Category: Aktualności

Walt Disney World will reopen to the public in July, Disney company officials announced Wednesday.The Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks will resume business on July 11, followed by EPCOT and Hollywood Studios on July 15. The four theme parks are in Florida.In a presentation to an economic recovery task force, the multibillion-dollar entertainment company said that the moves will occur in stages to minimize health and safety risks.It is not clear when Disneyland, located in California, will reopen.Precautions approved by local governments in Florida and California include requiring that guests wear face masks, submit to temperature checks and comply with social distancing requirements. Reduced park capacity and cashless transactions will also be implemented. Disney closed its parks around the world after the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe but reopened its Shanghai amusement parks in early May. The location in China had been closed since January.Disney World in Florida employs about 77,000 people. According to CNN, the company’s theme parks accounted for 37% of its annual revenue in 2019. It says the forced closings caused an estimated 58% drop in profit for the parks and experiences unit of the company last quarter.”The theme parks define Disney for millions of its fans around the world,” Robert Niles, editor of ThemeParkInsider.com, told CNN Business. “Returning its parks to operation signals that Disney is coming back to full speed as a company again.”
 
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The launch of a SpaceX rocket ship with two NASA astronauts on a history-making flight into orbit was called off with 16 minutes to go in the countdown Wednesday because of thunderclouds and the danger of lightning. Liftoff was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon.The commercially designed, built and owned spacecraft was set to blast off in the afternoon for the International Space Station, ushering in a new era in commercial spaceflight and putting NASA back in the business of launching astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade. But thunderstorms for much of the day threatened to force a postponement, and the word finally came down that the atmosphere was so electrically charged that the spacecraft with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard could get hit by a bolt of lightning.”No launch for today — safety for our crew members @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken is our top priority,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted, using a lightning emoji.The SpaceX Falcon 9, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft on top of the rocket, sits on Launch Pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., May 27, 2020.The two men were scheduled to ride into orbit aboard the SpaceX’s bullet-shaped Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, taking off from the same launch pad used during the Apollo moon missions a half-century ago. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had arrived to watch.The flight — the long-held dream of SpaceX founder Elon Musk — would have marked the first time a private company sent humans into orbit.It would also have been the first time in nearly a decade that the United States launched astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil. Ever since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian spaceships launched from Kazakhstan to take U.S. astronauts to and from the space station.During the day, thunder could be heard as the astronauts made their way to the pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and a tornado warning was issued moments after they climbed into their capsule.The preparations took place in the shadow of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed an estimated 100,000 Americans.”We’re launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. We haven’t done this really since 2011, so this is a unique moment in time,” Bridenstine said.With this launch, he said, “everybody can look up and say, ‘Look, the future is so much brighter than the present.’ And I really hope that this is an inspiration to the world.”The mission would put Musk and SpaceX in the same league as only three spacefaring countries — Russia, the U.S. and China, all of which gave sent astronauts into orbit.”What today is about is reigniting the dream of space and getting people fired up about the future,” he said in a NASA interview before the flight was scrubbed.A solemn-sounding Musk said he felt his responsibilities most strongly when he saw the astronauts’ wives and sons just before launch. He said he told them: “We’ve done everything we can to make sure your dads come back OK.”President Donald Trump looks at an area on a piece of equipment to sign during tour of NASA facilities before viewing the SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 Launch at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., May 27, 2020.NASA pushed ahead with the launch despite the viral outbreak but kept the guest list at Kennedy extremely limited and asked spectators to stay at home. Still, beaches and parks along Florida’s Space Coast are open again, and hours before the launch, cars and RVs already were lining the causeway in Cape Canaveral.The space agency also estimated 1.7 million people were watching the launch preparations online during the afternoon.Among the sightseers was Erin Gatz, who came prepared for both rain and pandemic. 
Accompanied by her 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, she brought face masks and a small tent to protect against the elements. She said the children had faint memories of watching in person one of the last shuttle launches almost a decade ago when they were preschoolers. “I wanted them to see the flip side and get to see the next era of space travel,” said Gatz, who lives in Deltona, Florida. “It’s exciting and hopeful.”NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 to transport astronauts to the space station in a new kind of public-private partnership. Development of SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner capsules took longer than expected, however. Boeing’s ship is not expected to fly astronauts into space until early 2021.”We’re doing it differently than we’ve ever done it before,” Bridenstine said. “We’re transforming how we do spaceflight in the future.”
 
