Trump has also just called the editor of the New York Times “one of the dumbest men” in journalism, and as CNN’s fact checker has noted, this is the third time in the last month he has called a prominent black journalist “dumb”. He has also been particularly aggressive in his attacks on women in the White House press corps during the pandemic: 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. The president is spending Friday evening attacking his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions: Sessions is in a race to win back his old Senate seat after falling out of favor with the president. After failing to win a knockout blow last year, he now faces a run-off in July against the former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville. Despite Sessions continuing to embrace Trumpism on the trail, his old boss has continued the attacks. A helpful fact check of Trump’s tweet tonight: And our past coverage of his Senate campaign: The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports today on the devastating impacts on California’s Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander communities: The coronavirus is tearing through Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander communities in California, fanning longstanding health disparities and killing community members at a higher rate than any other racial group in the state. Data from California’s department of public health reveals that Pacific Islanders have contracted coronavirus at nearly twice the state’s overall rate. As of 17 May, they have died from the virus at a rate 2.6 times higher than the state population – the highest death rate of any racial or ethnic group. The pattern extends beyond California. Oregon, Utah, Washington and Arkansas – where many Marshallese work in meatpacking plants – have all seen similar trends. Public health experts have often said the group’s relatively small size can skew the numbers, making percentages appear outsized. But to community members and advocates, that argument obfuscates a long history of overlooked needs and health disparities. The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports on San Francisco’s first sanctioned tent encampment for homeless individuals: The Safe Sleeping Village is one of San Francisco’s new officially sanctioned homeless encampments, a rare initiative announced by Mayor London Breed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Occupants of the 70 tents spaced out in socially distanced, painted squares in the shadow of City Hall have access to steady meals, electricity to charge their phones, toilets, fresh water, hand-washing stations, healthcare – and those much-desired showers. But for many, the project comes as too little, too late. Breed launched the plan earlier this month as a solution to a homelessness crisis compounded by an outbreak. With shelters no longer taking in new guests during the pandemic and forced to reduce capacity by 76% to adhere by social distancing guidelines, the number of tents throughout the city had leapt by at least 71%. In the historically underserved Tenderloin neighborhood, a low-income community in the heart of the city experiencing the brunt of the crisis, tents have increased by 258%. The Trump administration has sent a letter to the mayor of Los Angeles saying the federal government is concerned that the city’s “arbitrary and heavy-handed approach” to shelter-in-place regulations could be “unlawful”. The warning letter to LA’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, came from Eric S Dreiband, the assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the US justice department, the LA Times reported. Dreiband wrote: Reports of your recent public statements indicate that you suggested the possibility of long-term lockdown of the residents in the city and county of Los Angeles, regardless of the legal justification for such restrictions. Any such approach may be both arbitrary and unlawful.” California had one of the earliest lockdowns in the US and has continued to take relatively cautious steps toward reopening. LA and the surrounding region remain the state’s primary hotspot for Covid-19 cases, and the DoJ letter came the same day that the White House coronavirus task force resource coordinator Deborah Birx said she was concerned about persistent high numbers of cases in LA, Washington DC and Chicago. Earlier this month, LA officials moved to make “minor adjustments” to lockdown rules, allowing some brick-and-mortar business to start curbside pickup, including music stores, bookshops, florists and clothing stores. In LA, residents must wear face coverings when they leave their homes and will be near other people. This first phase of reopening, LA officials said, is the beginning of “a slow and gradual change to a new reality” for Angelenos. Following questions today about Trump’s lack of an annual physical exam, despite the fact that he’s taking hydroxychloroquine (an anti-malaria drug linked to heart irregularities), here’s a look back at November 2019 when Trump had an unscheduled visit to the hospital: At the time, he denied he had a heart attack. As we noted in November, there were unanswered questions about his health and the hospital trip: Trump is the oldest president ever sworn into office for the first time. Speculation over his health intensified as he stayed out of the public eye for two days following his trip to Walter Reed, a short journey for which he used a motorcade including an ambulance rather than the Marine One helicopter as usual. Tara Reade said she is looking for a new attorney. Following the announcement this morning that the attorney