The country’s most reliable voting bloc are also the most vulnerable to the virus, which looks to be benefiting Biden
At a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden last week, a maskless Donald Trump appealed directly to a constituency that could determine his political fate in November’s election: America’s seniors.
Related: Biden sets solemn tone as Trump waits 15 hours to mark Covid-19 milestone
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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
Continue reading...A sheriff in Michigan on Saturday was welcomed with cheers as he gave a rousing speech before joining demonstrators on a George Floyd protest. 'The only reason we're here is to make sure you have a voice, that's it' said Chris Swanson. 'I want to make this a parade, not a protest.' Swanson then joined the demonstrators after they chanted 'walk with us' at him
Continue reading...The pope warns that people are more important than economies as countries ease lockdowns
Global coronavirus infections have passed the 6 million mark as Latin America hit the grim milestone of 50,000 deaths with Brazil alone accounting for half of those fatalities.
With at least 369,000 deaths confirmed worldwide since the pandemic began in China in January – and that number believed to be an underestimate – Brazil’s virus death toll of 28,834 has now surpassed that of France with the country reporting 33,274 new infections in the past 24 hours.
Continue reading...Footage of two police SUVs driving into a crowd of demonstrators in Brooklyn has been widely shared on social media. The incident involving NYPD vehicles occurred near Prospect Park on 30 May, as protests took place across the US following the death of George Floyd, an African American who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck in Minneapolis. New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: 'Running SUVs in crowds of people should never, ever be normalised. No matter who does it, no matter why.'
Continue reading...Protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black people spread across the country as mayors imposed curfews and governors called in the national guard
A new study shows that 60% of the world’s wars have lasted for at least a decade. From Afghanistan to Libya, Syria to Congo DRC, has endless conflict become normalised?
Libya’s civil war entered its 7th year this month with no end in sight. In Afghanistan, conflict has raged on and off since the Soviet invasion in 1979. America’s Afghan war is now its longest ever, part of the open-ended US “global war on terror” launched after the 2001 al-Qaida attacks.
Yemen’s conflict is in its sixth pitiless year. In Israel-Palestine, war – or rather the absence of peace – has characterised life since 1948. Somalis have endured 40 years of fighting. These are but a few examples in a world where the idea of war without end seems to have become accepted, even normalised.
Why do present-day politicians, generals, governments and international organisations appear incapable or uninterested in making peace? In the 19th and 20th centuries, broadly speaking, wars commenced and concluded with formal ultimatums, declarations, agreed protocols, truces, armistices and treaties.
Continue reading...The president’s account is a 24/7 window into his psyche, with even his rage at having his posts factchecked expressed via tweet
It has been one of the greatest love affairs in American politics.
Related: Twitter taking on Trump's lies? About time too | John Naughton
Continue reading...Brazil becomes fourth worst country for deaths; pressure builds on South African president over his handling of outbreak
Bosnia’s state court has ordered the release of a regional prime minister and two other men suspected of corruption in connection with the import of defective ventilators for coronavirus patients.
The court of Bosnia-Herzegovina said their detention was unnecessary, and turned down the prosecution’s requests to detain the three men for 30 days.
Senior public health officials have made a last-minute plea for ministers to scrap Monday’s easing of the coronavirus lockdown in England, warning the country is unprepared to deal with any surge in infection and that public resolve to take steps to limit transmission has been eroded.
The Association of Directors of Public Health said new rules, including allowing groups of up to six people to meet outdoors and in private gardens, were “not supported by the science” and that pictures of crowded beaches and beauty spots over the weekend showed “the public is not keeping to social distancing as it was”.
Related: Health officials make last-minute plea to stop lockdown easing in England
Continue reading...Kauai has one of the Pentagon’s most valued testing sites. It’s an economic driver, but some residents say the military shouldn’t be on the islands at all
Hawaii’s “garden island”, Kauai, is known for its breathtaking scenery and laid-back vibe, a place of plunging waterfalls and cliffs cloaked in green tropical forests. But beyond its beauty it is one of the Pentagon’s most valued testing and training sites in the Pacific.
In Hawaii, where the military is the second-largest economic driver, after tourism, weapons testing and training enjoy widespread support, but some residents view the islands’ highly militarized state as misguided or even illegal.
Continue reading...US president intends to convene 11 nations at later date in push to counter China
Donald Trump has been forced to cancel a planned face-to-face summit of G7 leaders in June and now wants to host an expanded meeting in September dedicated to countering China, to which Vladimir Putin would be invited.
Trump revealed on Saturday that he had cancelled the June meeting, which he had billed as a symbol of the US “transitioning back to greatness”, after the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, told him in a phone call that she saw the summit in Washington DC as a health risk. Hundreds of security staff, journalists and officials also attend the two-day summits.
Continue reading...A top FBI lawyer who was criticised on Fox News for his role in the investigation of Michael Flynn has resigned after being asked to do so by senior figures at the Department of Justice, NBC News reported on Saturday.
Related: What is 'Obamagate' and why is Trump so worked up about it?
Continue reading...A rocketship named Dragon breathed new fire into America’s human spaceflight programme on Saturday, carrying two astronauts on a much-anticipated adventure.
Related: Trump wants America looking at the stars as he drags it through the gutter
Continue reading...Rapper Killer Mike addressed demonstrators in Atlanta asking them not to destroy the city but to 'plot, plan, strategise, organise and mobilise' for political change.
'I'm mad as Hell,' he said, tearful at a news conference on Friday night, urging protesters to seek political reform instead of destroying the city of Atlanta
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...Erika Shields says angry reaction is understandable as governor declares state of emergency
After hours of peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd, some demonstrators in downtown Atlanta turned violent on Friday night, smashing police cars, spray-painting a sign at CNN headquarters and breaking into restaurants and stores.
The crowd pelted officers with bottles, chanting “Quit your jobs.”
Continue reading...Protests against police brutality ignited across the US overnight and into Saturday morning following the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, who died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck.
Demonstrators chanted 'hands up, don't shoot' and 'I can't breathe' as they clashed with police
Kardashian family member reacts angrily to magazine’s claim she spun ‘a web of lies’
A row has broken out between one of the world’s leading business magazines and the youngest member of reality TV’s most famous family over the value of her cosmetics company.
Forbes magazine has accused Kylie Jenner, the youngest half-sister of Kim Kardashian West, of spinning a “web of lies” to inflate the size and success of her business. It claimed her family went to unusual lengths to present its youngest adult member as being richer than she was.
Continue reading...In 2014, Michael Brown’s killing by white police prompted talk of reform – but the country has failed to stanch the bleeding
After the African American teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, the epidemic of police violence against people of color in the US captured national and global attention, for a time.
Related: Police officer filmed kneeling on George Floyd's neck charged with murder
Continue reading...As people protest across the US, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have offered divergent responses that point to a divisive political debate on race relations
Riots in Minneapolis and across the US triggered by video footage showing George Floyd, a black man, killed under the knee of a police officer, has caused a dramatic shift in the national political debate in America and thrust race to the center of the stage.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden offered divergent responses that point to an even more divisive political debate on race relations and between Democrats and Republicans playing out in the months ahead.
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