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Joe Biden said Tuesday that wearing a mask in public to combat the spread of the coronavirus is a sign of leadership and called President Donald Trump a “fool” who was “stoking deaths” for suggesting otherwise. Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his wife Jill Biden arrive to place a wreath at the Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park, in New Castle, Delaware, May 25, 2020.The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s comments came a day after he wore a black face mask while making his first public appearance in more than two months. Biden has remained at his Delaware home amid a pandemic that has frozen the presidential campaign, but he marked Memorial Day by laying a wreath at a nearby veterans’ memorial with his wife, Jill. Trump later retweeted a post that appeared to make fun of a photo of Biden in his mask, though he later said he didn’t mean to be critical. In an interview with CNN, Biden responded, “He’s a fool, an absolute fool, to talk that way.” “He’s supposed to lead by example,” Biden said. The former vice president also noted that nearly 100,000 Americans have been killed by the virus and suggested that as many as half of those deaths were avoidable but for Trump’s “lack of attention and ego.”  Federal officials have recommended that people cover their nose and mouth in public when other measures, such as practicing social distancing of at least 6 feet (1.8 meters), aren’t possible. But the issue has become increasingly politically charged, with Trump refusing to wear a mask and polls finding that conservative Americans are more likely to forgo them as well. Biden didn’t wear a mask during the CNN interview, which was conducted outside his house, but he sat 12 feet (3.6 meters) from the reporter. “It’s just absolutely this macho stuff,” Biden said of Trump bristling at wearing a mask in public, a practice the former vice president called being “falsely masculine.” “It’s cost people’s lives.”  Biden added that the president is politicizing the issue and “it’s stoking deaths. That’s not going to increase the likelihood that people are going to be better off.”  U.S. President Trump hosts Rose Garden event on treating diabetes at the White House during coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Washington.After Biden wore the mask on Memorial Day, Trump retweeted a post by a political commentator that featured an image of a masked Biden over the comment, “This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public.” Asked about that during a subsequent event in the White House Rose Garden, the president responded, “Biden can wear a mask.”  “But he was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather,” Trump said. “They’re inside, they don’t wear masks and so I thought it was very unusual that he had one on. But I thought that was fine. I wasn’t criticizing him at all. Why would I ever do a thing like that?” Trump then asked the reporter who was following up with a second question to remove the mask he was wearing, complaining he couldn’t hear him. When the reporter instead said he would speak louder, the president replied: “Oh, OK, ’cause you want to be politically correct.” Federal guidance does not recommend that people wear masks when at home. Still, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany used the same line of argument on Tuesday. She noted that Biden has foregone a mask while appearing for frequent online events from his home, something he did during a virtual fundraiser held Tuesday night. “It is a bit peculiar,” McEnany said. “That in his basement, right next to his wife, he’s not wearing a mask. But he’s wearing one outdoors when he’s socially distant. So I think that there was a discrepancy there.” For his part, Biden changed his Twitter profile picture to one of him in the black face covering, and he tweeted Tuesday night: “Wear a mask.” Meanwhile, the former vice president has continued to face fallout from a remark he made Friday on “The Breakfast Club,” a radio program influential and popular in the black community. He had commented, “If you’ve got a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t black.”  That sparked criticism from some African American activists, and Biden made a previously unscheduled appearance on a U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce conference call hours later to say that he “should not have been so cavalier.”  He went further Tuesday, telling CNN, “I shouldn’t have done that. It was a mistake.” “When I say something that is understandably, in retrospect, offensive to someone, and legitimately offensive — making it look like taking them for granted — I should apologize,” Biden said. “I don’t apologize for every mistake I make because a lot of them don’t have any consequences.”  
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“Do as I say, but not as I do” was the message many British saw in the behavior of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s key aide, who traveled hundreds of miles with coronavirus symptoms during the country’s lockdown.
While  Dominic Cummings has faced calls for his firing  but support from his boss over his journey from London to the northern city of Durham in March, few countries seem immune to the perception that politicians and top officials are bending the rules that their own governments wrote during the pandemic.
From U.S. President Donald Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, global decision-makers have frequently set bad examples, whether it’s refusing to wear masks or breaking confinement rules aimed at protecting their citizens from COVID-19.  
Some are punished when they’re caught, others publicly repent, while a few just shrug off the violations during a pandemic that has claimed more than 350,000 lives worldwide.
Here are some notable examples:New Zealand Health Minister Calls Himself An “Idiot”
In April, New Zealand’s health minister was stripped of some of his responsibilities after defying the country’s strict lockdown measures. David Clark drove 19 kilometers (12 miles) to the beach to take a walk with his family as the government was asking people to make historic sacrifices by staying at home.
“I’ve been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me,” Clark said. He also earlier acknowledged driving to a park near his home to go mountain biking.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said normally she would fire Clark but that the country couldn’t afford massive disruption in its health sector while it was fighting the virus. Instead, she stripped Clark of his role as associate finance minister and demoting him to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings.Mexico’s Leader Shakes Hands
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said it pained him not to embrace supporters during tours because of health risks, but he made a remarkable exception in March, shaking hands with the elderly mother of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. Asked about shaking her hand when the government was urging citizens to practice social distancing, López Obrador said it would have been disrespectful not to.  
“It’s very difficult humanly,” he said. “I’m not a robot.”  America’s Pandemic Politics
The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement in the U.S. It’s been stoked by Trump — who didn’t wear a mask during an appearance at a facility making them — and some other Republicans, who have questioned the value of masks. This month, pandemic politics shadowed Trump’s trip to Michigan as he toured a factory making lifesaving medical devices. He did not publicly wear a face covering despite a warning from the state’s top law enforcement officer that refusing to do so might lead to a ban on his return.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, meanwhile, wore a mask along with his wife, Jill, as they laid a wreath Monday at a Delaware veterans’ memorial — his first public appearance since mid-March. Trump later retweeted Fox News analyst Brit Hume’s criticism of Biden for wearing a mask in public.
Vice President Mike Pence was criticized for not wearing a mask  while on a visit to the Mayo Clinic.Netanyahu’s Passover Holiday
While the rest of Israel was instructed not to gather with their extended families for traditional Passover Seder in April, Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin hosted their adult children for the festive holiday meal, drawing fierce criticism on social media. Israeli television showed a photo of Avner Netanyahu, the premier’s younger son, attending the Seder at his father’s official residence.  
Benjamin Netanyahu later apologized in a televised address, saying he should have adhered more closely to the regulations.  The French Exception
French President Emmanuel Macron also has been inconsistent with masks, leaving the French public confused. Although Macron has sometimes appeared in a mask for visits at hospitals and schools, it’s a different story in the Elysee presidential palace and for speeches. During a visit to a Paris hospital on May 15, Macron initially wore a mask to chat with doctors but then removed it to talk with union workers.  
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner also faced criticism this month for huddling with dozens of mask-makers in a factory for a photo where everyone removed their masks.  
Putin’s Different Approach
The only time Russian President Vladimir Putin wore protective gear in public was on March 24, when he visited a top coronavirus hospital in Moscow.  Before donning a hazmat suit, Putin shook hands with Dr. Denis Protsenko, the head of the hospital. Neither wore masks or gloves, and a week later, Protsenko tested positive for the virus. That raised questions about Putin’s health, but the Kremlin said he was fine.
Putin has since held at least seven face-to-face meetings, according to the Kremlin website. He and others didn’t wear masks during those meetings, and Putin also didn’t cover his face for events marking Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II.
When asked why Putin doesn’t wear a mask during public appearances, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin has a different approach to protecting the president’s health.
“When it comes to public events, we ask medical workers to test all the participants in advance,” Peskov told reporters.  Puerto Rico Official’s Inconsistent Message
Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez was criticized for not always wearing a mask despite holding new conferences ordering people to cover their face outside their homes and inside businesses. A member of the opposition Popular Democratic Party also filed a police complaint last week against members of Vázquez’s New Progressive Party, alleging they violated a curfew by gathering to inaugurate the party’s new headquarters. Police are investigating the incident, which angered many Puerto Ricans.  Scottish Medical Official Takes The Low Road
Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr. Catherine Calderwood, broke her own rules and traveled to her second home during lockdown in April. She faced blowback after photos emerged of her and her family visiting Earlsferry in Fife, which is more than an hour’s drive from her main home in Edinburgh. She apologized and resigned.
“I did not follow the advice I’m giving to others,” Calderwood said. “I am truly sorry for that. I’ve seen a lot of the comments from … people calling me a hypocrite.”  Japan’s Gambling Scandal
A top Japanese prosecutor was reprimanded and later resigned this month after defying a stay-at-home recommendation in a gambling scandal.
Hiromu Kurokawa, the country’s No. 2 prosecutor who headed the Tokyo High Prosecutors’ Office, acknowledged that he wasn’t social distancing when he played mahjong for money at a newspaper reporter’s home twice in May. Japan didn’t enforce a stay-at-home recommendation, but his case outraged the public because many were following social distancing measures.  Italian Press Conference Criticism
At a March news conference to open a COVID-19 field hospital in Milan’s old convention center, photographers and video journalists were pushed into corners that did not allow proper spacing. Only text reporters were given seating in line with regulations. The Codacons consumer protection group announced it would file a complaint with prosecutors in Milan.
“What should have been a moment of great happiness and pride for Lombardy and Italy was transformed into a surreal event, where in violation of the anti-gathering rules, groups of crowds formed,” Codacons said.  South Africa’s Rule-Breaking Dinner
In April, Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was placed on special leave for two months and forced to apologize by President Cyril Ramaphosa after she violated stay-at-home regulations. Ramaphosa directed police to investigate after a photo emerged on social media of Ndabeni-Abrahams and several others having a meal at the home of former deputy minister of higher education Mduduzi Manana.Spanish Hospital Ceremony Investigated
Madrid’s regional and city officials sparked controversy when they gathered on May 1 for a ceremony shuttering a massive field hospital at a convention center. Eager to appear in the final photo of a facility credited with treating nearly 4,000 mild COVID-19 patients, dozens of officials didn’t follow social distancing rules. Spain’s restrictions banned more than 10 people at events like the one that honored nurses and doctors. The central government opened an investigation, and Madrid regional chief Isabel Díaz Ayuso apologized. She said officials “got carried away by the uniqueness of the moment.”
Former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also defied strict stay-at-home orders, with a television station filming him power walking around in northern Madrid. The Spanish prosecutor’s office is investigating whether Rajoy, who was premier from 2011 to 2018, should be fined.Indian Cricket Game Criticized
In India, a top leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party drew flak last weekend after playing a game of cricket. Manoj Tiwari, also a member of India’s parliament, said he followed social distancing rules during the game. Videos circulating on social media showed Tiwati without a mask. He was also seen taking selfies with people.  Leaders Who Follow The Rules
Some leaders are setting a good example, including Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Media jokingly called him the most relaxed politician in the world after he was photographed queuing at a supermarket this month, wearing a mask and following social distancing measures. The photo was widely shared on social media.  
Another rule-follower is Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who did not visit his ill 96-year-old mother in a nursing home during the last eight weeks of her life because of coronavirus restrictions. He only came to her bedside during her final hours this month.  
“The prime minister has respected all guidelines,” according to a statement read by a spokesman. “The guidelines allow for family to say goodbye to dying family members in the final stage. And as such the prime minister was with her during her last night.” 
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The worldwide death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has surpassed 350,000. The milestone comes as South Korea announced Wednesday its highest number of new cases in 49 days. Authorities are focusing on testing workers from e-commerce giant Coupang after dozens of cases were linked to a company site outside of Seoul. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all but four of its 40 new cases were in the Seoul area. The country was an early hotspot for the coronavirus outbreak, but now barely ranks in the top-50 in terms of confirmed infections, according to statistics compiled by the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.“We will do our best to trace contacts and implement preventive measures, but there’s a limit to such efforts,” KCDC head Jeong Eun-kyeong said. “There’s a need to maximize social distancing in areas where the virus is circulating, to force people to avoid public facilities and other crowded spaces.”  Brazil, India, Mexico are cause for concern
Brazil has emerged as a major source of concern, trailing only the United States in the number of infections. On Tuesday it reported the most single day deaths in the world, with 1,039, its fifth consecutive day atop the grim list. India posted its record high of 6,000 new cases reported Wednesday, pushing its total above 150,000. Mexico also reported troubling escalations in its coronavirus outbreak, with a new high of 501 deaths and 3,455 new confirmed cases.Like many governments around the world, Mexico is weighing continuing stay-at-home and social distancing orders against the desire to resume economic activity.   President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters his advisers were discussing possible reopening steps and could announce as early as this week plans to send kids back to school.  He also said he plans to tour different states and hold talks with local officials on easing restrictions. A child gets a meal from the mobile dining rooms program as people who have not been able to work because of the COVID-19 pandemic line up for a meal outside the Iztapalapa hospital in Mexico City, Wednesday, May 20, 2020.US easing restrictions
In the neighboring United States, governors continue to pull back on their lockdown orders, including in Nevada, where Governor Steve Sisolak announced casinos in Las Vegas can reopen June 4 after the key industry was shut down for 10 weeks. “We welcome the visitors from across the country to come here, to have a good time, no different than they did previously, but we’re gonna be cautious,” Sisolak said. No COVID patients in New Zealand
