Channel 10 ‘MasterChef Australia: Back To Win’s ‘Best Dish’ week continues.
As ’MasterChef Australia’s ‘Best Dish’ week continues, Thursday appears to be the episode viewers have been waiting for with magical fairytales and fables-themed challenge.Â
A new promo shows judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo absolutely blown away by a mystery dish that Andy describes as “specialâ€.Â
“If there was ever a plate of food that has come through this kitchen that says, ‘I Am Back To Win’, it’s this dish,†added Melissa.Â
Fans have been quick to start guessing who the cook is behind his secret creation, and so far Reynold Poernomo and Jess Liemantara have appeared to be the frontrunners.
“I would love to say Jess but no one can beat Reynold when it comes to technique and presentation!!!†one viewer wrote on Instagram. “So maybe it’s him? If that’s a desert that is!â€
“FINALLY. There’s a lot of pressure on this dish’s shoulders after all the build up! I hope it’s from Jess,†another commented on Facebook.
Some detective work by eagle-eyed fans appeared to suggest it will be Reynold because of the bowl featured in the clip.Â
“Its reynold. I can see from the bowl he used. He made dessert with tree branches on it and he used that bowl (sic),†said one viewer.
“I’m thinking Reynolds he has used round bowls before in desserts. Here’s hoping (sic),†said another.Â
The five contestants set to compete in the immunity challenge on Thursday night are Reynold Poernomo, Jess Liemantara, Poh Ling Yeow, Khanh Ong and Brendan Pang.Â
‘MasterChef Australia: Back To Win’ continues at 7:30pm.Â
Protesters in Minneapolis on Tuesday filled the intersection in the street where a black man named George Floyd died in police custody. Protesters later damaged the windows of a police precinct and a squad car. Police responded with tear gas. (May 27)
AP Domestic
Protesters clashed with police in Minneapolis. They chanted for justice in Memphis. They stopped freeway traffic in Los Angeles.
The death of George Floyd continued to ripple across the U.S. on Wednesday night as the calls became louder for the arrest of the white police officer who knelt on his neck for several minutes in a “horrifying” video that spread across social media this week.
While hundreds of protesters took to the streets, police chiefs from coast to coast expressed their outrage with Floyd’s death.
“Do not defend the undefendable, attempt to justify the unjustifiable or excuse the inexcusable,” Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said on Twitter. “George Floyd should be alive today.”
“The lack of compassion, use of excessive force, or going beyond the scope of the law, doesn’t just tarnish our badge – it tears at the very fabric of race relations in this country,” Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said in a statement posted to Twitter.
Minneapolis: Police, protesters clash; looters raid Target, Dollar Tree, other stores
Protests in Minneapolis devolved into chaos on Wednesday night. Reports of fires came from around the city and videos of looters inside of stores quickly spread on social media. Several people shared video of people taking products from a local Target.Â
A Cub Foods, a Dollar Tree and an AutoZone store also showed signs of damage and looting, and windows of businesses in nearby strip malls were reported to be smashed out.
At least one person was killed. Police spokesman John Elder told USA TODAY that the department was investigating a homicide near the area where a reporter from the Star-Tribune newspaper tweeted that a looter had been shot and killed by a pawn shop owner.
As the protests stretched into the evening, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo urged calm. In an interview with KMSP-TV, he noted the internal investigation as well as the FBI’s investigation of Floyd’s death and said they offer a chance at justice.
“Justice historically has never come to fruition through some of the acts we’re seeing tonight, whether it’s the looting, the damage to property or other things,†he said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, meanwhile, called the situation “extremely dangerous” on Twitter and urged people to leave the area.
Memphis: George Floyd’s death was ‘nail in the unfortunate coffin for America’
A silent demonstration to protest the death of Floyd, as well as Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, turned into verbal confrontations with Memphis police and counter-protesters.
The rally began with about 40 people holding signs reading “Black Lives Matter,†“Stop killing black people†and “Silence is violence.†Protesters were largely silent, with occasional chants of “no justice, no peace†and the names of black men and women who had been killed by police officers.
Passing drivers — and one ambulance — honked in support and waved or gave thumbs-up.
Within an hour, however, the protesters were met by two counter-protesters, who identified themselves as members of the Facebook group Confederate 901.
Theryn C. Bond, a prominent local activist and former Memphis City Council candidate, confronted the counter-protesters, who occasionally jeered at the crowd to “go out for a jog” — a reference to Aubrey’s slaying.
“I was so impressed to see so many white allies,” Bond said. “Because sometimes we think, ‘Everybody doesn’t get it.’ And I think with the recent murder of George Floyd by police… I think this was the proverbial nail in the unfortunate coffin for America to really understand what we mean when we say, ‘Black Lives Matter.'”
