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Brazil records almost 1,000 deaths in a day, taking its overall number of fatalities past France.

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Labour whip resigns after breaking lockdown rules to meet married boyfriend

May 31, 2020

A Labour MP has stepped down from her front bench position as whip after admitting she broke lockdown rules to meet her married lover. Rosie Duffield met her boyfriend for a long walk in April, while it was still against the lockdown rules to meet people from different households, the Mail on Sunday reported. She resigned as a whip on Saturday night and said she was “attempting to navigate a difficult personal situation". Ms Duffield, 48, was living separately from married father-of-three James Routh, pictured below, a TV director, when they went for a long walk in her constituency and he visited her home, it was reported. The MP for Canterbury told the Mail on Sunday the pair observed the two-metre social distancing rules, but these incidents were before meetings between people from different households were allowed.

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AOC slams Bill de Blasio for 'unacceptable' comments after mayor says police showed 'tremendous restraint' amid protests

May 31, 2020

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D—NY) slammed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio over “unacceptable” remarks in which he defended the city’s police department and said it showed "restraint" when responding to protests that erupted during the weekend.The progressive freshman Democrat issued a statement criticising the mayor’s comments after videos posted online Saturday showed NYPD vehicles driving through a crowd of demonstrators taking part in the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd. The 46-year-old unarmed black man was killed after pleading for air as a white officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, according to charging documents.

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Louisville police appear to shoot pepper rounds at reporters

May 31, 2020

Footage from Wave 3 local news in Louisville, Ky., appears to show police shooting pepper rounds directly at news crew.

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Bosnian court rejects request to detain regional PM over ventilators deal

May 31, 2020

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Burkina Faso gunmen 'kill dozens' at cattle market in Kompienga

May 31, 2020

The gunmen arrived on motorbikes, shooting into the crowded market, reports say.

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Airlines schedule major increase in flights in July as pressure mounts on ministers to ease quarantine

May 31, 2020

Airlines have scheduled a dramatic increase in flights in July in anticipation that Governments will lift travel restrictions for holidaymakers and save the industry from potential collapse, according to data seen by The Sunday Telegraph. The companies which have already laid off tens of thousands of workers are banking on a “V-shaped” recovery by scheduling 161,200 passenger flights and 29.5 million seats for July, just eight per cent down on last year’s July timetables. The strategy to open up business travel and holiday routes to hotspot favourites like Greece, Italy, France and Spain comes as most European countries are preparing to lift their quarantines or open their borders in mid June or at least by July 1. It will increase pressure on Boris Johnson to make good his suggestion last week that the UK’s quarantine - to be introduced on June 8 - could be replaced with “air bridges” to low-risk holiday destinations when it is reviewed on June 29. One senior industry source claimed: “The sense is that they might quietly do a U-turn after the first review period. Grant Shapps [the Transport Secretary] is against quarantine, the Treasury are against it, Beis is against it and DCMS hate it.” The exclusive data, from Cirium, a travel analytics firm, shows how the coronavirus pandemic devastated the aviation industry as it tore across the world. Scheduled passengers were 22.5 million in February, 10 per cent up on last year before it slumped by 93 per cent in April and May. It has risen in June to 38.5 per cent down on last year, as the Far East has opened up, and rises to just minus eight per cent in July as airlines anticipate Europe unlocking. June and July are “scheduled” rather than actual flights, which will depend on quarantines easing in June and July. Germany has lifted restrictions, Italy wants to resume travel on June 15, and Spain and Portugal are aiming for July 1. France hopes to drop border controls to and from EU countries after June 15 except with countries that impose quarantine on a “reciprocal” basis, namely the UK. Greece has excluded the UK from a “white list” of 29 countries it judges are low-risk enough from which to accept tourists from June 15 without quarantine although it will open up to more countries after it reviews their infection rates at the end of June. British Airways says it is aiming for a “meaningful return” to flying in July, RyanAir plans to ramp up flights to at least 40 per cent of its normal July schedule and EasyJet, which has laid off one in three staff, hopes to operate 30 per cent of its pre-crisis timetable from July to September. Paul Charles, chief executive of PC Consultancy, which advises the tourist industry, said Britain’s quarantine risked “killing” the economy. “Travel companies have not had any bookings for April or May. They are worried that if they don’t get them in June, they will go under,” he said. The Airport Operators’ Association (AOA) has urged ministers to aim for the first “air bridges” to “low risk” destinations by June 8 so that holidaymakers can sidestep quarantine and the requirement to self-isolate for 14 days on their return to the UK. The Department for Transport will shortly publish new guidelines for “safe” travel which will include face coverings or masks throughout the journey, temperature checks, social distancing in airports and contactless travel including for check-ins and payments. An AOA spokesman said: “Once these guidelines are agreed and given that they are based on a common European baseline, this puts in place the right conditions for opening up air bridges to low-risk countries.” The Home Office which has led the moves to introduce quarantine has, however, warned that it will block attempts to lift the quarantine unless it is safe and there is no risk of it sparking a second wave of coronavirus. A Department for Transport source said: “There is certainly a willingness in Government to do as much for this Summer as is safe.” Post-coronavirus air travel: No travel if you have symptoms If ill, no cost re-booking or refunds up to six hours before flying Face masks or coverings from arrival at airport to leaving terminal at destination Only passengers in the terminal, no tearful goodbyes at departure gates Contact-less electronic check-in and boarding Social distancing and one-way systems for waiting and queuing passengers Airports' association pressing for temperature checks Exemption from two-metre rule on plane No on-board duty free, reduced food and drink service, pre-packaged food and cashless payments

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'You're not going to out-concern me and out-care me': Atlanta's mayor makes a powerful plea against violence and destruction in George Floyd protests

May 31, 2020

"This is not a protest," Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said. "This is chaos. A protest has purpose."

