‘Vanderpump Rules’ Stars Apologise For Once Calling Police On Only Black Cast Member

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‘Vanderpump Rules’ Stars Apologise For Once Calling Police On Only Black Cast Member

Being messy is basically a prerequisite for appearing on “Vanderpump Rules,” but stars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute crossed a line awhile back when they called the police on the reality show’s only Black cast member, Faith Stowers. 

On Sunday, the two broke their silence over their resurfaced “racially insensitive comments” and past behaviour toward Stowers after she detailed her disturbing experiences on the show in a recent interview. 

Schroeder and Doute tried to get Stowers arrested around 2018 by falsely implicating her in a crime, which has sparked a major backlash against the reality stars. 

“It is important that I continue to take accountability for what I have said and done, while pushing myself to do better,” Schroeder, who’s since been dropped by multiple brands, wrote in her statement. “I have grown significantly from the person I was then, and I am still filled with remorse and regret for the hurt I caused.”

“I also want to address my former castmate, Faith Stowers. My emotions over something that happened between our friends outweighed my logic, and there is no excuse for that,” she continued. “I did not recognise then the serious ramifications that could have transpired because of my actions.” 

“What I did to Faith was wrong,” Schroeder said. “I apologise and I do not expect forgiveness.”  

Stowers, who appeared as a recurring character on the fourth season of the Bravo show and returned briefly in the sixth season, drew the ire of Schroeder and Doute when cast member Jax Taylor cheated on his then-girlfriend with her. 

″[What] made me really want to run for the hills, [was] when Kristen and Stassi decided they were going to call the cops on me,” Stowers said in an Instagram Live conversation with MTV star Candace Renee Rice. “There was this article on Daily Mail where there was an African American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. … And I guess this woman was robbing people.

“They called the cops and said it was me,” Stowers said. “This is like, a true story. I heard this from actually Stassi during an interview.”

Schroeder actually bragged that she and Doute were the ones who called the cops on Stowers during an appearance on the “Bitch Bible” podcast back in 2018. Clips from the now-deleted episode have recently made the internet rounds. 

“We are like, we just solved a fucking a crime,” Schroeder said on the podcast. “We start calling the police. The police don’t give a fuck. It’s really hard to get in touch with the police unless it’s an emergency.”

Doute also rallied her followers against Stowers by tweeting a link to the news story, writing, “hey tweeties, doesn’t this ex #pumprules thief look familiar? someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didn’t wanna go there but I’m going there.”

At the time, Stowers was the only Black cast member on the show focused on the personalities at a restaurant in West Hollywood, California, which has been criticized for its lack of diversity over the years.

“They wanted to attack, attack, attack, attack, attack,” Stowers said of her former castmates. “I was wrong, I was this, I was that, calling me names, saying my hair was nappy, which is weird coming out of their mouths.”

She added: “It was just funny, because they thought it was me (in the Daily Mail story) because it was a Black woman with a weave. So they just assumed it would be me, and they called the cops on me.”

Before Stowers’ tenure on the show, another Black woman, server Tina McDowelle, appeared on the series in a recurring capacity during the show’s initial three seasons.

In her statement on Sunday, Schroeder ended her apology by speaking directly to her fans: “I am also sorry to anyone else that feels disappointed in me. I am going to continue to look closer at myself and my actions ― to take the time to listen, to learn, and to take accountability for my own privilege.”

Doute, meanwhile, also took some accountability for her past behaviour in her own post on Instagram. 

“Although, my actions were not racially driven, I am now completely aware of how my privilege blinded me from the reality of law enforcement’s treatment of the black community, and how dangerous my actions would have been to her,” Doute said. She added,  “It never was my intention to add to the injustice and imbalance. I’m ashamed, embarrassed, and incredibly sorry. I will do better. I have to do better.” 



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‘Mum may need to be on a ventilator for life’

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‘Mum may need to be on a ventilator for life’

Image copyright
Emma Wilton

Image caption

Christine Colmer with her daughters Michelle Smith (left) and Emma Wilton (right)

A woman may need to be on a ventilator for the rest of her life after Covid-19 caused irreversible damage to her lungs and respiratory system.

Christine Colmer, 66, was put in an induced coma at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth when she arrived with symptoms of the virus at the start of April.

She underwent a tracheostomy and remains in intensive care.

“To have our mum still here is an absolute miracle,” her daughter Emma Wilton said.

Ms Colmer, from Plymouth, who is not believed to have had any underlying health issues, was taken to hospital on 5 April after experiencing breathing difficulties.

“She was at my house and it was me who called the ambulance for her and it was my cousin, who is a paramedic, who was first here,” her 33-year-old daughter said.

Two days later, the mother of three was being put in an induced coma and spent 31 days on a ventilator.

Image copyright
Emma Wilton

Image caption

Ms Colmer’s family hope to have her back home soon

“The next time I spoke to her was five weeks later. The longest five weeks of my life,” Ms Wilton said.

Ms Colmer remains in a “very critical” condition and can only communicate through a speaking valve.

Her daughter said hospital consultants believe that if her mother does end up having to rely on a ventilator, then she would need “24-hour nursing, 365 days a year”.

“The doctors just don’t know what the outcome will look like at the moment but there is a possibility that mum will remain on a ventilator,” she added.

‘Absolute miracle’

Ms Colmer’s family has set up a crowdfunding page online to try to raise money “for basically anything she needs on her road to recovery”, which has raised more than £25,000.

“We need to adapt her bungalow to meet her needs and to get her home so her family can be part of her rehabilitation,” Ms Wilton said.

While she and her two siblings have gone into “autopilot” caring for their mother, she said the fact Ms Colmer was still breathing was an “absolute miracle”.

“We need to take [it] a day at a time and hope our mum can continue to fight this battle because it absolutely is a battle,” she said.

