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White House tries to distance itself from Peter Navarro op-ed attacking Fauci – live White House tries to distance itself from Peter Navarro op-ed attacking Fauci – live
(32 minutes later)
Trump’s trade adviser says ‘Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on’Trump’s trade adviser says ‘Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on’
Fox News announced it will air an interview with Trump on Sunday. The interview will be conducted by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.
Trump has participated in several one-on-one interviews in recent weeks, as he weathers criticism on his responses to the coronavirus pandemic and the protests over the police killing of George Floyd.
Some of the interviews have caused trouble for Trump because of his controversial answers. In a CBS News interview that aired yesterday, Trump sparked outrage when he responded to a question about Floyd’s death by emphasizing that white people are also killed by police, even though studies have shown black Americans are more likely to be killed by law enforcment.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell expressed “total” faith in Dr Anthony Fauci while speaking to reporters in his home state of Kentucky.Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell expressed “total” faith in Dr Anthony Fauci while speaking to reporters in his home state of Kentucky.
McConnell cited Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a crucial source of information and advice on the pandemic.McConnell cited Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a crucial source of information and advice on the pandemic.
When asked what his current level of confidence in Fauci is, McConnell replied, “Total.”When asked what his current level of confidence in Fauci is, McConnell replied, “Total.”
That answer from the Republican Senate leader comes as the White House seeks to distance itself from an op-ed written by trade adviser Peter Navarro, which raises doubts about Fauci’s credibility.That answer from the Republican Senate leader comes as the White House seeks to distance itself from an op-ed written by trade adviser Peter Navarro, which raises doubts about Fauci’s credibility.
The White House also recently circulated an unsigned memo casting Fauci’s past comments about coronavirus in a negative light.The White House also recently circulated an unsigned memo casting Fauci’s past comments about coronavirus in a negative light.
Walmart has announced it will require all customers to wear masks while shopping, becoming the latest company to mandate face coverings amid the coronavirus pandemic.Walmart has announced it will require all customers to wear masks while shopping, becoming the latest company to mandate face coverings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer, said the requirement would go into effect on Monday to allow time to inform customers of the change.Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer, said the requirement would go into effect on Monday to allow time to inform customers of the change.
The company noted in a statement announcing the new policy that about two-thirds of its stores are in areas with existing mask requirements. The company-wide mandate will set the same standard for all stores.The company noted in a statement announcing the new policy that about two-thirds of its stores are in areas with existing mask requirements. The company-wide mandate will set the same standard for all stores.
The CEOs of Walmart and Sam’s Club, which is operated by Walmart, said in the statement, “While we’re certainly not the first business to require face coverings, we know this is a simple step everyone can take for their safety and the safety of others in our facilities.”The CEOs of Walmart and Sam’s Club, which is operated by Walmart, said in the statement, “While we’re certainly not the first business to require face coverings, we know this is a simple step everyone can take for their safety and the safety of others in our facilities.”
The US has once again broken its record for the highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, according to Johns Hopkins University.The US has once again broken its record for the highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The university’s data indicates 67,417 new cases were confirmed yesterday, breaking the record of 66,627 cases set on Friday.The university’s data indicates 67,417 new cases were confirmed yesterday, breaking the record of 66,627 cases set on Friday.
Since the start of the crisis, the US has confirmed 3,432,307 cases of coronavirus and recorded 136,463 deaths linked to the virus.Since the start of the crisis, the US has confirmed 3,432,307 cases of coronavirus and recorded 136,463 deaths linked to the virus.
The US accounts for about a quarter of all coronavirus cases reported around the world, as many states struggle to get their caseloads under control.The US accounts for about a quarter of all coronavirus cases reported around the world, as many states struggle to get their caseloads under control.
Joe Biden is likely sighing in relief at this news: Kanye West has reportedly scrapped plans to enter the 2020 presidential race.Joe Biden is likely sighing in relief at this news: Kanye West has reportedly scrapped plans to enter the 2020 presidential race.