New Zealand reported a new milestone in its coronavirus recovery, saying Wednesday there were no more COVID-19 patients in the country’s hospitals. Health officials said there were only 21 active cases in New Zealand, which put in place a strict five-week lockdown before slowly easing the measures in late April. New Zealand and Australia are working on plans to amend their travel bans to allow people to move between the two countries, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a draft should be ready by early next month. And in Spain, a 10-day mourning period began Wednesday to honor the more than 27,000 people in the country who have died from COVID-19. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening unspecified retaliation against Twitter after the social media platform tagged a pair of his tweets on Tuesday with a fact-check warning.  The unprecedented alert on the @realDonaldTrump tweets about mail-in balloting prompted the president to accuse Twitter of interference in this year’s election and of “completely stifling” free speech.  “I, as President, will not allow it to happen,” he concluded.  .Fact checking needed, critics say
“Social media companies have been struggling with the spread of misinformation and the need for fact checking for years, most prominently in the last presidential election,” noted Marcus Messner, the  director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s school of media and culture.  “Twitter is right to flag incorrect information even when it involves tweets by President Trump,” Messner told VOA. The journalism professor noted the action “walks the fine between fact checking and being accused of censoring political speech through more drastic measures such as deleting posts and suspending accounts. But the question remains whether the fact tags with links to news articles will even be recognized by supporters of President Trump, who regularly dismiss all reporting from mainstream media. The effect of the fact tags in this heated partisan environment might be limited.”    Texas A&M Communications Assistant Professor Jennifer Mercieca, who refers to Trump as “an outrage president” who uses social media to “go around the news filter and speak directly with his supporters and set the nation’s news agenda” says Twitter’s strategy “allows Trump to communicate, but enables his audience to think more critically about the content of his message.” Mercieca, author of “2020: Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,” accuses Trump of using his Twitter account irresponsibly to spread “conspiracy, racism and misinformation.” The president’s response to the action by the platform “is to further use outrage to condemn Twitter for the policy while vaguely threatening that he would do something to stop them,” she told VOA. It is unclear what legal leverage Trump has over Twitter, which does not need any government licenses to operate as do radio or television stations.Twitter stands by decision A Twitter spokesperson said the company took the unprecedented action, based on its new policy announced earlier this month, because Trump’s tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.” During an exchange with reporters in the White House Rose Garden earlier Tuesday, Trump, responding to journalist’s questions about his mail-in ballot accusations, claimed the state of California — the most populous in the country — would be sending out “millions and millions of ballots to anybody,” including those who “don’t have the right to vote.”  California is planning to send every registered voter a ballot by mail for the November 3 election, a plan that prompted the Republican National Committee to sue California Governor Gavin Newsom.  The action by Twitter to flag Trump’s tweets “is a small step in the right direction. But we can all do our part to call out the lies,” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla tweeted on Tuesday evening. “The president is intentionally spreading false information about vote by mail and blatantly trying to suppress the vote.”  .@Twitter “fact-checking” @realDonaldTrump is a small step in the right direction. But we can all do our part to call out the lies. The president is intentionally spreading false information about vote by mail and blatantly trying to suppress the vote. RT the TRUTH. pic.twitter.com/oaJGH41K1I— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) May 26, 2020Calls to delete some tweets
Twitter has also been facing calls to remove Trump’s tweets that push an old conspiracy theory about the death of a congressional staffer.  The president has stopped short of directly accusing Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, who hosts a morning program on the MSNBC cable channel of killing a woman in 2001 even though the politician was 1,300 kilometers away at the time and authorities ruled her death an accident. Scarborough was once friendly with Trump but has become a fierce on-air critic of the president.  “We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” said a Twitter spokesperson on Tuesday. “We’ve been working to expand existing product features and features so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.” Timothy Klausutis, widower of Lori Klausutis, has written to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey claiming the president has violated the social media company’s erms of service and “has taken something that does not belong to him-the memory of my dead wife-and perverted it for perceived political gain.” Questioned by reporters in the Rose Garden about the tweets on Tuesday, Trump did not prevaricate.  “I’m sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it and it’s a very serious situation,” the president said of the deceased woman’s relatives, calling for law enforcement to re-open the investigation. “As you know, there’s no statute of limitations. So, it would be a very good, very good thing to do.”    
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It was the most notorious moment in South Korea’s turbulent path to democracy: the May 1980 military crackdown on a student-led protest in the southwestern city of Gwangju.  The Gwangju Uprising, as it would later become known, began as a demonstration against South Korea’s brutal military leaders, who had recently expanded martial law.  Shortly after the protest began, elite paratroopers attacked the students with batons, rifles and bayonets. But as the crackdown escalated, so did the citizens’ resistance. Eventually Gwangju erupted into open rebellion, with residents raiding a local armory, seizing weapons and driving the military out of the city. A few days later, the military returned, crushing the civilian militia.  The Gwangju violence marked a pivotal moment in South Korean history. Not only did it rekindle a nationwide pro-democracy movement, the violence also unleashed a wave of anger at the United States, which had long backed the country’s military rulers as a way to counter North Korea. Though May 18, the day the protest began, is now celebrated as an unofficial memorial day in South Korea, the incident is still a major source of polarization. Far-right conservatives continue to insist, without providing evidence, that North Korea was behind the protests, which they characterize as riots.  But amid a leftward shift in South Korea’s political landscape, the country is making a fresh effort to find a common narrative about Gwangju.  Uncovering hidden truths Newly empowered after a landslide legislative election win last month, the left-leaning government of President Moon Jae-in has prioritized the Gwangju issue, especially during this month’s 40th anniversary of the movement. Standing in front of the former provincial government building in downtown Gwangju where the 1980 civilian militia made its final stand, Moon earlier this month promised full support for a new, independent fact-finding committee to look into the crackdown. Many details about the incident remain unknown, including the death toll (the official count at the time was around 200, but independent groups say the actual number is much higher), as well as who ordered the use of helicopters that eyewitnesses say fired on civilians. Moon is also pushing to recognize the “May 18 Democratization Movement” in the preamble of South Korea’s constitution, formally enshrining it as part of South Korea’s long fight for democracy.The Gwangju plaza that saw bloody battles between protesters and military forces in May, 1980. In the background is the former provincial government building where the civilian militia made its last stand. May 20, 2020. (W. Gallo)Conservative apology Some conservatives are even changing their tone. Ahead of the 40th anniversary, South Korea’s main conservative party apologized for its past members who “defamed” and “insulted” the Gwangju movement. “In the future, the May Uprising will no longer become a political issue, and it should not be the subject of social conflict,” said the Women whose families were killed, wounded, or arrested during the Gwangju Uprising sing songs at the May Mothers House community center in Gwangju, South Korea. May 20, 2020. (W. Gallo)Military strongman Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996, in part because of his role in the massacre, but was later pardoned. Now 89 years old and suffering from Alzheimer’s, Chun remains defiant and defends his actions. In 2018, South Korea’s defense ministry issued its first-ever apology for the massacre, following a five-month investigation.  US apology? But many in Gwangju also want an apology from the United States, which at the time had operational control of all South Korean military units.  Specifically, many Gwangju residents feel the U.S. could and should have done more to restrain their allies, especially after the South Korean military notified Washington it was moving an elite military unit away from U.S. control to deal with the unrest.  U.S. military and diplomatic officials have long insisted they did not have enough influence to stop South Korea from deploying the troops. Once the troops were deployed, U.S. officials say they did not have adequate real-time info about the crackdown.  “The U.S. government didn’t have a clear picture,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, then a 26-year-old junior foreign service officer at the U.S. embassy in Seoul. “And I don’t think (U.S. officials) had leverage sufficient to prevent the South Korean government from putting down an uprising they saw as an existential threat.”  At the time, Fitzpatrick served as an assistant to U.S. Ambassador William Gleysteen. The title of Gleysteen’s 1999 memoir – Massive Entanglement, Marginal Influence – concisely summarizes the challenges the U.S. faced in simultaneously supporting South Korea’s authoritarian leaders while also pushing for democracy.  “We were always encouraging reform, but there was a higher priority on deterring North Korea,” said Fitzpatrick, now retired after serving 26 years as a foreign service officer and later a U.S. nuclear policy expert. “Given the U.S. military presence and the overriding need to deter North Korea and to keep the South Korean military strong, human rights took a backseat.”  Since 2004, U.S. ambassadors to South Korea have occasionally visited Gwangju, where they praise South Korea’s democracy movement. But notably, they do not issue formal apologies.  “We have asked many times for the U.S. government to apologize … but they haven’t done that so far,” said Lee Jae-eui, who took part in the uprising and later co-authored an influential book on the uprising. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul did not release a statement on the 40th anniversary of Gwangju, and the State Department did not reply to VOA’s request for comment. But earlier this month, the State Department released a batch of newly declassified documents, many of which contain contemporary observations about Gwangju by Ambassador Gleysteen. Ben Engel, who researches U.S. policy in South Korea during the 1970s and 80s, said publicly available U.S. records don’t reveal a “smoking gun” that proves the U.S. knew and approved of what Chun was doing.  But Gleysteen clearly thought the protests needed to be subdued, even if he had reservations about using the military or violence to suppress the protests, Engel said. “It’s almost like he doesn’t want to admit to himself that he knew what Chun was doing,” Engel said. “He knew it was wrong, but that it would achieve the result that his government wanted.”  ‘Crucible’ for US policy Even four decades later, the incident stirs strong emotions among U.S. officials who were in Seoul during the time. Some still won’t talk about it on the record.  Kathleen Stephens, U.S. ambassador from 2008 to 2011, says the period surrounding the Gwangju Uprising served as a “crucible” for U.S. policy toward the South. “Those who were in Seoul during that period carried that with them for a long time,” said Stephens, who also served from 1983 to 1989 at the U.S. embassy in Seoul as a political officer.  “The experience led U.S. policymakers to take a somewhat different approach to South Korea” later in the 1980s, when the country moved decisively toward democracy, she said.  South Korea’s democracy may still be relatively young, but it is one of Asia’s healthiest. And while anti-U.S. sentiment still exists, it is largely confined to the fringes of South Korean politics and society. But many Koreans, especially in Gwangju, feel that a full accounting of the past is still necessary.  “Punishment is not the goal,” President Moon said on the Gwangju anniversary this month. “It is about documenting history accurately. If you have courage to confess the truth now, then the path of forgiveness and reconciliation will open.”  Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
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The Pentagon is still several weeks away from returning most of the more than 20,000 people who work there back to their offices, defense officials said Tuesday, as the military prepares for some bases to start accepting transfers immediately.Last week, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper provided guidelines to local commanders about potentially easing stop movement orders should certain coronavirus conditions be met. His initial order restricted travel until June 30.FILE – Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, March 2, 2020.Lisa Hershman, the Pentagon’s chief management officer, said reopening at the Pentagon could start “phase one” of its plan once northern Virginia and the District of Columbia show a downward trend in coronavirus cases that continues for at least 14 days, a milestone that hasn’t been met yet.”That (downward trend) started on May 14,” Hershman said. “So far, we are counting about eight days of solid data and we are still in a downward progression. … But we’ve got a way to go.”Should no COVID-19 resurgence occur, most Pentagon workers could be back in their offices during phase three of four. Each phase is at least two weeks long.Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s stop movement order, which has halted several service member moves, will be lifted in stages, said Matt Donovan, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.Donovan did not name the installations that have been approved to accept service member transfers immediately, but said more details could be released later this week.In addition, the Pentagon is mandating all service members and encouraging all Defense Department civilians and contractors to undergo a mandatory 14-day restriction of movement prior to deployment outside the U.S.The Pentagon also said Tuesday that a third U.S. service member has died from complications after contracting the coronavirus.Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said that it did not appear the Army reservist had been actively working on the military’s response to the coronavirus pandemic when he contracted the virus. As of early Tuesday, 9,173 of the cumulative coronavirus cases around the globe were related to the U.S. military — 6,118 service members, 1,433 civilians, 1,042 dependents and 580 contractors — the Pentagon said. There have been 35 DOD-related COVID-19 deaths. 
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Walt Disney World is presenting its plans for reopening after being shuttered along with Florida’s other theme parks since mid-March because of the new coronavirus.Disney World and SeaWorld Orlando will present their proposals for phased reopenings before an Orange County task force on Wednesday, said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings. If Demings signs off on them, the plans will be sent to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for approval.With 77,000 workers, Disney World is central Florida’s biggest employer.Last week, Disney World allowed third-party businesses at its Disney Springs dining and shopping complex to open with new restrictions.All workers and visitors older than 2 at Disney Springs must wear masks, temperatures are checked at entrances to keep out anyone with a temperature 100.4 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) or higher, and a limited number of people are admitted to allow social distancing at the high-end outdoor shopping area with restaurants, movie theaters, a bowling alley and a Cirque du Soleil theater.Crosstown rival, Universal Orlando, presented its reopening proposal last week to county officials, saying it was aiming to reopen June 5. Officials approved those plans and sent them to the governor. Universal also has opened up its dining and entertainment complex with restrictions similar to Disney Springs.Earlier this month, Shanghai Disneyland became the first of Disney’s theme park resorts to reopen, with severe limits on the number of visitors allowed in, mandatory masks and temperature checks. 
 
