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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh in Oakland, Joan E Greve in Washington and Martin Belam

Republicans criticize Trump's decision to end funding for 13 Covid-19 testing sites – as it happened

Summary

  • More than 38,600 new infections were reported today — surpassing records set in late April. As the number of cases set a single-day high in the US, the North Carolina governor mandated masks and paused further reopening.
  • The federal government started to roll back funding for 13 testing sites, including some in Texas where cases were surging. Republican lawmakers voiced a rare rebuke of Trump, urging the administration to reinstate funding.
  • The Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee will be scaled down – with the party encouraging delegates not to travel to the event. Due to public health concerns, the convention will be broadcast from Milwaukee and other satellite locations and planners will arrange for people to attend virtually from all over the country.
  • Senate Democrats blocked the Republican police reform bill from advancing. Democratic senators successfully filibustered the Republican legislation, which they criticized as an insufficient response to police brutality. Congress now appears to be at a standstill on police reform.
  • A grand jury has indicted three men in connection to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was fatally shot while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood. The Cobb county district attorney announced that a grand jury has indicted Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William R Bryan on malice and felony murder charges for the 23 February death of Arbery.
  • The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced new coronavirus travel restrictions. Starting at midnight tonight, anyone traveling to the three states from a state with a high level of community spread of coronavirus will have to quarantine for 14 days.
  • A federal appeals court ordered a judge to dismiss the criminal charges against Michael Flynn. A three-judge panel of the DC circuit court of appeals issued a 2-1 decision overruling judge Emmet Sullivan and ordering him to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. The ruling comes a month after the justice department filed a motion to dismiss the case, prompting allegations of political bias.
  • Joe Biden is leading Trump in a series of newly released polls. A New York Times/Siena College national poll showed Biden leading Trump by 14 points, while a Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin found Biden leading by 8 points in the battleground state. A Quinnipiac poll also showed the two candidates effectively tied in Ohio, which is considered a must-win state for Trump.

Updated

A social media user whose far-right memes featuring doctored footage have been reposted by Donald Trump has been kicked off the platform.

Logan Cook, who posted from the account @CarpeDonktum has been permanently banned from Twitter after he posted a video that criticized CNN using doctored footage from the channel. A clip featuring a CNN video with the fake chyron “Terrified toddler runs from racist baby” was flagged by Twitter as “manipulated media” after Trump retweeted it.

Cook’s account had previously been suspended multiple times for violating copyright rules, and for posting a video that depicts Trump as a cowboy kicking CNN’s Jim Acosta.

Here’s more about the “racist baby” video that was flagged last week:

Updated

The World Health Organization is warning of a global oxygen shortage, as coronavirus cases globally rise by 1m per week. Follow The Guardian’s live global coverage of the pandemic here:

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is facing a new federal grand jury indictment, according to the Department of Justice. The new allegations “broaden the scope of the conspiracy” that Assange has been charged with orchestrating, the DOJ said, accusing him of working with intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and Anonymous to a classified Department of Defense computer.

Assange is currently detained in the UK, where he is being held for extradition to the US pending a hearing in September. He spent seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London until Ecuador rejected his request for asylum last April.

The fresh allegations don’t add new counts to the 18-count indictment under the Espionage Act filed last year - but it expands the scope of those charges.

Updated

Democratic National Convention is scaling back physically, expanding virtually

The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) has asked state delegations not to travel to Milwaukee for the convention, and attend virtually instead. Although Joe Biden will accept his nomination in Milwaukee, from where the party will broadcast the program.

But planners are also planning to broadcast from “other satellite cities, locations and landmarks across the country”, the DNCC announced in a statement.

“The city of Milwaukee has been an incredible partner and we are committed to highlighting Wisconsin as a key battleground state at our convention this August.” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden for President campaign manager. But convention planners are “developing new ways to organize and engage online with more voters than ever before during this critical election year” the DNCC noted.

The committee said that public health officials have yet to determine how many delegates and can safely gather in Milwaukee to participate in-person. All delegates will be able to cast their convention votes remotely during the convention, which is planned to take place from 17 to 20 August.

Coronavirus cases are also climbing among young adults in many states where bars, retailers, and restaurants have reopened. Last week, more than 8,000 new cases were reported among people aged 15 to 34, compared with about 2,000 among people 55 to 64 years old.

Again, while increased testing could explain some of this trend, experts say there’s more going on. “Younger people are more likely to be out and taking a risk,” Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle told the AP.

While young, otherwise healthy people are less likely to die of the virus – the elderly remain the most vulnerable to complications from Covid-19 – young people report suffering stretches of extreme pain and fatigue. Health experts also worry about young patients passing on the infection to older people with a heightened risk of dying from the virus.

Updated

While new infections have been declining in New York and New Jersey – both former hotspots, they’ve been rising in Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma.