Los Angeles: Protesters block 101 freeway, smash windows of California Highway Patrol cruisers
Hundreds of people protesting Floyd’s death while in police custody blocked a Los Angeles freeway and shattered windows of California Highway Patrol cruisers in a rally organized by Black Lives Matter.
Demonstrators gathered in the late afternoon on downtown streets and, eventually, dozens of them moved onto U.S. 101 despite police efforts to keep them from walking into the lanes.
When a CHP patrol car arrived, demonstrators surrounded it. The car’s window was smashed and it jerked forward and moved away with several protesters who had jumped onto the hood. Television news footage showed one man finally hopping or jumping from the side of the moving car and then flopping onto the ground.
A second CHP car arrived and was attacked, with one demonstrator hurling what appeared to be a wooden skateboard through the back window before it moved off.
At its rally’s peak, hundreds of people gathered outside the Los Angeles County Hall of Justice. The demonstration was mostly peaceful and no arrests were immediately made, Los Angeles police Officer Mike Lopez said.
Contributing:Â Corinne S. Kennedy, Micaela A. Watts and Samuel Hardiman, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.);Â The Associated Press.
It was the pandemic, Twitter says, that freed the company to attach fact-check warnings to a pair of U.S. Present Donald Trump’s tweets this week.
Critics have complained for years that Twitter lets Trump run wild on the platform. But the company had generally taken a hands-off approach to the president, partly because of a company policy that considers it in the public’s interest to know what world leaders are thinking, and partly because Twitter judged many of Trump’s tweets to fall into a gray area not covered by its rules banning specific behaviors like abuse or posting hateful content.
Twitter says the coronavirus outbreak prompted it to re-evaluate its approach to these gray-area tweets and treat some of them as potentially dangerous.
“Covid was a game changer,†said Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough.
“We now have the tools in place to label content that may contain misleading claims that could cause offline harm,†said Rosborough. Those tools include the warning labels attached to Trump’s tweets that link to a Twitter “Moment,†or collection of content, explaining objections to his post.
Twitter has in recent months been quietly laying the groundwork for further questioning of Trump’s tweets.
Twitter has not yet defined what generally counts as offline harm, but in the case of coronavirus-related content, it has identified tweets like those that advocate protecting yourself from the virus using methods public health authorities say are ineffective.
Now Twitter is applying a similar metric to non-coronavirus-related tweets by the president of the United States.
On Tuesday, Twitter added warning labels to two Trump tweets claiming, without evidence, that mail-in ballots, like those being used in California amid the pandemic, are likely to be “substantially fraudulent.†The labels directed users to a link to “get the facts about mail-in ballots.â€
That decision has triggered a high-pitched confrontation with Trump, who vowed Wednesday to take “big action†against social media companies that he accuses of silencing conservatives. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany later said Trump will sign an executive order Thursday aimed at social media companies, amid a flurry of calls from GOP allies for reducing the companies’ protections from lawsuits.
But Twitter has in recent months been quietly laying the groundwork for further questioning of Trump’s tweets — possibly setting the stage for even harsher collisions with a president and his supporters already raging against the San Francisco company.
That said, Twitter has at least one reason to not be as shaken by such threats as bigger players in social might be. Unlike Facebook and Google, the company is too small to trigger the scrutiny of federal antitrust authorities who could be leaned on by an angry president.
The company has made other recent moves in the political arena meant to inoculate it against complaints that it’s destabilizing democracy in the United States but that have also served to anger some on the right, including banning political advertising altogether.
The coronavirus lesson for Twitter was that the company’s trust and safety team, which is charged with taking action on inappropriate posts, could selectively challenge tweets that don’t violate its stated rules — the black-and-white laws of Twitter that gets tweets deleted for specific behaviors like encouraging violence — but that wade into grayer territory, where by misleading or confusing people they can cause real-world harms. In those cases, the supposed worst-of-the-worst get tagged with additional context from around the web, summarized by a specialized Twitter content team.
Under the new approach, for example, Twitter added warning labels to tweets alleging that the novel coronavirus was spread not by human contact but the wireless technology 5G.
“Our research has shown people don’t want us to decide what’s true for them, but they want us to provide further context when possible,†Rosborough said.
In the case of the Trump tweets on mail-in ballots, part of the harm calculation was their timing: Trump was calling mail-in ballots “fraudulent†right at the moment some U.S. states are using them to administer elections amid the pandemic, the company said.
On the left, many argue that Twitter is only taking the weakest possible action in response to rampant misinformation.
