Summary Here’s a look at today’s major news items ... Mike Pompeo says there is ‘enormous evidence’ coronavirus came from a Chinese lab. The US secretary of state claimed there is “enormous evidence” the coronavirus outbreak originated in a Chinese laboratory – but did not provide any of the alleged evidence. Gretchen Whitmer backs Joe Biden on alleged assault. Michigan’s governor has spoken out in support of Joe Biden, telling CNN that when it comes to accusations of sexual assault, “not every claim is equal” Trump adviser: coronavirus relief aid threat to ‘sanctuary cities’ could happen. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has not ruled out any element in the next potential coronavirus relief bill, including more money for state and local governments and the small business programme. The Associated Press has news of an incident that will concern those who believe social distancing patrols can lead to police exercising too much force on the public. From the AP’s report: A New York City police officer who was caught on video on Saturday pointing a stun gun at a man and violently taking him to the ground over an alleged social distancing violation has been stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty pending an internal investigation. Bystander video showed the plainclothes officer, who was not wearing a protective face mask, slapping 33-year-old Donni Wright in the face, punching him in the shoulder and dragging him to a sidewalk after leveling him in a crosswalk in Manhattan’s East Village. “There will unquestionably be a careful look at what happened there,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday. Police spokeswoman Sgt Mary Frances O’Donnell said Wright “took a fighting stance against the officer” when he was ordered to disperse and was arrested on charges including assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. Joe Biden further reasserted his status as the presumptive challenger to Donald Trump for the presidency after winning a Democratic presidential primary in Kansas that the state party conducted exclusively through mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic. The former vice-president earned 77% of the vote and 29 of the state’s delegates in a primary that employed a new ranked choice system and saw three times the standard turnout, according to the Topeka Capital Journal. The change from a caucus format and an aggressive push for mail-in ballots while the state was on lockdown for Covid-19 led to a dramatic increase in turnout for the party, which typically sees 8-10% participation in presidential primaries. Four years ago, the total turnout was 39,230. This year, the vote total more than tripled as 34.7% of registered Kansas Democrats participated. “The KDP offers its congratulations to former Vice President Joseph Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders for receiving delegates from the Sunflower State,” said party chairwoman Vicki Hiatt. “Kansas Democrats made history in this election with record participation levels along with demonstrating how a vote-by-mail election can protect voters and our democracy, even in the most uncertain of times. We are confident the enthusiasm and engagement seen during the 2020 Primary will only continue to grow and translate into Democratic victories up and down the ballot in November.” Biden won 69% of votes in the first round of a ranked choice system. The candidate receiving the least votes is eliminated every round, with those votes going to the next choice on the ballot. Sanders won 18% with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren getting 8% and 1% going to Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. About 3% declined to commit to a top choice. Gabbard, uncommitted and Warren votes were redistributed over the course of three additional rounds. “The Kansas Democratic Party will carry this record-breaking momentum into our robust coordinated campaign to elect Democrats who will fight for working families, healthcare reform, and a future we all can be proud of in November,” said Ben Meers, the party’s executive director. While presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is already confronting allegations of sexual assault on one front, the vice-president must also now combat a growing campaign of misinformation. Rumors quickly circulated online over the weekend claiming that, in 2008, Biden made inappropriate comments toward Eva Murray. The niece of one-time Republican senate hopeful Christine O’Donnell then claimed to be just 14 at the time of the incident. Event organizers immediately worked to prove the claims false, providing evidence Biden wasn’t in attendance. ABC News reporter Sasha Pezenik faced mounting backlash for first tweeting the unverified claim on Saturday night. While she has apologized, claiming the tweet was misguided, critics have called on the reporter to be sacked. Snopes, the non-profit fact-finding group, is calling foul on a photo that appeared to show the then-senator awkwardly meeting with congressional staffer Tara Reade. Reade has accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in a senate corridor in 1993. Over the weekend, social media postings popped up claiming to show a lost image of Biden with a woman users suggested was Reade. The vice-president has asserted he “never met” her. The photo is obviously fake. According to Snopes: Such posts were wrong on two fronts. First, Biden has not maintained that he “never met” Reade, who worked as a staff assistant in his Senate office from December 1992 to August 1993 (and it’s unclear whether he has even averred that he “doesn’t remember” Reade). Second, and more important, although this photograph dates from the correct time period (i.e., January 1993) to potentially be a picture of Biden with Tara Reade, it is actually a photograph of Biden posing with Zoë Baird, who had then just been nominated for the position of U.S. Attorney General by President Bill Clinton. Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to erase any perception of negligence from the timeline of his administration’s coronavirus response continued on Sunday afternoon as he fired off a pair of tweets shortly after returning to the White House following a working weekend at Camp David and ahead of his Fox News virtual town hall tonight at the Lincoln Memorial. “Intelligence has just reported to me that I was correct, and that they did NOT bring up the CoronaVirus subject matter until late into January, just prior to my banning China from the U.S. Also, they only spoke of the Virus in a very non-threatening, or matter of fact, manner,” Trump tweeted. “Fake News got it wrong again, as always, and tens of thousands of lives were saved by my EARLY BAN of China into our Country. The people that we’re allowed were heavily scrutinized and tested U.S. citizens, and as such, I welcome them with open arms!” Florida’s department of health has reported the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has climbed past 36,000. But the hotbed of south Florida has seen a drop in known positive test results and now accounts for less than half of the state’s increase in new novel coronavirus cases and deaths, the Miami Herald reports: Of Florida’s 615 new confirmed Covid-19 cases from Saturday’s update, putting the state at 36,078, 248 (40.3%) came from Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. The 15 newly reported deaths around the state, raising the state death toll to 1,379, include six (40%) from South Florida. As for number of people tested, the state reported 12,208 new tests have been administered and 1,881 people are now awaiting test results. But that results-pending number includes only state labs. As reported earlier in the month by the Miami Herald, it doesn’t include the private labs doing an overwhelming majority of the testing. The state’s official numbers also conflict with work from by a University of Miami group that extrapolated from a study of 1,400 people that about 165,000 Miami-Dade residents or 6% of the population, have antibodies indicating a past novel coronavirus infection. About 3.4% of Miami-Dade’s population has been tested for Covid-19. The breakdown by county: ▪ Miami-Dade had 143 new cases and two deaths, leaving it at 12,775 and 369 respectively, both state highs. The number of people hospitalized at some point by Covid-19 is 1,664, an increase of 13 from Saturday. The positive test rate is 13.7, down from 13.8 at Saturday’s update. ▪ Broward added 55 cases, which now total 5,312; and three deaths, which now total 207; and 12 hospitalizations, which now total 1056. Like Miami-Dade, the county’s positive test rate edged down 0.1 of a percent, to 10.2% from 10.3%. ▪ In Palm Beach, 50 new cases raised that total to 3,130 and one death pushed that total to 196. Another three hospitalizations were reported for a total of 474. The positive test rate moved a breath, from 10.32% to 10.27%. ▪ Monroe County saw no changes in cases (80), hospitalizations (11) or deaths (3) and it’s positive test rate dropped from 5.9% to 5.7%. The latest figures were reported amid the incremental re-opening of Florida’s beaches, to which Death himself took objection on Friday. Gun sales may be up in the US during the pandemic, as has been widely noted, but here’s an interesting report from the Associated Press on problems facing the normally hugely powerful National Rifle Association. “The NRA has laid off dozens of employees, canceled its national convention and scuttled fundraising, membership and shooting events that normally would be key to rallying its base in an election year,” the AP reports. The lobbying group has also “imposed a four-day work week for some employees and cut salaries across the board, including for CEO Wayne LaPierre. The financial issues … have complicated its ability to influence the 2020 election.” According to the AP, “LaPierre earned about $2m, according to the group’s most-recent tax filings. The NRA would not say how much of a pay cut he’s taking”. Robert J Spitzer, chairman of political science at the State University of New York at Cortland, told the AP: “Everybody’s in the same boat as the NRA. The NRA’s real problem is they had real existing financial problems before this happened. It simply does not bode well for their impact on the upcoming election.” Gun-control groups “contend the NRA’s financial troubles will leave it incapable of playing a significant role in Trump’s campaign”. “I would be shocked if the NRA were able to sustain the investment in support of Trump in 2020 that it made in 2016,” Peter Ambler, executive director of the Giffords