Summary
- The US coronavirus death toll surpassed 600,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The country’s coronavirus death rate has significantly declined in recent months, as vaccines have become widely available, but hundreds of Americans are still dying of the virus each day.
- Joe Biden will mark a return to normalcy after the pandemic cookout on the National Mall for Independence day.“We welcome you to join us by hosting your own events to honor our freedom, salute those who have been serving on the frontlines, and celebrate our progress in fighting this pandemic,” the White House told state and local officials.
- Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland announced the end of the Covid-19 “state of emergency” in the state. All emergency mandates and restrictions, including mask requirements in schools, camps and childcare facilities, will lapse on 1 July. The state’s moratorium on evictions and some other policies including flexibility on driver’s license renewals will remain until 15 August.
- Biden has arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, where he will meet tomorrow with Vladimir Putin. The summit will mark Biden’s first in-person meeting with the Russian president since he took office in January. Biden also held a bilateral meeting with Swiss president Guy Parmelin earlier today.
- Newly released emails showed Donald Trump tried to enlist senior administration officials to help him overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. The documents show that the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, repeatedly instructed justice department officials to investigate false allegations of voter fraud. One senior justice department official described the requests as “pure insanity”.
- The EU and the US resolved a 17-year trade dispute over aircraft subsidies for Boeing and Airbus, which had been going on for nearly 17 years. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Biden announced the deal this morning, after meeting for the EU-US summit in Brussels. The agreement involves suspending tariffs on Boeing and Airbus for five years and working to guarantee an even playing field for the two companies.
- The White House unveiled its first ever national strategy to fight domestic terrorism. The framework, released today by the national security council, emphasized that domestic terrorism must be addressed in an “ideologically neutral” manner. The announcement comes five months after a violent, pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol, resulting in five deaths.
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
The chief executive of Morgan Stanley has become the latest US banking boss to call for an end to remote working, telling his New York staff that anyone who feels safe going out to a restaurant should return to the office.
James Gorman admitted that the bank would take a different approach in countries such as India or the UK – where fewer than 25% of its 5,000 London staff have been going to work in person – due to stricter Covid restrictions.
However, in the US, where nearly 90% of staff in its New York headquarters had been vaccinated, the chief executive said he was issuing a “very strong” message to staff to get back to their desks by Labor Day on 6 September.
“If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office. And we want you in the office,” Gorman said during a financial services conference organised by the bank on Monday.
“Make no mistake about it: we do our work inside Morgan Stanley offices. And that’s where we teach, that’s where our interns learn, that’s how we develop people,” the chief executive added. “That’s where you build all the soft cues that go with having a successful career that aren’t just about Zoom presentations.”
He also said bankers could not expect large paycheques if they worked away from Wall Street. “If you want to get paid New York rates, you work in New York. None of this: ‘I’m in Colorado … and getting paid like I’m sitting in New York City.’ Sorry, that doesn’t work.”
The executive claimed he was not “dictating” a return to office, in contrast to Goldman Sachs, which required US staff to return to their desks on Monday. “But [on] Labor Day, I’ll be very disappointed if people haven’t found their way into the office,” Gorman said. “Then we’ll have a different kind of conversation.”
Read more:
The Senate passed a measure to establish a federal holiday on Juneteenth.
The bill, which passed unanimously in the Senate, will now head to the House, where it is also expected to be approved.
Juneteenth marks 19 June 1865, when Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation was read out in Texas, freeing slaves in the last un-emancipated state nearly two years after the proclamation was signed.
“Juneteenth commemorates the moment some of the last formerly enslaved people in the nation learned they were free,” said Senate leader Chuck Schumer in a statement. “Making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a major step forward to recognize the wrongs of the past – but we must continue to work to ensure equal justice and fulfill the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation and our Constitution.”
Updated
California, the most populous US state, reopens
Lois Beckett in Los Angeles and Peter-Astrid Kane in San Francisco report:
Bars at full capacity. No masks for vaccinated Disneyland goers. Fans sitting side-by-side at Giants and Dodgers games.
California rolled back its major public health restrictions on Tuesday, 15 months after it became the first state in the US to shut down to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
At the stroke of midnight, the state lifted most of its restrictions on social distancing and capacity limits. Vaccinated residents can now go without masks in most settings, with some exceptions – including on public transit, in healthcare facilities, homeless shelters and prisons, and indoors in K-12 schools and childcare facilities, since young children still have not been vaccinated.
The move has been billed as a “grand reopening”, and comes at a moment of optimism for a state that was once squarely in the pandemic’s destructive path.
