President says he did not want to ‘give press the pleasure’ of seeing him in face mask
Pictures of Donald Trump wearing a face mask while on a visit in Michigan have emerged.
In a video published by Sky News, the US president can be seen wearing a navy blue mask.
Continue reading...State attorney general called president a ‘petulant child’ for refusing to wear a mask at the plant
Donald Trump defied requests from company executives and was called a “petulant child” by a state attorney general when he refused to wear a face mask during a visit to Michigan, a battleground state where he has repeatedly clashed with the Democratic governor, and on Thursday used a speech to urge American churches to reopen amid the pandemic.
Trump toured a plant belonging to the Ford car company, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which has been recast to produce ventilators and personal protective equipment to use in the coronavirus crisis.
Continue reading...Madrid and Barcelona to ease lockdown as Spain’s death toll stays under 100 again; 660,000 people forced to flee homes during crisis despite UN global ceasefire call
Peru has extended its state of emergency until the end of June with only a very partial lifting of its lockdown as infections continue to climb despite more than two months of confinement.
Peru is the second-worst affected Latin American country, with more than 111,000 cases and a death toll of 3,148, according to official figures.
It’s not just an extension ... there is a strategy to combat the virus. This disease will not beaten in a short time. It’s not a 100m sprint, it’s a marathon.
Over the course of the last 60 days we have made great efforts but we have to make another qualitative jump in the health sector.
France regrets a British decision to impose a quarantine on people arriving from mainland Europe and stands ready to impose reciprocal measures, the Agence France-Presse news agency has quoted the country’s interior ministry as saying.
The UK’s home secretary Priti Patel announced earlier on Friday that travellers arriving in the UK from 8 June will have to tell the authorities where they will be staying and face spot checks to ensure they quarantine themselves for 14 days.
Continue reading...Donald Trump appeared without a protective mask on a visit to the carmaker Ford's Michigan plan despite the company requiring visitors to wear them. 'I had one on before. I wore one in the back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,' he said.
Trump toured the Ford plant in Ypsilanti, which has been producing ventilators and personal protective equipment during the coronavirus outbreak. The president's decision to not wear a mask drew the ire of Michigan's state attorney general, Dana Nessel, after she had written to the White House saying it was the law in Michigan that everyone should wear a mask.
'The president is like a petulant child who refuses to follow the rules. This is not a joke,' she told CNN
The Open Skies Treaty allows Russia and western nations to conduct observation flights
The US has declared its intention to leave the Open Skies Treaty, which is intended to reduce the risk of war by allowing Russia and western nations to conduct observation flights over each other’s territory.
Washington informed the other 33 parties to the treaty of its intention to deliver a formal six-month notice of withdrawal on Friday, accusing Russia of violations.
Continue reading...Donald Trump says China’s coronavirus numbers ‘weren’t correct’, before adding it has ‘been easily shown and easily proven’, but he did not provide any evidence.
The US president made the comments during a meeting with the governors of Arkansas and Kansas, after explaining case numbers in the US were favourable if outbreaks in New York and New Jersey were not included. When asked by a journalist leaving the room at the end of the meeting, Trump added his hydroxychloroquine regimen finishes in ‘about two days’
Joe Biden assailed Donald Trump in a pair of virtual events in Wisconsin, calling him “a destroyer of everything he touches.”
“All he’s ever done is hollow out what really matters and then slap a gold sign on a flimsy foundation,” Biden said during the virtual rally in the battleground state.
“Donald Trump claimed he would fight for the forgotten man, the working class,” the former vice president continued. “But as soon as he got into office, he forgot them.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Biden held a virtual roundtable with Wisconsin congressman Ron Kind and community advocates who spoke about the challenges facing rural Americans during the epidemic.
During the back and forth, Biden, referring to federal funding to combat the economic fallout from the virus, said: “Not one more penny should go to a Fortune 500 company. Period. Period. They don’t need it.”
“Among the speakers at the “rally” was Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin, who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential nominee after she won re-election in 2018. Biden called her a “true champion for Wisconsin, a true leader.”
Biden has been ramping up his virtual campaign schedule in recent weeks. Earlier events have been riddled with technical glitches - and the occasional honking duck. By contrast, Wednesday’s events went smoothly.
Related: Biden's lead over Trump widens – but strain on his virtual campaign grows
Prisoners and advocates told the Guardian that some infected inmates are in isolation without medical care or adequate food, cut off from family and attorneys
More than 3,200 prisoners in California have contracted Covid-19 and at least 16 inmates have died, in a public health catastrophe that advocates say was both predictable and preventable.