But while Twitter may see the decision as a natural evolution, this week’s tagging of the Trump tweets about mail-in ballots marks a change in the company’s posture toward the president, and could be the beginning of a new escalation of tensions. It was the very first application of Twitter’s new approach on misinformation to tweets not having to do with COVID-19 — much as, back in February, the company first applied a three-day-old policy on so-called synthetic media to a tweet from Trump aide Dan Scavino featuring a clipped video of Joe Biden.
And the Trump warning labels have significantly ratcheted up tensions between Trump and Twitter.
Trump denounced Twitter over its flagging of his mail-in-ballot tweets, and POLITICO’s Playbook reported Wednesday afternoon that the White House is working on a threatening letter to the company. Twitter declined to comment on both that would-be missive and the reports of an imminent executive order.
Trump speaks during a Fox News virtual town hall | Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
On the left, many argue that Twitter is only taking the weakest possible action in response to rampant misinformation from the White House and ignoring many tweets that are just as egregious. The same day that Twitter decided Trump’s voting tweets went too far, it declined a request by the husband of a deceased Florida woman whom Trump had suggested with no evidence had been murdered by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. The company said the decision to leave Trump’s Scarborough quotes alone was made quickly, as they were judged to not be in violation of any of Twitter’s existing policies.
But Twitter left a hint this week that it may continue to expand the categories of tweets it evaluates with this new approach to tweets like the one Trump levied at Scarborough.
In expressing sympathy to the widower, Twitter gave a bit of insight into its thinking in a line that looked at first like a throwaway: “We’ve been 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.â€
Skeptics will say that Twitter remains, as it has been throughout its 14-year existence, haphazard about how it creates, articulates and enforces its policies. And its new handling of misleading tweets isn’t likely to do much to quiet those concerns. For one thing, the policy isn’t articulated anywhere in the site’s stated rules.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat representing a considerable slice of Silicon Valley, gave voice to some of that argument in a tweet of his own Wednesday: “This disagreement is exactly why we need thoughtful policies to consistently limit misinformation, instead of ad hoc fact checks whenever the headlines push Twitter hard enough.â€
Twitter first announced its approach to coronavirus misinformation in March, just as the COVID-19 crisis was heating up, in a blog post from its head of policy and legal, Vijaya Gadde, and customers lead Matt Derella.
Trump speaks during a press briefing with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force team | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Twitter said then it would expand its definition of the kind of “harm†that could get a tweet knocked off the service to include those that conflict with public health authorities’ stated guidance on the coronavirus. By way of example, Twitter said that could encompass tweets suggesting that social distancing doesn’t work to slow the spread of the virus.
Twitter quickly tested out that new policy on at least one world leader: At the tail end of March it deleted coronavirus-related tweets from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, judging them to be so harmful that they didn’t even merit protection under Twitter’s policy of placing a label on rule-breaking tweets by world leaders. (Twitter’s announcement of that policy last June was immediately assumed by many observers to be targeted at Trump.)
On May 11, Twitter announced that in addition to its flagging of questionable coronavirus content, “we may use these labels and warning messages to provide additional explanations or clarifications in situations where the risks of harm associated with a Tweet are less severe but where people may still be confused or misled by the content.â€
That post sets up three categories of tweets where it might step in: “misleading information,†“disputed claims†and “unverified claims.†The Trump tweets on mail-in ballots, the company said, were the first instance since the implementation of the new approach in which it became aware of a piece of misleading information posted by the president concerning enough to take on under the new framework.
South Korea has reported its biggest spike in new coronavirus cases in nearly two months, raising fears of a second wave of disease in a country widely praised for containing the initial outbreak.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) announced 79 new cases on Thursday, saying 67 of the new infections were in the Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of South Korea’s 51 million people live.
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It was the third straight day of rising infections and the largest increase since April 5, when authorities announced 81 cases.Â
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo pleaded for all residents in the greater capital area to avoid unnecessary gatherings and urged companies to keep sick employees off work. He said at least 69 cases this week have been linked to a cluster of infections at a logistics facility operated by Coupang, one of the country’s largest online shopping firms, in Bucheon, west of Seoul.
Kim Gang-lip, the vice health minister, said around 4,100 workers and visitors to the building were under self-isolation, with more than 80 percent tested so far. “We are expecting the number of new cases linked to the warehouse to continue rising until today as we wrap up related tests,” he told reporters.
According to the KCDC, the new cases brought the country’s total as of midnight on Wednesday to 11,344 with 269 deaths.