Though some of the surge in recorded cases can be chalked up to aggressive testing in states like California, there has also been an uptick in coronavirus hospitalizations in North Carolina and South Carolina, which broke records for the number of residents hospitalized with Covid-19.

Updated

US coronavirus cases hit highest single day total

More than 38,600 new infections were reported today – surpassing records set in late April.

There have been more than 2.3m coronavirus cases recorded in the US since the pandemic began, and more than 121,800 deaths according to the Johns Hopkins Covid Tracker.

Updated

The Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn reports:

Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo has signed an executive order announcing the state would move forward with changing its official name due to its ties to American slavery.

The state’s official name, “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” appears on state documents. But the order would shorten it to just “Rhode Island”.

“The pain that this association causes to some of our residents should be of concern to all Rhode Islanders and we should do everything in our power to ensure that all communities can take pride in our state,” the governor wrote.

Raimondo, a Democrat, added that the new name would take effect “as soon as practicable” and apply to all state government communications, including agency websites and correspondence.

Updated

The Republican attorney general of Mississippi has endorsed changing the state’s flag, which features a Confederate emblem.

Pressure to change the state flag has mounted amid a nationwide reckoning with systematic racism. Walmart announced it would no longer display the flag at stores, and the state’s largest Baptist group urged leaders to choose a new flag.

“The racial overtones of this flag’s appearance make this discussion a moral issue,” the Baptists said. “A significant portion of our state sees it as a relic of racism and a symbol of hatred.”

Attorney general Lynn Fitch noted that “a new flag offers us a pathway forward, moving together as a people toward greater opportunities.”

But it’s unclear whether the idea will gain traction among the state’s Republican legislators. On Monday, governor Tate Reeves rejected a plan to create a second state flag, which he called “ the “Separate but Equal” flag option”.

North Carolina governor Roy Cooper has issued a statewide mask requirement, as the state’s number of new coronavirus cases continues to rise.

Cooper is following in the footsteps of his counterparts in California and Washington, where the governors have also mandated masks in public.

In North Carolina, retailers, supermarkets, meat processing facilities and other businesses could face citations if all employees – and their customers – are not wearing a face covering.

Cooper, a Democrat, has also ordered a “pause” on easing any more restrictions. Restaurants, barbershops and some other businesses have been allowed to reopen with safety measures in place, but Cooper has vetoed legislation that would allow gyms, fitness clubs and bars to open.

“We don’t want to go backward. We want to stabilize our numbers so we could continue to safely ease restrictions and most importantly get our children back in school,” he said at a news conference. “I urge everyone to be a leader in wearing face coverings. I encourage businesses to be strong in enforcing it. Slowing the spread helps our economy and these face coverings do that.”

The state reported 1,721 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the second-highest daily total since the pandemic began.

Republican senators of Texas push back against withdrawal of federal funds for coronavirus testing

Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas has offered a rare rebuke of Donald Trump from the GOP over the president’s decision to wind down funding for 13 testing sites — including some in Texas.

“I know there’s concern, concern I share, over some of the statements being made about withdrawing federal support for coronavirus testing in Texas at the end of June,” Cornyn said. “It’s pretty clear to me, and I think it’s clear to all of us, that with the uptick of cases, now is not a time to retreat from our vigilance in testing.”

He called on the White House to extend federal support for Texas, “at least until we get this most recent uptick in cases addressed.”

Ted Cruz, the other Republican senator of Texas, is also pushing back against the withdrawal of funds for testing. A Cruz spokesman told NBC News that he “has urged and will continue to urge [health officials] to extend the community testing sites in Texas.”

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh, blogging from the West Coast.

I’ll be with you for the next few hours — feel free to send news, tips, comments via Twitter. You can find me @maanvisings.

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Senate Democrats blocked the Republican police reform bill from advancing. Democratic senators successfully filibustered the Republican legislation, which they criticized as an insufficient response to police brutality. Congress now appears to be at a standstill on police reform, considering Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has already said House Democrats’ bill is a non-starter.
  • A grand jury has indicted three men in connection to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was fatally shot while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood. The Cobb county district attorney announced that a grand jury has indicted Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William R. Bryan on malice and felony murder charges for the February 23 death of Arbery.
  • The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced new coronavirus travel restrictions. Starting at midnight tonight, anyone traveling to the three states from a state with a high level of community spread of coronavirus will have to quarantine for 14 days.
  • A federal appeals court ordered a judge to dismiss the criminal charges against Michael Flynn. A three-judge panel of the DC circuit court of appeals issued a 2-1 decision overruling judge Emmet Sullivan and ordering him to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. The ruling comes a month after the justice department filed a motion to dismiss the case, prompting allegations of political bias.
  • Joe Biden is leading Trump in a series of newly released polls. A New York Times/Siena College national poll showed Biden leading Trump by 14 points, while a Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin found Biden leading by 8 points in the battleground state. A Quinnipiac poll also showed the two candidates effectively tied in Ohio, which is considered a must-win state for Trump.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Trump just concluded his joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the Rose Garden.