Related: 'People are sick all around me': inside the coronavirus catastrophe in California prisons
Continue reading...After first moving the talks to a teleconference, the US president, this year’s summit head, is now suggesting a Camp David meeting
Donald Trump has said he may seek to revive a face-to-face meeting of Group of Seven leaders near Washington, after earlier canceling the gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David,” the US president tweeted on Wednesday. “The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all – normalization!”
Continue reading...Donald Trump on Tuesday further touted his apparent taking of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as protection against coronavirus despite federal regulators warning of the potentially serious, even fatal, dangers.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US continued to rise and the death toll crept inexorably towards a landmark 100,000, the highest in the world, Trump spent public appearances repeatedly talking about a dubious treatment and an economic comeback.
Continue reading...The US president has defended his use of the anti-malaria drug, dismissing a study indicating it was not an effective coronavirus treatment as a 'Trump enemy statement'. He also attacked Nancy Pelosi after she publicly expressed concern, claiming she had 'mental problems'
Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger report:
Member states have backed a resolution strongly supportive of the World Health Organization, after Donald Trump issued a fresh broadside against the UN body, giving it 30 days to make unspecified reforms or lose out on US funding.
Related: Member states back WHO after renewed Donald Trump attack
Continue reading...Magufuli caused alarm by branding lab tests a ‘dirty game’ and hailing natural remedies. Now he is calling for country to open up
Tanzania’s divisive president John Magufuli has said the economy is “more important than the threat posed by coronavirus”, adding that he wants to reopen the country for tourism despite warnings that Africa could face the next wave of the disease.
The comments by Magufuli, who has modelled his populist response on that of Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro – in repeatedly denying the risk of the pandemic to his country – come amid mounting alarm among Tanzania’s neighbours over his approach.
Continue reading...After US attorney general William Barr dismissed the possibility of investigating 'Obamagate', president Donald Trump responded 'If it was me, they would do it'. The president has called 'Obamagate': "The biggest political crime in American history, by far!" However Trump has failed to detail his exact accusations
Continue reading...President says he’s been taking drug for ‘a couple of weeks’ but FDA has issued repeated warning about the dangers of the drug
Donald Trump has told reporters at the White House that for “a couple weeks” he has been taking a malaria drug as a defense against Covid-19 – despite warnings from his administration that it is dangerous.
Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine – a drug approved to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis – in response to the coronavirus threat.
Continue reading...Donald Trump claimed he has been taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent Covid-19, despite no compelling evidence that the drug is effective against the coronavirus.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against using hydroxychloroquine or a related compound, chloroquine, for treating or preventing Covid-19 unless under medical supervision in a hospital or as part of a clinical trial
Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, the US president’s oldest sons, have attracted fierce criticism for attacking Joe Biden and Democrats in terms most observers considered beyond the pale even in America’s toxic political climate.
Related: ‘They don’t give him enough credit’: the voters who back Trump, even through the pandemic
Continue reading...The electoral map does not favor Republicans and the pandemic has helped put them on defense in states they once thought safe
Just three months ago, centrist Democrats were panicking. After strong performances in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders appeared poised to sail away with the nomination for president. Some in the party feared the self-identified democratic socialist would wreak havoc down the ballot.
Related: Could Susan Collins' vote for Kavanaugh help the Democrats flip the Senate in 2020?
Continue reading...After more than 50 years fighting for civil rights, the activist is now watching coronavirus ravage African American communities. But he has a warning for the rich and powerful
The Rev Jesse Jackson was born in the racially segregated south when Franklin Roosevelt occupied the White House and war raged in Europe. He was an eyewitness to the assassination of Martin Luther King, campaigned against the Vietnam war and twice ran for US president.
But, now an elder statesman of 78, he has never seen anything like the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 1 million Americans and killed more in April alone than died in Vietnam over 15 years. The world’s most powerful and wealthy country also bears by far its biggest death toll: almost 90,000. It is enough to shake faith in American exceptionalism.
Continue reading...Former president rebuked Trump administration’s response to pandemic, which has killed almost 90,000 Americans so far
Donald Trump has hit back at Barack Obama’s criticism of his administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, accusing the former US president of being “grossly incompetent” during his time in office.
Related: Barack Obama attacks Trump administration's response to coronavirus pandemic
Continue reading...Donald Trump has given his first public response to Barack Obama’s criticism of the current administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. 'Look, he was an incompetent president, that’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent,' said Trump when asked about Obama's comments on Sunday
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