Pedestrians in face masks cross a street in Seoul as the authorities rushed to control new clusters of coronavirus [Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters]
South Korea’s robust programme of testing earlier this year was credited with helping keep the number of deaths comparatively low in a global pandemic that has now killed more than 350,000 people. And unlike many countries, South Korea did not impose a strict lockdown to control the new virus.Â
But Yonhap news agency said this week’s surge in new infections has put South Korea’s fight against the virus “in trouble”.
The warehouse cluster appears linked to an outbreak that emerged in several Seoul nightclubs and bars in early May, according to the KCDC, and comes as the country seeks to ease social distancing rules, reopen schools, and keep new infections in check.
KCDC Director Jeong Eun-kyeong said the country may need to reimpose social distancing restrictions, saying it was becoming increasingly difficult for health workers to track transmissions amid increasing public activity.
“The number of people or locations we have to trace are increasing geometrically,” she said during a briefing on Wednesday afternoon.Â
“We will do our best to trace contacts and implement preventive measures, but there’s a limit to such efforts. There’s a need to maximise social distancing in areas where the virus is circulating, to force people to avoid public facilities and other crowded spaces.”
Health officials said on Thursday they would be conducting on-site inspections of logistics centres across the country, to develop better policies for preventing outbreaks at such facilities.
Coupang, backed by Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank Group, said it closed the Bucheon facility on Monday. It said on Thursday it had also closed a separate facility in Goyang, in the Seoul suburbs, after an employee there tested positive.
“As soon as the employee’s diagnosis was confirmed, Coupang sent home and self-quarantined employees who had contact with the employee,” the company said in a statement.
The spreading outbreak and warehouse closures come as Coupang and other e-commerce firms scramble to keep up with a surge in orders as more people opted to shop from home during the coronavirus outbreak, despite the absence of a strict lockdown.
In February, March and April, sales of South Korean online retailers including Coupang jumped 34 percent, 17 percent and again 17 percent, respectively, from the same months a year ago, according to trade ministry data.
No planes in the sky, empty hotels and deserted attractions: with the world at a standstill, the tourism industry has been one of the industries worst-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. International arrivals this year could be down by 80% compared with 2019, according to the World Tourism Organization, and more than 100 million jobs are under threat.
“Of course, it’s completely devastating – but it’s also provided a much-needed chance for introspection,†said Sam Bruce, founder of Much Better Adventures, a co-founder of campaigning group Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency. “Things needed to change. It’s an opportunity for everyone from tourist boards to tour operators to reset and to look at how things can be better – for the planet, for local communities and for travellers.â€
In Venice – one of the most overtouristed cities, with an estimated 25 million foreign visitors a year – officials are using the pause to rethink “an entire Venice systemâ€, with sustainability and quality tourism at its core, said Paola Mar, the city’s councillor for tourism. Part of the plan is to lure locals back to live permanently in the city. The mayor is in discussions with universities, aiming to offer tourist rentals to students, and old buildings are being restored for social housing. Measures to control visitor numbers – including a tax on day trippers, which was due to be introduced in July – will go ahead next year, while the debate around cruise ships continues.
“Our goal is to trigger a renaissance of the city,†said Mar. “We want to attract visitors for longer stays and encourage a ‘slower’ type of tourism. Things can’t go back to how they were.â€
A sign in Amsterdam’s Leidseplein counting the days until bar terraces are allowed to reopen. Photograph: Remko de Waal/EPA
City authorities in Amsterdam – which was struggling to cope with an estimated 18.3 million overnight tourist stays in 2019 – are also quietly hopeful that the pandemic will be a catalyst for change. Last week the mayor urged extreme caution in reopening to tourists, while nonprofit group Amsterdam&Partners believes the tourist hiatus pushes to the top of the agenda plans to cut numbers, give Amsterdam back to locals and attract the “right†kind of visitor , and has launched a sustainability taskforce to map the way forward.
“We are working with partners to discuss how we can restart in a more sustainable and responsible way,†said Amsterdam&Partners spokeswoman Heleen Jansen. “The main focus is that we want a sustainable visitor economy that doesn’t harm the livability of our city. If you have the right balance between living, working and visiting, you can have the right visitor economy. That’s what went wrong in the last years in the old city centre, and we have to entice locals to discover their city centre again.â€
Meanwhile, the suddenly empty streets of Barcelona have made local businesses and the tourist board re-evaluate their priorities too. “While we couldn’t continue at the speed things were, this is showing us that no tourists is no good either – there needs to be a more moderate way,†said Mateo Asensioof the Barcelona tourist board. “Our first task is getting locals back out into the city, then the domestic market and our neighbours. When the international market returns, we’ll focus more on specific sectors. It’s an opportunity to change the rules.â€
With the world’s “new normal†including social distancing, an increased fear of crowds and busy places – and the future of airlines in the balance – over-tourism may not be a pressing issue for some time.