group, named after former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was seriously wounded after being shot in 2011, told the AP. Meanwhile, in related reading, here’s a report about how Canada has reacted to its latest mass shooting: Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, spoke about imperative nature of open journalism in the age of coronavirus on CNN’s Reliable Sources today on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. “Whenever there is a shock to the system, governments will try to use that, unless we keep an eye on them, to crack down,” Viner said. “And it’s essential that we try and stop that from happening, or at least draw attention to the fact that freedom of expression and freedom of the press is crucial to any democratic society. And I think transparency matters a lot right now when good information and how you come to it, how you come to the facts, can really help save lives.” Viner went on to discuss Lost on the frontline, the ongoing project from the Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the life of every healthcare worker in America who dies from Covid-19 during the pandemic. “We should be holding authorities to account, wherever they are,” she said. “It’s usually governments but it might also be health authorities. We have to ask difficult questions even if people don’t like it. We have to show empathy and humanity for the victims of this really frightening disease and tell their stories. Often these are from very marginalized communities. And we try to give visibility and humanity to them.” The Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn reports on how some New Yorkers are calling foul on the city’s enforcement of stay-at-home restrictions. Community advocates across New York’s Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn boroughs have called out city and state officials or what they claim are racial and ethnic double standards in its application of social distancing orders. Images of wealthier, white residents in Manhattan disregarding stay-at-home orders in neighborhood parks have gone viral throughout much of the weekend. But many residents have said that so far, it is neighborhoods in the city’s less affluent communities that have been targeted for ticketing and arrests. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio was forced to apologize this week for personally overseeing the dispersal of a Hasidic Jewish funeral in Brooklyn on Wednesday after lashing out at the conduct of mourners. But crowds in Manhattan gathered that same day to watch a city flyover by the US navy’s Blue Angels and the air force’s Thunderbirds planes in honor of healthcare workers. “Only bigots have a problem when a few 100 Hasidim do what thousands of people in the same city have done the same day: not social distance,” the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council tweeted. The mayor’s actions renewed focus from community leaders on the city’s unequal application of stay-at-home orders, especially as other groups have also been violating restrictions without consequence. While social distancing is meant to curb the spread, health experts say racial disparities have influenced the outbreak from the beginning. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing requirements, including recent foreign travel, meant that guidelines skewed heavily affluent and white in early weeks. That meant low-income, mostly black and brown areas of Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens were not tested as quickly, leading to the city’s stark racial disparities among cases. More than 18,500 people have died in the city, with nearly two-thirds being black or Latino. New York state’s mandatory stay-at-home order expires 15 May but is expected to be extended. More on the Joe Biden-Tara Reade story. The presumptive Democratic nominee is accused by his former staffer of sexually assaulting her in 1993. Biden denies the claim, while Reade has disputed an Associated Press report which says she did not describe a sexual assault or harassment on the complaint she says she filed 27 years ago. She has also reportedly received threats. On CNN earlier, Michigan governor and potential Biden running mate Gretchen Whitmer had an instructive exchange, considering the dynamics of the issue as Democrats defend Biden and Republicans, including party chair Ronna McDaniel, attack. Jake Tapper: “You have said that you believe Vice-President Biden. I want to compare that to 2018, when you said you believed Dr Christine Blasey Ford after she accused now (supreme court) justice Brett Kavanaugh of assault. Kavanaugh also, like Biden, categorically denied that accusation. And Blasey Ford, to be honest, she did not have the contemporaneous accounts of her view of what happened that Tara Reade does. “You have spoken movingly about how you’re a survivor of assault yourself. Why do you believe Biden, and not Kavanaugh? Are they not both entitled to the same presumption of innocence, regardless of their political views? Whitmer: “You know, Jake, as a survivor and as a feminist, I will say this. We need to give people an opportunity to tell their story. But then we have a duty to vet it. And just because you’re a survivor doesn’t mean that every claim is equal. It means we give them the ability to make their