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| Trump signs $2.2tn stimulus bill after invoking Defense Production Act – as it happened | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| The stimulus package, which gives aid to businesses and taxpayers, received bipartisan support in Congress | The stimulus package, which gives aid to businesses and taxpayers, received bipartisan support in Congress |
| Wrapping up our live politics coverage for tonight. You can continue to follow our global coronavirus liveblog for updates around the world. | |
| A summary of the key news from today: | |
| Trump signed a historic $2.2tn emergency relief package into law. | |
| After delays, the president finally invoked the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to start making ventilators. | |
| At the daily White House coronavirus briefing, Trump said that in the next 100 days, the United States would try to produce or obtain 100,000 ventilators. | |
| Trump said that the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, told him today “We need ventilators,” and that if the US made more ventilators than it needed, it would share them with the UK, Italy and other allies. | |
| Asked if every American who needed a ventilator would have one during this crisis, Trump lashed out against the reporter, calling him a “cutie pie” and “wise guy” and complained about the difficult situation he had inherited. | |
| The conditions in US immigration detention centers sparked a condemnation from Iran’s foreign minister, who called on the US to release Iranians, including a doctor currently being held in an Ice detention center in Louisiana. | |
| Hundreds of employees of Bird, a scooter startup based in California, were laid off in a pre-recorded phone call on Friday as the company grapples with decreased demand amid the coronavirus epidemic. | |
| “The unprecedented Covid-19 crisis has forced our leadership team and the board of directors to make many extremely difficult and painful decisions relating to some of your teammates”, the Bird CEO, Travis VanderZanden, wrote to staffers in a memo obtained by the Guardian. | |
| The layoffs represent about 30% of the workforce of the shared scooter company. Bird confirmed the layoffs and said former employees will receive four weeks of pay and three months of health coverage. | |
| The company did not respond to a request for comment regarding rumors the layoffs were carried out over a pre-recorded message on Zoom video conferencing. | |
| Bird’s layoffs come as many shared transportation companies struggle in the face of a global pandemic. Lime scooters have suspended service in the Bay Area in light of health concerns and Gig car share took cars off the streets to clean them this week, before reinstating them on Friday. | |
| The current situation in America’s immigration detention centers is sparking international condemnation. | |
| Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has called on the US to release Iranians jailed on sanctions-related issues as concerns about the spread of coronavirus are dramatically escalating. Citing the Guardian’s reporting on one Iranian scientist’s ongoing detention in an Louisiana, Zarif accused the US of taking “several Iranian scientists hostage” and keeping “innocent men jailed in horrific facilities”: | |
| Dr Sirous Asgari, a materials science and engineering professor, was exonerated in a US sanctions trial last year, but remains jailed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). Speaking by phone from an Ice facility in Louisiana, he told the Guardian this week that the conditions inside were filthy and overcrowded, and officials were doing little to prevent a deadly Covid-19 outbreak: | |
| After Asgari was acquitted on charges of stealing trade secrets, he tried to “self deport” back to Iran, but Ice has kept him indefinitely detained. Asgari said detainees at his facility have no hand sanitizer and that Ice is not regularly cleaning the bathrooms. For two weeks, he said Ice also refused to let him use a mask he had brought with him even though he has a history of respiratory problems. | |
| In his tweet today, Zarif said the US was jailing Iranians “without charge or on spurious sanctions charges” and refusing to release them even when its OWN courts reject the absurd charges”. | |
| Read more on Dr Asgari’s situation here: | |
| Dr Fauci goes deep: ‘We’re in uncharted waters’ | |
| Authority. Experience. The ability to communicate. | Authority. Experience. The ability to communicate. |
| Dr Anthony Fauci has become a trusted figure for many Americans overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. | |
| Today, at the end of another contentious and partially accurate White House coronavirus briefing, a reporter asked Fauci to take a step back and address a more philosophical question. In his years of responding to serious epidemics, had he experienced anything like the past month in the United States? | |
| While the HIV/Aids epidemic was incredibly devastating, the suffering and deaths unfolded more slowly than what people around the world are experiencing now, Fauci said. | |
| “What we’re seeing now, in actual real time, is something that’s unprecedented. This is something we have never seen before, at least in our generation. They’ve seen maybe something like this 100 years ago.” | “What we’re seeing now, in actual real time, is something that’s unprecedented. This is something we have never seen before, at least in our generation. They’ve seen maybe something like this 100 years ago.” |
| “We’re really being challenged to not only learn in real time, to be able to respond in a way that’s helpful an effective, we’re also in uncharted waters. That is the thing that I find different...” | “We’re really being challenged to not only learn in real time, to be able to respond in a way that’s helpful an effective, we’re also in uncharted waters. That is the thing that I find different...” |
| “It isn’t as if we have an example of how to do it.” | “It isn’t as if we have an example of how to do it.” |
| Los Angeles CCs 200 people on Covid-19 testing results email | |
| It appears the city of Los Angeles inadvertently notified more than 200 people about their Covid-19 results in a mass email that included the names of all recipients, according to LA Times reporter Soumya Karlamangla: | It appears the city of Los Angeles inadvertently notified more than 200 people about their Covid-19 results in a mass email that included the names of all recipients, according to LA Times reporter Soumya Karlamangla: |
| The mass email, which reportedly failed to blind copy the recipients, was informing them of negative results, according to a screenshot posted by Karlamangla, who noted this was a major privacy violation: | The mass email, which reportedly failed to blind copy the recipients, was informing them of negative results, according to a screenshot posted by Karlamangla, who noted this was a major privacy violation: |