Other changes in cities around the world include reshaping in favour of cyclists and pedestrians: Athens is accelerating plans for a car-free historic centre, Berlin is introducing 14 miles of new bike lanes, and Paris is also significantly increasing its bike lanes, to ease potential overcrowding.
Destinations likely to see the first surge in visitor numbers are remote coastal and rural areas, places seen as “safeâ€, said Patricia Yates, acting CEO of Visit Britain/Visit England. It will be longer before cities bounce back.
Quieter coastal areas, such as the Gower in Wales, will see the first rise, says Visit Britain. Photograph: Phil Rees/Rex
“Our weekly consumer sentiment surveys show that the domestic market is very nervous – so we will be focusing initially on reassurance,†she said. “But beyond that we will be looking at promoting areas outside the honeypots. What is needed is destination management to rebuild tourism more slowly and keep residents, visitors and businesses that depend on tourists happy – it’s quite a balancing act.â€
Some of the progress made on sustainable tourism is likely to go into reverse at first, she added – with people eschewing public transport in favour of car travel and infection control measures leading to more single-use plastic.
Many tour operators, however, believe the pandemic could engender a positive change in client behaviour. Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton said: “During this hibernation period we’ve seen the benefit to nature and the climate – fish spotted in Venice’s clearer canal water, the Himalayas visible in India – and people have had time to reflect. I think customers will be more aware of the impact of travel on the environment and the communities they visit, and make more considered choices.â€
A renewed focus on slower travel, including train journeys and cycling, as well as keeping experiences as local as possible and offering more off-season departures are part of Intrepid’s post-Covid plans, with wilderness and wellness trips tipped to be of most interest.
The Runkerry Trail in Northern Ireland: slower travel could include more trains and bikes. Photograph: David Lyons/Alamy
Launching new adventures in even more remote destinations to assist with economic recovery is on the agenda for Much Better Adventures when tourism opens up again. “The crisis has shown just how much communities in less-developed parts of the world rely on tourism,†said Sam Bruce. “We will look to spread tourism to areas that would genuinely benefit. But it has to be done in the right way. We risk a flood to remote places that aren’t prepared and could be taken advantage of.
“I’m hopeful that a new, slower tourism will emerge – but the recovery needs to be slow enough for the industry to make the right decisions as it rises from the ashes.â€
G Adventures founder Bruce Poon – who has just published Unlearn: The Year the Earth Stood Still,an e-book looking at the impact of the pandemic on tourism – believes the industry can emerge as a stronger force for good.
“People will travel again. We don’t yet know when, but we know that they will. I want to challenge everyone who travels to ‘unlearn’ what they think they know. We have the opportunity to use this reset to be more conscious about how we can improve, as individuals and as a wider travel community.â€
The biggest issue in the move to a more sustainable tourist industry, though, is air travel – aviation accounted for 2% of global carbon emissions in 2019 and was one of the fastest-growing polluters. With airlines grounded, emissions from aviation declined by about 60% in early April compared with 2019, according to the journal Nature Climate Change.
With the pause likely to be temporary, campaigners from Greenpeace to Flight Free are demanding that airline bailouts come with strict conditions on their future climate impact and say Covid should be the catalyst for greening the world’s airlines.
But in a race for economic recovery, rebuilding the industry quickly could sideline climate change and aviation issues, said Justin Francis of Responsible Travel, who is calling for a “green flying dutyâ€, with more regulation and tax revenues invested in renewable fuels.
Queues at Stansted Airport: many people were ‘hooked on short breaks’, says Responsible Travel. Photograph: Graham Turner/The Guardian
The cost of flights is likely to rise in the long term, he added. “Short term, the where and how we travel has had to change. But new, more entrenched, norms could form from that. Many people were hooked on frequent short breaks, but key to more sustainable tourism is taking far fewer flights – we may now see a return to longer, less frequent holidays, with more time spent getting to know a place, and a rise in slower forms of travel.â€
Whatever happens, it’s unlikely travel will ever be the same as in pre-Covid days. An industry known for its resilience will find a new way forward, adapting to an unknown global market, but whether sustainability can be at the heart of a new model of tourism is hard to predict.
“Tourism will be smaller, and so more sustainable per se. Fewer flights means less C02, fewer guests means less waste, and there will be much more focus on localism, at least initially,†said Graham Miller, professor of sustainability in business at the University of Surrey.