“This is the lifeline. This is what we’ve been waiting for,” said Brett Winfield, the operations director for Pouring with Heart, a company that runs nearly 20 bars in Los Angeles.
The relaxing of public health rules about social distancing, patron numbers and mask wearing are “incredibly significant,” Winfield said. “It’s almost impossible to make enough money to run an effective and profitable business at 50% capacity for restaurants, and up to 25% capacity for bars.”
Venues were expecting a big increase in patrons starting Tuesday night, he said. “I think a lot of people were just literally waiting for the government to say, ‘It’s OK.’”
Speaking on the eve of the reopening, California’s governor painted a bright picture of the summer ahead. “With all due respect, eat your heart out, the rest of the United States,” said Gavin Newsom. “The state is not just poised to recover, it’s poised to come roaring back.”
In San Francisco’s Mission district, one of the city’s hardest hit neighbourhoods, bar owner Gillian Fitzgerald said she was expecting a serious crowd this evening.
“I just know that a normal person that would never go out on a Tuesday will be going out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for a few weeks,” said Fitzgerald, who runs Casements, a popular bar that opened only a few months before Covid struck.
Read more:
Biden to name antitrust researcher Lina Khan to top trade commission post – report
From the Guardian’s Kari Paul and agencies:
Joe Biden reportedly plans to name Lina Khan, an antitrust researcher who has focused on the immense market power of big tech, as chair of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a key win for progressives who have pushed for tougher laws to tackle monopolies and growing corporate power.
The Senate confirmed Khan as a commissioner to the FTC earlier on Tuesday, with strong bipartisan support. Biden intends to tap her as chair of the commission, sources told Reuters, a decision that follows the selection of fellow progressive and big tech critic Tim Wu to join the National Economic Council.
The appointment comes as the federal government and groups of states have issued an array of lawsuits and investigations into the tech giants. The FTC has sued Facebook and is investigating Amazon while the justice department has sued Alphabet’s Google.
Khan is highly respected by progressive antitrust thinkers who have pushed for tougher antitrust laws or at least tougher enforcement of existing law.
She most recently taught at Columbia Law School, but was on the staff of the House judiciary committee’s antitrust panel, and helped write a report that sharply criticized Amazon, Apple Facebook and Alphabet for allegedly abusing their dominance.
In 2017, she wrote a highly regarded article, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox”, for the Yale Law Journal which argued that the traditional antitrust focus on price was inadequate to identify antitrust harms done by Amazon.
Read more:
Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland announced the end of the Covid-19 “state of emergency” in the state.
“Thanks in large part to the hard work, the sacrifices, and the vigilance of the people of Maryland, we have finally reached the light at the end of that long tunnel,” he said in a statement. “Each and every one of you—your actions—have made this day possible. I am so proud of our state, and I’m grateful to have had this honor to serve as your governor. Thank you all for being Maryland Strong.”
All emergency mandates and restrictions, including mask requirements in schools, camps and childcare facilities, will lapse on 1 July. The state’s moratorium on evictions and some other policies including flexibility on driver’s license renewals will remain until 15 August.
The state has a test-positivity rate under 1%, and new cases and deaths have declined sharply. But young children, who currently cannot get vaccinated, remain at risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that unvaccinated individuals continue to wear masks.
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:
- The US coronavirus death toll surpassed 600,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The country’s coronavirus death rate has significantly declined in recent months, as vaccines have become widely available, but hundreds of Americans are still dying of the virus each day.
- Joe Biden has arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, where he will meet tomorrow with Vladimir Putin. The summit will mark Biden’s first in-person meeting with the Russian president since he took office in January. Biden also held a bilateral meeting with Swiss president Guy Parmelin earlier today.
- Newly released emails showed Donald Trump tried to enlist senior administration officials to help him overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. The documents show that the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, repeatedly instructed justice department officials to investigate false allegations of voter fraud. One senior justice department official described the requests as “pure insanity”.
- The EU and the US resolved a 17-year trade dispute over aircraft subsidies for Boeing and Airbus, which had been going on for nearly 17 years. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Biden announced the deal this morning, after meeting for the EU-US summit in Brussels. The agreement involves suspending tariffs on Boeing and Airbus for five years and working to guarantee an even playing field for the two companies.
- The White House unveiled its first ever national strategy to fight domestic terrorism. The framework, released today by the national security council, emphasized that domestic terrorism must be addressed in an “ideologically neutral” manner. The announcement comes five months after a violent, pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol, resulting in five deaths.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Fourteen US states and DC have hit Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4, according to the White House pandemic response team.