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Musicians’ coronavirus fund runs out of cash

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Musicians’ coronavirus fund runs out of cash

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Many touring and gigging musicians have had all their work cancelled for the forseeable future

A £2.5m fund set up to help musicians during the coronavirus crisis is set to run out of cash after just five days.

More than 3,500 people have applied for financial assistance since Friday, says the charity Help Musicians UK.

But with the fund reaching capacity, and live music a distant prospect, other applicants may be left stranded.

“It’s a bigger, longer crisis than any of us could have thought possible,” said the charity’s chief executive, Jack Ainscough.

Touring and gigging musicians have been particularly affected by the lockdown, as months of work simply vanished in mid-March.

Many of them (up to 25%) are not covered by the government’s scheme to support freelancers, and have no other source of income during the lockdown.

‘It’s really grisly’

The current Help Musicians fund is targeted at those self-employed workers, following a first phase in March that offered one-off grants of £500 to any musician facing immediate financial difficulties.

That scheme handed out over £8m to nearly 17,000 musicians in just four weeks, including The Waterboys’ drummer Ralph Salmins.

“My work is not coming back till March or April next year,” he told the BBC. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

The musician, who has performed or recorded with Paul McCartney, Bjork, Aretha Franklin and Madonna, as well as appearing on more than 150 film soundtracks, said the industry could be facing “a two-year lull” before returning to normal.

Image copyright
Getty Images

Image caption

Ralph Salmins was supposed to be playing festivals with The Waterboys all summer – but now his diary is empty

“We’re really, really in a corner in the arts and I don’t think, unfortunately, the government has quite cottoned on to it,” he said.

“It’s really grisly. It’s very, very dire.”

A study conducted by Help Musicians found that 99% of musicians had worried about their financial situation during lockdown, while 46% said the impact on their wellbeing had been “strong or severe”.

“One of the points for us, is that financial hardship funding isn’t just about financial hardship,” Mr Ainscough explained. “It’s actually about reducing anxiety, which reduces the likelihood of tripping into more serious mental health issues.

“It’s about stopping someone becoming homeless, stopping somebody from having to go couch-surfing, and keeping them in a state where actually they’ve got a hope of remaining creative.”

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Media captionAbbey Road Studios reopens after 10 weeks of closure

He added that, while most people think of musicians as being Stormzy or Dua Lipa, the vast majority live a much more meagre existence.

“After the first round of grants, one lady wrote back to me and said, ‘I’ve never been more excited to pay my rent,'” Mr Ainscough recalled.

‘Buoyed up’

Help Musicians, along with the Musicians Union, is calling on the government to provide extra help to freelancers in the arts who are suffering financial difficulties.

“This is a much longer-term problem than for other sectors of the economy, which can open up now,” said Mr Ainscough.

The charity is also seeking donations to top up the fund – which was initially drawn from its own reserves, combined with £500,000 from music rights organisation PPL and £50,000 from Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.

Another supporter is Squeeze’s Chris Difford, who held an online fund-raiser for the charity last week.

“I got involved because a friend of mine, who suffers from depression, is a fabulous writer and found themselves without any money and without anywhere to go.

“He turned to Help Musicians and he got a grant, and he was really buoyed up by the support,” he told the BBC. “So I was impressed by what I saw.”

Difford, whose hits include Tempted, Up The Junction and Cool For Cats, added that, like many musicians, touring had been his main source of income for the past 15 years – but he couldn’t see concerts resuming soon.

“I’d love live music to come back as soon as possible but I just don’t know where the confidence is going to come from,” he said.

“If somebody said to me, ‘You’ve got an American tour in three months’ time,’ I would definitely have to sort of take a very deep breath about it and think it through.”

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George Floyd memorials held in Houston and Los Angeles as Democrats unveil reforms – live

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George Floyd memorials held in Houston and Los Angeles as Democrats unveil reforms – live










Joe Biden meets privately with George Floyd’s family in Houston

The presumptive Democratic nominee for president shared a meal with George Floyd’s family at an acclaimed black-owned restaurant in Houston today, CultureMap Houston reported.

Joe Biden traveled to Houston to give his condolences to Floyd’s family in advance of his funeral tomorrow.

The New York Daily News reported that Biden “met for more than an hour with Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd, his uncle Roger Floyd, two of his children and an aunt,” according to Rev. Al Sharpton, who was also at the meeting.

Ben Crump
(@AttorneyCrump)

Pictured after meeting with #GeorgeFloyd’s family: VP @JoeBiden, @TheRevAl, @AttorneyCrump, Rep. @CedricRichmond, and Roger Floyd (George Floyd’s uncle) pic.twitter.com/KJvsrTEORt


June 8, 2020










Los Angeles, Houston hold memorials for George Floyd

In Houston, lines of people waited in the heat to pay their respects to George Floyd, who is from the city’s Third Ward, the Houston Chronicle reported.

In Los Angeles, in honor of Floyd, mourners joined four different funeral processions that converged downtown.

Rob Hayes
(@abc7robhayes)

George Floyd funeral procession closes several streets in downtown LA.

People streamed in to the event from four different locations across the area: Reseda, Santa Ana, Liemert Park and Long Beach, forming four processions led by hearses. #GeorgeFloyd #BLMLA #BLM pic.twitter.com/eTGc1KCULi


June 8, 2020

Tina Patel
(@tina_patel)

This is part of the funeral procession that just left Leimert Park. Mourners are heading to downtown Los Angeles, where they will meet up with people in processions from Orange County, Long Beach, and Reseda. @CBSLA pic.twitter.com/Mt4673YX2g


June 8, 2020

Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, paid his respects in Houston, the New York Daily news reported, after calling Floyd’s killing a “horrific act of police brutality.”










Army will consider renaming bases named after Confederate generals

Some of the US army’s largest military bases are named after Confederate military commanders, including Fort Lee, in Virginia, and Fort Bragg, in North Carolina.