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The FBI and other law enforcement authorities are investigating the case of an African American man who died after he was pinned to the ground while handcuffed and a white police officer kneeled on his neck as the victim pleaded he could not breath.
 
The death, which occurred in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the latest of numerous instances of black men in America dying during or after encounters with white police.
 
A bystander shared the video of the incident online.
 
Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder said officers were called to investigate a report of a forgery at a business on Monday evening. Elder said the man “physically resisted” arrest and died at a local hospital.
 
A police department statement said the officers called for an ambulance after the victim “appeared to be suffering medical distress.”
 
The video shows that after several minutes of the victim pleading that he could not breathe, one of the officers is heard telling the man to “relax.” After several more minutes, the man becomes motionless while still under the officer’s restraint.
 
Mayor Jacob Frey took to Facebook to apologize to the black community, declaring that “Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.”
 
“For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a Black man’s neck,” added Frey. “Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense.”
 
Monday’s death drew comparisons to Eric Garner, an unarmed black man in New York who died in 2014 after a white officer placed him in a chokehold while he begged for his life and said numerous times he could not breathe.  
 
The Minneapolis man’s death also follows that of Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot in the southeastern state of Georgia February 23 by Gregory McMichael, a white former Glynn County police officer, who later was an investigator with the local district attorney’s office, and his son.  FILE – Demonstrators rally to protest the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, in Brunswick, Georgia, May 8, 2020.They were charged two months after Arbery’s murder, only after a video of it became public.  
 
Police in Minneapolis have come under scrutiny in recent years for fatal encounters with citizens. A white police officer killed a 24-year-old black man with a gunshot to the head in 2015 after a confrontation with two officers who responded to a reported assault.
 
A county prosecutor did not prosecute the officers, maintaining the victim, Jamar Clark, was trying to get one of the officer’s gun when he was killed.
 
In what became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement, a white police officer shot an unarmed black man in the back as he was running away on foot after a traffic stop in 2015.
 
As officer Michael Slager appeared in a South Carolina court before receiving a 20-year sentence for killing Walter Scott, Scott’s mother turned to Slager and told him “I forgive you.” Slager responded to Scott’s mother, Judy, by mouthing the words “I’m sorry” as she sat nearby.
 
The U.S. has a long history of deadly violence by police against blacks and other minorities.  
 
“About 1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police,” according to a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.  
 
The study found that “Black women and men and American Indian and Alaska Native women and men are significantly more likely than white women and men to be killed by police. Latino men also are more likely to be killed by police than are white men.” 
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It may have been plagued with controversy after Oprah Winfrey pulled out as executive producer, but “On the Record” has moved on. The the new #MeToo documentary about rape accusations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons is a powerful look at one woman’s agonizing decision to go public, and an exploration of misogyny and sexual harassment in the music industry. Most importantly, though, it shines a light on the unique burden faced by women of color, who are often not believed or accused of being traitors to their own community if they come forward with accusations. The film premieres Wednesday on the new streaming service HBO Max.  There’s an elegant, almost poetic silence to one of the most compelling scenes of “On the Record,” a powerful new documentary about sexual violence that knows just when to dial down to a hushed quiet.In the early morning darkness of Dec. 13, 2017, former music executive Drew Dixon walks to a coffee shop and buys the New York Times. On the front page is the story in which she and two others accuse the powerful hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, her former boss, of rape. Dixon examines the article, carefully folds the paper back up, puts on a wool cap as if for protection — and crumples into silent tears.They are tears of fear, surely, about the ramifications of going public — but also, clearly, relief. It feels as if the poison of a decades-old toxic secret is literally seeping out of her.  “It saved my life,” she now says of that decision.”On the Record,” by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, provides a searingly intimate portrayal of the agonizing process of calculating whether to go public. Beyond that, it shines an overdue light on the music industry, where sexual harassment is “just baked into the culture,” in the words of Sil Lai Abrams, another Simmons accuser featured in the film.Most importantly, it puts a spotlight on women of color, and the unique and painful burden they often face in coming forward.The project also has been associated with controversy, of course, due to Oprah Winfrey’s well-documented withdrawal as executive producer just before the Sundance Film Festival, scuttling a distribution deal with Apple. Winfrey later acknowledged Simmons had called her and waged a pressure campaign, but said that wasn’t why she bailed.But the film has moved on. It opened at Sundance anyway to cheers and two emotional standing ovations, and was soon picked up by HBO Max, where it premieres Wednesday.For Dixon, vindication at Sundance was sweet.”Just standing there, on our own, and realizing that we were enough,” she said in an interview last week along with Abrams and accuser Sherri Hines, of the premiere. “That our courage was enough. That none of us waffled. None of us buckled. That we were strong enough to defend ourselves and each other.”Less than two years earlier, Dixon had been plagued by doubt. She’d expected that the film, which began shooting before she decided to go public, would be a general look at #MeToo and the music industry. But then the directors wanted to focus more on her journey.”The idea of being blackballed by the black community was really scary,” she says. “But I also felt this pressure, this responsibility to be brave, to highlight the experience of black women as survivors. The opportunity might never come again.”Dixon was in her 20s when she got her dream job at Simmons’ Def Jam Recordings. The daughter of two Washington, D.C. politicians — her mother, Sharon Pratt, was mayor — she attended Stanford University, then moved to New York to join the exciting world of hip-hop.As her star rose at Def Jam, she assumed that would immunize her from what she describes as Simmons’ constant harassment. He would come into her office, lock the door and expose himself.  But he wasn’t violent. Until the night in 1995 when, she says, he lured her to his apartment with the excuse of a demo CD she needed to hear. He told her to get it from the bedroom, she says, and then came in wearing only a condom, and raped her.Simmons has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.The film weaves together Dixon’s and multiple other accusations against Simmons with key voices of women of color like Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement, and law professor Kimberle Williams Crenshaw.”A lot of black women felt disconnected from #MeToo initially,” Burke says. “They felt, ‘that’s great that this sister is out there and we support her, but this movement is not for US.'”When black women do seek to come forward, they risk not only not being believed, but being called traitors to their community, both Burke and Dixon explain.”There’s this added layer in the black community that we have to contend with, like, ‘Oh you’re gonna put THIS before race?'” says Burke. “You let this thing happen to you, now we have to pay for it as a race? And we’re silenced even more.’Dick and Ziering, who’ve made several films about sexual assault, say they saw it as essential to go beyond the current #MeToo discussion and focus on the experience of black women.”Now you can come forward — but what about women of color? What do they face?” asks Ziering. “There are so many impediments.”For Dixon, coming forward was clearly worth it. It’s more complicated for Abrams. Even as the audience was applauding at Sundance, Abrams, who attempted suicide after her alleged rape by Simmons, was weeping next to her young adult son, worrying about him as he learned the full details for the first time, she says.  Abrams also says that “as a result of coming forward, my career has stalled. Everything just dried up.”Dixon says it remains to be seen whether she will be punished within the music industry. She says she recently was up for a job, things were going well, and suddenly all went quiet. “They must have Googled me,” she says.But she feels, most importantly, like she rescued a part of herself: her creativity, her drive, her very sense of who she is.For more than 20 years, she says, “I had banished the young woman who came to New York City prepared to work really hard in a man’s game, to prove she could do it, but not expecting that she would be raped.””In order to banish the pain I banished part of her light,” she says. “When I said it out loud, those parts of me lit up again.”Her message to any other survivors out there — and she hopes they will come forward: “Facing it frees parts of yourself that you don’t even know you’ve missed.”  
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The widower of a woman who died nearly two decades ago is asking Twitter to delete U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated tweets insinuating that her boss, a former Republican congressman-turned-TV-critic of Trump, murdered her.Research engineer Timothy Klausutis told Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, last week that “conspiracy theorists, including most recently the President of the United States, continue to spread their bile and misinformation on your platform disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage.”“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” Klausutis wrote.Twitter did not promise to delete Trump’s tweets, but a company spokesman said Tuesday it was “deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family.”  Twitter said it was “working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.”A 2001 autopsy concluded that 28-year-old Lori Klausutis, an aide to Congressman Joe Scarborough in one of his field offices in the southern state of Florida, had an undiagnosed heart condition, passed out and died when she fell and hit her head on her desk when no one else was in her office at the time.  FILE – MSNBC television anchors Joe Scarborough, right, and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of the show “Morning Joe,” take questions at a discussion forum on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Oct. 11, 2017.Trump was a frequent guest on Scarborough’s MSNBC show “Morning Joe” that he co-hosts with his wife, Mika Brzezinski, in the months leading up to his 2016 election to a four-year term in the White House.But Trump turned on the talk show hosts as they increasingly attacked his performance in office, suggesting as far back as 2017 that Scarborough played a nefarious role in his aide’s death even though he was in Washington hundreds of kilometers away at the time she died.  But as word of the widower Klausutis’s request to delete Trump’s tweets about the case spread across the Internet Tuesday, the president tweeted again about the case.“The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus,” the U.S. leader said.“In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing?“Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won’t bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?” Trump suggested.The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus. In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020 ….about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won’t bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020Earlier in May, Trump tweeted, “When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so.”Then, last Saturday, Trump tweeted, “A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!”A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses! https://t.co/UxbS5gZecd— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020On Sunday morning, Trump added another tweet: “A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story!”The widower Klausutis told Dorsey, “There has been a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died.“The frequency, intensity, ugliness and promulgation of these horrifying lies ever increases on the internet,” he said.“I am a research engineer and not a lawyer but reviewed all of Twitter’s rules and terms of service,” Klausutis told Dorsey. “The President’s tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered without evidence and contrary to the official autopsy is a violation of Twitter’s community rules and terms of service. An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed.”“I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him – the memory of my dead wife – and perverted it for perceived political gain,” he added.“My wife deserves better,” Klausutis concluded.It was not immediately known whether Dorsey has responded to Klausutis. Brzezinski, who has called for a ban on Trump using Twitter, told viewers last week that she is trying to arrange to talk with Dorsey.Trump has long traded in debunked conspiracy theories.Perhaps his most discredited theory was that former U.S. President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. state of Hawaii and shouldn’t have been eligible to become the country’s leader, a claim Trump eventually acknowledged was wrong as he ran for the presidency in 2016.  Trump also claimed that he saw Muslims in a television report celebrating the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorist jetliner attack on the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center by dancing on the rooftop of a building in neighboring New Jersey. No such television report has ever been found. 
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First-term U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar has won the DFL endorsement to run in the August primary election for the Minneapolis congressional seat long held by Democrats.  
The party endorsement Sunday pits Omar against primary challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, an attorney and political newcomer.  
The 37-year-old Omar was elected to Congress in 2018 after a rapid rise through the state Legislature. She’s the first Somali-American elected to both a state Legislature and to Congress. She has been a target of conservatives in Washington where she has publicly sparred with President Donald Trump on Twitter.  
Melton-Meaux has collected some high-profile endorsements from Minneapolis-area DFLers, and has had some success in fundraising, the  Star Tribune  reported. The Republican-endorsed candidate is Lacy Johnson, a north Minneapolis businessman.  
The endorsement vote was done online over a nine-day period because of the coronavirus outbreak. Democrats have held the 5th District congressional seat since 1963.  
DFLers in northeastern Minnesota’s 8th District also voted to endorse health care advocate Quinn Nystrom to challenge Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber in November.
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A new U.S. ban on travelers from Brazil goes into effect Tuesday, two days earlier than the White House initially announced, in an added effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Officials did not provide any specific reasons for moving up the ban from its planned Thursday start date.   It applies to foreigners entering the United States who have been in Brazil at some point during the prior 14 days.  Health officials say it may take two to 14 days before symptoms appear in someone who contracts COVID-19. Brazil has emerged as a new coronavirus hot spot, trailing only the United States in the number of confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The Brazilian health ministry said Monday that COVID-19 killed 807 people in the previous 24 hours. The one-day U.S. death toll was 620.  The White House said the travel ban “will help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country.” U.S. President Donald Trump has similar travel bans in place on China, Iran, Britain, Ireland, and the 26 countries in Europe’s Schengen area. Seriousness of virus downplayed  Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, wearing a face mask amid the new coronavirus pandemic, stands amid supporters taking pictures with cell phones as he leaves his official residence of Alvorada palace in Brasilia, May 25, 2020.Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has for months played down the seriousness of the coronavirus, urging businesses to reopen and dismissing many social distancing recommendations.  He has brushed off the virus as nothing more than “a little flu” and says a wrecked economy will kill more people than the illness. He has called Brazilians worried about the coronavirus neurotic.  WHO halts hydroxychloroquine trialsThe head of the World Health Organization said Monday the agency is pausing the use of hydroxychloroquine in its trials to find effective treatments for the coronavirus while experts review its safety. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cited a study published last week in the medical journal Lancet in which the authors reported an estimated higher mortality rate among coronavirus patients who received the drug. Tedros stressed the drug is “accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria.” WHO emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said there have been no problems with the drug in WHO trials so far, but that the pause was being done out of an abundance of caution. Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as an effective coronavirus treatment and claims he has been taking it even though he has not tested positive for the virus. Saudi Arabia to ease lockdown
Saudi Arabia is set to relax some of its lockdown orders on Sunday, including lifting bans on domestic travel, holding prayers in mosques and dining in restaurants and cafes. A statement posted by the state news agency Tuesday said all restrictions will end June 21, except for the city of Mecca. Saudi Arabia has reported about 75,000 confirmed cases. Chile reported a record daily high of 4,895 new cases. Public Works Minister Alfredo Moreno announced on Twitter that he was among those who have tested positive, though he said he has so far had no symptoms. In Indonesia, soldiers and police are enforcing rules on wearing masks and social distancing. The country reported Tuesday its total number of confirmed cases had risen to 23,165 with 1,418 deaths. Britain eyes reopening outdoor markets
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to reopen outdoor markets on June 1, with all shops allowed to operate again June 15. He said it is important for the easing of restrictions to be carried out in a way “that does not risk a second wave of the virus.” 
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Medical school hopefuls and students eager to start other professional healthcare studies endured grueling wait times online recently to sign up for their licensing and medical school entrance exams. And then they were denied entry to the testing center’s national website.  Applicants and students wanting to take the med school entrance test — MCAT — as well as the physical therapy, occupational therapy, and nursing licensing exams, were stymied when the online test scheduling system failed, according to the medical news website MedPageToday.“I would estimate about 33,000 students were impacted,” said Matthew Durst, president of the University Medical Student Council (UMSC) at the University of Illinois College of Medicine (UICOM), told the Student Doctor Network.  Because of the coronavirus pandemic, testing centers are closed for the MCAT — administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMXC) —  and all appointments were cancelled in March, April and the large part of May.  The AAMC condensed the MCAT from 7 hours and 30 minutes to 5 hours and 45 minutes to handle the high volume of students who will take the test once shelter in place orders are relaxed. That allows test centers to schedule three tests a day.  But when about 62,000 students logged on May 7 to schedule their exams, the system crashed and did not come back online for hours, Gabrielle Campbell, AAMC’s chief service officer on May 8, told MedpageToday. “The system became overwhelmed with the number of accommodations requests due to the condensed processing period,” said Karen Mitchell, Ph.D., senior director of the MCAT program for AAMC.  “We are sorry that the MCAT scheduling process has been frustrating for examinees testing with accommodations and are actively working to address the issues,” the official MCAT account tweeted on May 21. We are sorry that the MCAT scheduling process has been frustrating for examinees testing with accommodations and are actively working to address the issues.— MCAT (@AAMC_MCAT) May 21, 2020Fortunately, by the end of the day, 78,000 test takers were registered for exams from May through September, with thousands of seats and multiple dates remaining. “We have made extensive changes to the exam to ensure that students can safely take the test during the COVID-19 pandemic, including shortening the test and administering the exam three times a day for all remaining dates this year. Additionally, we have increased testing capacity by 50% for each exam date,” Mitchell stated on the AAMC website. The spread of COVID-19 remaining uncertain and test dates tentative, some students expressed worry about the expense of driving long distances or overnight stays to take the exam. “I have to drive an hour and a half for my exam. One way. Since I take it on two days, I have to get a hotel room,” tweeted Emma Eaton. “My other option was a month and half later in my requested city. Does this sound equitable?” I got my request back and have to drive an hour and a half for my exam. One way. Since I take it on two days, I have to get a hotel room. My other option was a month and half later in my requested city. Does this sound equitable?— Emma Eaton (@emmabaileyeaton) May 21, 2020Cristina Goerdt contributed to this report. 
     