In a tweet, the response team celebrated the milestone while urging all eligible and unvaccinated Americans to get their shots as soon as possible.
14 states and D.C. have reached the milestone of 70% of adults with at least one shot, including, as of yesterday, New York.
— White House COVID-19 Response Team (@WHCOVIDResponse) June 15, 2021
But Americans who remain unvaccinated are still at risk, so if you haven't already visit https://t.co/rxJIFtKUQm to find a shot near you.
Biden has planned July 4 festivities at the White House to commemorate US Independence Day and celebrate the country’s reopening as more pandemic-related restrictions are relaxed because of the availability of vaccines.
However, it is still unclear whether the US will hit Biden’s goal of getting 70% of all American adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4.
Southern states in particular are lagging in vaccination rates, and Kamala Harris has launched a tour to encourage unvaccinated Americans to get their shots.
Donald Trump has insisted he is writing “the book of all books” – even though major figures in US publishing said on Tuesday no big house is likely to touch a memoir by the 45th president because it might stoke “a staff uprising” and it would be “too hard to get a book that was factually accurate”.
When Trump left the White House in January, the Washington Post said he made 30,573 false or misleading claims while in power. The comments by publishing insiders were reported by Politico.
Former presidents traditionally turn to their memoirs when they leave office after two terms, like Barack Obama, or are kicked out of it after one, like Trump.
Ever since the Guardian broke news of Michael Wolff’s first White House tell-all, Fire and Fury, in January 2018, books about Trump and his presidency have proved a goldmine.
Full story is here.
An in-depth look at what Trump books say about Trump, meanwhile, is … here:
Joe Biden’s announcement of nine nominees for key ambassadorships comes as he wraps up his first international trip as president.
Over the past several days, the president has attended the G-7 summit in Cornwall before participating in Nato and EU-US summits in Brussels. Biden is now in Geneva, where he will meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
However, despite Biden’s week in Europe, the latest list of ambassador nominees does not include many Europe-based posts.
Julianne Smith, one of Biden’s former foreign policy advisers, has been nominated to serve as US ambassador to Nato, but no other European ambassadorships are mentioned in the announcement.
Biden announces slate of ambassador nominees, including 'Sully' Sullenberger
Joe Biden has just announced nine of his nominees to key ambassadorships around the world, including Israel, Mexico and Nato.
Pilot C. B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III, who famously landed a US Airways flight in the Hudson River with no fatalities in 2009, is among the nominees. Biden has nominated Sullenberger to serve as the US representative on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, which carries the rank of ambassador.
The president has also selected Ken Salazar, a former interior secretary, to serve as ambassador to Mexico. Julianne Smith, a former foreign policy adviser to Biden, would represent the US as its ambassador to Nato if confirmed. Former deputy secretary of state Tom Nides has also been tapped as the next US ambassador to Israel.
Here is the full list of nominees:
- Julie Chung, nominee for US ambassador to Sri Lanka.
- Sharon L. Cromer, nominee for US ambassador to Gambia.
- Troy Damian Fitrell, nominee for US ambassador to Guinea.
- Thomas R. Nides, nominee for US ambassador to Israel.
- Marc Ostfield, nominee for US ambassador to Paraguay.
- Ken Salazar, nominee for US ambassador to Mexico.
- Julianne Smith, nominee for the US representative to Nato, with the rank of ambassador.
- C. B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III, nominee for US representative on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, with the rank of ambassador.
- Dr. Cynthia Ann Telles, nominee for US ambassador to Costa Rica.
‘Pure insanity’: emails reveal Trump push to overturn election defeat
Donald Trump tried to enlist top US law enforcement officials in a conspiracy-laden and doomed effort to overturn his election defeat, a campaign they described as “pure insanity”, newly released emails show.
The documents reveal Trump and his allies’ increasingly desperate efforts between December and early January to push bogus conspiracy theories and cling to power – and the struggle of bewildered justice department officials to resist them.
“These documents show that President Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost,” said Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House of Representatives’ oversight committee, which released the emails on Tuesday.
At least five times, the documents show, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, instructed justice department officials to investigate false allegations of voter fraud, including a conspiracy theory called “Italygate” which claims electoral data was changed from Europe by means including military satellites and with the knowledge of the CIA.
On 1 January Meadows, a fierce Trump loyalist, sent Jeffrey Rosen, then acting attorney general, a link to a YouTube video detailing the “Italygate” theory. Rosen forwarded the email to the then acting deputy attorney general, Richard Donoghue, who replied: “Pure insanity.”