Before the event concluded, the president was asked about the Republican police reform bill, which was blocked by Senate Democrats today.

Trump said he hoped the legislation would be able to advance and accused Democrats of trying to “weaken the police,” pledging that his administration would not “do anything to hurt our police.”

The president then shifted his focus to monuments, bizarrely claiming activists are now trying to take down statues of Jesus Christ.

“Now they’re looking at Jesus Christ,” Trump said. “They’re looking at George Washington. They’re looking at Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson. Not going to happen, not going to happen. Not as long as I’m here.”

Trump also claimed protesters do not actually understand why they are trying to take down the statues. However, most of the statues that have been targeted in recent days are those representing leaders of the Confederacy, and protesters have repeatedly argued such monuments are a tribute to white supremacy.

The president said he would sign an executive order on protecting monuments later this week, describing the order as “very strong.”

Speaking at his joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump confirmed he would be drawing down the US troop presence in Germany.

The US president told reporters gathered in the Rose Garden that his administration would reduce troop numbers in Germany from 52,000 to 25,000 and would probably then send some of those troops to Poland.

Duda emphasized he was opposed to reducing the US troop presence in Europe, and he said he had made that clear during his meeting with Trump.

The Polish president cited Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea as an example of the threats European countries face, arguing the US troop presence remained very necessary.

Trump then blamed the 2014 annexation of Crimea on “President Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden,” his opponent in the presidential election.

Grand jury indicts three men in Ahmaud Arbery case

A grand jury has indicted three men on murder charges in connection to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood.

Cobb county district attorney Joyette M. Holmes announced that a grand jury has indicted Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William R. Bryan on malice and felony murder charges for the February 23 death of Arbery.

“This is another step forward in seeking justice for Ahmaud. Our team from the Cobb Judicial Circuit has been committed to effectively bringing forward the evidence in this case and today was no exception,” Holmes said in a statement.

“We will continue to be intentional in the pursuit of justice for this family and the community at large as the prosecution of this case continues.”

The shooting of Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, by two white men, Travis and Greg McMichael, sparked outrage across the country and inspired protests, which intensified after the police killing of George Floyd.

Updated

Trump and Polish president hold joint press conference

Trump is now holding a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the Rose Garden.

Duda is the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The US president said he and Duda reaffirmed the “vital alliance between our nations” during their White House meeting.

While touting that vital alliance, Trump applauded Duda for his country’s financial contribution to Nato and once again accused other member countries of falling short on their contributions, describing them as “delinquent.”

Updated

Bowman declares victory in primary against Engel

In case you missed it: Democratic congressional candidate Jamaal Bowman has declared victory in his primary race against longtime congressman Eliot Engel.

The AP has not yet officially called the race because of the high number of outstanding absentee ballots, but Bowman currently leads Engel by 27 points.

“Many doubted that we could overcome the power and money of a 31-year incumbent. But the results show that the people of NY-16 aren’t just ready for change - they’re demanding it,” Bowman said in a statement earlier today.

“I’m a Black man who was raised by a single mother in a housing project. That story doesn’t usually end in Congress. But today, that 11-year old boy who was beaten by police is about to be your next Representative.

“I cannot wait to get to Washington and cause problems for the people maintaining the status quo.”

Engel’s likely loss will be a major blow for establishment Democrats. The New York congressman leads the House foreign affairs committee and has been endorsed by House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Senator Mitt Romney encouraged Utah his constituents to wear masks, as more than half of US states report rises in new coronavirus cases.

“Wearing a mask can help protect you and others from #COVID19—it’s a simple step we can all take together to slow the spread,” the Republican senator said in a tweet.

Another Republican senator, Marco Rubio of Florida, offered a similar (although more stern) message while leaving a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence on Capitol Hill.

“Everyone should just wear a damn mask, like you guys are, like I am right now,” Rubio said, motioning to the congressional reporters near him.

That comment came as Florida reported a record high of new coronavirus cases in a single day, confirming more than 5,500 new cases.

Updated

A separate poll from Wisconsin shows Joe Biden leading by 8 points in the battleground state, which narrowly went for Trump in 2016.

According to the Marquette Law School poll, Biden is at 49% with registered voters in Wisconsin, while Trump is at 41%. Just a month ago, Biden was leading Trump 46%-43%.

Wisconsin is a key focus for both parties in the presidential election because Trump won the state by less than one point in 2016.

Wisconsin voters also gave Trump low ratings for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the protests against police brutality since the killing of George Floyd, indicating criticism of the president’s leadership is dragging down his polling numbers.

According to the poll, 44% of Wisconsin voters approve of his handling of the pandemic, while 52% disapprove. On the protests, 30% approve of Trump’s reponse, while 58% disapprove.