“How the nature of the product changes, however, remains to be seen. There are huge vested interests to contend with – like the cruise industry in Venice and big businesses – but it feels like the moment we have been waiting for. If we are going to redesign tourism, this is about the best chance we can wish for.â€
The car used to carry the explosives in Pulwama. (Source: ANI)
The security forces in Kashmir on Thursday said that they averted a car bombing involving a private vehicle laden with improvised explosives in South Kashmir’s in Pulwama district.
A senior police officer told The Indian Express that joint forces posted at a check post in Rajpora area spotted a Santro car moving suspiciously.
“The person driving the car escaped from the area, leaving the car behind… the security forces recovered huge quantity of explosives and, subsequently, it was destroyed,†said the officer. The registration plate of the car was found to be fake.
Kashmir IGP Vijay Kumar told The Indian Express that “timely input and action by Pulwama Police, CRPF and Army†has averted a major incident.
A CRPF spokesperson said that troops of 182 Bn, 183 Bn, CRPF, special operation group of JK Police and Army was involved in the operation. “Explosives destroyed by the combined BDDS Team during night hours,†the spokesperson added.
A British minister said on Wednesday (27 May) that it was time to “move on†after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s senior adviser provoked outrage and widespread scorn by making a 400 km (250 mile) road trip during the coronavirus lockdown, write Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton.
Dominic Cummings (pictured) has refused to quit after it was revealed that he had driven from London to northern England in March with his four-year-old son and his wife, who was sick at the time, to be close to relatives. Johnson has backed his adviser.
Opinion polls show that faith in Johnson has tumbled since the Cummings story broke on Friday (22 May) in The Mirror and The Guardian newspapers, with some people openly lampooning both Johnson and Cummings on social media.
Opposition parties and some Conservative lawmakers have also demanded that Cummings, the man behind the successful 2016 Brexit campaign and Johnson’s landslide 2019 election victory, should resign. He has refused to apologise.
“Now I think is the time for us all to move on,†Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC, adding that the people wanted the government to be speaking about issues other than Cummings.
“That’s not to say this isn’t an important issue or that people don’t care a great deal about it but I think there is a lot more that we need to focus on now, like the virus and the economy.â€
As nearly 70 million British citizens endured the most stringent lockdown in peacetime history, the news that the second most powerful man in the British government had taken such a long road journey was greeted with dismay by many.
The Daily Star newspaper, a tabloid which delights in reporting scandal and the sexual antics of celebrities, even offered reader a cut out Cummings mask.
“FREE Do whatever the hell you want and sod everybody else mask,†the Star said on its front page. “Wear this handy Dom face covering and you’ll get away with murder.â€
YouGov found 71% of people believed Cummings had broken lockdown rules and 59% thought he should resign.
LOCKDOWN OVER?
Just a few days before Cummings’ journey, Johnson imposed a lockdown in the United Kingdom and asked people to stay at home. He said on March 23 that people “should not be meeting family members who do not live in your homeâ€.
Cummings said he had acted reasonably and not broken the lockdown rules – a position supported by Johnson and senior ministers who have in recent days contorted themselves trying to explain if the lockdown is still is in force and, if so, whom it applies to. He has refused to apologise.
There was confusion about the fines – of a minimum of 60 pounds ($74) – imposed by police on thousands of ordinary people for breaking lockdown rules.
Jenrick said there would be no official review of fines imposed on ordinary people and that it was for the police to decide.
“There isn’t going to be a formal review, this is a matter for the police, the police follow the law and the guidelines,†he said. ($1 = 0.8133 pounds)
LOS ANGELES — An aide to a longtime Los Angeles City Councilman agreed to plead guilty Wednesday to a federal charge in an ongoing FBI “pay-to-play” investigation inside City Hall that includes alleged distribution of $1 million in bribes and inducements, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.
The alleged bribery included payments from a Chinese firm seeking to construct a 77-story building slated to be the tallest west of the Mississippi.
George Esparza, 33 of East Los Angeles, served as a “special assistant” to council member Jose Huizar until 2017 and admitted to his role in a criminal enterprise from early 2013 through November 2018. Esparza, who faces up to 20 years in prison, began cooperating with federal authorities two years ago.
“This is the worst corruption scandal in modern Los Angeles history,” said Jack Weiss, a former federal prosecutor who served on the L.A. City Council from 2001 to 2009. “If anyone asks why, I say that the answer is the zeros. These are acts that have thousands if not millions of dollars attached to them.”
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Prosecutors describe a criminal enterprise that involved several schemes in which developers or their intermediaries paid bribes to ensure certain construction projects were approved by the council and its powerful Planning and Land Use Management, or PLUM, committee, which was headed by Huizar.
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Huizar is not specifically named in the court papers, but Esparza is described as having worked for “Councilman A” who represents the district that includes downtown Los Angeles, where developments named in the indictment were located.
