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Good Morning,
Donald Trump may be projecting confidence about the coronavirus crisis, but in private the president is said to be “scared” by the news that two White House workers tested positive for Covid-19, including a valet who sometimes serves you food. Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of the top three health officials to have entered a two-week self-imposed quarantine, while Mike Pence is physically distancing himself from his West Wing teammates after his press spokesperson, Katie Miller, gave positive.
In an interview with The Guardian, radical intellectual Noam Chomsky said Trump was guilty of the deaths of thousands of Americans. He also accused the president of using the pandemic to improve his electoral prospects and cover the pockets of big business, while blaming other nations for his own failures:
To try to cover up his criminal attacks on the American people, which have been going on all this time, he is trying to find scapegoats.
A vaccine in 2020 would be “an incredibly ambitious goal”
Texas has begun reopening its businesses. UFC hosted America’s first major live sporting event in weeks. Many in the USA USA They are clearly eager to return to normal, but Lamar Alexander, Republican chairman of the Senate health committee, has questioned the White House’s predictions that a coronavirus vaccine could be implemented starting in the fall and allowing the economy reopen. completely. He called it an “incredibly ambitious goal.”
Meanwhile, researchers in London have expressed concern that the virus could be mutating, adapting to humans in a way that would make it difficult to find a vaccine.
Cases increase again in China, South Korea and Germany
China recorded 17 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, its highest number in nearly two weeks. Several of the infections occurred in provinces bordering Russia or North Korea, but five were in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak originated last year. Wuhan has eased his strict blocking in recent weeks. Fear of a second wave has also caused concern in Germany and South Korea, where infections have increased slightly after lifting restrictions.
Several European countries have announced a relaxation of their home stay rules, but UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was criticized for his lack of clarity on the way forward.
How the crisis is affecting the world’s workers
The coronavirus crisis has fueled the debate on migrant farmworkers in Europe. Some communities are desperate for the return of foreign labor, while others are raising tensions over whether and under what conditions such workers should be allowed to return during the pandemic, as Guardian correspondents across the continent report.
Virus outbreaks in slaughterhouses in the US USA And across the world, they have raised awareness of crowded and chaotic conditions for meat plant workers, many of whom have been forced to continue working during the crisis. And as Karen McVeigh writes, cargo ship crews keep the world’s trade afloat while trapped in the sea, blocked from going out on the beach for a walk or even receiving medical treatment.
In other news …
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The Mayor of Atlanta called the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery’s death. Keisha Lance Bottoms also accused Trump of inciting overt acts of racism, as the Georgia attorney general formally requested the Justice Department to investigate the handling of the murder of the 25-year-old black runner by two white men.
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At least 19 Iranians have died in a friendly fire incident during a naval training exercise in the Gulf of Oman, after a missile hit a support ship near its target.
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A five-star hotel in Athens must demolish its top two floors, to the delight of many local residents, following a decision by the Greek Central Archaeological Council, which said that the Coco-Mat hotel was blocking a famous view of the Acropolis.
Great readings
The true lord of flies
It was the Guardian’s most read story of the weekend. Historian Rutger Bregman discovered a real-life case of schoolchildren stranded for months on a desert island, and learned that it turned out to be very different from William Golding’s classic novel.
How high drug prices could stifle Covid-19 treatment
Several existing medications may prove to be somewhat effective coronavirus treatments over the months and years while we wait for a vaccine, but as Mona Chalabi writes, the high prices of large pharmacies may keep them out of reach of those who need them most.
Opinion: Coronawashing is the new greenwashing
Big brands, from Uber to HSBC, are busy pushing public relations initiatives to look concerned during the pandemic. Oscar Rickett argues that these are the same businesses that benefited from weaknesses in the public sphere that the outbreak has served to expose.
A Who’s Who of external polluters, tax evaders, and vultures urges us to #StaySafe, pumping soft focus brand content that makes Forrest Gump It looks like an episode of Chernobyl.
Last thing: an 11-year-old boy achieves the holy grail of skating
Gui Khury, an 11-year-old skateboarding prodigy, has used his pen time productively during the closure of Brazil’s coronavirus schools. He is now the first person to land a 1080 degree turn on a vertical ramp, more than two decades after skating legend Tony Hawk completed the first 900 degree turn.
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