner to advance legislation to combat the opioid epidemic, secure our nation, expand access to mental healthcare, support our pandemic response, and address a host of other issues of local importance.”
He added that he intends “to continue taking a bipartisan approach to aid our recovery and make smart investments in our region.”
Dan Diller, policy director of the Lugar Center, noted that “Katko has consistently ranked near the top of the Bipartisan Index in the House” in a May 4 statement.
“His 2nd place finish out of 437 House members during the 116th Congress (2019-2020) places him among the elite bipartisan legislators in Congress,” Diller said.
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