The documents also show that Trump pressured Rosen to make the justice department take up election fraud claims.
Chuck Schumer’s announcement came hours after two Senate progressives, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, said they would not support an infrastructure bill that did not adequately address the climate crisis.
“There has to be an absolute unbreakable guarantee that climate has to be at the center of any infrastructure deal that we cut,” Markey said at a press conference.
Merkley added, “If there is no climate, there is no deal.”
Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the Senate budget committee, has similarly urged the Biden administration to focus on passing an infrastructure bill with only Democratic support via reconciliation, but it’s unclear whether Schumer has the votes for that.
Two of the most moderate members of the Democratic caucus, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have indicated they want to pursue bipartisan negotiations on infrastructure. And Schumer needs all 50 Senate Democrats on board to move forward with reconciliation.
Schumer takes step toward passing infrastructure bill via reconcilation
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has just announced that he will convene a meeting tomorrow with the budget committee to begin crafting a budget resolution for an infrastructure bill.
The resolution will be the vehicle to pass an infrastructure bill using reconciliation, meaning Senate Democrats would not need any assistance from their Republican colleagues to get the proposal approved.
Schumer insisted that senators are still pursuing a two-track plan on infrastructure, meaning they will continue to work on advancing the bipartisan $1.2 trillion proposal while also laying the groundwork for a separate bill that would theoretically pass with only Democratic support.
The majority leader’s announcement came after several progressive senators indicated they would only support the bipartisan bill if they received a guarantee that additional funds would be approved in a separate reconciliation package.
But Schumer will need all 50 Democratic senators on board to pass a bill via reconciliation, and it’s unclear whether moderates like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema will be on board for this two-track plan.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Joe Biden is officially tapping a leading voting rights lawyer for a role on a federal appellate court.
Biden is nominating Myrna Pérez, the director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center for Justice, to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd circuit, the appellate courts that oversees New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.
If confirmed, Pérez would be the only Latina jurist serving on the 2nd circuit, the White House noted in a press release earlier today.
Here’s one of her recent tweets.
So the Texas legislature doesn’t pass the anti-voter legislation, and now Tx Governor Greg Abbott wants to defund the Tx legislature. Texans deserve a better political process than this. https://t.co/pVrBY6yAHZ
— Myrna Pérez (@myrna_perez_) June 1, 2021
Pérez is widely respected among voting rights attorneys, and has been involved in some of the most high profile voting cases in recent years, including the fight over Texas’ voter ID law and restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions in Florida.
She has led efforts to push back on overly-aggressive efforts to remove people from the voter rolls, a process often called voter purging, and has been outspoken about the damage of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision striking down a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Pérez was among five people the White House nominated for judgeships today. Hers is the latest of a number of voting rights experts Biden has put in key roles across government.
Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, two longtime civil rights attorneys, are currently serving in top roles at the Justice Department. Justin Levitt, a well-respected scholar, was hired as a senior White House adviser to work on voting rights issues.
More may be coming: Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has also recommended Dale Ho, the ACLU’s top voting rights lawyer, for a position on the federal bench.
“With voter suppression laws on the rise, we need strong voting rights and civil rights champions on the federal bench who are committed to equal justice under law. Myrna Pérez is an exceptionally qualified attorney and has an unassailable record when it comes to protecting the fundamental right to vote,” Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Read more on the issues involved in “the fight to vote” in the US in our special section.
Donald Trump will resume his rallies next week in Cleveland, Ohio, according to a Washington Post reporter. The former president also plans to hold a rally in Tampa, Florida, on July 3.
Trump is expected to go Cleveland, Ohio on Jun 26 for a rally, and Tampa, Florida on July 3, per advisers.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) June 15, 2021
Trump’s team had indicated for weeks that he would soon start holding his infamous rallies again, but the schedule for those events had been unclear.
The former president has been issuing a number of endorsements for Republican candidates, and he has signaled he wants to be closely involved in the party’s campaign efforts for next year’s midterms as he weighs another presidential bid in 2024.
According to a CNN reporter, Trump will appear at the Cleveland rally with Max Miller, a former aide who has launched a primary challenge against Republicans congressman Anthony Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was one of 10 House Republicans who voted in January to impeach Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection.