New York magazine reported yeterday that West’s short-lived plans to get on the ballot in a handful of states had come to an end:New York magazine reported yeterday that West’s short-lived plans to get on the ballot in a handful of states had come to an end:
The news brings an end to about a week and a half of speculation over whether West would actually try to launch a presidential bid, which started when the celebrity tweeted about his intent to do so.The news brings an end to about a week and a half of speculation over whether West would actually try to launch a presidential bid, which started when the celebrity tweeted about his intent to do so.
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
The White House is trying to distance itself from a op-ed written by trade adviser Peter Navarro, which raises questions about the credibility of Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.The White House is trying to distance itself from a op-ed written by trade adviser Peter Navarro, which raises questions about the credibility of Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.
However, it’s worth noting that Donald Trump has shared views quite similar to those expressed in Navarro’s op-ed in recent days.However, it’s worth noting that Donald Trump has shared views quite similar to those expressed in Navarro’s op-ed in recent days.
When asked last week about Fauci’s comment that the status of the US coronavirus crisis is “really not good,” Trump said, “I disagree with him. Dr. Fauci said don’t wear masks and now he says wear them. And he said numerous things. Don’t close off China. Don’t ban China. I did it anyway.When asked last week about Fauci’s comment that the status of the US coronavirus crisis is “really not good,” Trump said, “I disagree with him. Dr. Fauci said don’t wear masks and now he says wear them. And he said numerous things. Don’t close off China. Don’t ban China. I did it anyway.
“I didn’t listen to my experts and I banned China. We would have been in much worse shape. You wouldn’t believe the number of deaths more we would have had if we didn’t do the ban.”“I didn’t listen to my experts and I banned China. We would have been in much worse shape. You wouldn’t believe the number of deaths more we would have had if we didn’t do the ban.”
You may have seen that USA Today published an op-ed from Peter Navarro which appeared to continue the Trump administration’s attacks on Dr Anthony Fauci. Titled ‘Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on’, in it Navarro, one of Trump’s trade advisers, said:You may have seen that USA Today published an op-ed from Peter Navarro which appeared to continue the Trump administration’s attacks on Dr Anthony Fauci. Titled ‘Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on’, in it Navarro, one of Trump’s trade advisers, said:
However, this morning the administration appears to have made a conscious effort to dissociate itself from his comments. Alyssa Farah, White House director of strategic communications has tweeted that the piece “didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone.”However, this morning the administration appears to have made a conscious effort to dissociate itself from his comments. Alyssa Farah, White House director of strategic communications has tweeted that the piece “didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone.”
She added that: “Donald Trump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his administration.”She added that: “Donald Trump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his administration.”
Speaking of the reopening of the Florida economy, Jessica Glenza has been reporting for us on the stop-start nature of the economic reopening plans across the states as coronavirus numbers have continued to rise.Speaking of the reopening of the Florida economy, Jessica Glenza has been reporting for us on the stop-start nature of the economic reopening plans across the states as coronavirus numbers have continued to rise.
As Miami mayor Francis X Suarez put it to the Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis at a public roundtable on Tuesday: “The reopening plan was great if everything went well. But I think the fact is things have not gone according to plan.”As Miami mayor Francis X Suarez put it to the Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis at a public roundtable on Tuesday: “The reopening plan was great if everything went well. But I think the fact is things have not gone according to plan.”
Florida nurses from three hospitals are planning a protest tonight about what they claim are “an explosion of unsafe conditions at their hospitals”.Florida nurses from three hospitals are planning a protest tonight about what they claim are “an explosion of unsafe conditions at their hospitals”.
The nurses will gather in a socially-distanced demonstration at St. Petersburg General hospital to warn that conditions are rapidly deteriorating with multiple safety problems since Florida’s economy re-opened.The nurses will gather in a socially-distanced demonstration at St. Petersburg General hospital to warn that conditions are rapidly deteriorating with multiple safety problems since Florida’s economy re-opened.
“Protecting our patients is our priority. But rushing from patient to patient because of inadequate staffing is a recipe for disaster which doesn’t allow us to properly monitor our patients when they are at their most vulnerable,” said Barbara Murray, a former union nurse representative at St. Petersburg General Hospital in a statement. “It also increases the danger of mistakes, including the spread of virus to other patients.”“Protecting our patients is our priority. But rushing from patient to patient because of inadequate staffing is a recipe for disaster which doesn’t allow us to properly monitor our patients when they are at their most vulnerable,” said Barbara Murray, a former union nurse representative at St. Petersburg General Hospital in a statement. “It also increases the danger of mistakes, including the spread of virus to other patients.”