The New York Times editorial board has called for renaming military bases “for American heroes – not racist traitors,” and argued that the military’s current practice is a celebration of white supremacy.

As recently as late February, the army said it had no interest in renaming bases named after confederate generals. But George Floyd’s killing and the protests that followed have changed that, Politico reports.

Now, “The Secretary of the army is open to a bipartisan discussion on the topic,” an army spokesperson told Politico.

An unnamed army official said the protests “made us start looking more at ourselves and the things that we do and how that is communicated to the force as well as the American public.”

Lara Seligman
(@laraseligman)

BREAKING: Army official says @SecArmy is open to re-naming Army bases (like Fort Bragg) named after confederate Generals. Wants to have a conversation with bipartisan support.


June 8, 2020

Updated










23-year-old faces federal charges in Minnesota police precinct arson

A 23-year-old man from St. Paul. Minnesota, is facing federal charges for “aiding and abetting arson” at the Minnesota police department’s Third Precinct building, which burned on the night of May 28, during outrage over the police killing of George Floyd, federal prosecutors announced Monday.

Authorities said the 23-year-old was “wearing multiple items stolen from the Third Precinct, including body armor, a police-issue duty belt with handcuffs, an earphone piece, baton, and knife,” at the time of his arrest on June 3, and that law enforcement later found other items taken from the police department in his apartment, including a riot helmet, an ammunition magazine, and a police radio.

The U.S. attorney’s office said they located the 23-year-old after receiving a complaint from a home improvement store that he was trying to get into the store after being fired from his job as a security guard earlier that day. Employees said he had been fired after referring to social media posts about stealing from the police, officials said.

Local Minneapolis news station KIMT3 ran photographs of 23-year-old, showing a young white man wearing body armor and handcuffs.










Portland’s police chief is resigning; new police chief is African American

Amid continuing protests over police violence towards black Americans, the white police chief of Portland, Oregon, has announced she is resigning. An African American lieutenant in the department will become the new police chief, The Oregonian reports.

Everton Bailey Jr.
(@EvertonBailey)

Portland Police Chief Jami Resch (@ChiefResch) just announced that she is resigning.


June 8, 2020

“I have listened and our community and you have said show us change,” police chief Jami Reisch tweeted. “This change in leadership comes from my heart.”

Jami Resch
(@ChiefResch)

I have listened and our community and you have said show us change. PPB needs to be the leader in change. It starts with trust. This change in leadership comes from my heart.Chuck Lovell has been dedicated to service his entire life. I am 100% confident in him and his leadership.


June 8, 2020

Reisch said the decision to resign was her own, and that she would continue to hold a different role within the police department, The Oregonian reported.










A ‘misleading’ headline on asymptomatic transmission, experts say

There’s an attention-grabbing headline from CNBC today: “Asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is ‘very rare,’ WHO says.”

CNBC quotes Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, who said during a press briefing in Geneva that “From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual.”

If it’s “very rare” that people without symptoms are transmitting coronavirus, many people are asking, then why are members of the general public required to wear masks?

Several public health experts cautioned that the WHO’s conclusion may be much less dramatic than it appears, and criticized both WHO’s communication on the issue and the way that CNBC has covered the story.

Dr Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, and professor Carl Bergstrom, an infectious disease expert at the University of Washington, made similar points. The upshot, both experts suggested: there’s a difference between people who are “truly asymptomatic”, meaning that they would test positive for Covid-19 but never develop any symptoms of the disease, and people who are “pre-symptomatic”, meaning that they haven’t developed symptoms yet, but will in a few days.

Both experts said they think the WHO was referring only to “truly asymptomatic people”, and suggesting that those people rarely spread the disease.

But that second category of people, the ones who still feel fine but are actually infected and can pass on the virus to other people, are a major reason why the public should wear masks even when they feel fine, the experts said.

We’ll be asking the WHO for more clarification on this issue.

Carl T. Bergstrom
(@CT_Bergstrom)

A misleading @CNBC story about a rather unclear @WHO statement is making the rounds today.

It seems to suggest that people without symptoms don’t spread COVID19.

Does this mean shoppers, students, protesters, etc., don’t need masks/ distancing?

No.https://t.co/mDnpH1N1fZ


June 8, 2020

Carl T. Bergstrom
(@CT_Bergstrom)

The details get a bit tangled and to my dismay not all data are made available, but in short the @WHO statement pertains to “truly asymptomatic” people who never show classic symptoms, not to pre-symptomatic people who we know can transmit days before showing symptoms.


June 8, 2020

Ashish K. Jha
(@ashishkjha)

This from @WHO is getting a lot of attention and creating confusion.

I want to quickly share what I understand about this.

Bottom line question:

Are infected people without symptoms an important cause of spread?

My best guess: yes.

A thread https://t.co/NnLpf7kTVh


June 8, 2020

Ashish K. Jha
(@ashishkjha)

.@WHO communication here not stellar

If folks without symptoms truly “very rarely” spread virus, would be huge.

But such a statement by @WHO should be accompanied by data.

Asymptomatic spread is Achille’s heal of this outbreak

Would love to be wrong. Need to see data

Fin


June 8, 2020

Updated










Coronavirus transmission rate rising in Los Angeles, Bay Area

Los Angeles is seeing an uptick in the transmission rate for people with coronavirus, which public health experts attribute to the loosening of stay-at-home restrictions, the Los Angeles Times reports. So is the Bay Area.

This uptick predates any changes in coronavirus infections that may result from the massive public demonstrations against police killings of black Americans, and the subsequent large numbers of arrests, public health experts said.

Matt Pearce 🦅
(@mattdpearce)

Coronavirus transmission rates are rising in L.A. County again, officials say. That’s from infections that came *before* people started protesting and getting mass-arrested. https://t.co/9vTbqeqQXs


June 8, 2020










Trump campaign to restart rallies this month despite coronavirus

The Trump campaign is planning to start holding campaign rallies again “in the next two weeks”, Politico reports.