Person familiar with the planning says Trump is expected to appear alongside Max Miller in Cleveland. Miller is challenging Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, one of the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. https://t.co/uMFMWNWkjH
— Gabby Orr (@GabbyOrr_) June 15, 2021
As the US crosses the grim threshold of 600,000 deaths from coronavirus, the National Park Service has announced that, amid steeply declining cases and deaths and increasing numbers of people being vaccinated, that July Fourth Independence Day fireworks show will return to the National Mall in Washington, DC.
The fireworks will be launched from both sides of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool on Sunday, July 4, 2021.
The show is set to begin just after 9pm ET and last 17 minutes, the National Park Service says.
Updated
Ex-Biden adviser doubles down on Covid 'sacrifice' remarks
As the US death toll in the coronavirus pandemic ticked towards and past 600,000, the former White House Covid adviser Andy Slavitt has come under fire from the right for saying Americans could have avoided such severe losses if they had been prepared to “sacrifice a little bit for one another”.
Slavitt, who is promoting a book on the pandemic, made the contested remark on Monday, to CBS. On Tuesday, he spoke to CNN.
“We as a country could have put the lives of people higher on the list versus our own individual liberties,” he said.
“We as a country decided that we were going to get many, many more people exposed without pay, without healthcare insurance, without support. And so we decided that the creature comforts – keeping the meatpacking plants open when they were unsafe – were more important than making sure we protected each other.”
Garland: more than 480 arrests over Capitol attack
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has said federal authorities have now arrested more than 480 people in connection with the deadly assault on the US Capitol on 6 January.
Garland called the assault by supporters of Donald Trump seeking to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden a “large and heinous attack”.
Trump was impeached for a second time, for inciting an insurrection, but was acquitted when insufficient Republican senators could be convinced to vote for his guilt.
Republicans then used the filibuster, the means by which the minority in the Senate can block the will of the majority, to thwart legislation to establish an independent, 9/11-style commission to investigate the attack.
“We have an enormous task ahead,” Garland said at the Department of Justice in Washington, during an address on policy regarding domestic terrorism.
This, he said, meant the US had “to move forward as a country, to punish the perpetrators, to do everything possible to prevent similar attacks, and to do so in a manner that affirms the values on which our justice system is founded and upon which our democracy depends.
“The resolve and dedication with which the justice department has approached the investigation of the 6 January attack reflects the seriousness with which we take this assault on a mainstay of our democratic system, the peaceful transfer of power.
“Over the 160 days since the attack, we have arrested over 480 individuals and brought hundreds and hundreds of charges against those who attacked law enforcement officers, obstructed justice and used deadly and dangerous weapons to those ends.
“That would have not been possible without the dedication of our career prosecutors and agents, as well as a critical cooperation of ordinary Americans who, large and small, have shown that they are our best partners in keeping America safe. Within the very first week following the attack, members of the public took it upon themselves to submit over 100,000 pieces of digital media to the FBI.”
With the US death toll from coronavirus passing the awful mark of 600,000, there is some more detail and context from the Associated Press.
The advent of successful vaccines means Covid-19 deaths per day in the US have plummeted to an average of 340 from a high of more than 3,400 in mid-January. New cases are running at 14,000 a day on average, down from a quarter-million per day during the winter.
Worldwide, the Covid-19 confirmed death toll stands at 3.8 million. The actual totals in the US and around the globe are thought to be significantly higher, with many cases overlooked or possibly concealed by some countries.
Los Angeles county is the county with the highest level of cases in the US, 1.25m and the most deaths at almost 25,000, according to Johns Hopkins data.
But the AP adds that California now has one of the lowest rates of infection, below 1%. That dramatic drop combined with an increasing number of vaccinated residents over 70% of adults have had at least one dose led Newsom to announce in April that most Covid-19 restrictions would be lifted June 15
Updated
US surpasses 600,000 deaths from coronavirus
The United States just reached a grim milestone, surpassing 600,000 deaths from coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins university coronavirus resource center, which is what the Guardian tracks for such data.
Although new cases of Covid-19 and deaths from the virus have dropped by around 90% since pandemic highs a few months ago, the terrible death toll is still the highest in the world. Johns Hopkins recorded the total moments ago as 600,012 people in the US killed by coronavirus since the pandemic reached the country in January 2020.
And the Associated Press has updated details on the racial disparities in who has been most likely to lose most family members and loved ones to the pandemic.
A toll of 600,000 people, the AP notes, is greater than the population of Baltimore or Milwaukee. It is about equal to the number of Americans who died of cancer in 2019. The racial disparities in the death rates have shifted over time:
- In the first wave of fatalities, in April 2020, Black people were slammed, dying at rates higher than those of other ethnic or racial groups as the virus rampaged through the urban Northeast and heavily African American cities like Detroit and New Orleans.