Poll shows Trump and Biden effectively tied in Ohio

A new poll shows the president and Joe Biden effectively tied in Ohio, which Trump carried by 8 points in 2016.

According to the new Quinnipiac poll, Biden is attracting the support of 46% of Ohio’s registered voters, while Trump is at 45%. Wih a margin of error of 2.9 points, the poll indicates the two candidates are effectively tied in the state.

Ohio has long been considered a bellweather state in presidential elections, but it has been viewed as less of a battleground in recent years, as the state’s electorate grew increasingly conservative.

Biden does not necessarily need to win Ohio in order to win the electoral college, if he can carry states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Trump also won in 2016.

However, this poll is a major warning sign for Trump, who almost certainly needs to win Ohio if he wants to have a chance at a second term.

More to the point, if Trump is struggling in Ohio, it signals he is generally in a precarious position with voters and could be at risk of giving Biden a landslide victory.

The House judiciary committee hearing on oversight of the justice department quickly went off the rails, as a Republican member of the committee sought to disrupt the proceedings.

Former deputy attorney general Donald Ayer was concluding his opening statement when Republican congressman Louie Gohmert started banging on the table in the hearing room.

Gohmert criticized Ayer, who was delivering a stinging rebuke of attorney general William Barr, for going over his five-minute time limit to deliver his opening statement.

Democratic congressman Hank Johnson then called on the sergeant-at-arms to remove Gohmert from the hearing room, but committee chairman Jerry Nadler instead smply asked Ayer to conclude.

“If there are no rules about when people can talk, there’s no rules about when you can make noise,” Gohmert said.

After Ayer wrapped up, Republican congressman Doug Collins jumped into the fray to accuse Nadler of “arbitrarily deciding when the five-minute rule will apply.”

The whole scene was reminiscent of the divisive hearings during the House impeachment inquiry, when Republican members repeatedly tried to used procedural motions to derail the proceedings.

Democratic senator Mark Warner criticized Trump for winding down federal funding for 13 coronavirus testing sites, even as many states report increases in new cases.

“When the President said ‘slow down the testing,’ he meant it,” the Virginia Democrat said in a tweet. “This is absolutely insane.”

Trump said over the weekend that he had asked administration officials to slow down coronavirus testing because it was revealing too many new cases.

Some of Trump’s advisers were quick to claim the comment, made during the president’s Tulsa rally, was a joke. Asked yesterday if he was kidding about slowing down testing, Trump told reporters, “I don’t kid.”

The Trump administration is winding down federal funding and support for more than a dozen coronavirus testing sites, including in states that are seeing a surge in new cases, according to reports.

The Trump administration is ending funding and support for 13 testing sites in states including Texas this month, local officials told Talking Points Memo.

The federal funding had been expected to come to an end, but a Dallas official said the city had requested an extension due to a surge in new cases and was refused.

Rocky Vaz, the director of emergency management for the city of Dallas, told TPM, “Cases are continuing to rise in Dallas County, and we want to continue with the testing. ... We are not expecting it to continue beyond June 30, but things change.”

The decision will almost certain attract intense scrutiny, considering Trump claimed over the weekend that he had asked his administration to slow down coronavirus testing in order to report a lower number of new cases.

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • A Senate procedural vote on the Republican police reform bill failed. Senate Democrats successfully filibustered the bill after complaining that the legislation did not go far enough to address police brutality. Considering Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has already said the Democratic bill is a non-starter, Congress appears to be at a standstill on police reform.
  • The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced new coronavirus travel restrictions. Starting at midnight tonight, anyone traveling to the three states from a state with a high level of community spread of coronavirus will have to quarantine for 14 days.
  • A federal appeals court ordered a judge to dismiss the criminal charges against Michael Flynn. A three-judge panel of the DC circuit court of appeals issued a 2-1 decision overruling judge Emmet Sullivan and ordering him to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. The ruling comes a month after the justice department filed a motion to dismiss the case, prompting allegations of political bias.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

In a press conference after the Republican police reform bill failed to advance, Senate Democrats urged their supporters to keep up the fight for change.

“This does not mark the end of the road,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.

Senator Cory Booker, who helped craft the Democratic police reform bill, specifically addressed supporters, saying, “Stay at it. ... Let’s keep pushing.”

But Republicans were much more pessimistic about the path forward, blaming Democrats for blocking the bill over their complaints that the legislation did not go far enough to address police brutality.

“I hope that the American people see how the Democrats blocked solutions from coming to their communities for the sake of partisan politics,” said Republican senator Tim Scott, who led the group in charge of crafting the bill.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham added, “All I can say is, I don’t see a way forward.”

Senate vote on Republican police reform bill fails

As expected, the procedural vote on Republican senator Tim Scott’s police reform bill has failed.

Republicans needed 60 “yea” votes for the Scott bill to be taken up for debate, but Democrats successfully blocked the legislation from advancing.

