Good morning. More than 40,000 people have now died in the US as a result of the coronavirus – almost a quarter of the total global death toll. So on Sunday, Donald Trump again used his daily press briefing to focus on favourable coverage of his own performance. The president read aloud sections of a Wall Street Journal column praising him, and then rolled a selectively edited video of Andrew Cuomo lauding the federal response to the crisis.
In fact, the New York governor recently slammed Trump, suggesting that if the president was “sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work”. The New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, stepped up his criticism of the president at a Sunday press conference, asking whether his administration was “going to save New York City or are you telling New York City to drop dead?”
Governors across the US have also faulted Trump over his apparent support for the weekend’s protests by rightwing groups against their states’ stay-at-home orders. The president’s plan for lifting the lockdown, without adequate testing measures in place, is both “delusional” and “dangerous”, state leaders said.
A ‘narcissistic bully’. That’s former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s assessment of Trump. In this extract from his new memoir, Turnbull looks back on his dealings with the US president during the latter’s first weeks in power.
The UN’s crisis fund for vulnerable countries is falling far short
There have now been more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide, with at least 165,000 deaths. And the risk to the world’s more vulnerable countries is looking ever more stark, say UN agency chiefs, who revealed that their plea for international aid to key crisis areas, including the Middle East and Africa, has so far raised only a quarter of the requested $2bn total.
The oil price hit a 21st century low. In a sign of the gloomy global economic outlook, the price of US crude plunged almost 20% on Monday, to below $15 – its lowest point since 1999.
Almost 100 US public transit workers have died with Covid-19
In late March, a Detroit bus driver posted an emotional Facebook video about a passenger coughing on his bus without covering her mouth. Eleven days later, he was dead as a result of coronavirus. As Lois Beckett reports, at least 94 American transit workers have died so far during the pandemic, and a Guardian investigation has found many cities failing to provide them with even basic safety measures.
Celebrities highlight black and Latino victims. Sean Combs, Lin-Manuel Miranda and others appeared on CNN to discuss the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on US communities of colour, which Combs described as “sobering” and “tragic”.
Workers without degrees face greater hardship. That’s the conclusion of a European survey, which found that the crisis will increase inequality across the continent, with the livelihoods of less educated workers most under threat.
But things are looking up …
… in New Zealand, where lockdown restrictions may be loosened in a week’s time. Jacinda Ardern’s government has been so successful in preventing the virus’ spread that just 12 people have perished, and the prime minister still receives a phone call to inform her of each death.
… for endangered sea turtles in Florida, where marine life researchers say the coronavirus restrictions have kept humans and harmful waste away from beaches, leading to a “significant” annual increase in the number of leatherback sea turtle nests.
In other news …
A gunman killed 16 people in Nova Scotia. The 51-year-old suspect posed as a police officer during his 12-hour spree – Canada’s worst act of mass murder in modern times – which ended with the suspect dead after a standoff with police.
Did the EPA break the law to back Monsanto? The agency will try to answer that question in court on Tuesday, following claims from farmers that a herbicide made by the controversial agri-giant has triggered “widespread” crop damage.
Harry and Meghan have cut ties with UK tabloids. The former senior royals wrote to the editors of four British newspapers, saying they would no longer respond to their journalists’ enquiries and accusing them of running stories that were “distorted, false, or invasive beyond reason”.
Covering climate now
The world may be occupied by Covid-19, but there’s another global crisis happening – and the media can’t afford to stop covering it. Which is why, 50 years since the first Earth Day, the Guardian has joined forces with hundreds of newsrooms around the world to focus attention on creative solutions to the climate emergency.
Great reads
Behind every great man: how Kim’s sister crafts his image
Kim Yo-jong is now thought to be the single most important figure in the North Korean regime besides her brother, the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. As Justin McCurry reports, Kim is allowing his sister and top propagandist to become his “alter ego”.
Elliot Gould: ‘Of course I smoked marijuana!’
The star of M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye is still winning new fans, including for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s pandemic thriller, Contagion. Now 81, Gould tells Elle Hunt: “Sometimes things work, sometimes things don’t work, and we learn from it.”
Why Deepwater Horizon could happen again, a decade on
It has been precisely 10 years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. But with Obama-era rules having been loosened under Trump, there is every chance of a similar environmental catastrophe occurring today, as Emily Holden reports.
Opinion: Activists can still push for change in a pandemic
The global lockdowns have brought an unprecedented era of street protest to an abrupt halt. But researchers say the crisis has also sparked new forms of activism, which could prove just as powerful.
In just several weeks’ time, we’ve identified nearly 100 distinct methods of nonviolent action that include physical, virtual and hybrid actions – and we’re still counting. Far from condemning social movements to obsolescence, the pandemic – and governments’ responses to it – are spawning new tools, new strategies, and new motivation to push for change.
Last Thing: the top 10 toasties of all time
The lockdown has left many of us obsessed with bread, which makes sandwiches the logical next step. And why eat a sandwich, when you could eat a toasted sandwich? From grilled cheese to Snickers, Zoe Williams presents her run-down of history’s greatest toasties.
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