Their concerns include claims that there is short staffing with nurses having to care for more patients than is safe, inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for nurses, improper isolation of patients who are confirmed or suspected of being infected with Covid-19, and a failure to inform nurses who may have been exposed to positive infected patients.Their concerns include claims that there is short staffing with nurses having to care for more patients than is safe, inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for nurses, improper isolation of patients who are confirmed or suspected of being infected with Covid-19, and a failure to inform nurses who may have been exposed to positive infected patients.
The protest comes as Florida’s coronavirus situation worsens. According to figures produced by Nephron Research, of the top twenty metropolitan areas in the US seeing the highest growth in daily new coronavirus cases, nine of them are in Florida, with Miami the worst affected.The protest comes as Florida’s coronavirus situation worsens. According to figures produced by Nephron Research, of the top twenty metropolitan areas in the US seeing the highest growth in daily new coronavirus cases, nine of them are in Florida, with Miami the worst affected.
Lilian Abbo, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Miami, earlier this week described scenes in the state as like “Wuhan five or six months ago”.Lilian Abbo, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Miami, earlier this week described scenes in the state as like “Wuhan five or six months ago”.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC, has imposed two injunctions this morning prohibiting the federal Bureau of Prisons from moving forward with the execution Wesley Ira Purkey. The Justice Department filed immediate appeals in both cases. A separate temporary stay was already in place from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC, has imposed two injunctions this morning prohibiting the federal Bureau of Prisons from moving forward with the execution Wesley Ira Purkey. The Justice Department filed immediate appeals in both cases. A separate temporary stay was already in place from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Purkey, who is next on the list to be executed by the federal government after a nearly 20-year hiatus, may have a better chance of avoiding lethal injection because he suffers from dementia and so, his lawyers say, can no longer grasp why he is slated to die.Purkey, who is next on the list to be executed by the federal government after a nearly 20-year hiatus, may have a better chance of avoiding lethal injection because he suffers from dementia and so, his lawyers say, can no longer grasp why he is slated to die.
He was convicted of a 1998 kidnapping and killing, and had been scheduled for execution today at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday after late legal bids failed to prevent the first federal execution since 2003.He was convicted of a 1998 kidnapping and killing, and had been scheduled for execution today at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday after late legal bids failed to prevent the first federal execution since 2003.
Purkey, 68, of Lansing, Kansas, would be the second, but his lawyers were still expected to press for a ruling from the supreme court on his competency.Purkey, 68, of Lansing, Kansas, would be the second, but his lawyers were still expected to press for a ruling from the supreme court on his competency.
This competency issue is a very strong issue on paper, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. The supreme court has halted executions on this issue in the past. At a minimum, the question of whether Purkey dies is going to go down to the last minute, report Michael Balsamo and Michael Tarm for the Associated Press.This competency issue is a very strong issue on paper, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. The supreme court has halted executions on this issue in the past. At a minimum, the question of whether Purkey dies is going to go down to the last minute, report Michael Balsamo and Michael Tarm for the Associated Press.
The issue of Purkeys mental health arose in the run-up to his 2003 trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death in the killing of 16-year-old Jennifer Long in Kansas City, Missouri.The issue of Purkeys mental health arose in the run-up to his 2003 trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death in the killing of 16-year-old Jennifer Long in Kansas City, Missouri.
Prosecutors alleged that he raped and stabbed her, dismembered her with a chainsaw, burned her, then dumped her ashes 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in a septic pond in Kansas. Purkey was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas.Prosecutors alleged that he raped and stabbed her, dismembered her with a chainsaw, burned her, then dumped her ashes 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in a septic pond in Kansas. Purkey was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas.
But the legal questions of whether he was mentally fit to stand trial or to be sentenced to die are different from the question of whether he is mentally fit enough now, in the hours before his scheduled execution, to be put to death.But the legal questions of whether he was mentally fit to stand trial or to be sentenced to die are different from the question of whether he is mentally fit enough now, in the hours before his scheduled execution, to be put to death.