| The email came from someone listed as a contract specialist for the mayor’s office of public safety, writing on behalf of the health department’s Covid-19 response team. Spokespeople for the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment this afternoon. | The email came from someone listed as a contract specialist for the mayor’s office of public safety, writing on behalf of the health department’s Covid-19 response team. Spokespeople for the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment this afternoon. |
| During briefing, Trump feuds with state governors, makes false claims | During briefing, Trump feuds with state governors, makes false claims |
| Two key moments from Trump’s coronavirus briefing today. | Two key moments from Trump’s coronavirus briefing today. |
| Trump tossed out barbs at state governors he said have been insufficiently gracious to him, and said he advised the vice-president, Mike Pence, just not to return their calls. (But added that Pence called them anyway.) | Trump tossed out barbs at state governors he said have been insufficiently gracious to him, and said he advised the vice-president, Mike Pence, just not to return their calls. (But added that Pence called them anyway.) |
| And asked if his administration’s belated push to manufacture or obtain 100,000 ventilators meant that everyone who needed a ventilator will be able to get one, he lashed out at the reporter asking the question, calling him a “wise guy” and complaining about all the problems he had inherited. | And asked if his administration’s belated push to manufacture or obtain 100,000 ventilators meant that everyone who needed a ventilator will be able to get one, he lashed out at the reporter asking the question, calling him a “wise guy” and complaining about all the problems he had inherited. |
| Fact check: transition to online public school classes was not seamless | Fact check: transition to online public school classes was not seamless |
| Besty DeVos, the education secretary, claimed in the White House briefing today that the transition to online classes had been “seamless”. | Besty DeVos, the education secretary, claimed in the White House briefing today that the transition to online classes had been “seamless”. |
| Fact: around 15% of households with school-age children don’t have internet at home, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2015 census data. In addition, 20% of teens told Pew researchers (in a separate survey) that they often or sometimes can’t complete homework assignments because they don’t have reliable access to the internet or a computer. Both reports found that affected students are more likely to be from low-income and minority families. | Fact: around 15% of households with school-age children don’t have internet at home, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2015 census data. In addition, 20% of teens told Pew researchers (in a separate survey) that they often or sometimes can’t complete homework assignments because they don’t have reliable access to the internet or a computer. Both reports found that affected students are more likely to be from low-income and minority families. |
| Angela Siefer, the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, told City Lab: “The kids whose families do have internet connection are going to have at least some learning continuing during this period, and the kids who don’t won’t.” | Angela Siefer, the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, told City Lab: “The kids whose families do have internet connection are going to have at least some learning continuing during this period, and the kids who don’t won’t.” |
| Panera Bread partnering with the USDA to serve meals to kids | Panera Bread partnering with the USDA to serve meals to kids |
| One of the country’s fast casual food chains announced a partnership with the department of agriculture and a children’s hunger group to serve fresh, healthy meals to kids across Ohio, and eventually across multiple states. | One of the country’s fast casual food chains announced a partnership with the department of agriculture and a children’s hunger group to serve fresh, healthy meals to kids across Ohio, and eventually across multiple states. |
| Fact check: has Trump always taken coronavirus seriously? | Fact check: has Trump always taken coronavirus seriously? |
| Trump today switched from saying that the coronavirus pandemic was unpredictable (see news coverage yesterday), to again claiming he’d always taken it seriously: ‘I was the first one to say to China, when they had the problem, not to come in and that was a long time ago.’ | Trump today switched from saying that the coronavirus pandemic was unpredictable (see news coverage yesterday), to again claiming he’d always taken it seriously: ‘I was the first one to say to China, when they had the problem, not to come in and that was a long time ago.’ |
| In fact, at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Trump repeatedly downplayed the threat, inaccurately comparing it to the flu and told his supporters that growing worry about the coronavirus was a “hoax.. | In fact, at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Trump repeatedly downplayed the threat, inaccurately comparing it to the flu and told his supporters that growing worry about the coronavirus was a “hoax.. |
| By the time Trump announced travel restrictions from China on 31 January, most major airlines had already suspended flights, following the lead of several major international carriers that had stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak. | By the time Trump announced travel restrictions from China on 31 January, most major airlines had already suspended flights, following the lead of several major international carriers that had stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak. |
| Advocates for students with disabilities are worried | Advocates for students with disabilities are worried |
| As the education secretary, Besty DeVos, wraps up her briefing, worth reading this important story: | As the education secretary, Besty DeVos, wraps up her briefing, worth reading this important story: |
| The education secretary, Besty DeVos, is now at the podium at the White House briefing giving an update on efforts to support students even as schools are closed. | The education secretary, Besty DeVos, is now at the podium at the White House briefing giving an update on efforts to support students even as schools are closed. |
| She also gave a salute to many teachers and other Americans who were doing inspiring things to keep kids learning and on track. In her list: the heroic volunteering efforts of....Karen Pence, the wife of the vice president, Mike Pence. | She also gave a salute to many teachers and other Americans who were doing inspiring things to keep kids learning and on track. In her list: the heroic volunteering efforts of....Karen Pence, the wife of the vice president, Mike Pence. |