- Last summer, during a second surge, Hispanics were hit the hardest, suffering an outsize share of deaths, driven by infections in Texas and Florida. By winter, during the third and most lethal stage, the virus had gripped the entire nation, and racial gaps in weekly death rates had narrowed so much that whites were the worst off, followed closely by Hispanics.
- Now, even as the outbreak ebbs and more people get vaccinated, a racial gap appears to be emerging again, with Black Americans dying at higher rates than other groups.
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden has arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, ahead of his summit tomorrow with Vladimir Putin. The summit will mark Biden’s first in-person meeting with the Russian president since he took office in January. Biden also held a bilateral meeting with Swiss president Guy Parmelin today.
- The EU and the US resolved a 17-year trade dispute over aircraft subsidies for Boeing and Airbus, which had been going on for nearly 17 years. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Biden announced the deal this morning, after meeting for the EU-US summit in Brussels. The agreement involves suspending tariffs on Boeing and Airbus for five years and working to guarantee an even playing field for the two companies.
- The White House unveiled its first ever national strategy to fight domestic terrorism. The framework, released today by the national security council, emphasized that domestic terrorism must be addressed in an “ideologically neutral” manner. The announcement comes five months after a violent, pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol, resulting in five deaths.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports:
Vermont has become the first US state to reach its 80% Covid-19 vaccination goal and is now shedding all its statewide restrictions on dealing with the pandemic, including letting a state of emergency expire by Tuesday night.
Governor Phil Scott made the announcement on Monday and said he would drop existing physical distancing, crowd size restrictions and masking requirements.
“There are no longer any state Covid-19 restrictions. None,” the Republican governor announced. But Scott said he would allow municipalities and businesses to continue practices if they choose to do so.
Emergency medical service providers will continue to wear masks for the foreseeable future, regardless of their vaccination status. Public transportation and long-term care facilities workers will also continue to practice safeguards since they fall under federal guidelines.
State officials had initially planned to lift all remaining restrictions by the Fourth of July, but brought the decision forward after Vermont’s vaccination rate reached its goal.
“The ingenuity, creativity and dedication of all Vermonters to their friends and families, to their neighbors and to their communities, has been incredible and we should all be very proud,” Scott said in a statement.
US and EU resolve 17-year trade dispute over Airbus and Boeing
In case you missed it this morning: US and EU leaders announced they had resolved a trade dispute over aircraft subsidies for Boeing and Airbus, which had been going on for nearly 17 years.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Joe Biden discussed the agreement when they met for the EU-US summit this morning.
“The meeting started with a breakthrough on the aircraft dispute,” von der Leyen said on Twitter. “Today we move from litigation to cooperation. We are ending the longest trade dispute in the history of the [World Trade Organization]. We are delivering.”
The agreement involves suspending tariffs on Boeing and Airbus for five years and working to guarantee an even playing field for the two aircraft giants.
“Significantly, we also agreed to work together to challenge and counter China’s non-market practices in this sector that give China’s companies an unfair advantage,” Biden said in a statement about the agreement.
“The U.S. and EU will work together in specific ways that reflect our high standards, including collaborating on inward and outbound investment and technology transfer. It’s a model we can build on for other challenges posed by China’s economic model.”
The agreement comes after Nato identified China’s rising power as a security threat after the alliance’s Brussels summit this week. Biden had pushed for the mention of China in the communique issued after the Nato summit.
Joe Biden is now meeting with Swiss president Guy Parmelin in Geneva, as the US president prepares for his summit with Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
Asked by reporters whether he is ready for his meeting with the Russian president, Biden replied, “I’m always ready.”
Biden, in meeting with Swiss leader, is asked if he is ready for Putin summit tomorrow. His only response:
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) June 15, 2021
“I’m always ready” pic.twitter.com/GkZ5hEyaKW
Donald Trump has hired a new spokesperson, now that his longtime senior adviser, Jason Miller, has decided to return to the private sector.
“I greatly thank Jason for his service—he is outstanding!” the former president said in a statement.
Far-right activist Liz Harrington, a former national spokesperson for the Republican National Committee and a longtime Trump supporter, will be taking Miller’s place.
“Liz Harrington is a fighter,” Trump said. “She was an important part of our receiving more votes than any incumbent President in U.S. history, far more than we received the first time we won.”