Federal authorities allege Esparza and “Councilman A” received cash, consulting and retainer fees, favorable loans, casino chips, commercial and private jet flights, comped stays at luxury hotels, expensive meals, concert and sports tickets as well as prostitution services, according to the documents.
One of the most notable schemes centered on the skyscraper project described as Project E, which was being developed by a Chinese company run by a Chinese billionaire, referred to as “Chairman E”
The chairman of a Chinese development firm “facilitated the payment of $600,000” to help the council member “confidentially resolve a sexual harassment lawsuit” filed by a former employee in 2014 when he was facing re-election, according to the documents.
In exchange for $600,000, the council member routinely assisted with the firm’s chairman’s requests, including pushing through a City Council resolution recognizing their achievements and contributions to the economy in the district, the plea agreement states.
The ongoing corruption probe has already swept up a real estate consultant, a political fundraiser and former City Council member Mitchell Englander, who faces up to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to obstructing a public corruption investigation related to his acceptance of gifts — including cash, hotel rooms and expensive meals — from a developer during trips to Las Vegas and Palm Springs in 2017.
“This case feels like the end of a Netflix series where all of the seemingly unconnected plot lines seem to come together,†Weiss said, indicating he expects more charges or guilty pleas.
Andrew Blankstein is an investigative reporter for NBC News. He covers the Western United States, specializing in crime, courts and homeland security.Â
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For President Trump, it was a chance to rewrite the story line from tragedy to triumph. Even as the United States reached the grim milestone on Wednesday of 100,000 dead from the coronavirus pandemic, he would help mark the nation’s trailblazing return to human spaceflight from American soil.
But Mr. Trump’s hopes of demonstrating that America was back with the verve of a rocket’s red glare were doused by lightning-filled storm clouds that forced flight controllers to scrub the long-awaited launch of the SpaceX rocket even as the president watched helplessly from the Kennedy Space Center.
Only minutes after heralding what was to be the first launch of NASA astronauts into orbit from the United States in nearly a decade, a disappointed Mr. Trump scrapped planned remarks and made a hasty retreat to Air Force One to fly back to Washington and the misery of the health crisis. Still, just as the country’s reopening after months of lockdown proceeds with fits and starts, Mr. Trump vowed not to give up, promising to return this weekend when the launch will be tried again.
The scheduled launch of the Crew Dragon capsule aboard a Falcon 9 rocket was to herald a new beginning in America’s odyssey in space nine years after NASA’s shuttle fleet was retired, which forced the United States to rely on Russia to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. In returning to space, the country is now turning to private sector transport, led by SpaceX, the company founded by the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
For Mr. Trump, the excursion to Florida was a family affair. In addition to the first lady, Melania Trump, he brought his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner; Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle; Eric and Lara Trump; and several grandchildren.
While Ivanka Trump and her children wore masks, her brothers and the president and first lady did not. Mr. Kushner wore one getting on and off the plane but not during a tour of the space center. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, who flew in separately, wore masks when seeing off the astronauts, but not later when in Mr. Trump’s presence.
The president made no public mention of the virus death toll as it passed 100,000, in keeping with his habit of not focusing on those who have been lost to the pandemic. But before taking off for Cape Canaveral, he erupted on Twitter at criticism of his administration’s initial response.
“The Radical Left Lamestream Media, together with their partner, the Do Nothing Democrats, are trying to spread a new narrative that President Trump was slow in reacting to Covid 19,†he wrote, referring to himself in the third person. “Wrong, I was very fast, even doing the Ban on China long before anybody thought necessary!â€
The juxtaposition of the two milestones — the toll of the pandemic and the promise of a new space future — was a matter of happenstance, but they intersected in other ways, as well. NASA was forced to enact measures to ensure that the two astronauts did not take the virus with them to the space station. And the agency told fans who would normally turn out in large numbers to stay home and instead tune in online.
Mr. Musk has been a prominent voice against the economic restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus, defying California authorities who told him to keep his Tesla plant closed to protect workers against spreading the virus. Mr. Trump two weeks ago publicly backed Mr. Musk in his fight with the state’s Democratic leaders.
At the space center on Wednesday, Mr. Trump hailed Mr. Musk, calling him “a friend of mine for a long time.†The two shared the excitement of the moment as the president asked Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, about the flight status.
“We are a go for launch right now,†Mr. Bridenstine told him — optimistically, as it turned out.
Just 16 minutes and 54 seconds before the scheduled 4:33 p.m. liftoff came word over loudspeakers that the launch had been scrubbed because of weather.