Purkey’s lawyers argue he clearly is not, saying in recent filings that he suffers from advancing Alzheimers disease.He has long accepted responsibility for the crime that put him on death row, one of this lawyers, Rebecca Woodman, said. But as his dementia has progressed, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him. Purkey believes his planned execution is part of a vast conspiracy involving his own attorneys.Purkey’s lawyers argue he clearly is not, saying in recent filings that he suffers from advancing Alzheimers disease.He has long accepted responsibility for the crime that put him on death row, one of this lawyers, Rebecca Woodman, said. But as his dementia has progressed, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him. Purkey believes his planned execution is part of a vast conspiracy involving his own attorneys.
While various legal issues in Purkey’s case have been hashed, rehashed and settled by courts over nearly two decades, the issue of mental fitness for execution can only be addressed once a date is set, according to Dunham, who also teaches law school courses on capital punishment. A date was only set last year.In a landmark 1986 decision, the US supreme court ruled that the Constitution prohibits putting someone to death who lacks a reasonable understanding of why he is being executed. It involved the case of Alvin Ford, who was convicted of murder but whose mental health deteriorated behind bars to the point where, according to his lawyer, he believed he was pope.The mother of the teen Purkey killed, Glenda Lamont, told the Kansas City Star last year she planned to attend the execution.While various legal issues in Purkey’s case have been hashed, rehashed and settled by courts over nearly two decades, the issue of mental fitness for execution can only be addressed once a date is set, according to Dunham, who also teaches law school courses on capital punishment. A date was only set last year.In a landmark 1986 decision, the US supreme court ruled that the Constitution prohibits putting someone to death who lacks a reasonable understanding of why he is being executed. It involved the case of Alvin Ford, who was convicted of murder but whose mental health deteriorated behind bars to the point where, according to his lawyer, he believed he was pope.The mother of the teen Purkey killed, Glenda Lamont, told the Kansas City Star last year she planned to attend the execution.
“I don’t want to say that I’m happy,” Lamont said. “At the same time, he is a crazy mad man that doesn’t deserve, in my opinion, to be breathing anymore.”“I don’t want to say that I’m happy,” Lamont said. “At the same time, he is a crazy mad man that doesn’t deserve, in my opinion, to be breathing anymore.”
With the gagging order on promoting her explosive book lifted, Donald Trump’s niece has been free to speak to the media again. She has not minced her words, telling ABC:
Read more here: Donald Trump’s niece says president is dangerous and calls on him to resign
There’s a good piece over on the Hill website this morning looking at how ‘progressive populist’ Jamaal Bowman appears to have won out over long-time House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel.
If Bowman’s lead holds out, the piece argues, it will be just the latest sign of an ascendent progressive movement that has knocked off long-serving incumbents in New York, Massachusetts, California and Illinois.
Read it here: The Hill – How a progressive populist appears to have toppled Engel
Former US vice president Al Gore has partnered with a San Francisco company and coalition of environmental groups to roll out a new tool for tracking climate emissions from power plants, ships and even whole countries in real-time.
Designed by WattTime, the project combines satellite imagery with artificial intelligence, machine learning and other remote sensing technologies.
“What we’re creating is in some ways a massively distributed body cam for the earth,” Gore said.
Emissions reporting has long been based on bottom-up--and largely unverifiable--reporting from countries and companies. In 2015, for example, Gore recalled when China announced just ahead of the Paris agreement negotiations that it had been burning 17% more coal than previously reported.
The group hopes to release a global sector-by-sector emissions report in the summer of 2021, ahead of climate negotiations later that year.
“We ignored the warnings from epidemiologists and virologists about the need to prepare for a pandemic almost exactly identical to the one that we’re now dealing with,” Gore said. “So it’s not a big leap from that realization to an understanding that when the climate scientists have been warning us for even longer and in ever more dire terms that we need to pay attention to them as well.”
There’s been a lot of action around the China-US relationship in the last few hours.
The UK announced that it would be stripping Huawei technology out of the country’s 5G network by 2027 yesterday, a move which last night Donald Trump appeared to claim credit for, saying:
That view hasn’t been universally welcomed in the UK. Asked about the president’s comments, the British health secretary Matt Hancock told the Sky News television channel: “Well, we all know Donald Trump don’t we.”