case, and the other side as well, and then to make a judgment that is informed. “I have read a lot about this current allegation. I know Joe Biden, and I have watched his defense. And there’s not a pattern that goes into this. And I think that, for these reasons, I’m very comfortable that Joe Biden is who he says he is. And you know what? And that’s all I’m going to say about it. “I really resent the fact that, every time a case comes up, all of us survivors have to weigh in. It is reopening wounds … take us at our word, ask us for our opinion, and let’s move on. Tapper: “Well, just for the record, the reason I’m asking you is because you’re the only Democrat on the show today, not because you’re a survivor, and not because you’re a woman.” Whitmer said she was not criticising Tapper, but “just sharing, I think, some of the simmering anger that we survivors have every time that we have got to confront this from someone else’s behavior that we weren’t a party to, that we weren’t even a part of the reality in the moment. “What I think is this. We owe it to every woman who has a story to listen to that story, and then to vet that story, ask the questions and be critical thinkers, and then make a judgment, based on all of those pieces. I have done that in this instance. “And I will tell you this. I don’t believe that it’s consistent with the Joe Biden that I know. And I do believe Joe, and I support Joe Biden.” Cuomo says “people expect more from government than ever before” and discusses the “transformative” effective of this pandemic. “I believe this has been transformative for a generation,” he says. “Think about when was the last time government was this vital. I don’t know, maybe in a war? World War II, when government had to mobilize overnight? But literally for decades you haven’t seen government this essential to human life. Literally. And government has to work and it has to work well, and it’s not for the faint of heart. And people want government to perform. And government is making decisions every day that affect their lives and they deserve the best government. They’re paying for it, they deserve it. And they deserve competence and expertise and smarts and for government to be doing creative things and learning like we doing here today.” The New York governor then goes on to stress the importance of individual responsibility in the ongoing fight, reiterating the necessity of social distancing. “An individual’s role is responsibly and intelligently for yourself for your family and for your community,” he says. “You want to honor the healthcare workers and the people who literally gave their lives in some cases for what they did here? Act responsibly. Wear a mask. I know the weather is getting warmer, I know people want to get out of the house. Fine. Wear a mask and socially distance. That is your social responsibility in the middle of this overall pandemic. And when we talk about New Yorkers together and the spirit of unity and how people are helping one another and how tough we are and how smart we are and how disciplined we are and how we love one other? Show it. You know how you show love? By wearing a mask.” After noting that New York state has spent more than $2 billion on medical equipment this year alone, Cuomo announces the formation of a regional buying consortium with seven neighboring states to “increase market power and bring down prices” in the pursuit of PPE, ventilators and other medical equipment. The governor says the mutual-aid agreement “will make us more competitive in the international marketplace and I believe it will save taxpayers money”. “We will come up with a regional identification of all the equipment we need,” Cuomo says. “Let’s come up with the total amount that we need. Let’s stop doing business with vendors we found to be irresponsible and we found out the hard way – I can’t tell you how many orders we placed with vendors who are acting basically as brokers, who just started businesses in the middle of this pandemic because they saw an opportunity – so let’s compare notes among the states to find out who is good to do business with [and] who was not good to do business with. Let’s see if we can’t do the purchasing in this country and let’s see if we can’t do the purchasing in this region. Why we buying all this material from China? “ Cuomo hold press briefing New York governor Andrew Cuomo says the number of current Covid-19 hospitalizations statewide has dropped below 10,000 for the first time since mid-March in his daily coronavirus briefing from Albany. The number of new hospitalizations over the last 24-hour period has also fallen to 789, though Cuomo warns this could be an anomaly. Cuomo says 280 people died yesterday, lifting the total death toll to 19,189. “The overall direction is good even though it’s very painful,” Cuomo says. Tara Reade, the woman who accuses Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in a Capitol Hill corridor in 1993, has disputed an Associated Press report that said she said she did not use the words “sexual harassment” in a complaint she says she filed 27 years ago. The AP report is here. Reade’s tweets on the matter are here. “This is false,” Reade wrote first, adding later: “…The headline was quite misleading. I filed the intake form regarding sexual harassment and retaliation however