What safety measures may be put in place, and how the number of coronavirus cases in different areas will affect the location for rallies, remains unclear.

In a statement on resuming the president’s crowded, in-person rallies during a global pandemic, Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, told Politico, “You’ll again see the kind of crowds and enthusiasm that sleepy Joe Biden can only dream of.”

The Trump campaign plans to respond to any criticism about the danger of holding rallies by comparing his campaign rallies with the enormous protests against police violence towards black Americans that have taken place across the country, despite the threat of Covid-19.

“Trump hasn’t held a rally since March, though in recent weeks he has used ostensibly official events to visit swing states,” the Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt notes.

Alex Isenstadt
(@politicoalex)

Decision to restart rallies comes as Trump trails Biden substantially in public polls.

Trump wants to use the rallies to push the idea that a comeback is underway and to create a contrast with Biden, who remains in Delawarehttps://t.co/SERrXdKKps


June 8, 2020

Updated










Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • A judge set a $1-1.25m bail for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who has been charged with second-degree murder in connection to the killing of George Floyd.
  • Thousands of people paid their respects to Floyd in Houston, Texas. Thousands attended a public visitation to view Floyd’s casket, and a memorial service will be held tomorrow.
  • Congressional Democrats unveiled their sweeping police reform bill. The Justice in Policing Act would nationally ban chokeholds and create a national police misconduct registry, but many criminal justice activists have said reforms do not go far enough to address police brutality.
  • A group of economists said the US entered a recession in February. According to a committee of economists at the national bureau of economic research, the US economy entered a period of recession as businesses started to close down in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Kayleigh McEnany said the White House had “no regrets” about forcibly removing peaceful protesters last week. The White House press secretary claimed the attorney general and the US park police made the decision to use tear gas against the protesters, but she said, “There’s no regrets on the part of this White House.”

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated










Trump emphasized his opposition to the defund the police movement during a lawn enforcement roundtable at the White House.

“We won’t be defunding our police. We won’t be dismantling our police. We won’t be disbanding our police,” the president said moments ago.

“We won’t be ending our police force in a city. I guess you might have some cities who want to try it, but that would be a very sad situation if they did.”

The president’s comments come one day after the Minneapolis city council pledged to disband the city’s police department and replace it with a new public safety system.










No plans to extradite Prince Andrew in Epstein case – Barr

US attorney general William Barr said this afternoon that there are no plans to extradite Prince Andrew to the United States for questioning in the sex crimes case involving the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Asked during a Fox News interview whether the US has officially asked Britain to hand over the prince, Barr said: “I don’t think it’s a question of handing him over. I think it’s just a question of having him provide some evidence.”

Asked if Prince Andrew would be extradited, Barr said “No”, Reuters reports.

Lawyers for the prince earlier today accused US prosecutors of misleading the public and breaching their own confidentiality rules in their handling of the investigation into the disgraced financier and child sex offender, the Guardian reports.

In a strongly worded, two-page statement, Blackfords, the London-based criminal law specialists, alleged that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had effectively rejected offers of help volunteered by the prince.

Epstein was found dead in a New York prison cell last year where he was being held on charges of sex trafficking girls as young as 14. The prince had known the billionaire since 1999 and stayed at several of his residences.

Epstein has been convicted years earlier in Florida of certain offenses, involving a plea deal, but was arrested last year and faced fresh and more serious charges.

But the federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, US attorney Geoffrey Berman, issued the following statement in response to Prince Andrew’s legal team, Axios reports:


Today, Prince Andrew yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate with an ongoing federal criminal investigation into sex trafficking and related offenses committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, even though the Prince has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally — through the very same counsel who issued today’s release — that he would not come in for such an interview.

If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him.”










When asked about the barriers around Lafayette Square during her White House briefing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the matter was not in White House control.

This Week
(@ThisWeekABC)

“That’s not something that is in White House control,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says when asked how long the new fencing at Lafayette Square in Washington, DC will stay up. https://t.co/TSxOg627pP pic.twitter.com/t9LFNoBAH8


June 8, 2020

McEnany acknowledged that the DC protests, like those across the country, have been mostly peaceful, but the press secretary claimed the fencing was a security matter and thus “not a decision for the White House.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer are now calling on Trump to remove the barriers, arguing Lafayette Square “has long been a venue where Americans can gather to freely exercise their constitutional rights in close proximity to the White House.”










Officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck remains behind bars

Joanna Walters

An update on former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who appeared in court today charged with second degree murder in the death of George Floyd two weeks ago.

He and the other three now-ex-officers charged in the case all remain behind bars at this point.




Derek Chauvin’s mugshot after his arrest.

Derek Chauvin’s mugshot after his arrest. Photograph: Hennepin County Jail/AFP/Getty Images

Chauvin, 44, said almost nothing during an 11-minute hearing in which he appeared before Hennepin County Judge Jeannice Reding on closed-circuit television from the state’s maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights, the AP reports.

Chauvin’s unconditional bond had been raised from $500,000 to $1 million when a second-degree murder charge was added on Wednesday.

Monday’s hearing was a chance for arguments over the higher bail. Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, did not contest the increased bail and didn’t address the substance of the charges, which also include third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Nelson did not speak with reporters afterward.

Chauvin’s next appearance was set for June 29 at 1.30 p.m.

Chauvin, a white officer, pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck during an arrest attempt, as Floyd, a black member of the public, was held down on the street and pleaded with him, struggling to say “I can’t breathe” until he eventually became silent and died.

Chauvin and three other officers on the scene were fired the day after.

The other three officers J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting the murder of Floyd. They remain in the Hennepin County jail on $750,000 bond.




Messages in Washington, DC, in support of Black Lives Matter and in protest at police brutality and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

Messages in Washington, DC, in support of Black Lives Matter and in protest at police brutality and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Updated










World Bank warns of crisis

Joanna Walters

The World Bank said today that humanity is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis that has spread with astonishing speed and will result in the largest shock the global economy has witnessed in more than seven decades.