China has also reacted harshly to the move, with state media foreshadowing “public and painful” retaliation against the UK over its ban of Huawei.
The sabre-rattling over the disputed South China sea has also continued. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said today that the US threat of sanctions was just its latest attempt to stir up trouble and destabilise the region.
“The US arbitrarily talks about sanctions ... this is very pathetic,” she told reporters during a daily briefing in Beijing. “We are not afraid of sanctions.”
Amid all of this, the New York Times has announced that it will move its staff out of Hong Kong, due to press freedom fears after China bought in sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s legislation.
Lloyd Green has written for us this morning, looking at how the emergence of the Covid-19 has destabilised Trump’s plans for healthcare, and how he finds himself at odds with some of his base in trying to end Obamacare in the midst of a pandemic.
Read it here: Lloyd Green – Healthcare is Trump’s Achilles heel. Republicans don’t get it
Ivanka Trump may have broken government ethics rules with a tweet late last night promoting Goya Foods.
The company has been facing calls for a boycott after chief executive Robert Unanue praised Donald Trump while appearing with him at the White House last week for the signing of an executive order creating an advisory panel aimed at spurring Hispanic prosperity.
The hashtags #Goyaway and #BoycottGoya trended on social networks afterwards, and Unanue later criticised the proposal of a boycott as “suppression of speech”
Ivanka Trump’s tweet though could violate government ethics rules, which prohibit the use of public office to endorse products or advance personal business gains. In 2017 Kellyanne Conway was castigated after she appeared to break similar federal ethics rules when she said on television that Americans should “go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”
Whatever the outcome, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the leading politicians calling for the boycott, was unimpressed with Ivanka Trump’s tweet - replying “Si es Trump, tiene que ser corrupto”.
Although the top of the card is settled as Donald Trump v Joe Biden for November, there’s plenty of down-ballot interest still in the primaries. Yesterday Alabama, Maine and Texas were voting.
In Alabama, former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions lost the Republican nomination for his old Senate seat in Alabama to former college football coach Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday. It likely ends a long political career with a bitter defeat that was being egged on by the president who endorsed his opponent.
Tuberville won about 60% of the vote, according to unofficial returns, and is now positioned for a robust challenge against Democratic US Sen. Doug Jones, considered one of the Republican’s best chances to flip a Senate seat in November.
Former Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, ousted from his longtime Dallas district in 2018, won the nomination for a rural seat in Waco.
Trump’s former White House physician Dr Ronny Jackson won the Republican nomination for a US House seat in Texas, defeating Josh Winegarner in a primary runoff in the deeply red Texas Panhandle. Jackson was also the White House physician to presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Trump’s endorsement for his former doctor carried him to victory in his first run for office.
Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon beat two other Democrats on Tuesday for the right to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a race that’s critical to the battle for control of the Senate. Gideon, who’s raised a staggering $23 million in her Senate bid, easily beat activist Betsy Sweet and attorney Bre Kidman.
Speaking live online, Gideon attacked Collins, saying “If we’re going to come together and make real progress to improve the lives of people here in Maine and across the country, then we need new leadership. Because after 24 years in Washington, Sen. Collins has become part of that broken system, putting special interests and her political party first. And Mainers know it and feel it.”
The elections didn’t go flawlessly. Voting advocates said sporadic reports of last-minute poll closures and polling places opening late was indicative of a failure by election officials to plan adequately and expand absentee voting.
“Texas has established itself as one of the most hostile states in the nation when it comes to acknowledging the effect of the pandemic on the election,” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told Associated Press.
Attorneys for George Floyd’s family are set to announce a civil lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Minneapolis and the police officers involved in his death.
According to Associated Press reports, Attorney Ben Crump is planning a late-morning news conference in Minneapolis to detail the lawsuit, which is expected to target Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Kueng.
Last night Minneapolis’ elected officials first budget hearing of the year was dominated by calls to cut the funding of the police department.
The Star Tribune reported that the majority of speakers who called in to the budget committee hearing asked for $45 million to be cut from the police department’s annual $193 million budget.