Since Apollo, presidents have embraced the space program as a manifestation of the American ideal, a rockets-roaring, television-friendly expression of national determination, ingenuity and the spirit of adventure. But only some occupants of the Oval Office backed that with a real commitment of political will and resources, resulting in a stutter-step journey that has had impressive progress at times even as humanity has remained restricted to low-earth orbit for nearly 50 years.
Mr. Trump is the latest to promise to end that, embracing an ambitious goal of returning to the moon as a way station for an eventual mission to Mars. While demonstrating no particular affinity for the science or engineering of the enterprise, he has eagerly associated himself with the image of space heroism, inviting Apollo 11 moon-walker Buzz Aldrin to his State of the Union address and creating a Space Force within the military. Only two weeks ago, he happily displayed the new Space Force flag during a photo opportunity in the Oval Office.
Before the scrub on Wednesday, Mr. Trump boasted that he had revived NASA. “They had grass growing in the runways between the cracks,†the president said of the launchpads that have sat unused for NASA crewed flights for nine years. “Now we have the best — the best of the best.â€
Mr. Bridenstine said the administration had backed up its commitment with large budget requests. “We’re bringing America back as it relates to human spaceflight,†he said, adding, “Today’s a big day for the nation.â€
But independent analysts said Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm was not enough, recalling the old Mercury-era adage, “no bucks, no Buck Rogers.â€
“Trump is a bit of a spaceflight fan, of course,†said Roger D. Launius, a former NASA historian. But, he added: “I’m not sure how much Trump desires to make his moon landing announcement a reality. There is not much of a reflection of this initiative in the budgets he has proposed.â€
Nor has Congress jumped on board. “That’s not a partisan issue,†Mr. Launius said. “Neither party seems to be lining up to support it.â€
Attending a launch in person has always been fraught for presidents. They would happily share the glory of a landmark launch, but they recognize the risks of being on hand if something were to go wrong. As a result, only two sitting presidents have personally attended. President Richard M. Nixon was there when Apollo 12 took off in 1969, and President Bill Clinton witnessed the astronaut John Glenn’s return to space aboard the shuttle in 1998.
Lyndon B. Johnson, who did more for the space program than any president other than perhaps John F. Kennedy, attended the historic Apollo 11 launch in 1969 as a private citizen, only months after leaving office. Otherwise, presidents tend to send vice presidents. Spiro Agnew witnessed four Apollo launches.
While Mr. Trump was happy to take credit for this week’s prospective launch, it has its origins under two previous presidents. After President George W. Bush ordered an end to the shuttle program, he initiated the development of new rockets with the goal of returning to the moon, while turning to the private sector for cargo launches. President Barack Obama canceled Mr. Bush’s rocket program, judging it too expensive, but signed contracts with SpaceX and other private companies to transport crews to the space station.
Dava J. Newman, a former deputy NASA administrator under Mr. Obama who now teaches at M.I.T., said the achievement of this new phase in America’s space program was “really a result of all of the great work over the past decade across multiple administrations and Congresses.â€
Once it happens, that is.
Peter Baker reported from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Michael D. Shear from Washington.
In the column, titled “Trump’s slanderous attack on Joe Scarborough is incompatible with leadership,†the conservative news outlet categorically breaks down why Trump’s claims against Scarborough, an outspoken Trump critic, are false.
Over the weekend, as the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic climbed toward 100,000 in the U.S., the president spent time tweeting multiple suggestions that Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, murdered a staffer who died in his Florida office in 2001. Lori Klausutis’ death was ruled an accident by authorities; no foul play was suspected.
“This story is not just false, but verifiably so. It is also illogical and bizarre,†the editorial states. Â
The site criticized the “loathsome individuals†who amplified the conspiracy theory “as part of a bad-faith, cheap-shot ad hominem argument against Scarborough,†adding that it was “far, far more unfortunate that the latest person to trumpet and repeat this vile slander is the president supposedly leading this nation through a time of crisis.â€
The right-wing site, which is often friendly to Trump, also blasted the president in March for demonstrating how “deeply unsuited he is to deal with a genuine crisis that he can’t bluff his way through†in his handling of the pandemic.
“Whatever his issues with Scarborough, President Trump’s crazed Twitter rant on this subject was vile and unworthy of his office,†this week’s editorial said. “Some will undoubtedly shrug it off as Trump being Trump, but one could hardly be blamed for reading it and doubting his fitness to lead.â€
The site is one of several conservative voices to speak out against Trump’s grotesque tweets, which are widely perceived to be an effort to distract the public from his administration’s fumbling response to the coronavirus outbreak that has now claimed more than 100,000 lives.
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The car used to carry the explosives in Pulwama. (Source: ANI)
