This summer’s Group of Seven (G-7) summit has been scrapped due to concerns over the coronavirus, the White House confirmed Thursday.
World leaders will instead convene via videoconference.
The annual summit was scheduled to take place from June 10-12 at the Camp David retreat in Maryland and would have attracted hundreds of officials, journalists and staff to the area. Continue reading.
The State Department on Thursday issued a level four travel advisory applying to all countries, instructing Americans not to travel internationally and urging U.S. citizens abroad to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The move represents the most drastic warning the department has issued to Americans traveling abroad as the world grapples with the coronavirus outbreak that has spread to over 150 countries and sickened close to 10,000 people in the United States.
“The Department of State advises U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19. In countries where commercial departure options remain available, U.S. citizens who live in the United States should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period,” the advisory posted Thursday afternoon states. Continue reading.
As the coronavirus outbreak continues to grow with no end in sight, the Washington Post reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has apparently been sidelined by the White House when it comes to its ability to inform the public.
“Neither CDC Director Robert Redfield nor Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director who has played key roles in CDC’s emergency responses stretching back two decades, including the 2009 influenza pandemic, have appeared behind the podium during White House coronavirus task force briefings for more than a week,” the Post’s Lena Sun writes.
The CDC, already facing criticism for the sluggish rollout of testing kits, has not held telephone briefings for reporters in over a week, and as Sun points out, its messaging on mass gatherings and social distancing has been overtaken by conflicting messages from the White House. Continue reading.
Amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus at polling places, many Americans stayed home. Nearly one in five households have already experienced a layoff or a reduction in work due to the pandemic. Trump wants to inject more than $1 trillion into the economy and send a $1,000 check to everyone. This comes as the Senate is set to consider a multibillion-dollar package bill passed by the Democrat-led House Monday night that includes significantly weakened paid sick leave measures. We get response from California Congressmember Ro Khanna, who has also co-sponsored a bill for an emergency Earned Income Tax Credit that would give up to $6,000 to everyone who made less than $130,000 last year. His Bay Area district has been hit hard by the coronavirus, and about 7 million residents there have been told to stay home for all but the most crucial
AMY GOODMAN: The number of reported cases of coronavirus in the United States has surged to more than 6,200, though the devastating lack of tests means the number infected is exponentially higher. Deaths have topped 107. Millions are staying home to avoid spreading the disease. Nearly one in five households in the United States have already experienced a layoff or work reduction due to the pandemic, according to a new PBS/NPR/Marist poll. On Tuesday, the Trump administration said it will support a plan to inject more than $1 trillion into the U.S. economy to fight the unprecedented drop in economic activity. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the stimulus package would rapidly deliver a $1,000 check to most American adults, with more direct payments likely in the months ahead.
TREASURY SECRETARY STEVEN MNUCHIN:Americans need cash now, and the president wants to get cash now. And I mean now in the next two weeks.
AMY GOODMAN: Mnuchin called the pandemic “worse than 9/11” for the airline industry and called for a $50 billion bailout. This comes as the Democrat-led House passed a multibillion-dollar package Monday that significantly weakened paid sick leave measures it tried to enact days earlier. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed the House Monday evening after changes were made that were called “technical corrections.” The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that, quote, “Democratic aides were alarmed by the changes, which were passed with no objections because House lawmakers are away from Washington [on recess]. The changes weren’t shown to most lawmakers before the vote,” unquote. Continue reading.
Amnesty International on Wednesday rebuked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over new comments bashing the International Criminal Court and threatening court staff—and their family members—investigating alleged war crimes committed by United States forces in Afghanistan.
“Threats against family members of ICC staff who are seeking justice is a new low, even for this administration,” said Daniel Balson, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director.
Balson’s comments came a day a press briefing in which Pompeo told reporters the ICC is “a so-called court which is revealing itself to be a nakedly political body.” Continue reading.
As the coronavirus send the United States and the entire global economy hurtling toward recession, President Donald Trump and his defenders have claimed the administration’s policies have left the United States better prepared for the downturn. But in reality, the president’s effects on the course of the economy thus far have been greatly exaggerated, and many of his policies have actually put Americans at greater risk in the event of financial catastrophe.
To understand why Trump’s policies have put us at risk, you have to appreciate the best possible policy response to a recession: automatic stabilizers.
Many automatic stabilizers are actually very familiar to most people. The category includes, for example, SNAP (commonly called food stamps) and unemployment insurance. Continue reading.
The Trump administration will seek approval of a roughly $850 billion emergency stimulus package from Congress in order to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus, a senior administration official confirmed on Tuesday.
The senior administration official stressed that the proposal is a tax proposal, not a spending stimulus as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is proposing. The development was first reported by The Washington Post, which said that the stimulus package could include a payroll tax cut and is expected to include about $50 billion to help the airline industry specifically.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon, President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said they wanted to send checks to Americans as part of the proposal. Trump indicated the administration was still considering a payroll tax cut, but looking at other measures to more quickly send money to Americans. Continue reading.
In a tabletop exercise days before an untested new president took power, officials briefed the incoming administration on a scenario remarkably like the one he faces now.Seven days before Donald Trump took office, his aides faced a major test: the rapid, global spread of a dangerous virus in cities like London and Seoul, one serious enough that some countries were imposing travel bans.
In a sober briefing, Trump’s incoming team learned that the disease was an emerging pandemic — a strain of novel influenza known as H9N2 — and that health systems were crashing in Asia, overwhelmed by the demand.
“Health officials warn that this could become the worst influenza pandemic since 1918,” Trump’s aides were told. Soon, they heard cases were popping up in California and Texas. Continue reading.
Students studying abroad are called home because of the spread of the coronavirus, “especially” from the U.S.Norway’s renowned University of Science and Technology has issued an alert urging students studying abroad to return home as a response to the coronavirus pandemic — specifically singling out the U.S.
The warning from the nation’s largest university, with some 40,000 students, applies “especially” to students staying in nations with “poorly developed health services,” as well as countries, “for example the USA,” with a “poorly developed collective infrastructure.”
The alert notes it can be difficult in the U.S. to “get transport to the airport if you don’t have a car.” It added, apparently referring to “poorly developed health services,” that, “The same applies if you don’t have health insurance.” Continue reading.
Appearing on an MSNBC panel on Sunday morning, former New York Times editor Howell Raines said the coronavirus pandemic that is engulfing the country — and the failures of the current administration to deal with it — is leading to the “slow-motion collapse” of Donald Trump’s tenure as president.
Speaking with host Ali Velshi, Raines noted that Trump has never been a particularly popular president and the government’s response to the pandemic will be his undoing.
“Donald Trump has made it a centerpiece of his discussions about this, about the fact that this is media hype, part of a Democratic hoax to undermine his presidency,” host Velshi said of the growing health crisis. “And if you look at it, the idea that lots and lots of people are getting sick and the stock market has been cratering fits his narrative, because those are the two things he doesn’t want to happen. What in your esteemed opinion has the role of the media been in this whole thing? Good or bad?” Continue reading.