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Religious services in California will look much different under rules unveiled Monday that limit attendance to 100 people and recommend worshippers wear masks, limit singing, and refrain from shaking hands or hugging. The state released guidance under which county health departments can approve the reopening of churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship. They have been closed since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus. It’s not immediately known how soon in-person services will resume. Counties that are having success controlling the virus are likely to move quickly. Others with outbreaks — such as Los Angeles County, which has about 60% of California’s roughly 3,800 deaths — may choose to delay.  The guidelines ask worshippers to wear masks, avoid sharing prayer books or prayer rugs and skip the collection plate. They also say to avoid large gatherings for holidays, weddings and funerals, and warn that activities such as singing or group recitation “negate” the benefits of social distancing. The guidelines say even with physical distancing, in-person worship carries a higher risk of transmitting the virus and increasing the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, and they recommend houses of worship shorten services.FILE – A woman and child sit in a circle designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging social distancing at Washington Square park in front of Saints Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco, May 23, 2020.Each county will have to adopt rules for services to resume within their jurisdictions and then the guidelines will be reviewed by state health officials after 21 days. The guidelines include limiting gatherings to 25% of building capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower.  In Los Angeles County, Rabbi Shalom Rubanowitz of the Shul on the Beach in Venice Beach said he hopes his congregation can meet for this week’s Shavuot holiday, to celebrate when Jews received the Torah.  The congregation will have to figure out how to provide temperature checks and provide a place for individual prayer books and shawls. Orthodox Jews do not use technology during the Sabbath and may not carry most personal items. Some church leaders aren’t eager to reopen. The Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco and head of the local NAACP chapter, led a protest Monday against reopening. FILE – The Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, senior pastor of Third Baptist Church, San Francisco, California, speaks during an African American clergy announcement of support for the civil marriage of gay and lesbian couples, Sept. 21, 2012.”We are not going to be rushing back to church,” he said by phone, noting that many leaders of his denomination have been sickened or died nationwide. Freedom of religion is “not the freedom to kill folks, not the freedom to put people in harm’s way. That’s insane,” he said. Many have been eagerly awaiting an announcement on religious services after Newsom began relaxing constraints on stores and other secular outlets as part of a four-phase plan to reopen the economy.  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange announced last week that it is phasing in public Masses beginning June 14, starting with restricted numbers of worshippers. At first, choirs will be banned, fonts won’t contain holy water, and parishioners won’t perform rituals where they must touch each other. “We know that God is with us, but at the same time we have to be careful and make sure that we protect each other in this challenging time,” Bishop Kevin Vann said Friday. Some 47 of the state’s 58 counties have received permission to move deeper into the reopening by meeting standards for controlling the virus. The state on Monday cleared the way for in-store shopping to resume statewide with social distancing restrictions, although counties get to decide whether to permit it. Some places of worship around the country opened over the weekend after President Donald Trump declared them essential and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines for reopening faith organizations.  In California, most houses of worship have complied with social distancing, making do with online, remote and a few drive-in services.  In the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Archbishop Jose Gomez called on parishes to celebrate Pentecost — a major religious day for many Christians — next Sunday by holding food and blood drives.  FILE – Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez leads Catholics in prayer during a National Moment of Prayer at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, April 10, 2020. The church has been livestreaming services during the pandemic lockdown.”I think it is important for all us of to be aware that this is a very dangerous illness, and we are making sure that everything is OK when we come back and celebrate the Eucharist together,” he said.  But several thousand churches have vowed to defy the current stay-at-home order on Pentecost, arguing they can do so safely. Two church services that already were held without authorization have been sources of outbreaks; one in Mendocino County and the other in Butte County. Newsom’s cautious approach to reopening has angered opponents who claim the rules violate religious freedoms. A Pentecostal church in San Diego County lost a federal appeal Friday in its quest to reopen immediately. The South Bay United Pentacostal Church of Chula Vista immediately filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The nonprofit Center for American Liberty, which has filed several lawsuits over church restrictions, said the guidelines don’t go far enough. Newsom “lacks authority to dictate to California’s faithful, how they may worship,” said Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco lawyer and the group’s CEO. “Let people who wish to worship safely and together, do so.”  For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. As of Monday, California had at least 94,558 confirmed cases of COVID-19, more than 3,000 hospitalizations and 3,795 deaths. The state is still seeing troubling COVID-19 flare-ups. More than 150 employees at a Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon, an industrial city south of Los Angeles, contracted the coronavirus. Imperial County, across the border from Mexico, has seen a surge. Two inmates from the California Institution for Men in San Bernardino County died Sunday from what appear to be complications related to COVID-19.  
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China on Monday threatened counter measures against the United States if it is punished for plans to impose on Hong Kong a sedition law, which the business hub’s security chief hailed as a new tool to defeat “terrorism.”Beijing plans to pass the new security law for Hong Kong that bans treason, subversion and sedition after months of massive, often-violent pro-democracy protests last year.But many Hong Kongers, business groups and Western nations fear the proposal could be a death blow to the city’s treasured freedoms, and thousands took to the streets on Sunday despite a ban on mass gatherings introduced to combat coronavirus.As police dispersed the crowds with tear gas and water cannon, Washington’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien warned the new law could cost the city its preferential U.S. trading status.A woman reacts after riot police fired tear gas to disperse protesters taking part in a pro-democracy rally against a proposed new security law in Hong Kong, May 24, 2020.But China’s foreign ministry said Beijing would react to any sanctions from Washington.”If the U.S. insists on hurting China’s interests, China will have to take every necessary measure to counter and oppose this,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters on Monday.Hong Kong has become the latest flashpoint in soaring tensions between the world’s two superpowers which China has likened to “the brink of a new Cold War.”The refusal to grant Hong Kongers democracy has sparked rare bipartisan support in an otherwise bitterly divided Washington during the Trump administration.Beijing portrays the city’s protests as a foreign-backed plot to destabilize the motherland and says other nations have no right to interfere in how the international business hub is run.Mainland agents?Protesters, who have hit the streets in the millions, say they are motivated by years of Beijing chipping away at the city’s freedoms since it was handed back to China by Britain in 1997.Hong Kong enjoys liberties unseen on the mainland, as well as its own legal system and trade status.Campaigners view the security law proposal as the most brazen move yet by Beijing to end free speech and the city’s ability to make its own laws.Of particular concern is a provision allowing Chinese security agents to operate in Hong Kong, with fears it could spark a crackdown on those voicing dissent against China’s communist rulers.On the mainland, subversion laws are routinely wielded against critics.Riot police clear up debris left by protesters attending a pro-democracy rally against a proposed new security law in Hong Kong, May 24, 2020.The proposed law, which China’s rubber-stamp legislature is expected to act on quickly, will also bypass Hong Kong’s own legislature.The city’s influential Bar Association on Monday described the proposed motion as “worrying and problematic” — and warned it may even breach the territory’s mini-constitution.The proposal has spooked investors, with Hong Kong’s stock exchange suffering its largest drop in five years on Friday. On Monday it had yet to recover, closing just 0.10 percent up.’Restore social order’Hong Kong’s unpopular pro-Beijing government has welcomed the law.”Terrorism is growing in the city and activities which harm national security, such as ‘Hong Kong independence,’ become more rampant,” security minister John Lee said in a statement welcoming the planned legislation.Police chief Chris Tang cited 14 recent cases where explosives had been seized and said the new law would “help combat the force of ‘Hong Kong independence’ and restore social order.”Last year’s protests were initially sparked by plans to allow extraditions to the mainland but soon snowballed into a popular revolt against Beijing and the city’s police force.Beijing has dismissed protester demands for an inquiry into the police, amnesty for the 8,500 people arrested and universal suffrage.The demonstrations fizzled at the start of the year as mass arrests and the coronavirus took their toll.But they have rekindled in recent weeks, with Sunday’s rally producing the most intense clashes for months and police making at least 120 arrests.During last year’s huge pro-democracy rallies, mob attacks were common on both sides of the political divide and a video of protesters beating a lawyer at Sunday’s rally was seized on by China’s state media.Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, posted the video on Twitter — a platform banned in mainland China.”Let’s see what the Washington-backed Hong Kong democracy really looks like,” he wrote. 
 
