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...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...Brazil daily death toll jumps by nearly 1,200; East Africa facing ‘triple menace’ of Covid-19, floods and locusts. This blog is now closed
We are closing this live blog now, but you can stay up to date on all our coverage with our new global blog which you can find below.
Related: Coronavirus live news: Trump pushes to open churches as Brazil death toll passes 20,000
Here the latest developments at a glance:
Continue reading...Suspect was taken into custody safely, officer said, while one injured person was taken to a hospital
Three people were injured, one of them critically, in a shooting near a popular shopping and entertainment district west of Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday, police said.
The suspect was taken into custody safely, Glendale officer Tiffany Ngalula said in a televised briefing. The most seriously injured person was taken to a hospital, and the two others were expected to survive.
Continue reading...As racism warps the US pandemic response, a health crisis has escalated into a culture war
puritans, alex azar, navajo nation,
Why do Americans represent less than 5% of the world’s population but nearly a third of the known coronavirus death toll? Not because of government incompetence, the Trump administration is arguing, but because Americans are very unhealthy.
The United States’ organized response to the pandemic had been “historic”, Trump’s health secretary, Alex Azar, told CNN on 17 May, but America “unfortunately” has a “very diverse” population, and black Americans and minorities “in particular” have “significant underlying disease”.
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’
Hairdressers and barbers have given free haircuts on the lawn of Michigan's state capitol in protest of the state government's stay-at-home orders, with state police fining three people for disorderly conduct during the demonstration that attracted 350 people.
The state capitol in Lansing has been the site of recent demonstrations by armed protesters against executive orders from Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer that forced businesses to close to slow the spread of Covid-19
Continue reading...The US secretary of state criticises China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, while backing Australia's push for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19. In a media address, Mike Pompeo attacks the Chinese Communist party, declaring it 'ideologically and politically hostile to free nations'. His comments come after China slapped 80% tariffs on Australian barley exports and continue similar rhetoric from the Trump administration that is increasingly critical of Beijing
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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...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...Recordings containing edited conversations between the two while in office published by Ukrainian associate of Rudy Giuliani
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said that leaked recordings of phone calls allegedly between Joe Biden and former president Petro Poroshenko would be investigated by the country’s law enforcement agencies, adding that their contents might be “perceived, qualified as treason”.
The remarks prompted an angry rebuttal from Poroshenko, who said that the Zelenskiy administration may have played a role in their release and should be investigated.
Continue reading...Catastrophic flooding could potentially release toxic pollution from site contaminated by Dow Chemical
Catastrophic flooding triggered by dam failures in Michigan could potentially release toxic pollution from a site contaminated by the industrial giant Dow Chemical.
Dow’s facility in Midland, Michigan, where the company is headquartered along the Tittabawassee River, manufactured chlorine-based products beginning in the early 1900s. The company discharged dioxins, chemical compounds which can cause reproductive harm and cancer, into the river.
Continue reading...The only man ever convicted in a US court for a role in the 9/11 attacks has said he is renouncing terrorism, al-Qaida and the Islamic State.
Related: 'You lost, I won,' Moussaoui tells America as jury spares 9/11 plotter death penalty
Continue reading...New figures from non-partisan APM Research Lab show staggering racial divide in coronavirus death rate across US
The racial wound at the center of the coronavirus pandemic in the US continues to fester, with latest data showing that African Americans have died from the disease at almost three times the rate of white people.
New figures compiled by the non-partisan APM Research Lab and released on Wednesday under the title Color of Coronavirus provide further evidence of the staggering divide in the Covid-19 death rate between black Americans and the rest of the nation.
Continue reading...Rapidly rising water overwhelmed dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people in central Michigan, where flooding struck communities along rain-swollen waterways and the governor said downtown could be 'under approximately nine feet of water' by Wednesday
Continue reading...Dr Rebekah Jones says she was fired from Department of Health by the governor after protesting order to censor information
The scientist in charge of Florida’s Covid-19 database was fired on the same day as the state opened up for business.
As sunbathers returned to beaches, and restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and hair salons in almost every county were permitted to open their doors on Monday, the Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration fired Dr Rebekah Jones from the Florida department of health.
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”.
Continue reading...Country plans to allow international flights from 1 July; Spain makes face coverings compulsory; global cases hit 4.9m
Here is more on US president Donald Trump calling for an in-person G7 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.
Related: Trump considers an in-person G7 meeting despite coronavirus pandemic
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