that was articulated on form in 1993. I filed with Senate Personnel. Perhaps Joe Biden knows where that form is located. Ask him.” Reade also confirmed a report she had cancelled a Fox News Sunday interview after receiving threats, writing: “No survivor be fearful to come forward. And I did file a complaint.” In a statement and TV interview on Friday, Biden flatly denied the accusation and asked the National Archives to look for Reade’s complaint. The Archive said it wouldn’t have it, but the Senate might. Donald Trump, who faces and denies numerous accusations of sexual misconduct and assault, commented on the claim against Biden on Friday, as did his new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Here’s Lauren Gambino’s excellent look at the story and its political implications for both parties: Democrats have been accused of brushing aside an allegation of sexual assault against Joe Biden from former Senate staffer Tara Reade. Reade says the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate assaulted her in 1993. On ABC’s This Week, the chair of the DNC, Tom Perez, defended Biden. “Joe Biden has been very clear that this did not happen,” Perez said on Sunday. “He was forceful in that, and he’s been equally clear that when women come forward with complaints of this nature, they should be taken seriously, their complaints should investigate, they should be treated with dignity, and he’s done exactly that. He called for the Senate to release any documents they have, she indicated that she filed a complaint. Joe Biden wants that complaint released. He is an open book. He understands that it’s important for the information to get out.” Perez also attacked Donald Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. “This president has been chronically inept at handling this coronavirus,” said Perez. “We have less than 5% of the world’s population. We have one-third of the world’s coronavirus cases and 25 % of the world’s deaths from coronavirus. His inattention, his ineptitude, he needs to be the commander in chief, not the Tweeter in chief. He needs to understand that the buck stops with him. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in this campaign, accountability, we’re going to talk about leadership.” It’s World Press Freedom Day today and Donald Trump has chosen to mark it by saying he welcomes the important role the media plays in holding the powerful to account. Or maybe he went on Twitter to attack journalists as “the Enemy of the People”. “The Fake News doesn’t show real polls. Lamestream Media is totally CORRUPT, the Enemy of the People!” he wrote on Twitter this morning, as he highlighted a Gallup poll that shows he has the highest approval rating of his presidency so far. CNN’s Brian Stelter contrasted Trump’s tweet with messages of support for the media from the leaders of Greece, Namibia, Lithuania and the Maldives. “The pandemic, breaking with the rules of our everyday life, reaffirms in the most unequivocal manner the vital role of the free press in offering citizens accurate and valid information,” wrote Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the president of Greece on Twitter on Sunday. Pompeo: "significant evidence" virus came from Wuhan lab More on China and North Korea from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been speaking to ABC. “I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan,” Pompeo said, when asked about Trump’s claim this week to have seen intelligence confirming the theory that Covid-19 was man-made and did not originate in bats and find its way to humans via a “wet market”, as is generally accepted. He did not, of course, say what the evidence was. Pompeo added: “The best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point.” Then the exchange with This Week host Martha Raddatz got confusing, as to what Pompeo does or does not think. This is from ABC’s transcript: RADDATZ: Your Office of the [Director of National Intelligence] says the consensus, the scientific consensus [is that the virus] was not man-made or genetically modified. POMPEO: That’s right. I agree with that. Yeah. I’ve seen their analysis. I’ve seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly. I have no reason to doubt that that is accurate... (CROSSTALK) RADDATZ: OK, so just to be clear, you do not think it was man-made or genetically modified? POMPEO: I’ve seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they’ve got it wrong. Um… Pompeo continued to attack China for its handling of the outbreak and what he said was a delay in transmitting information to the rest of the world. So far, so in line with White House attempts to blame China and thereby shift attention or blame from its own stumbling response as the US situation worsened throughout February and March. Raddatz asked “Do you think they intentionally released that virus or it was an accident in the lab?” “You know,” Pompeo said, “I don’t have anything to say about that. I think there’s a lot to know. But I can say this. We’ve done our best to try and answer all of those questions. We tried to get a team in there. The World Health Organization tried to get a team in there. And they have failed. No one’s been allowed to go to this lab or any of the other laboratories – there are many labs inside of China, Martha. This risk remains.”