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NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE — Joe Biden made his first in-person appearance in more than two months on Monday as he marked Memorial Day by laying a wreath at a veterans park near his Delaware home.  Since abruptly canceling a March 10 rally in Cleveland at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has waged much of his campaign from his home in Wilmington. When Biden emerged on Monday, he wore a face mask, in contrast to President Donald Trump, who has refused to cover his face in public as health officials suggest.Biden and his wife, Jill, laid a wreath of white flowers tied with a white bow, and bowed their heads in silence at the park.The appearance was a milestone in a presidential campaign that has largely been frozen by the coronavirus outbreak. While the feasibility of traditional events such as rallies and the presidential conventions are in doubt, Biden’s emergence suggests he won’t spend the nearly five months that remain until the election entirely at home.The coronavirus has upended virtually all aspects of American life and changed the terms of the election. Trump’s argument that he deserves another term in office because of the strong economy has evaporated as unemployment rises to levels not seen since the Great Depression.  As a longtime senator and former vice president, Biden is trying to position himself as someone with the experience and empathy to lead the country out of a crisis.  Biden has adjusted to the coronavirus era by building a television studio in his home, which he’s used to make appearances on news programs, late-night shows and virtual campaign events. Some of those efforts have been marred by technical glitches and other awkward moments.Some Democratic strategists have openly worried that Biden is ceding too much ground to Trump by staying home. The president himself has knocked Biden for essentially campaigning from his basement.Biden’s advisers say they plan to return to normal campaign activities at some point, including travel to battleground states But they’re in no hurry, preferring to defer to the advice of health experts and authorities’ stay-at-home and social distancing recommendations.At 77, Biden is among the nation’s senior population thought to be especially vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus — though so is Trump, who turns 74 next month.  “We will never make any choices that put our staff or voters in harm’s way,” Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said recently, adding that the campaign would resume more traditional activities “when safety allows, and we will not do that a day sooner.”Trump has not resumed the large rallies that were the hallmark of his 2016 campaign and presidency but has begun traveling outside Washington in recent weeks. He visited a facility producing face masks in Arizona and a Ford plant in Michigan that has been converted to produce medical and protective equipment.Trump even played golf at his club in Virginia on the weekend, hoping that others will follow his lead and return to some semblance of normal life and gradually help revive an economy in free fall.  It was the president’s first trip to one of his money-making properties since March 8, when he visited his private golf club in West Palm Beach. The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, and Trump followed with the national emergency declaration two days later.Biden’s campaign wasted little time producing an online video offering blurry, faraway footage of Trump on the golf course, imposed over images evoking the virus ravaging the nation as the number of Americans dead from the pandemic approached 100,000. The video concluded by proclaiming: “The death toll is still rising. The president is playing golf.”  Trump was spending Memorial Day visiting Arlington National Cemetery and the Fort McHenry national monument in Baltimore, to be followed by a trip to Florida’s coast on Wednesday to watch to U.S. astronauts blast into orbit. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump paid tribute Monday to the nation’s war dead on Memorial Day in a solemn wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington.
 
The U.S. leader touched the wreath of red, white and blue flowers and saluted the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that is inscribed with the gratitude of the country: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” A bugler played “Taps.”
 
Trump was accompanied to the ceremony by Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Mark Esper. First Lady Melania Trump and Second Lady Karen Pence watched from steps nearby along with other dignitaries.
 
But there was evidence of the ongoing coronavirus threat at this year’s annual Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington, the country’s most prominent cemetery for U.S. service men and women. Trump did not address the crowd as in years’ past and people attending the ceremony socially distanced themselves two meters apart from each other. Some military personnel wore face masks.
 
As Trump’s motorcade wound through the grassy knolls of the cemetery, cannons boomed out a salute to the fallen service members. Soldiers in dress uniforms and with masks saluted as the motorcade passed countless rows of headstones, all marked with small American flags.
 
Memorial Day is observed annually in the U.S. on the last Monday in May to honor the hundreds of thousands of U.S. servicemen and women who sacrificed their lives for their country.  A flag stands next to the gravestone for a U.S. World War II veteran, at Fort Logan National Cemetery, in Sheridan, Colorado, May 23, 2020.This past weekend, U.S. flags were flown at half-staff across the country from Friday through Sunday to honor the nearly 100,000 Americans who have died from coronavirus, with the flags lowered again on Monday to pay tribute to the nation’s war dead.  
 
The U.S. coronavirus toll, by far the highest in the world, includes more than 1,000 veterans who have died from COVID-19, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.  
 
The holiday is also the unofficial start of the summer vacation season in the United States. But with social distancing guidelines and restrictions on certain travelers from overseas and millions of job losses, the holiday was different than in years past, with way fewer public tributes across the country.
 
Still, with millions of Americans anxious to resume normal lives as state governors have eased their stay-at-home restrictions, many went to beaches and lakes or ate meals in restaurants for the first time in about nine weeks.
 
But numerous crowds of people by the thousands ignored health officials’ warnings to keep a safe distance from each other and to continue to wear face masks
 
After leaving Arlington, Trump plans to spend part of Memorial Day at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, where a historic battle in the War of 1812 was fought and served as inspiration for the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” A fife and drums corps plays at a Memorial Day ceremony at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, in Baltimore, Maryland, May 25, 2020.Baltimore Mayor Jack Young had pleaded with the president not to come, saying it sends the wrong message when the mayor has urged Baltimoreans not to travel. Trump has refused to wear a mask in public, and Young said Trump’s visit is not essential.    
   
White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx said Sunday she is “very concerned” by the pictures and video she has been seeing all weekend of people crowded together at swimming pools and other recreation sites without masks.   
 
“We know being outside does help, we know the sun does help in killing the virus, but that doesn’t change the fact that people need to be responsible and maintain that distance,” she told the “Fox News Sunday” show. “I was hoping to convey this very clear message to the American people across the country: There is a virus out there,” she said.   
 