The motion failed in a vote of 55-45, with only three Democratic senators -- Joe Manchin, Doug Jones and Angus King -- supporting advancing the legislation.

The vote leaves the Senate’s path forward on police reform very unclear. Majority leader Mitch McConnell has said House Democrats’ police reform bill, which is expected to pass, is a non-starter in the Senate, and minority leader Chuck Schumer has said the Scott bill is “not salvageable.”

McConnell switched his vote from “yea” to “nay” in order to allow the bill to be taken up again if something changes, but it appears increasingly likely that police reform will not pass Congress.

The justice department has announced the attorney general will testify before the House judiciary commitee next month.

A spokesperson for the department, Kerri Kupec, said William Barr would appear before the panel for a general oversight hearing on July 28.

House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler said on Monday that he was in the process of issuing a subpoena to compel Barr to testify on July 2, but the attorney general was expected to ignore that subpoena.

Nadler’s announcement came two days after Trump fired Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, prompting outcry from Democrats.

Barr will almost certainly face questions about Berman’s firing, as well as his role in the forceful removal of peaceful protesters near the White House earlier this month, when he testifies.

The attorney general was originally scheduled to testify before the panel in March, but the hearing was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Updated

Senate confirms Trump's 200th judicial nominee

The Senate has just voted to confirm Cory Wilson to the US court of appeals for the fifth circuit, marking Trump’s 200th judicial confirmation since taking office.

The 52-48 vote, which fell largely along party lines, is a victory for Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who has made confirming conservative judges a key focus of his tenure.

The Washington Post has more on the confirmation:

With the confirmation of Wilson, Republicans also reached a benchmark vigorously pursued by [McConnell]: For the first time in more than four decades, there are no longer any vacancies on the nation’s appeals courts, the judicial level where most of the major rulings are handed down.

Wilson, 49, a state appeals court judge and former state legislator, became the 53rd circuit court judge nominated by Trump and steered to confirmation by McConnell, the driving force behind the GOP push to reshape the judiciary, who has adopted the mantra of ‘no vacancy left behind.’

By contrast, at the end of his eight years, President Barack Obama had 55 Senate-confirmed circuit judges.

In Mississippi, a top health official is warning that state residents should be prepared for the hospital system to be overrun this fall because of coronavirus.

State health officer Dr Thomas Dobbs told the Jackson Free Press that officials are preparing for “an absolute disaster coming into the fall.”

Dobbs expressed exasperation that state residents are largely abandoning the social distancing recommendations issued by the state.

“Prepare for not being able to get into the hospital if you have a car wreck, (to) have a heart attack and there not be a ventilator to put you on,” Dobbs said.

Mississippi has already lost nearly 1,000 residents to the virus, and doctors in the state have warned the number of new coronavirus cases could quickly overwhelm intensive care units.

The new restrictions for those traveling to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut come a day after the country reported its highest single-day number of new coronavirus cases in two months.

Seven US states -- Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas -- also reported record-high levels of coronavirus hospitalizations yesterday.

And Florida has just announced it hit a new record for the number of new coronavirus cases in a single day, with more than 5,500 new cases confirmed.

Those traveling to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

“This is a smart thing to do,” New Jersey governor Phil Murphy said of the new policy, noting how much the three states have already suffered because of the virus. “The last thing we need to do is subject our folks to another round.”

Connecticut governor Ned Lamont added, “We reluctantly came to the decision that this is what we need to do.”

The policy marks quite the reversal from New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who previously threatened to sue Rhode Island over an executive order requiring those traveling from New York to quarantine. The order was rescinded after Cuomo issued the threat.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut governors announce coronavirus travel restrictions

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have announced they are enforcing new restrictions on those traveling from states with high levels of community spread of coronavirus.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said starting at midnight tonight, anyone traveling from a state with a high level of community spread would have to quarantine for 14 days.

“A lot of people come into the region, and they could, literally, bring the infection with them,” Cuomo said at a briefing alongside Connecticut governor Ned Lamont and New Jersey governor Phil Murphy.

“I think it’s right, and I think it’s smart, and I’m glad we’re doing it together,” Cuomo added.

Updated

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany celebrated today’s ruling in Michael Flynn’s case as a “victory for justice and truth.”

“All Americans are entitled to equal justice under the law and due process,” McEnany said in a tweet. “No American should ever be unjustly targeted by their government.”

As the blog has noted, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and the former national security adviser then cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to receive a more lenient sentence.

An appeals court issued a ruling today ordering judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn, as the justice department has requested.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not apologize for saying Senate Republicans are “trying to get away with murder” with their police reform bill, which now seems unlikely to advance.

“Absolutely, positively not,” Pelosi told NBC News’ Peter Alexander when he asked if she intended to apologize.

“The fact is -- I think you in the press have given them far too much credit for a bill that does nothing. You’re saying, you have their bill, they have theirs. Their bill does nothing.”

