Good morning,
In the midst of an unprecedented global health crisis, Donald Trump has decided to cut US funding to the World Health Organization after accusing the international body of “severely mismanaging and covering up” the threat posed by the coronavirus. Leading health experts described the president’s move as “damnable”, “appalling” and “a crime against humanity”.
For context, the WHO declared a public health emergency on 30 January – after which the president continued to hold mass rallies and compare Covid-19 to the common flu. On Tuesday, Trump complained the WHO had “defended the actions of the Chinese government, even praising its so-called transparency”. On 24 January, Trump tweeted his thanks to the Chinese for their work on the virus, praising their “efforts and transparency”.
Trump targeted the WHO, Julian Borger writes from Washington, because he needed someone else to blame for his administration’s own complacent and dysfunctional response to the crisis:
How well Trump’s scapegoating of the WHO will play in the US election is impossible to predict, but on the world stage it will undoubtedly be seen as yet another step in an accelerating US abdication of global leadership.
Female reporters. The women of the White House press corps really seem to get under the president’s skin, as evidenced by his testy exchange with CBS’s Paula Reid. Poppy Noor asks whether Trump has met his match in the briefing room.
Presidential cheques. Trump’s own name will appear on the $1,200 cheques being sent to cash-strapped Americans amid the crisis – so they’ll know who to blame when the cheques arrive several days later than expected.
California feels ‘optimistic’, but the lockdown goes on
California is transitioning to the “optimistic” phase of its coronavirus response, Governor Gavin Newsom suggested on Tuesday, but don’t expect those stay-at-home orders to be lifted anytime soon. A Stanford epidemiologist has pooh-poohed any speculation of statewide “herd immunity”, while San Francisco has cancelled its 50th anniversary Pride event, which had been due to take place at the end of June. Several experts say physical distancing may be needed intermittently until at least 2022.
Elsewhere in the US:
Florida’s unemployed. Some 472,000 people have filed for unemployment in the state in recent weeks. The true number of jobless is far higher, and the system just can’t cope with the surge.
Vegas is empty. Photographer Tod Seelie captures the eeriness of the deserted Las Vegas Strip, closed down for the first time since the Kennedy assassination.
Airlines get a $25bn government bailout
They wanted $50bn, they got $25bn. The US government agreed a bailout for the beleaguered airline industry on Tuesday as part of its $2.2tn coronavirus aid package, as travel reaches an almost total standstill during lockdowns in almost 100 countries and on every continent besides Antarctica. The International Air Transport Association predicts airlines will lose 25% of their revenue this year, a total of approximately $314bn.
The medical workers risking – and losing – their lives
Medical staff and emergency responders account for an estimated 11% of known US coronavirus cases. Now, the Guardian and Kaiser Health News have launched an effort to document all the lives lost on the healthcare frontline during the crisis. These are some of the first tragic cases.
Nursing home workers. While hospitals are being overwhelmed, nursing homes are being hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, with 4,800 deaths recorded in US residential care facilities so far. Workers tell Chris McGreal they are “living in fear”.
In other news …
Barack Obama endorses Biden. The former president cast his former VP as the elder statesman with the experience and instincts to unify party and country in a time of crisis, in his first – though undoubtedly not his last – major public intervention in the 2020 presidential race.
Jacinda Ardern is taking a pay cut. The New Zealand prime minister has said she and her ministers will slash their own salaries by 20% for the next six months, in solidarity with other workers affected by the coronavirus.
It’s the longest animal ever seen: a 150-foot siphonophore – a deep sea predator that looks like a single piece of string – floating in the ocean off Western Australia and spotted by scientists who have discovered as many as 30 new marine species lurking in the region’s deep, underwater canyons.
Great reads
Virtual visitors: a remote-controlled guide to the Faroes
The Faroe Islands, a ruggedly beautiful north Atlantic archipelago, has enjoyed a tourism boom in recent years. But 2020 put paid to that, so now the islands are inviting people to visit remotely, writes Tim Ecott, by giving local volunteer guides a camera and letting people from all over the world take an online tour with them.
The outrage of our electronic waste mountain
The world’s biggest companies may deny it, but it is widely believed our electronic devices are deliberately built with a limited lifespan: so-called “planned obsolescence”. The result is a growing mountain of e-waste. John Harris talks to the activists trying to repair all that dead tech.
Republican vote suppression backfires in Wisconsin
Republicans risked lives by refusing to delay Wisconsin’s elections last week, a move that backfired spectacularly when a conservative justice on the state’s supreme court lost his seat to a liberal challenger by 163,000 votes. It’s an early litmus test of Trump’s political strength in a crucial swing state, as Sam Levine reports.
Opinion: Why ‘cottagecore’ is booming under lockdown
Brand strategist Amelia Hall says there’s a new youth movement that fetishizes the wholesome purity of the outdoors. So why is “cottagecore” taking off now? Because we’re all stuck at home, of course.
Today, the simple act of being outdoors poses a very real, very mortal threat. So while mindlessly scrolling through Twitter, and encountering collages of young women lying in grass, cradling bunnies, wearing outfits out of Picnic at Hanging Rock – I felt as though I’d found something as illicit as a schedule 2 drug.
Last Thing: The animals that have mastered social distancing
In this time of self-isolation, perhaps we humans can take inspiration from the platypus, which spends its days eating crustaceans and resting in its burrow, content with a life of solitude. To that end, the World Wide Fund for Nature has compiled a list of some of the world’s most antisocial creatures.
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