The paper quotes Hunta Williams, a member of the city’s Transgender Equity Council, saying “I don’t know why we would continue to fund the Police Department the way we have, as they continue to murder our Black and brown brothers and sisters. We’re watching. We have our eyes on you.”
The Minneapolis police department said yesterday that it is changing its use-of-force policy to encourage officers to try to de-escalate intense situations and hold them accountable when force or weapons are used.
Video from the body cameras of two officers charged in George Floyd’s death is being made available for public viewing by appointment on Wednesday, but a judge has so far declined to allow news organizations to publish the footage for wider distribution, reports the Associated Press.
Footage from the body cameras of Thomas Lane and J. Kueng was filed with the court last week by Lane’s attorney, but only the written transcripts were made public. A coalition of news media organizations and attorneys for Lane and Kueng have said making the videos public would provide a more complete picture of what happened when Floyd was taken into custody.
Members of the news media and the public are viewing the video Wednesday by appointment at the courthouse. The media coalition has said this arrangement is the equivalent of keeping the videos under seal, and the coalition is asking Judge Peter Cahill to allow the media to copy the videos and publish them.
Media attorney Leita Walker said in a court filing that the footage should be made widely available to “all members of the public concerned about the administration of justice in one of the most important, and most-watched, cases this State perhaps this country has ever seen.”
She also said allowing journalists to copy the footage, watch it multiple times, transcribe it and compare it to the transcripts and to time stamps from widely seen bystander video will help reporters piece together a more complete story.
“As the days of unrest in the Twin Cities showed, it is vitally important that the public have full confidence in the process and outcome of this criminal prosecution,” she said.
Derek Chauvin who pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Tou Thao, Lane and Kueng are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter. All four officers were fired.
The body camera videos and transcripts were filed in court last week by Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, as part of a motion to have Lane’s case dismissed. Gray said at the time that he wanted the videos to be made public, telling the Star Tribune that they would show the “whole picture.” Gray said the bystander video shows just the last piece of what happened and “is not fair.”
Gray’s motion highlighted portions of the body-camera video that show Floyd “actively resisting and acting erratic” with officers. It also noted Floyd’s “request” to be put on the ground. Gray also argued that Lane didn’t have a clear view of what Chauvin was doing.
Good morning, here is our live coverage of US politics and the coronavirus crisis in the country for today. Here’s a quick run-through of some of the key points from yesterday and overnight, and a little of what we can look forward to today.
More than 65,500 new cases of coronavirus were announced across the US, the second-highest daily total since the crisis began. California, Texas, Missouri, Nevada and Oklahoma all set single-day case records. Florida set a new record number of 132 daily deaths
Video from the body cameras of two officers charged in George Floyd’s death is being made available for public viewing by appointment on Wednesday, but a judge has so far declined to allow news organizations to publish the footage for wider distribution
Donald Trump once again stoked racial grievances, inaccurately telling an interviewer who asked about George Floyd that white Americans are dying more often at the hands of police than Black Americans
The president also signed an executive order ending special status for Hong Kong. “Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China. No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies,” he said at a Rose Garden press conference that resembled a campaign speech. China has promised a ‘firm response’ to the move
Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases expert, has pushed back at a concerted campaign by Trump and his allies to discredit his response to the coronavirus pandemic
In a u-turn, the Trump administration said it would no longer require international students to attend in-person classes in order to stay in the US. The ruling was already subject to a legal fight
Jeff Sessions lost the Republican nomination for his old Alabama Senate seat to Trump-endorsed Tommy Tuberville. Sessions was first elected to the Senate in 1996. His hardline anti-immigration views, racist policies and conduct have made him a controversial figure
US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been admitted to hospital for treatment for a possible infection. According to a statement, she is resting comfortably and will stay in hospital for a few days for antibiotic treatment
Joe Biden is holding fundraising events in the morning, and will virtually address the Coalition of black trade unionists convention in the evening
Donald Trump will be giving a speech in Atlanta this afternoon on ‘Rebuilding of America’s Infrastructure: Faster, Better, Stronger’. He also gets a law enforcement briefing in the morning
I’m Martin Belam and I’ll be with you for the next few hours. You can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com