Pelosi told CBS News Radio yesterday that Republican senators were “trying to get away with murder, actually -- the murder of George Floyd” with their police reform bill.

While House Democrats’ bill explicitly bans police chokeholds, like the one that killed Floyd, the Republican bill incentivizes police departments to ban the practice by withholding federal funds.

Senate Republicans called on Pelosi to apologize to senator Tim Scott, who crafted the Republican bill, after her comments were published.

Joe Biden’s campaign issued a press release highlighting two new polls showing Americans’ opinion of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis souring.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 37% of Americans approve of how Trump has responded to the pandemic, the lowest number since the outlet started asking the question in March.

The New York Times/Siena College poll, which found Biden to be 14 points ahead of Trump, also showed nearly 6 in 10 voters disapproved of the president’s handling of the pandemic.

“A president who can’t be trusted in a crisis is no president at all -- but a president who actively makes crises worse when tens of thousands of lives and millions of jobs are on the line is an unacceptable danger to our nation,” said Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield.

“And Donald Trump’s admission that he slowed testing down to hide the extent of his failure highlights what is truly at stake in this election. We absolutely cannot afford a president who only cares about himself.”

Trump sent a tweet celebrating the “great” appeals court ruling for Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser.

The president similarly celebrated last month, when the justice department filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn.

A three-judge panel of the DC circuit court of appeals issued a 2-1 decision to overrule judge Emmet Sullivan and order him to dismiss the criminal charges against Michael Flynn.

However, that is likely not the end of the former national security adviser’s legal saga. Sullivan could still ask for the full bench of the appeals court to review the issue, which could result in a different ruling.

The justice department’s motion to dismiss the charges against Michael Flynn came after Trump repeatedly accused federal investigators of unfairly targeting his former adviser.

Flynn had become a cause celebre among the far right, with many of the president’s most ardent supporters arguing the former national security adviser had been a victim of the “deep state.”

However, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with the former Russian ambassador to the US, and he became a cooperating witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

After the justice department filed its motion to dismiss the charges against Flynn, critics accused the president and attorney general William Barr of politicizing the department and undermining the rule of law.

Judge Emmet Sullivan previously appointed a former federal judge, John Gleeson, to review the justice department’s motion to dismiss the criminal charges against Michael Flynn.

Gleeson submitted a court filing on his findings earlier this month, accusing the justice department of engaging in “highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the president.”

Gleeson argued the motion to dismiss should be denied because there was “clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power” on the part of the justice department.

However, an appeals court has now overruled Sullivan and ordered him to accept the justice department’s motion to dismiss.

Appeals court orders judge to dismiss Flynn's case

The DC circuit court of appeals has overruled district judge Emmet Sullivan and has ordered him to accept the justice department’s motion to dismiss the criminal case against Michael Flynn.

Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in 2017, but the justice department filed a motion last month to dismiss the criminal charges against him, prompting accusations of political bias.

The Senate is holding a procedural vote this morning on Republican senator Tim Scott’s police reform bill, which is expected to fail.

Republicans need seven of their Democratic colleagues to support opening debate on the bill, and Senate Democrats have already signaled they will block the bill from being taken up.

Three Democratic senators sent a letter yesterday to majority leader Mitch McConnell saying the Scott bill was “not salvageable” because it does not go far enough to address police brutality.

House Democrats are expected to pass their own police reform bill this week, but McConnell has already said the legislation is a non-starter in the Senate.

All of that leaves Congress with no current path forward on how to pass police reform, despite the nationwide protests against police brutality in the weeks since the killing of George Floyd.

The coronavirus crisis is deepening in dozens of US states, and the country reported more than 36,000 new cases yesterday, its highest single-day total since mid-April.

Seven US states -- Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas -- also reported record-high levels of coronavirus hospitalizations yesterday.

Testifying before the House energy and commerce committee yesterday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, warned of a “disturbing surge” in coronavirus in some parts of the country.

Trump's polling numbers fall as criticism intensifies

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

The New York Times/Siena College poll released this morning shows Joe Biden with a commanding 14-point lead over Trump as the two candidates prepare for the November election.

Biden continues to attract strong levels of support from women, voters of color and young people, but the former vice president is also chipping away at some of Trump’s base, as his numbers rise among men and older voters.

Biden’s position appears to be getting stronger as Trump continues to attract criticism for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the police brutality protests that have swept across the country.

This week, the US coronavirus death toll surpassed 120,000, and Congress is now in a standoff over police reform legislation.

More than four months remain until the general election, but Trump will need to start turning things around fast to have a chance against Biden in November.

Governor Tony Evers has issued a statement about the incidents in Madison, Wisconsin last night. He says the state is “prepared to activate the Wisconsin National Guard to protect state buildings and infrastructure”.

Evers said his “thoughts are with Tim Carpenter”, the Democrat Senator who was attacked during the unrest, and wished him a quick recovery.