Millions of people are expected to be pushed into extreme poverty, the Associated Press reports.

In an updated “Global Economic Prospects,” the World Bank projected that global economic activity will shrink by 5.2% this year, the deepest recession since a 13.8% global contraction in 1945-46 at the end of World War II.

The 5.2% downturn this year will be the fourth worst global downturn over the past 150 years, exceeded only by the Great Depression of the 1930s and the periods after World War I and World War II when the economies of many war-torn countries were devastated and the United States and other nations demobilized after massive defense buildups.

Because of the steep contraction, the amount of income per person is expected to fall sharply, with more than 90% of emerging market and developing countries seeing per capita incomes declining.

For all countries, the drop in per capital incomes is expected to average 6.2%, much larger than the 2.9% fall during the 2009 financial recession.

Reflecting this downward pressure on incomes, World Bank economists said they expected the number of people in extreme poverty could grow by between 70 million and 100 million this year.

The 5.2% estimate for a decline in global output is 7.7 percentage-points more severe than the World Bank’s January estimate that the world economy would grow by a modest 2.5% this year.

For the United States, the updated World Bank forecast is for GDP to fall 7% this year, before growing 3.9% in 2021. That estimate is similar to top forecasters for the National Association for Business Economics who forecast a 5.9% drop in for the U.S. this year.




Lining up for food donations in Memphis, Tennessee, in April.

Lining up for food donations in Memphis, Tennessee, in April. Photograph: Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock









Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are calling on Trump to reopen Lafayette Square, the park near the White House that has been barricaded off from the public since last week’s George Floyd protests.

Nancy Pelosi
(@SpeakerPelosi)

The President must immediately reopen Lafayette Square to the public.

This unique park should be a symbol of freedom & openness, not a militarized zone behind which President Trump cowers in fear of protesters who are crying out for justice. pic.twitter.com/xvsVjtfsO2


June 8, 2020

The House speaker and Senate minority leader said in a letter to the president that Lafayette Square “has long been a venue where Americans can gather to freely exercise their constitutional rights in close proximity to the White House.”

Barriers have been erected around the public square in response to the mostly peaceful protests in DC, and administration officials have not been transparent about when the barriers might be removed.

The Democratic leaders wrote, “Lafayette Square should be a symbol of freedom and openness, not a place behind which the leader of our Executive Branch cowers in fear of protesters who are crying out for justice.”










White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany just wrapped up her briefing, during which she was asked whether Trump still believes NFL players who kneel during the national anthem should be fired.

“The president is very much against kneeling in general,” McEnany said. “He’s not a fan of the kneeling movement. He’s made that very clear.”

ABC News Politics
(@ABCPolitics)

“The president is very much against kneeling in general,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says but adds she has not talked with Trump about whether he still believes that NFL players who take a knee during the national anthem should be fired. https://t.co/OrT7FMS6pr pic.twitter.com/1PXpkYRfa8


June 8, 2020

However, the press secretary would not explicitly say whether the president still believes players who kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality should be fired.

Last night, Trump criticized NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for saying that the league had mishandled the players’ protests and encouraging players to “speak out” about police brutality.

“Could it be even remotely possible that in Roger Goodell’s rather interesting statement of peace and reconciliation, he was intimating that it would now be O.K. for the players to KNEEL, or not to stand, for the National Anthem, thereby disrespecting our Country & our Flag?” Trump wrote in a tweet.










White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany lashed out against Mitt Romney after the Republican senator participated in a protest against police brutality over the weekend.

McEnany recounted some of Romney’s gaffes during his 2012 presidential campaign and went on to brag that Trump got 8% of the black vote, while Romney got 2%.

But exit polls indicate Romney actually got 6% of the black vote when he ran against Barack Obama in 2012, and needless to say, both men received very little support from African Americans, which is something the Republican party as a whole has struggled with.










McEnany says White House has ‘no regrets’ about using tear gas on protesters

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the administration stands by the decision to forcibly remove peaceful protesters using tear gas last week.

“There’s no regrets on the part of this White House,” McEnany said of the decision, which sparked international outcry.

McEnany tried to shift responsibility for the decision to attorney general William Barr and the US park police.

When again asked whether Trump is sorry about the way protesters were removed, McEnany deflected by saying, “The president is sorry about the fact that Antifa wreaked havoc on our streets.”



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Why Joe Biden Is in Good Shape (for Now)

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Why Joe Biden Is in Good Shape (for Now)

Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.

Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday.

If the election were tomorrow, Joe Biden would be well positioned to win.

He’s leading the latest national polls, in many cases by double-digit margins. Since the spring, Mr. Biden’s national advantage over President Trump has grown by an average of four points, evidence that the tumultuous events of the past few months have played to his favor.

While Mr. Biden’s margins are tighter in key battleground states, he’s consistently up in most of those, too. Last week, Fox News polling had him leading in Wisconsin and Arizona and facing a tossup in Ohio — a state Mr. Trump won by eight points in 2016. Quinnipiac University even found the two candidates locked in a tight race in Texas, a state that hasn’t gone to a Democrat since 1976.

Of course, the election isn’t held on the second Tuesday in June. And if we’ve learned anything about 2020 so far, it’s to expect the unexpected.

So much has changed in the past few months. Three months ago, more than a hundred thousand Americans had not yet died of the coronavirus. Two months ago, there were 18 million more jobs. A month ago, an outpouring of rage over racism was not roiling the country.

A remarkable 80 percent of voters say they believe the country is spiraling out of control, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

We know that Americans feel deeply unsettled right now and that their anxiety is probably pushing some of them toward Mr. Biden. What we don’t know is how they will feel in November. Polling offers us only a snapshot into this specific moment, not a prediction of what will come. Who knows what this week will bring, never mind the next five months.