According to CNN’s Daniel Dale, Harrington has played a key role in spreading Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Harrington was a serial perpetrator of some of the most ridiculous election lies. https://t.co/jOYwREnwkA
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 15, 2021
A majority of Americans say they want Joe Biden to take a tough stand in his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin tomorrow, according to a new poll.
The CBS News/YouGov poll found that 58% of Americans think Biden should adopt a tough stance with Putin, while 42% say the US president should take a more cooperative approach in the meeting.
When asked what it is the most important issue for Biden to raise in his meeting with Putin, 41% of Americans said Russia-linked cyberattacks on the US. The second-most popular response was Russia’s pressure on its neighbors, which 19% of Americans said was the most important issue to address in the meeting.
Biden has given little indication of what he will bring up with Putin tomorrow in Geneva, telling reporters yesterday, “I’ve been doing this a long time. The last thing anyone would do is negotiate in front of the world press as to how he’s going to approach a critical meeting with another adversary and/or someone who could be an adversary. It’s the last thing I’m going to do.”
For more than a year, people who have wanted to get within breathing distance of Vladimir Putin have performed a ritual, two-week quarantine in Russian hotels and sanatoriums to protect the 68-year-old president from falling ill with coronavirus.
Since March 2020, powerful businessmen, regional governors, his pilots and medical staff, volunteers at an economic conference, and even second world war veterans have shut themselves away to meet the Kremlin leader or even stand in his general vicinity.
So it will be a rare sit-down when Putin jets into Geneva to meet Joe Biden, who has been on a whirlwind tour through Europe, attending the G7 summit in Cornwall and then flying to Brussels for meetings with EU and Nato leaders before travelling to Switzerland.
Putin has not publicly travelled abroad since the outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020, hosting foreign leaders in Moscow or Sochi and holding most of his meetings with government ministers and regional governors over videoconference.
Critics have chided Putin for sheltering in a “bunker” during the coronavirus outbreak, reportedly protected by medical tunnels of dubious efficacy that sprayed visitors with a cloud of disinfectant.
Biden arrives in Geneva ahead of Putin summit
Joe Biden has now arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, where he will meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
Biden was greeted at Cointrin airport by Swiss president Guy Parmelin, and the two leaders will soon hold a bilateral meeting as well.
White House unveils first national strategy to fight domestic terrorism
The White House has published its first ever national strategy for countering domestic terrorism five months after a violent mob stormed the US Capitol in Washington.
The framework released on Tuesday by the national security council describes the threat as now more serious than potential attacks from overseas but emphasises the need to protect civil liberties.
Anticipating Republican objections that Joe Biden could use counterterrorism tools to persecute supporters of Donald Trump, the strategy is also careful to state that domestic terrorism must be tackled in an “ideologically neutral” manner.
It cites examples such as “an anti-authority extremist” ambushing, shooting and killing five police officers in Dallas In 2016; a lone gunman (and leftwing activist) wounding four people at a congressional baseball practice in 2017; and an “unprecedented attack” on Congress on 6 January.
“They come across the political spectrum,” a senior administration said on a media conference call. “So it’s not motivating politics or ideology that matters for us or, more importantly for the strategy and its implementation. It’s when political grievances become acts of violence and we remain laser focused on that.”
The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, is also encouraging Americans to celebrate Independence Day in the nation’s capitol.
“DC is open and ready to welcome back visitors to celebrate the way we came together as a city and as a nation this year. We have shown once again that when we come together, there is nothing we can’t do,” the Democratic mayor said in a press release.
I echo President Biden’s enthusiasm and call on Americans nationwide to celebrate July 4th in Washington, DC.
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) June 15, 2021
With all capacity limits and restrictions lifted, cultural attractions are open and hotels are ready to welcome you back.
Plan your stay: https://t.co/n9QvODjXdx pic.twitter.com/81CfeljwNI
In addition to the traditional fireworks show and the celebrations hosted by the White House this year, DC is also marking the return of July 4 parades in the Barracks Row and Palisades neighborhoods.
“We thank President Biden and his team for acting with urgency to get the vaccine to the American people so that we could save lives, get our country open, and celebrate together once again,” Bowser said.
Joe Biden wants Americans to celebrate their independence from coronavirus next month, when the country commemorates its independence day on July 4.
Biden has set a goal of at least partially vaccinating 70% of American adults by July 4, and he is already planning how to celebrate, even though it’s unclear whether the US will meet that objective.