The statement also says:

We also cannot allow ourselves to forget the reason why these protests began: because of the murder of George Floyd, of Breonna Taylor, of the many Black lives taken before them, and because racism and structural inequality still pervade this country. Our cause and our purpose must continue to be the pursuit of the promise of an equitable, just, and fair state and country, and we cannot delay delivering on these promises any longer.

NBC have some footage of the statues being damaged last night.

Governor Evers says that both the Lady Forward and Col. Hans Christian Heg statues have been recovered.

We are unlikely to know the outcome of the race between Amy McGrath and Charles Booker in Kentucky until next week. The early vote tallies give McGrath a 9 point lead out of 58,000 reported votes, but we will not see anything like a true picture until Jefferson and Fayette counties announce their results next week.

The two largest counties in the state had greatly reduced in-person polling, and have said that they will only release results when they’ve counted the absentee ballots.

Booker, who we interviewed last week, is almost certain to do well in Louisville, where he has been an active participant in the Black Lives Matter protests over the police killing of Breonna Taylor.

Booker was also active last night in the moves to keep voting open, after the doors were shut early on polling places in the state.

I mentioned earlier that Democrats were looking at an attempt to introduce legislation to force the re-naming of bases that bear the names of those who fought for the Confederacy and against the US during the civil war.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley very much has other ideas - and has announced on Twitter that he will be proposing Republican legislation to protect the names, criticising “woke mob cancel culture” and claiming that he wants to “stop this madness”.

Robert Williams, a 42 year old black man from Detroit who says he was unjustly arrested because facial recognition technology mistakenly identified him as a suspected shoplifter is calling for a public apology from the police.

The Associated Press reports that the complaint filed on Williams’ behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union alleges that his Michigan driver license photo was kept in a statewide image repository and then incorrectly flagged as a likely match to a shoplifting suspect.

That led to what Williams describes as a humiliating arrest in front of his wife and young daughters on their front lawn in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills.

“I can’t really even put it into words,” Williams said in a video announcement describing the daytime arrest that left his daughters weeping. “It was one of the most shocking things that I ever had happen to me.”

Williams has written an opinion piece for the Washington Post about his experience: “I was wrongly arrested because of facial recognition. Why are police allowed to use this technology”.

The automotive worker is demanding a public apology, final dismissal of his case and for Detroit police to scrap its use of facial recognition technology. Several cities, led by San Francisco last year, have banned the use of facial recognition by municipal agencies.

Studies have shown that current face-recognition systems are more likely to err when identifying people with darker skin. The ACLU complaint said Detroit police “unthinkingly relied on flawed and racist facial recognition technology without taking reasonable measures to verify the information being provided.”

It called the resulting investigation “shoddy and incomplete,” the officers involved “rude and threatening,” and said the department has dragged its feet responding to public-information requests for relevant records.

Concerns about bias and growing scrutiny of policing practices following Geroge Floyd’s death led tech giants IBM, Amazon and Microsoft to announce earlier this month they would stop selling face recognition software to police, at least until Congress can establish guidelines for its use.

Biden takes "commanding" lead over Trump in NYT poll

The New York Times is reporting that Joe Biden has taken a “commanding” lead over Donald Trump in November’s race for the White House.

Polling by the paper in conjunction with Siena College puts Biden’s support at 50%, with Trump lagging behind on 36%. The paper describes it as “among the most dismal showings of Mr. Trump’s presidency, and a sign that he is the clear underdog right now in his fight for a second term”. They find that:

Among a striking cross-section of voters, the distaste for Mr. Trump has deepened as his administration failed to stop a deadly disease that crippled the economy and then as he responded to a wave of racial-justice protests with angry bluster and militaristic threats. The dominant picture that emerges from the poll is of a country ready to reject a president whom a strong majority of voters regard as failing the greatest tests confronting his administration.

Biden leads in nearly every demographic, with only white voters without a college education giving Trump a 19 point margin in his favour. The paper says that what will be particularly worrying for the long-term prospects of the Republican party is the exodus of white voters under the age of 45 from supporting their nominee.

You can read it here: New York Times - Biden takes dominant lead as voters reject Trump on virus and race

The debate over whether military bases should carry the names of men who fought for the Confederacy is going to continue.

There’ll be a further development today with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats unveiling legislative plans to force them to change. She’s still - remember - in with a chance of being Joe Biden’s running mate in November.

The legislation is expected to “require removal, within one year of the law’s enactment, of any Confederate names, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia from any Defense Department asset.”

John M. Donnelly has more on the plans over on Roll Call this morning.