But it’s not just the numbers that lean in Mr. Biden’s favor.

For all the consternation about Mr. Biden’s cloistered campaign, Mr. Trump’s political strategy is far more confused.

Five months before the election, Mr. Trump and his team are struggling to settle on a re-election message, absent the strong economy that they believed would be the centerpiece of their campaign. Defining Mr. Biden as “Sleepy Joe” has proved to be far bigger challenge than Mr. Trump faced in 2016, when he ran against “Crooked Hillary” — a political figure fiercely attacked for decades. And amid a pandemic, a recession and nationwide protests over racism and police brutality, his team can’t even seem to settle on a slogan.

Most fundamentally, Mr. Trump shows no sign of tempering the base-first strategy that has been at the core of his political identity as president. Throughout his time in the White House, Mr. Trump has never demonstrated a sustained interest or ability to connect with voters beyond his own coalition.

The focus on rallying his most passionate supporters has helped Mr. Trump. In June 2016, Mr. Trump was backed by about three-quarters of his party after a contentious primary contest. Today, even as his approval ratings drop, polling shows he maintains support from around 95 percent of Republicans.

The problem with so much winning is that it doesn’t leave the president any room to grow. At the same time, there are early signs that he is losing some ground with the demographic groups that boosted him to victory four years ago, including white men, independents, voters without college degrees and evangelicals.

The combination of those trends — a tapped-out Republican base and defections from groups of voters Mr. Trump needs to dominate — leaves him in a difficult position.

If he wants to expand his support, Mr. Trump must flip some Biden backers. To do that, he must do something truly extraordinary in an election already full of unprecedented moments: ignore his political instincts and reach out to the other side.

We want to hear from our readers. Have a question? We’ll try to answer it. Have a comment? We’re all ears. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

Though the coronavirus has robbed the electoral calendar of any sense of normalcy, having primary elections on consecutive Tuesdays does bring some familiar rhythms.

Tomorrow, voters in Georgia and four other states will head to the polls. Well, actually, voters in Georgia have been heading to the polls for roughly three weeks, since early voting began on May 18. But with new rules for social distancing and disinfecting machines, the early voting process has resulted in long lines, with some voters reporting seven-hour waits.

More than one million Georgians had already cast their ballots as of Saturday, with 890,000 of those cast by mail, according to the office of Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state.

Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, drew attention when he mailed absentee ballot applications to all active voters, at a time when President Trump was casting false aspersions about voting by mail. Both Republican and Democratic voters embraced voting by mail, with nearly equal percentages returning ballots as of the weekend.

But as much as the coronavirus has disrupted the primary, there are signs that the mass protests against racial injustice have energized the electorate in Georgia, particularly black voters. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, black voters accounted for 44 percent of all in-person early voters on Friday, far exceeding their 26 percent share on the last day of early voting four years ago.

The most prominent race in Georgia is the Democratic primary to challenge Senator David Perdue for a seat Democrats are targeting in November. At the moment, Jon Ossoff, the former House candidate who lost in 2017, is leading in polling, but has been registering below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

The fans were a little … stuffy.

Thanks for reading. On Politics is your guide to the political news cycle, delivering clarity from the chaos.

On Politics is also available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.



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Best of BS Opinion: Unlocking Delhi, Covid-19 crisis, GDP growth, and more

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Best of BS Opinion: Unlocking Delhi, Covid-19 crisis, GDP growth, and more


Indians are thronging malls, shrines and restaurants, and the traffic jams are back. Expect a surge in Covid-19 cases that will test India’s ramshackle public healthcare infrastructure like never before. It’s the longer term responses of political and corporate leaderships in that will also matter in the days ahead, as opinion page writers point out today. Kanika Datta sums up the views.

In the first of a three-part series, Pranab Bardhan makes the case for Universal Basic Income and argues that finding resources to do so may be within the realm of fiscal feasibility. Read it here


India is not the only country to suffer a pandemic recession, but its recovery is likely to be much more problematic than many of the others.

Shreekant Sambrani explains why here

Anjuli Bhargava reviews the handling of employees in the aviation sector as the Covid-19 crisis played out and shows how each organisation revealed its true character. Read it here

The reopening of sections of the economy around the world is slowly revealing the extent of the looming global job crisis and labour unrest. India will not be immune from the consequences, Hasan Suroor predicts. Read his analysis here

The migrant labour crisis brought on by mass evictions from homes and factories during the nationwide lockdown has highlighted afresh the urgent need for providing affordable accommodation for casual labour, the top edit points out. Read it here

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has demonstrated immaturity and illogic in his approach to unlocking the state, says the second edit. Read it here

QUOTE OF THE DAY

‘We paused to save lives, now we need to save livelihoods’

Sajjan Jindal, chairman, JSW group



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Tropical Storm Cristobal weakens to depression, but heavy rain, winds could roar from Gulf Coast to Wisconsin

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Tropical Storm Cristobal weakens to depression, but heavy rain, winds could roar from Gulf Coast to Wisconsin

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Cristobal was projected to weaken to a tropical depression Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Storyful

NEW ORLEANS — Once-mighty Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened to a tropical depression Monday, but winds, rain, flooding and even tornadoes remained a threat from the Gulf Coast to Wisconsin.

About 8,400 customers in Louisiana and Mississippi remained without power Monday night, according to poweroutage.us. 

“It’s very efficient, very tropical rainfall,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. “It rains a whole bunch real quick.”

Tropical-storm-force wind gusts were forecast Monday in parts of southeastern Louisiana to the western Florida Panhandle. Blustery winds were expected to sweep northward Wednesday over portions of the Midwest and the western Great Lakes, the weather service said.

The storm was expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 5 to 10 inches across portions of the Gulf Coast into the Lower Mississippi Valley; isolated amounts of 15 inches was possible. Heavy rains and the potential for flooding were forecast as far north as Wisconsin, the weather service said.