The AP reports:
As COVID-19 case rates and deaths drop to levels not seen since the first days of the outbreak, travel picks up and schools and businesses reopen, Biden is proclaiming ‘a summer of freedom’ to celebrate Americans resuming their pre-pandemic lives.
The holiday will see the largest event yet of Biden’s presidency: He plans to host first responders, essential workers and military servicemembers and their families on the South Lawn for a cookout and to watch the fireworks over the National Mall. Well more than 1,000 guests are expected, officials said, with final arrangements still to be sorted out.
The plan shows the dramatic shift in thinking since Biden just three months ago cautiously held out hope that people might be able to hold small cookouts by the Fourth, an idea that seems quaint now given the swift pace of reopening.
Delivering an update on vaccine distribution earlier this month, Biden encouraged Americans to get vaccinated and convince family members to join them before the July 4 holiday.
“We know it for a fact: Americans could do anything when we do it together. So, please, do your part,” Biden said. “Give it your all through July the 4th. Let’s reach our 70% goal. Let’s go into the summer freer and safer. Let’s celebrate a truly historic Independence Day.”
China’s mission to the EU has accused Nato of slander and of “hyping up the so-called ‘China threat’” after leaders of the western alliance warned that the country presents “systemic challenges” to international order and security.
On Monday, at a summit in Brussels, leaders from the transatlantic security alliance, with Joe Biden in attendance for the first time, took a forceful stance towards Beijing.
The new US president has urged his fellow Nato leaders to stand up to China’s authoritarianism and growing military might – a change of focus for an alliance created to defend Europe from the Soviet Union during the cold war.
China’s EU mission hit back on Tuesday, saying in a post on its website that the communique published at the end of the one-day summit “slandered” China’s peaceful development, misjudged the international situation, and indicated a “cold war mentality”.
“China urges Nato to view China’s development in a rational manner, stop hyping up in any form the so-called ‘China threat’, and stop taking China’s legitimate interests and rights as an excuse to manipulate bloc politics, create confrontation, and fuel geopolitical competition.”
Joe Biden has boarded Air Force One and is officially en route to Geneva, Switzerland, where he will meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
The city of Geneva has put up American and Russian flags along their bridges to commemorate the historic summit between the two countries’ leaders. A CNBC reporter captured a photo of the scene:
They have put up Russian and American flags over the Pont du Mont Blanc here in Geneva ahead of the Biden-Putin summit tomorrow. President Biden is en route from Brussels now. pic.twitter.com/nem9TaTYCh
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) June 15, 2021
On the 24-hour Russian state news channel, Thursday began as any other might: with a segment about the ageing president of the United States battling back cicadas and then giving a “confused” speech about his upcoming summit in Geneva with Vladimir Putin.
“I’ll let [Putin] know what I want him to know,’” said Joe Biden after a cutaway shot of him swatting his neck before boarding Air Force One this week.
Signs of a thaw between Russia and the US ahead of Wednesday’s summit are not immediately evident on state TV, but then again that is the last place that they would be.
For years, bellicose news segments about the west and especially Ukraine have been outdone only by the even shoutier news debate shows, where Russian experts compete to give the loudest, most hawkish review of recent political developments. The rare liberals who join them are ritually squashed.
In the real world, the last week has given little inkling of a coming breakthrough. A Russian court’s decision on Thursday evening to outlaw Alexei Navalny’s organisation as “extremist” will reassert the issue of human rights in Russia on the summit’s agenda. And Russia’s backing for Alexander Lukashenko will also lead to a battle over what Moscow claims as a sphere of influence in Belarus and Ukraine, despite the breakup of the Soviet Union more than 30 years ago.
Biden departs for Geneva as he prepares to meet with Putin
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden continues his first international trip as president today, attending the EU-US summit in Brussels. The US president also met with the king and prime minister of Belgium this morning.
Biden will soon depart for Geneva, where he will hold a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
Reports indicate that Biden has been preparing extensively for the summit, which will mark his first in-person meeting with Putin since taking office in January.
The president’s advisers have also indicated that he sought input from other major foreign leaders about how he should approach the meeting, as he attended the G7 and Nato summits this past week.
During his press conference in Brussels yesterday, Biden repeatedly deflected questions from reporters about what he expected to get out of the meeting.
Noting he has met Putin before, Biden said of the Russian leader, “He’s bright. He’s tough. And I have found that he is a … as they say, when you used to play ball, ‘a worthy adversary.’”
Biden added, “But the fact is that I will be happy to talk with you when it’s over, and not before, about what the discussion will entail.”
The blog will have more details on Wednesday’s summit coming up, so stay tuned.
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