Good morning.
The US health secretary has warned that the “window is closing” on America’s chances of containing the coronavirus, as the country’s number of confirmed cases surpassed 2.5 million and outbreaks spiralled out of control in states across the Sun Belt. “People as individuals have to act responsibly,” Alex Azar told NBC on Sunday. “We need to social distance, we need to wear our face coverings.”
The subject of face masks remains fraught, however, with an angry minority of Americans claiming the modest cloth rectangles represent an unconscionable attack on their individual liberties. Meanwhile, the surge in cases has led to a fresh shortage of masks and other PPE among US medics.
A survey of opinion across nine EU countries has found Europeans’ perception of the US deteriorating because of the pandemic. More than 60% of respondents in Germany, France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal said they had lost trust in American leadership. According to the authors of a report accompanying the survey:
Many have been appalled by the [US’s] chaotic response to Covid-19; the lack of solidarity it showed with Europeans in the 12 March closure of its border to members of the Schengen area; and its lack of leadership in tackling the coronavirus crisis at the global level – or even engagement with the issue (beyond a war of words with the World Health Organization).
Global cases of Covid-19 have now passed 10 million, with at least 500,000 deaths from the virus.
China has put almost half a million people under lockdown in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, in an effort to contain a new outbreak in the nation’s capital.
In Italy, the economic consequences are starting to bite, with 1 million Italians expected to be pushed into poverty this year as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Trump claims the intel on Russian bounties was ‘not credible’
Donald Trump has been under pressure all weekend to explain why he was apparently never told about a Russian offer of bounties to Taliban militants for killing coalition troops in Afghanistan – despite US intelligence agencies having known about the plot since at least March. On Sunday evening, the president tweeted a new excuse, claiming the intel was not relayed to him because it was not considered “credible” – and suggested the whole thing may be “another fabricated Russia hoax”.
The NRA is in the middle of its own financial crisis
The National Rifle Association backed Trump’s 2016 campaign to the tune of $30m or more. But according to NRA sources, gun analysts and documents seen by the Guardian, it will be in no position to offer similar support this November. The gun rights organisation has laid off and furloughed more than 200 staff in 2020, amid deepening financial difficulties brought about by declines in revenues and fundraising, heavy legal spending, political infighting and charges of insider self-dealing. Peter Stone reports.
Beyoncé urged voters to ‘dismantle a racist system’
Beyoncé was given BET’s humanitarian award by Michelle Obama on Sunday night and the singer used her acceptance speech to impress upon viewers the importance of voting in the upcoming election. “I’m encouraging you to continue to take action, continue to change and dismantle a racist and unequal system,” she said.
There are people banking on us staying at home during local elections and primaries happening in states across the country. We have to vote like our life depends on it, because it does.
Mississippi lawmakers have voted to replace the state’s controversial flag, which is the last in the nation to feature the Confederate battle emblem.
Trump deleted a tweet containing racist language, after critics pointed out that a supporter in the video he had retweeted can be heard to yell “white power! White power!”
Starbucks is pausing its advertising on social media amid a growing movement to boycott Facebook for its failure to properly tackle the proliferation of hate speech on its platforms.
In other news…
A group of unidentified gunmen attacked the Pakistan stock exchange in Karachi on Monday. Four of the assailants were killed during the attack, as well as two security guards and a police officer, Karachi police said.
The fracking company Chesapeake Energy has filed for bankruptcy. The Oklahoma-based shale gas drilling firm is credited with helping to turn the US into a global energy powerhouse, but racked up debts of $9bn in the process.
The British state covered up a plot to assassinate King Edward VIII, an historian has claimed, after uncovering an unpublished memoir by the man who made a botched attempt on the controversial monarch’s life in 1936.
Great reads
The Genderqueer generation
Young people are growing up in a world that acknowledges more than just the traditional gender identities. For a new series, Adrienne Matei talks to four non-binary teenagers about their struggle for acceptance, while the woman who created the “gender reveal party” tells Molly Langmuir why she now regrets it.
The quick fall of Quibi
After much fanfare, the short-form streaming app Quibi launched at last in April. But already the $1.75bn brainchild of billionaires Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman looks to be in trouble. Katzenberg blames the pandemic, but are the flaws in the concept more fundamental than that? Adrian Horton reports.
Opinion: What would white people sacrifice to be allies?
Amid the national reckoning over race, Kelsey Smoot started receiving messages of support and apology from her white liberal friends. She says they turned to her, their proverbial “black friend,”, to vindicate their inaction and their culpability in white supremacy.
Genuine allyship is not kindness, it is not a charitable act, nor is it even a personal commitment to hold anti-racist ideals – it is a fall from grace. Real allyship enacted by white Americans, with a clear objective to make equitable the lived experiences of individuals across racial lines, means a willingness to lose things.
Last Thing: For sale – the wild west, way down south
Mellonsfolly Ranch is a meticulous reproduction of an 1860s Wyoming frontier town – built in 2006, on the North Island of New Zealand. Now it’s on the market for $11.6m
and attracting interest from the US.
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