Hurricanes amid a pandemic: ‘A cataclysmic scenario’

The storm was centered 40 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Monday, driving sustained winds of 35 mph. State offices in 22 parishes were ordered closed, and President Donald Trump approved federal assistance for the state’s cleanup efforts.

“At the request of @SenJohnKennedy and @SenBillCassidy of the Great State of Louisiana, I will be approving & signing today an EMERGENCY DECLARATION which will help with all aspects of the big storm that is currently hitting your shores,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “FEMA is already there. God Bless You!”

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Cristobal made landfall in southeast Louisiana on Sunday after days of rain and high water. Rough surf was stirred well before landfall. Two brothers died when they were caught in an undertow in a rip current off the coast of Louisiana. 

Historically fast start: Hurricane season off to historically fast start: What does that mean for the rest of the year?

Gov. Jon Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency last week as Cristobal advanced toward the coast.

“We are continuing to work with our federal partners on those parts of the request that have not been addressed,” Edwards tweeted Sunday night. “Our citizens have weathered many storms, and I’m certain that they will this time as well.”

Christopher Cassidy, expedition commander at the International Space Station, posted photos of the storm from space.

“Best of luck to all of the folks in the gulf coast region who are about to deal with the weather from #tropicalstormcristobal,” the astronaut wrote on Twitter and Instagram.

In New Orleans, many shops were boarded up. City Hall and the library system were closed Monday.

City officials in Biloxi, Mississippi, said on Facebook that the biggest issue of the storm for first responders was providing assistance to dozens of motorists who tried to drive through flooded roadways.

In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted.

Busy hurricane season expected: Up to 19 named storms possible

And in Florida, a tornado – the second in two days in the state as the storm approached – uprooted trees and downed power lines Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service and authorities said. There were no reports of injuries.

The hurricane season that began a week ago is already historically busy – Cristobal is the third named storm. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted last month as many as 19 named storms would form this year, as many as 10 reaching hurricane strength.

Bacon reported from McLean, Virginia. Contributing: Elinor Aspegren, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

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Not all flood alerts are the same. Here’s what you should take seriously.

USA TODAY

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/08/cristobal-storm-news-storm-surge-and-path-after-making-landfall/3173727001/

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Malaysia: Boat Carrying Rohingya Allowed to Land on Langkawi Island

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Malaysia: Boat Carrying Rohingya Allowed to Land on Langkawi Island

Malaysian authorities towed a disabled boat ashore and detained 269 Rohingya on Monday after dozens jumped overboard and began swimming to an island off the northwest coast of peninsular Malaysia, officials said.

The boat was carrying hundreds more when it left Bangladesh in February, one senior official told BenarNews on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to comment on the matter. Maritime authorities had initially tried to push the boat back into international waters on Monday morning off Langkawi, an island in northern Kedah state.

“They were believed to have fled Cox’s Bazar in February,” the source said, referring to a southeastern Bangladeshi district, where close to 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have been sheltering at sprawling camps.

“Nine [crew members] fled after the boat entered Malaysia,” the Malaysian security source added. “The boat is believed to have carried 500 Rohingya when it departed Bangladesh but only 269 were found.”

The landing marked the first time that Rohingya have been allowed to disembark in Malaysia for more than two months due to border closings related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Late on Monday, Malaysia’s National Task Force issued a statement about the Rohingya boat, but it did not say anything about hundreds of more passenger believed to be on board when it departed Cox’s Bazar, nor did it mention that the boat had sailed from Bangladesh.

A Malaysian coast guard ship, the KM Kimanis, located the boat early Monday and was moving to intercept it and push it back into international waters, the task force said.

“When KM Kimanis was approaching the boat at Langkawi waters, a total of 53 Rohingya jumped into the sea and started swimming to shore. However, all of them were arrested by MMEA officers who were on standby on the island,” the statement said, referring to the coast guard officially known as the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.

Damage to the boat’s engine and holes found in the boat “prevented the authorities from carrying out further action. KM Kimanis had given assistance in the form of food items and clean water to the illegal immigrants,” the statement said. “On a humanitarian basis, the National Security Council gave permission for the boat to be towed to Langkawi.”

According to the task force, 216 Rohingya were found on the boat along with the corpse of a Rohingya woman, which was turned over to police. All 269 refugees – those on the boat and those who swam to shore – were detained and taken to the Nation Building Camp, a training center in Langkawi.

The task force is spearheaded by the military and its other members are the Royal Malaysia Police and MMEA. It was launched in May to coordinate border control operations among security agencies.

On May 26, Armed Forces chief Gen. Affendi Buang said the aim of the National Task Force was to tighten border security through collective efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, stop cross-border crimes and to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Malaysia.

Rights groups repeatedly have raised alarms about the impact of governmental policies in turning away boatloads that typically bring Rohingya refugees and other migrants to Malaysia and other hubs for migrant workers at this time of year.

Since May 1, authorities have prevented 22 boats from entering the country illegally, according to Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

“Authorities have arrested a total of 396 illegal immigrants and 108 ‘tekong’ (boat skippers) for attempting to enter the country’s border through illegal routes,” he told reporters in Putrajaya on Monday. “Also arrested were 11 individuals believed to be human traffickers and 13 vessels were seized.”

Rohingya boats

The boat was the first carrying Rohingya to land in Malaysia since April 5 when one carrying 202 Rohingya, who were turned over to immigration authorities, also landed at Langkawi.

On April 16, the Royal Malaysian Air Force announced it had stopped an attempt by a trawler carrying about 200 Rohingya to enter the country. It said air force spotters notified the navy, which sent ships to escort the trawler from Malaysian waters but not before delivering food on a “humanitarian basis.”

That incident led international humanitarian organizations and others to criticize the government over risking lives of Rohingya by preventing them from landing.