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Saudi Arabia reopens mosques with strict regulations for worshippers

May 31, 2020

Saudi Arabia's mosques opened their doors to worshippers on Sunday for the first time in more than two months as the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, eased restrictions imposed to combat the coronavirus. "It is great to feel the mercy of God and once again call people for prayers at mosques instead of at their homes," said Abdulmajeed Al Mohaisen, who issues the call to prayer at Al Rajhi Mosque, one of the largest in the capital Riyadh.

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Fire, pestilence and a country at war with itself: the Trump presidency is over

May 31, 2020

A pandemic unabated, an economy in meltdown, cities in chaos over police killings. All our supposed leader does is tweetYou’d be forgiven if you hadn’t noticed. His verbal bombshells are louder than ever, but Donald J Trump is no longer president of the United States.By having no constructive response to any of the monumental crises now convulsing America, Trump has abdicated his office. He is not governing. He’s golfing, watching cable TV and tweeting.How has Trump responded to the widespread unrest following the murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for minutes as he was handcuffed on the ground?Trump called the protesters “thugs” and threatened to have them shot. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he tweeted, parroting a former Miami police chief whose words spurred race riots in the late 1960s.On Saturday, he gloated about “the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons” awaiting protesters outside the White House, should they ever break through Secret Service lines. > In reality, Donald Trump doesn’t run the government of the United States. He doesn’t manage anythingTrump’s response to the last three ghastly months of mounting disease and death has been just as heedless. Since claiming Covid-19 was a “Democratic hoax” and muzzling public health officials, he has punted management of the coronavirus to the states.Governors have had to find ventilators to keep patients alive and protective equipment for hospital and other essential workers who lack it, often bidding against each other. They have had to decide how, when and where to reopen their economies.Trump has claimed “no responsibility at all” for testing and contact-tracing – the keys to containing the virus. His new “plan” places responsibility on states to do their own testing and contact-tracing.Trump is also awol in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.More than 41 million Americans are jobless. In the coming weeks temporary eviction moratoriums are set to end in half of the states. One-fifth of Americans missed rent payments this month. Extra unemployment benefits are set to expire at the end of July.What is Trump’s response? Like Herbert Hoover, who in 1930 said “the worst is behind us” as thousands starved, Trump says the economy will improve and does nothing about the growing hardship. The Democratic-led House passed a $3tn relief package on 15 May. Mitch McConnell has recessed the Senate without taking action and Trump calls the bill dead on arrival. What about other pressing issues a real president would be addressing? The House has passed nearly 400 bills this term, including measures to reduce climate change, enhance election security, require background checks on gun sales, reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and reform campaign finance. All are languishing in McConnell’s inbox. Trump doesn’t seem to be aware of any of them.There is nothing inherently wrong with golfing, watching television and tweeting. But if that’s pretty much all that a president does when the nation is engulfed in crises, he is not a president.Trump’s tweets are no substitute for governing. They are mostly about getting even.When he’s not fomenting violence against black protesters, he’s accusing a media personality of committing murder, retweeting slurs about a black female politician’s weight and the House speaker’s looks, conjuring up conspiracies against himself supposedly organized by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and encouraging his followers to “liberate” their states from lockdown restrictions.He tweets bogus threats that he has no power to carry out – withholding funds from states that expand absentee voting, “overruling” governors who don’t allow places of worship to reopen “right away”, and punishing Twitter for factchecking him.And he lies incessantly.In reality, Donald Trump doesn’t run the government of the United States. He doesn’t manage anything. He doesn’t organize anyone. He doesn’t administer or oversee or supervise. He doesn’t read memos. He hates meetings. He has no patience for briefings. His White House is in perpetual chaos. His advisers aren’t truth-tellers. They’re toadies, lackeys, sycophants and relatives.Since moving into the Oval Office in January 2017, Trump hasn’t shown an ounce of interest in governing. He obsesses only about himself.But it has taken the present set of crises to reveal the depths of his self-absorbed abdication – his utter contempt for his job, his total repudiation of his office.Trump’s nonfeasance goes far beyond an absence of leadership or inattention to traditional norms and roles. In a time of national trauma, he has relinquished the core duties and responsibilities of the presidency.He is no longer president. The sooner we stop treating him as if he were, the better. * Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a columnist for Guardian US

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Tropical storm Amanda leaves 9 dead in El Salvador: officials

May 31, 2020