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Sunday his state is “decidedly in the reopening phase.” New York has been the hardest-hit state in the U.S. But Cuomo said overall, the numbers in New York are heading in the right direction.   
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As officials around the globe weigh easing lockdown restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, they are faced with finding a balance between personal safety and personal freedom. That is the case in the southeastern U.S. state of Tennessee, which ranks about 20th among the 50 U.S. states in the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus and about 30th in the number of deaths. Tennessee’s governor put a stay-at-home order in place in mid-March. But the order expired on April 30. It also was one of the first states to see protests aimed at easing stay-at-home restrictions, which would allow for the reopening of businesses. Personal stories East Tennessee resident Andy Rines’ family reunion was canceled because of the restrictions. He calls that loss “an unfortunate consequence of a mass overreaction.” Linda Wilder, who lives in the same part of the state, has season tickets to Dollywood, a nearby amusement park. “Boy, did I pick a bad year for that,” she said, ruefully. Even when the park opens back up, she isn’t sure when she’ll feel comfortable going. Last week Tennessee relaxed more social-distancing restrictions, allowing restaurants and retail stores to lift capacity restrictions and enabling attractions and large venues to reopen with social-distancing restrictions in place. As of Friday, all 50 U.S. states had begun easing some restrictions. That’s what worries Wilder, who lives about a half-hour’s drive from a popular tourist destination, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Wilder’s husband also has a compromised immune system, which puts him among people at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus, according to health officials.Hats are displayed in a clothing store closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic Tuesday, April 21, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn.However, teacher Rines thinks the lockdown was unnecessary, as the county, and the state, are not hotbeds of coronavirus activity.  Most of Tennessee’s coronavirus infections have been in the urban centers in each third of the state: Memphis in the west, Nashville in the middle, and Knoxville in the east. Mountainous eastern Tennessee has fewer cases than the more heavily populated middle and western portions of the state.  Overall, Tennessee has recorded more than 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 336 deaths, according to Tennessee state records. Worldwide, there are more than 5.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 345,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The U.S. continues to lead the world in confirmed cases, with more than 1.6 million, and deaths, at more than 97,700.  Tourism affected View of Smoky Mountains from Wilder’s home in Dandridge, Tennessee.The restrictions have had a particularly harsh effect on Sevier County, home to many of the tourist attractions that surround the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s the most-visited national park in the nation.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said about half of Sevier County’s private sector workers have jobs in tourism or leisure, and the shutdown has left the streets of its tourist towns, lined with hotels, restaurants, shops, go-kart tracks and miniature golf courses, close to empty. Over the past nine weeks, 38.6 million jobless workers have filed for cash benefits, almost one of every four employees in the U.S. labor force of more than 164 million. In April, the official U.S. unemployment rate was 14.7%, but key Trump administration economic officials say it likely is higher and could approach 25% in the coming weeks.  In April, the jobless rate in Tennessee also was 14.7%, according to a Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development report released Thursday.   When the Great Smoky Mountains National Park partially reopened May 9, the weather was cool but bright and sunny, and the visitors flooded in.  Local news reports said parking lots were full. They also reported that not all visitors were wearing masks and that many were not staying 2 meters from each other or sticking to the areas of the park that had officially reopened.   Worried about reopening View of Smoky Mountains from Wilder’s home in Dandridge, Tennessee.Wilder is worried, both about the relaxation of the rules and the influx of tourists. She lives near the park, in the small lakeside town of Dandridge, in Jefferson County, Tennessee.  Wilder and her husband, whose immune system is compromised due to Crohn’s disease, have continued working throughout the shutdown, as have her two grown sons. Jefferson County, a collection of small communities with just under 55,000 residents, has recorded only 27 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no deaths blamed on the virus. But her youngest son delivers soft drinks to grocery stores in Sevier County’s two big tourist towns, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.    “He’s in multiple grocery stores every day, exposed to everything,” she said. He has a history of asthma, and she worries about his lungs. She said in a recent interview that she worries that people aren’t taking the danger of the pandemic seriously enough. “So many people I’ve talked to, they’re so flippant about it,” she said.   Wilder works in a lab in Knoxville, home to about 188,000 residents and the University of Tennessee, which enrolls nearly 30,000 students each year. So far, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has counted only 321 cases of COVID-19 in Knox County, of which Knoxville is the county seat, and five deaths. Wilder has been working at home as much as possible, but the day after Tennessee’s Safer at Home Order expired April 30, Wilder had to make the 20-mile drive to work. She had grown used to the light traffic on the interstate highway during the stay-at-home orders, but by the time she left work on May 1, she said, “It was just like it was right before everything shut down. The interstate was just packed. Even in Dandridge, there were people everywhere.” She understands the need to get out of the house. While working from home has been a pleasant experience, Wilder said she really misses her church of 21 years and her work in the nursery there.    And she and her husband have not seen his 77-year-old mother, who lives in Knox County, since March. Wilder said her mother-in-law has been following the rules and staying home.  “She has not left the house except to pick up prescriptions at the drive-through,” Wilder said, noting that she stays in touch with her in-laws and other family members via smartphone apps. But summer is coming, and with it, the sports and recreational activities that draw people to the area in large numbers.Andy Rines and his fellow basketball coaches from Sevier County High School caught up with several of their senior players after Tennessee began lifting pandemic-related restrictions.“You know, the ball games, all the children getting together, having practices all the time,” she said. “And UT football games? There’s no way you can social-distance (keep 2 meters apart) at things like that.”   Supports reopening On the other hand, Rines is eager to get things back to normal. He teaches English and coaches basketball in nearby Sevier County.  He grieves for the experiences his students, especially his seniors, have missed out on as they completed their last year of high school in isolation. “One senior said, ‘I had no idea my last day of high school would be on a Friday in March,’” Rines said recently in an email. “As teachers, we never got to say goodbye to students we have worked with, shared with, laughed with, and cried with for four years.” Rines said he doesn’t believe the shutdown orders were necessary. As of May 22, Sevier County had had only 69 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two deaths.  “The shutdown may have minimized the spread of COVID-19 to some degree, but given that most patients display mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, its effectiveness was minimal at best,” Rines said of Sevier County.    The World Health Organization said about 1 in 5 people who develop COVID-19 will become seriously ill. Some 80 percent recover from the disease without going to the hospital.    But in an information sheet, the WHO noted that “anyone can catch COVID-19 and become seriously ill.”    Rines said that is a gamble worth taking.  “It is essential that we get back to work,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the things that serve as the fabric of our lives – sports, concerts, banquets, business travel, amusement parks, graduations, beaches. On a personal level, I’m looking forward to the high school basketball team getting to be together again. … I’m looking forward to going back to school in the fall and seeing my students, face to face.” Does he have any fears for the future? “I have no fears for the future regarding the virus,” he said. “I never did.” 
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The United States is slowly reopening, state by state, ending lockdowns imposed to combat the coronavirus.  The pandemic has throttled many economic sectors, including the very health industry tasked with saving lives during the crisis. The fallout for health care workers and those who rely on them could linger long after the coronavirus is contained. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti has the story of one doctor who uprooted himself to work at America’s COVID-19 epicenter — and who is now unemployed.Produced by: Mike Burke
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Monday is Memorial Day in the United States – a day set aside to honor the hundreds of thousands of U.S. servicemen and women who sacrificed their lives for their country.  The holiday is also the unofficial start of the summer vacation season in the U.S., and like so much in 2020, the usual will be unusual. The flags that are flying at half-staff across the country to honor those service members will, under President Donald Trump’s orders, also be flying for the nearly 100,000 Americans who have lost their lives to the coronavirus, the world’s highest death toll from the disease by far.  They include more than 1,000 veterans who the Department of Veterans Affairs says have died from COVID-19. Trump plans to place a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery and then spend part of the rest of his Memorial Day at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, where a historic battle in the War of 1812 was fought.To kick off the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, ships from around the world sailed past Fort McHenry and exchanged canon fire with re-enactors on land, but it was all for show. (S. Logue/VOA)But Baltimore Mayor Jack Young pleaded with the president not to come, saying it sends the wrong message when the mayor has urged Baltimoreans not to travel. Trump has refused to wear masks in public, and Young says Trump’s visit is not essential.  Health experts and local authorities are urging people heading to the beaches and holiday picnics and cookouts to practice social distancing.  White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx says she is “very concerned” by the pictures and video she has been seeing all weekend of people crowded together at swimming pools and other recreation sites without masks. “We know being outside does help, we know the sun does help in killing the virus, but that doesn’t change the fact that people need to be responsible and maintain that distance,” she told Fox News Sunday. “I was hoping to convey this very clear message to the American people across the country: There is a virus out there.” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Sunday his state is “decidedly in the reopening phase.” New York has been the hardest-hit state in the U.S. But Cuomo said overall, the numbers in New York are heading in the right direction. Among the reopenings in New York state this week are campgrounds, veterinarian offices, and professional sports training camps.  With the city’s two major league baseball teams – the Mets and the Yankees — idle, Cuomo said having sports back is like “a return to normalcy.” But it is still unclear when Major League Baseball – one of summertime’s great traditions – will be playing again or if fans will be allowed to go to the games.  France will start lifting border restrictions Monday to allow in migrant workers and tourists from other European countries.  Italian beaches remain restricted to those who live in the region where the beach is located.  And in Britain officials are urging people who don’t live in their community to stay away from their beaches. One sign in Brighton says, “Wish you were here — but not just yet.” 
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A Florida law requiring felons to pay legal fees as part of their sentences before regaining the vote is unconstitutional for those unable to pay, or unable to find out how much they owe, a federal judge ruled Sunday.  The 125-page ruling was issued by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle in Tallahassee. It involves a state law to implement a 2016 ballot measure approved by voters to automatically restore the right to vote for many felons who have completed their sentence. The Republican-led Legislature stipulated that fines and legal fees must be paid as part of the sentence, in addition to serving any prison time.  Hinkle has acknowledged he is unlikely to have the last word in the case, expecting the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to launch an appeal. The case could have deep ramifications in the crucial electoral battleground given that Florida has an estimated 774,000 disenfranchised felons who are barred because of financial obligations. Many of those felons are African Americans and presumably Democrats, though it’s unclear how that group of Floridians overall would lean politically in an election and how many would vote. The judge called the Florida rules a “pay to vote” system that are unconstitutional when applied to felons “who are otherwise eligible to vote but are genuinely unable to pay the required amount.”  A further complication is determining the exact amount in fines and other kinds of legal fees owed by felons seeking the vote — by some estimates it would take elections officials several years for those pending now. Hinkle said it’s unconstitutional to bar any voter whose amount owed could not be “determined with diligence.” Hinkle ordered the state to require election officials to allow felons to request an advisory opinion on how much they owe — essentially placing the burden on elections officials to seek that information from court systems. If there’s no response within three weeks, then the applicant should not be barred from registering to vote, the ruling said.  Hinkle said the requirement to pay fines and restitution as ordered in a sentence is constitutional for those “who are able to pay” — if the amount can be determined. The case, Kelvin Jones vs Ron DeSantis, consolidates five lawsuits filed by advocates of disenfranchised felons, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Brennan Center and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “This is a tremendous victory for voting rights,” Julie Ebenstein, senior staff attorney with ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement. “The court recognized that conditioning a person’s right to vote on their ability to pay is unconstitutional. This ruling means hundreds of thousands of Floridians will be able to rejoin the electorate and participate in upcoming elections.” The 2018 ballot measure, known as Amendment 4, does not apply to convicted murderers and rapists, who are permanently barred from voting regardless of financial obligations. 
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With no congregational prayers or family gatherings, Salsabiel Mujovic has been worried that this year’s Eid al-Fitr celebration will pale. Still, she’s determined to bring home holiday cheer amid the coronavirus gloom.  Her family can’t go to the mosque, but the 29-year-old New Jersey resident bought new outfits for herself and her daughters. They are praying at home and having a family photo session. The kids are decorating cookies in a virtual gathering and popping balloons with money or candy inside — a twist on a tradition of giving children cash gifts for the occasion.”We’re used to, just like, easily going and seeing family, but now it’s just like there’s so much fear and anxiety,” she said. “Growing up, I always loved Eid. … It’s like a Christmas for a Muslim.”Like Mujovic, many Muslims in America are navigating balancing religious and social rituals with concerns over the virus as they look for ways to capture the Eid spirit this weekend.  Eid al-Fitr — the feast of breaking the fast — marks the end of Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. Just like they did during Ramadan, many are resorting to at-home worship and relying on technology for online gatherings, sermons and, now, Eid entertainment.  This year, some Muslim-majority countries have tightened restrictions for the holiday which traditionally means family visits, group outings and worshippers flooding mosques or filling public spaces.  The Eid prayer normally attracts particularly large crowds. The Fiqh Council of North America, a body of Islamic scholars, encouraged Muslims to perform the Eid prayer at home.  “We don’t want to have gatherings and congregations,” Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, who prepared the council’s fatwa, or religious edict, said in an interview. “We should try to keep the spirit of Eid alive, even if it’s just in our houses, even if we just decorate our houses and wear our finest for each other.”Qadhi, resident scholar at East Plano Islamic Center in Texas, has been dreading delivering an Eid sermon broadcast online with no worshippers.”It’s going to be very strange to dress up in my Eid clothes and to walk to an empty place and to deliver a sermon to an empty facility,” he said before the start of the holiday. “It’s going to be very, very disheartening.”But, he said, it’s the wise decision.  Even as restrictions have eased, the mosque is still closed to worshippers, he said. Like a few others, it is holding a drive-by Eid ceremony to safely distribute thousands of bags of sweets and goodies to children in cars.  While some are eager for mosques to reopen, Qadhi said, “We don’t want to be a conduit for the situation exacerbating. We need to think rationally and not emotionally.”A woman accept treats during a drive-through Eid al-Fitr celebration outside a closed mosque in Plano, Texas, May 24, 2020.The North Texas Imams Council, of which he is a member, has recommended mosques remain closed. He said he expected the majority of mosques to stay closed to the public, though he worries about smaller mosques re-opening.In Florida, the Islamic Center of Osceola County, Masjid Taqwa is holding the Eid prayer outdoors in the parking lot with social distancing rules in place.  Guidelines posted online include worshippers bringing their own prayer rugs, wearing mandatory masks and praying next to their cars while staying at least six feet apart. Participants are told not to hug or shake hands and to listen to the sermon from their cars.  “Eid is important but more important is the health of the people,” said Maulana Abdulrahman Patel, the imam. “We’ve been taking a lot of precautions,” and not acting on “sentiments or emotional feelings,” he said, adding they have been consulting with health and other officials.  Major Jacob Ruiz, the major of administration at Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, said he and the sheriff met with Patel before the celebration.  “They wanted to have something, and they felt it was important, but they wanted to do it with pretty much the blessing and the guidance of the sheriff’s office and the sheriff,” he said. “Everybody was in agreement that it’s going to be something that’s gonna be successful for them.”  The Muslim community in the county “has been very receptive and proactive in ensuring that they keep safety guidelines,” he said.The Masjid Taqwa prayer is for men only, the mosque said, citing “constraints.” Plans for men-only prayers announced by at least one other mosque prompted objections by some about excluding women. For Masjid Taqwa, the decision to include just men was taken because having families together would make crowd control more difficult, Patel said.In Michigan, the Michigan Muslim Community Council is organizing a televised Eid ceremony. It will include the Eid sermon, greetings from local elected officials and members of Muslim communities. “People will be at home seeing each other instead of gathering in large numbers,” said council chairman Mahmoud Al-Hadidi.”It’s just to keep people connected,” he said, adding that “we’re trying to avoid any spread of the coronavirus.”Normally, Eid is an all-day celebration with large gatherings over meals and a carnival for kids, he said. “Eid is a huge thing here.”Back in New Jersey on the holiday’s eve, Mujovic and two of her daughters joined friends and others online to decorate cookies. Squeezing icing out and spreading it on cookies shaped like Ramadan lanterns or spelling out the word “EID,” the girls stopped to lick their fingers or munch on the treats.As children waved, squealed and showed off their creations, it started to feel like Eid for Mujovic. “It was nice seeing happy faces,” she said. 
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The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is expected to reach 100,000 in a few days.  To mark the solemn landmark, the front page of the print version of the Sunday New York Times is a simple list of names of dead victims of the disease and brief personal details about them scoured from media around the country.   Sunday’s headline is “U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An incalculable Loss.” The U.S. death toll early Sunday was more than 97,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The global total of COVID-19 infections has risen to more than 5.3 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 342,000 deaths. A medical worker in protective suit conducts tests for residents in Wuhan, the Chinese city hit hardest by the coronavirus disease, Hubei province, China, May 15, 2020.China, the country where the coronavirus outbreak began, reported no new infections Saturday, the first time since it started reporting cases in January.  The pandemic has countries struggling to keep people safe while simultaneously reopening their economies, and has disrupted collective celebrations by Muslims throughout the world observing the end of Ramadan, as well as the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the U.S., when millions traditionally head to beaches and national parks. The U.S. continues to be the epicenter of the contagion with 1.6 million cases, nearly one-third of all cases worldwide.   Gravediggers bury an alleged COVID-19 victim at the Vila Formosa Cemetery, in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 22, 2020.Brazil comes in second with more than 347,000 infections, followed by Russia with almost 336,000 cases.  “In a sense South America has become the new epicenter of the disease,” said Michael Ryan, director of the WHO emergency program. “The most affected is clearly Brazil at this point,” he added. Brazil’s Health Secretary Wanderson de Oliveira announced Sunday that he would resign the following day. De Oliveira attempted to resign last month but stayed on at the request of then-health minister Luiz Mandetta, who was shortly thereafter fired by Brazil’s president. The country’s Health Ministry has been at odds with President Jair Bolsanaro, who has rejected recommendations by health experts in favor of protecting the economy. Brazil and Mexico reported record numbers of cases and fatalities almost every day this week, reinforcing criticism that their presidents failed to impose more stringent lockdowns measures. However, in Chile, Ecuador and Peru, which put in place early and aggressive containment measures, infections also continued to climb, overwhelming intensive care units in those countries. Beaches are beginning to open in a few places to domestic tourists in Europe. On Sunday, beaches at La Grande Motte in southern France opened with a two-day wait list, but parks in Paris remained closed. Municipal police officers wearing face masks talk to a woman, at the Promenade des Anglais, as they check that safety restrictions are being practiced, after France reopened its beaches to the public in Nice.Germans will be allowed to visit the Baltic Sea coast beginning Monday. A few dozen people gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on Sunday to receive the traditional blessing for the first time in nearly three months.Pope Francis waves to people at St. Peter’s Square after the Regina Coeli prayer, which was held without public participation due to the COVID-19 outbreak, at the Vatican, May 24, 2020.The pope has been delivering a virtual message streamed on the internet from his library for the past few months, moving on to bless an empty square. European Union countries are planning to reopen their borders especially to migrant workers in the coming weeks, though it is unclear when they may allow intercontinental travel. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump is rekindling one of his long-running conspiracy theories, that a Republican congressman turned television critic of his played a nefarious role in the death of a young woman in 2001.
 