A day earlier, authorities in Bangladesh rescued nearly 400 Rohingya. Some told horror stories of being at sea on a fishing trawler for almost two months and being refused entry to Malaysia.

Rights groups respond

The North-South Initiative, a Malaysian humanitarian organization, called for the government to recognize Rohingya as asylum seekers.

The group’s executive director, Adrian Pereira, said the government must respect the non-refoulement principle because deporting asylum seekers could put them in harm’s way.

“The government of Malaysia must realize that the Rohingya are one of the most oppressed minorities on the planet. We must recognize them as asylum seekers and ensure they are given proper care,” he told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. “Let’s show the world that Malaysia has a big heart and we can fulfill our international duties and obligations.”

Malaysia is home to about 180,000 refugees registered through the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, as of February. Rohingya account for more than half of the country’s refugee population, according to Fortify Rights, a human rights advocacy group.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.



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Nordstrom Rack Sale: Spend $150, Get $30

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Nordstrom Rack Sale: Spend $150, Get $30


Nordstrom Rack Sale: Spend $150, Get $30 | Entertainment Tonight


































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Coronavirus live news: Brazil passes 700,000 infections as WHO warns pandemic is worsening

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Coronavirus live news: Brazil passes 700,000 infections as WHO warns pandemic is worsening










WHO warns global pandemic is worsening

The world has recorded its highest daily jump of cases (136,000), according to the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said: “More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal.”

“Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening,” he said.

Nearly 75% of the 136,000 deaths were reported from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia.

The WHO emergencies chief, Dr Mike Ryan, said retrospective studies of how the outbreak has been addressed could wait, adding: “We need to focus now on what we are doing today to prevent second peaks.”

Ryan also said infections in central American countries including Guatemala were still on the rise, and that they were “complex” epidemics.

“I think this is a time of great concern,” he said, calling for strong government leadership and international support for the region.

Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on the virus, said that a “comprehensive approach” was essential in South America.

“This is far from over,” van Kerkhove said, adding that asymptomatic transmission of the virus “appears to be rare”.






Mourners honour a nurse who died of coronavirus in Mexico. Photograph: José Luis González/Reuters









Brazil’s infections pass 700,000

South America’s worst affected country now has 707,412 and deaths recorded are 37,134. It marks a continuing steep rise – Brazil recorded 500,000 cases on 1 June.

A leading newspaper in the country reported that Brazil’s health ministry slashed the number of new Covid-19 deaths it reported on Sunday by 857 because far-right president Jair Bolsonaro wanted less than a thousand deaths a day.

The Guardian’s Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro writes: On Sunday the health ministry said 1,382 deaths had been recorded in the previous 24 hours, but later corrected it down to 525. On Monday the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper reported that the correction was ordered because Bolsonaro wanted the number of deaths at less than a thousand a day. He has vociferously attacked social isolation and notoriously quipped “so what?” to the rising death toll in April.

To accommodate him, the health ministry separated out all the deaths reported over 24 hours – as it had been doing for months – and began including only deaths that had actually occurred during the last day. The correction came two days after the Ministry stopped releasing accumulated cases and deaths in a daily bulletin and wiped a government site clean of data – a move also reportedly ordered by Bolsonaro that provoked widespread condemnation.




A woman wearing a mask walks past a wall with a graffiti depicting a cleaner in protective gear spraying viruses with the face of President Jair Bolsonaro in Rio de Janeiro.

A woman wearing a mask walks past a wall with a graffiti depicting a cleaner in protective gear spraying viruses with the face of President Jair Bolsonaro, in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Bruna Prado/Getty Images









Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, with me Alison Rourke. If you would like to get in touch, you can email me at Alison.Rourke@guardian.co.uk.

Before we dive in, let’s get up to speed on what’s happening right now…

  • Infections globally have passed 7 million and deaths have passed 400,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
  • Brazil cases pass 700,000. The country’s health ministry says cases now stand at 707,412 and deaths recorded are 37,134. A Brazilian senator called for an inquiry into Covid-19 data, after the country shared contradictory figures on deaths and infections. The discrepancy prompted criticism from across the political spectrum, and a leading newspaper has reported the health ministry slashed the number of deaths it reported by 857 because president Jair Bolsonaro wanted less than a thousand deaths a day.
  • The World Health Organization has warned against complacency, saying the coronavirus pandemic situation is worsening around the globe. The WHO said it had recorded its highest daily tally of new infections on Sunday (136,000), with Covid-19 raging in the Americas. “Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
  • The WHO’s technical lead on coronavirus, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, has said it “appears to be rare” that asymptomatic cases transmit coronavirus.
  • Moscow is lifting its months-long lockdown, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Local media reported that the Russian capital’s general lockdown would end on Tuesday, allowing residents to travel freely for the first time since late March.
  • Poland will close 12 coal mines from Tuesday for three weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus among miners. Miners account for almost 20% of coronavirus cases reported in the country.
  • Over half of pregnant women hospitalised for coronavirus in UK were BAME, a study has found. The research looked at data for 427 pregnant women admitted to 194 obstetric units in the UK with a positive Covid-19 infection between 1 March and 14 April.
  • South Africa has passed 1,000 deaths and 50,000 cases. The grim milestones were passed just a week after the country further eased lockdown restrictions. At 50,879 the number of detected infections is the worst in Africa, and two-thirds are in the Western Cape province. South Africa ranks second in terms of deaths at 1,080 after Egypt.
  • Antiracist protesters should wear masks, says Tedros. The director general of the WHO has called on people attending antiracism protests to wear masks, as he warned that the biggest threat in the ongoing coronavirus outbreak “was now complacency.”
  • The UK has recorded its lowest daily death toll since 22 March. A further 55 people have died after contracting Covid-19 in UK, taking the country’s death toll to 40,597. This is the lowest daily total of newly reported deaths since 22 March, but there is often a reporting lag over a weekend. The figures do not include all deaths across the UK, which is thought to have passed 50,000.

Updated

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