The police killing of George Floyd continues to ignite protests across the US. On 2 June, the Guardian embedded with activists as they marched through New York City to voice their outrage at Floyd's death and the systematic racism that enabled it
James Mattis accuses Trump of dividing US and ordering military to violate constitutional rights of Americans
Associated Press are reporting that more than 10,000 people have now been arrested in protests against racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death. It’s not an official figure, but comes from their own tally of arrest reports.
The AP figures show that Los Angeles has had more than a quarter of the national arrests, followed by New York, Dallas and Philadelphia. Many of the arrests have been for low-level offences such as curfew violations and failure to disperse. Hundreds were arrested on burglary and looting charges.
If you’ve been following the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on social media you may have been surprised this morning by a sudden flood of Korean characters and the repeated phrase: “We stand against racial discrimination. We condemn violence. You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.”
The source of this is the world’s biggest K-Pop band, BTS, who posted on social media this morning:
우리는 인종차별에 반대합니다.
우리는 폭력에 반대합니다.
나, 당신, 우리 모두는 존중받을 권리가 있습니다. 함께 하겠습니다.
We stand against racial discrimination.
We condemn violence.
You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.#BlackLivesMatter
In Los Angeles, thousands took to the streets. Mayor Eric Garcetti took a knee with protestors, even as crowds chanted, “defund the police”.
In New York, thousands of protesters defied curfew and remained on the streets, as officers began making arrests.
Continue reading...Protesters marched in their thousands in towns and cities across America, part of a wave of demonstrations that have followed the killing of George Floyd
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A striking detail from tonight’s coverage has been reports that as protesters surged towards the White House on Friday night, US president Donald Trump, his wife Melania and son Barron briefly retreated to the Presidential Emergency Operations Centre – a fortified bunker-like structure beneath the residence.
The last time a US head of state was publicly known to have used the bunker was on 11 September, 2001, where senior members of the George W Bush administration spent that day after their west wing offices were evacuated. There are no other public reports of presidents needing to use the area since - the New York Times, which first reported this detail, says “it has not been used much, if at all” since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But it notes the area has since been strengthened to withstand the impact of a passenger jet.
Related: Trump fled to bunker as protests over George Floyd raged outside White House
My colleague Julian Borger in Washington DC has just filed this update on a tense evening the capital.
Multiple fires broke out near the White House late on Sunday evening, as angry protesters gathered in Washington DC for the third night in a row following the death of George Floyd.
Sunday evening’s protests in front of the White House started relatively cheerfully, with a crowd of a few thousand in Lafayette park. Earlier in the day, demonstrators had marched through the city’s downtown, chanting “George Floyd! Say his name!” and “No Justice! No Peace!”
Related: Fires light up Washington DC on third night of George Floyd protests
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The Guardian’s Ankita Rao, reporting from New York, on the mayor’s controversial late-night statements:
Mayor Bill de Blasio took to the podium on Saturday night to tell protestors across the city that they were “heard, loud and clear”.
I’m in Brooklyn to talk about tonight’s protests. https://t.co/oBVXGh7JWo
US prosecutors have filed federal charges against three people in New York, accusing them of using “molotov cocktails” on New York police vehicles during the Friday protests:
BREAKING: Three people charged with federal crimes in connection with Molotov cocktail attacks on the NYPD during #GeorgeFloyd protests in NYC Friday night. pic.twitter.com/dyaDJByMit
Continue reading...The New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, said he would sign an executive order allowing businesses to deny entry to customers who are not wearing masks. The Democrat has repeatedly said mask usage can limit the spread of coronavirus, noting that rates of infection among frontline healthcare workers are lower than that of the general population in the region. 'You don’t want to wear a mask, fine,' Cuomo said. 'But you don’t have a right to then go into that store if that store owner doesn’t want you to.'
Continue reading...Photographer Jordan Gale was curious to see how New Yorkers would adapt to a post Covid-19 summer. What he found was a combination of resilience, resourcefulness and joy – exhibited through socially distant block parties, community service, and people from all walks of life soaking up the sun
Continue reading...Critics say data proves New York’s liability shield is linked to higher nursing home death rates during the pandemic
As Governor Andrew Cuomo faced a spirited challenge in his bid to win New York’s 2018 Democratic primary, his political apparatus got a last-minute boost: a powerful healthcare industry group suddenly poured more than $1m into a Democratic committee backing his campaign.
Less than two years after that flood of cash from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), Cuomo signed legislation last month quietly shielding hospital and nursing home executives from the threat of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The provision, inserted into an annual budget bill by Cuomo’s aides, created one of the nation’s most explicit immunity protections for healthcare industry officials, according to legal experts.
Continue reading...Most employees will continue to work remotely; those who return will be required to wear face masks and practice social distancing
The New York Stock Exchange’s famous Wall Street trading floor opened on Tuesday for the first time in more than two months, having closed in March due to the spread of Covid-19.
Governor Andrew Cuomo rang the opening bell while wearing a face mask, signaling that while New York state may be starting to open up, things will be far from normal for some time yet.