Read it here: Roll Call - Democrats’ new push: Cleanse Confederacy from military in a year

There had been some chatter that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was going to come under pressure in her New York primary - but early results suggests she has walked it. In a video message she has claimed the margin of victory as a clear mandate for her policy position,

What you all have shown is that a people’s movement here is not an accident. It is a mandate. It is an absolute mandate. This absolutely strengthens us. It’s not just about winning or losing, but so much of this is about how you win. You know there are many votes that have yet to be counted but some of the early results that we’ve seen have us at about 70-72%. To win with that kind of mandate is transformative. And it tells us that our policy positions are not an accident. It’s exactly what our community has been waiting for.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigning in Queens during the Democratic congressional primary yesterday
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigning in Queens during the Democratic congressional primary yesterday Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

A constant theme of the Trump administration has been the removal or watering down of federal safeguards over the environment. My colleague Emily Holden in Washington is reporting for us today on another move in that direction - a plan to exempt companies from reporting harmful chemical releases:

Federal regulators are crafting an exemption for polluters releasing harmful perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) into the environment in a way that environmental advocates say circumvents a new law meant to address widespread contamination.

You can read her report in full here: US moves to exempt companies from reporting harmful chemical releases

Wisconsin Senator attacked as statues torn down in Madison

Also overnight is the news that Senator Tim Carpenter was reportedly attacked by protesters during an unruly night in Madison, Wisconsin.

During the course of the evening two statues were torn down - the Lady Forward statue, and a statue of Col. Hans Christian Heg.

Carpenter told reporters at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “I don’t know what happened. All I did was stop and take a picture and the next thing I’m getting five-six punches, getting kicked in the head.”

The unrest appears to have followed the arrest of a black man by police in the afternoon, who detained him after he allegedly entered a a restaurant with a megaphone and a baseball bat.

Crowds demanding the release of 28 year old Devonere Johnson later gathered, and in the ensuing demonstration the statues were toppled.

The Heg statue was decapitated and thrown into lake Monona. Heg was an anti-slavery campaigner who fought for the Union against the Confederacy.

The Republican leader of the state Assembly, Robin Vos, condemned the events, saying: “This is absolutely despicable. I am saddened at the cowardice of Madison officials to deal with these thugs.”

Charleston removes 100 foot statue of former vice president Calhoun

Overnight the city of Charleston in South Carolina removed the statue from a 100 foot (30m) monument to former vice president and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun. Officials voted unanimously on Tuesday to remove the statue from downtown Marion Square.

Workers remove a statue of John C. Calhoun
Workers remove a statue of John C. Calhoun Photograph: Meg Kinnard/AP

Just before midnight on Tuesday the Charleston Police Department tweeted that, “Calhoun Street between Meeting Street and King Street is closed for the removal of the John C. Calhoun statue,” adding that the street will be closed for several hours.

About 1am on Wednesday, workers using massive cranes began to bring the statue down. A few hundred people gathered at the scene, mostly in favour of the removal.

“I believe that we are setting a new chapter, a more equitable chapter, in our city’s history,” mayor John Tecklenburg said, just before the vote. “We are making the right step. It’s just simply the right thing for us to do.”

Council members had heard from dozens of residents for and against the statue’s removal. Councilman Karl L. Brady Jr. said he knew his support may cost him votes but that he was voting his conscience in a move he said shows that, in Charleston, “we place white supremacy and white supremacist thought back where it belongs - on the ash heap of history.”

Calhoun’s support of slavery never wavered. He said in several speeches on the Senate floor in the 1830s that enslaved people in the south were better off than free black people in the north, while calling slavery a “positive good.”

The statue was erected in 1896, 64 years after he left office and 46 years after he died.

The base of the statue as it appeared last week after it was defaced by supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement
The base of the statue as it appeared last week after it was defaced by supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement Photograph: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Updated

Good morning, welcome to our US politics live coverage for the day. Here’s a little of what we can expect from today:

  • We won’t know the results of the Kentucky primary for days yet - but as it stands at the moment Amy McGrath looks like holding off the challenge of Charles Booker for the Democratic nomination and a shot at unseating Mitch McConnell in November
  • In New York it is looking like progressive challenger Jamaal Bowman is going to oust long-standing Rep. Eliot Engel. Engel had establishment Democrat heavyweights behind him, but Bowman is leading handsomely at the moment.
  • 24-year-old Madison Cawthorn gained a surprise victory over Trump-backed Lynda Bennett for a Republican North Carolina congressional seat .
  • We’re expecting stalemate in the Senate over proposals to reform policing with federal legislation as Democrats and Republicans fail to find a package they can agree on.
  • New cases of coronavirus in the US have surged to their highest level in two months.
  • Donald Trump will host Polish president Andrzej Duda at the White House. He’s the first leader to visit since coronavirus travel restrictions were imposed. They’ll do a press conference together later.
  • Fresh from raising $11m last night in a fund-raiser he shared with Barack Obama, Joe Biden will attend a virtual Biden for President finance event today.

I’m Martin Belam, you can get in touch with me via email at martin.belam@theguardian.com

Updated

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