Trump tweeted twice over the weekend about the death of aide Lori Klausutis in the Florida congressional office of Joe Scarborough shortly before Scarborough left Congress and later became an MSNBC television talk show host.Scarborough often interviewed candidate Trump on his “Morning Joe” show as he ran for the presidency in 2016, but more recently, along with his wife and show co-host Mika Brzezinski, has become a thorn in Trump’s side as he faces a re-election contest in November.Earlier in May, Trump tweeted, ““When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so.”Then, on Saturday, Trump tweeted, “A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!”A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses! https://t.co/UxbS5gZecd— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020On Sunday morning, Trump added another tweet: “A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story!”A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story! https://t.co/CjBXBXxoNS— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020Trump tweeted about the case at least as far back as 2017. But a coroner found no evidence of foul play, ruling that that the 28-year-old Klausutis died because of a heart problem, causing her to hit her head on her desk. Scarborough was in Washington at the time she died.Trump has long traded in debunked conspiracy theories.Perhaps his most discredited theory was that former U.S. President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. state of Hawaii and shouldn’t have been eligible to become the country’s leader, a claim Trump eventually acknowledged was wrong as he ran for the presidency in 2016.  Trump also claimed that he saw Muslims in a television report celebrating the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorist jetliner attack on the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center by dancing on the rooftop of a building in neighboring New Jersey. No such television report has been found.
 
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