Continue reading...Authorities say Thomas Scully-Powers, 32, stabbed his father multiple times as horrified call participants scrambled to dial 911
A Long Island man suspected of fatally stabbing his father on a live Zoom call confessed to the caught-on-camera killing after police found him trying to wash blood off his body with Dr Pepper, prosecutors said on Friday.
Thomas Scully-Powers, 32, was arraigned via video and ordered jailed without bail after pleading not guilty to a murder charge in the attack on Long Island, New York, on Thursday that left 72-year-old Dwight Powers nearly decapitated as horrified call participants scrambled to dial 911.
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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...Both city and state aim to recruit thousands to trace contacts of those diagnosed with coronavirus as part of plans to reopen
New York faces enormous challenges in its attempts to implement one of the largest contact tracing schemes in the US, as the city prepares to reopen after nearly two months of coronavirus lockdown.
The New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, has said the state is recruiting an “army of people to trace each person who tested positive” for an “unprecedented, nation-leading contact tracing programme”. The New York city mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced a new test and trace corps, which he said would “lead the way in creating testing and tracing on a level we’ve never seen before in this city or this country”.
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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...The New York governor has received a Covid-19 test live on TV to show how quick and easy the process is. Cuomo welcomed a doctor dressed in PPE to conduct the test. 'I’m not in pain, I’m not in discomfort,' he said afterwards. 'Closing my eyes was a moment of relaxation. There is no reason why you should not get the test'
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Rick Bright, former director of a key office in the Department of Health and Human Services, will testify in front of the Senate tomorrow that the Trump administration was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic and there will be dramatic consequences if the US fails to develop a national coordinated response, reports CNN.
Documents of the prepared testimony indicate that Bright will tell Congress that he fears “the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged” without a response “based in science”.
Republican Maryland governor Larry Hogan and Democratic New York governor Andrew Cuomo released a joint statement today as the leaders of the National Governors Association asking Congress to deliver “urgent state fiscal relief” to address the soaring costs states are bearing because of the Covid-19 crisis.
Maryland Gov. Hogan (R) and New York Gov. Cuomo (D) urge Congress to send aid to states. “This is not a red state or blue state crisis. This is a red white and blue pandemic. The coronavirus is apolitical. It does not attack Democrats or Republicans. It attacks Americans.” pic.twitter.com/1kkSw3USey
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Trump ends the briefing on a very abrupt and sour note.
Asked by CBS White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang why he is so fixated on comparing the US’ testing capability to other countries as opposed to focusing on the lag that still exists here, Trump snapped: “Maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me, ask China that question, okay?”
Trump throws a fit when @kaitlancollins of CNN tries to ask him a question and abruptly ends the press conference pic.twitter.com/58AVZ9CABl
Trump walked out of his own news conference after accusing @weijia of asking a "nasty question" and refusing to take @kaitlancollins's questions after calling on her.
Trump spent Mother’s Day sending conspiratorial tweets about his predecessor. In one tweet he accused Obama of committing the “biggest political crime in American history, by far!” Trump.
Asked to name the crime he is accusing Obama of committing, Trump replied: “Obamagate. it’s been going on for a long time it’s been going on before I even got elected.”
Related: Trump charges Obama with 'biggest political crime in American history'
Continue reading...As state prepares to reopen, governor says new cases on par with mid-March – but death rate may have been far higher than believed
As parts of New York prepared to reopen on Friday, the governor said new infections had fallen to the same rate as 19 March, the date he said the state “went into the abyss”.
Related: No quarantine for Mike Pence despite rash of Covid-19 cases in White House
Continue reading...Mother’s Day weekend got off to an unseasonably snowy start in the US north-east on Saturday, thanks to the polar vortex bringing cold air down from the north.
Some higher elevation areas in northern New York state and New England reported snowfall accumulations of up to 10in, while traces of snow were seen along the coast from Maine to Boston and as far south as Manhattan.
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Trump’s mention of tapes in his extraordinary references, in a live phone call into Fox News, to how he learned from Richard Nixon is interesting, to say the least.
“When I fired Comey, you know what hit the fan,” Trump on Fox News. "I study history," including on Nixon.
"Of course, there was one difference. ... #1 he may have been guilty. And #2 he had tapes all over the place. I wasn’t guilty. I did nothing wrong. And there were no tapes.” https://t.co/xJIkEuPY7O
Trump tweeted: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
The tweet, which if taken at face value would suggest Trump has been secretly taping White House meetings, came after the New York Times reported that he demanded “loyalty” from Comey in a private dinner held shortly after Trump took office.
Related: Trump threatens ex-FBI head Comey with possible 'tapes' of conversations
Here’s transcript of Trump’s full comments about Richard Nixon during his call in to Fox News this morning.
Here's the transcript of Trump's comments this morning about what he learned from Richard Nixon. (Of course, Trump did fire a bunch of people.) pic.twitter.com/Ltl8WKvTPe
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