Douglas H Wigdor was no longer representing Joe Biden’s accuser, two weeks after he had taken her on as a client. Reade, through a spokesperson, told a BuzzFeed News reporter that she was “currently seeking counsel with PR support”: In his earlier statement, Wigdor said his decision to no longer represent her was “by no means a reflection on whether then-Senator Biden sexually assaulted Ms Reade”. From our global coronavirus blog: The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has treated 1,300 coronavirus patients with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which a study has tied to an increased risk of death. The Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who received the information from the VA in response to questions he submitted on the issue, said he was “deeply troubled” by the data. Trump has urged use of hydroxychloroquine against the virus and recently said he has been taking it himself, despite evidence that the treatment could be harmful. A study published on Friday in the medical journal Lancet tied the drug to an increased risk of death in hospitalised patients with Covid-19. The US is planning a large testing effort involving more than 100,000 volunteers and the most promising vaccine candidates in hopes of producing a safe and effective one by the end of 2020, according to a new report in Reuters. The scientists involved say they aim to take only months to complete a process that is typically completed in a 10-year time frame. Leading vaccine makers will be sharing data and other resources. Vaccine candidates that prove to be safe in initial studies will be tested in larger trials, and that process will begin in July, Reuters said. “If you don’t see a safety problem, you just keep going,” said Dr Larry Corey, with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, who is helping design the trials. Here’s the Guardian’s science editor on the long road ahead in the search for an effective vaccine: Hello – Sam Levin in Los Angeles here, taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day as we head into the long weekend. Trump still hasn’t completed his annual physical six months after he started it, and the White House is declining to explain why, according to an NBC News report. Some are raising questions about the lack of a physical after the president has continued to assert that he is taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as protection against coronavirus despite federal regulators warning of potentially serious, even fatal, dangers. In early March, when Trump was asked about his physical, he suggested he would complete it in the next three months, telling reporters, “I’m so busy, I can’t do it.” A study out today showed that hydroxychloroquine has increased deaths in patients treated with it in hospitals around the world. More from the Guardian’s health editor: Newsom details California reopening process Mario Koran A report from our west coast office, on California governor Gavin Newsom’s reopening plans in light of Donald Trump’s demand to open houses of worship: California has been approaching plans to reopen the state gingerly, but pressure is mounting as business owners, faith leaders and some county officials call on the governor to accelerate. On Friday, speaking from a veteran’s home in Napa county, one that operated through a deadly influenza epidemic a century ago, Gavin Newsom said California was moving quickly but with diligence. By day’s end, he said, he expects to have approved plans for 45 of 58 counties to move further into phases of reopening. Many sectors, including manufacturing, retail and restaurants have already reopened to various degrees. Soon, every sector will be given the green light, provided it can make good on safety protocols the new reality demands. Churches and houses of worship are sure to remain a point of tension. Newsom said he and his team have been working with faith leaders to craft plans to welcome back parishioners, depending on church size and other factors. But with California just days away from releasing that guidance, Trump muddied the water, deeming houses of worship “essential” and threatening to “override” governors who don’t approve. This week, more than 1,200 pastors in California said they would resume in-person services this month in defiance of Newsom’s stay-at-home order. Even as case rates statewide appear to have stabilized, hospitals in Imperial county, in southern California, are stretching resources to cope with a surge in cases. Last week, Newsom said, the county was using more than 70% of its ventilators. Plans are in motion to dispatch a 125-bed field hospital to help alleviate pressure, Newsom said. Newsom appeared unmoved by a legal challenge to the state’s plan to move forward with mail-in ballots for the November election. “We’re on firm legal ground. Vote by mail is not novel in the state of California, nor was it in the recent special election” said Newsom. “Public health is a nonpartisan issue”. Joe Biden has apologised for his comment earlier today that if African Americans “have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black”. At the same time, Donald Trump is seeking to press home Republican attacks on the matter. “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, said on a call with the US Black Chambers, an African-American business group. “I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.” The president, meanwhile, retweeted Senator Tim Scott’s view that Biden’s comments “are the most arrogant and condescending thing I’ve heard in a very long time” and commended an African American Fox News host, Harris Faulkner, as “A GREAT AMERICAN”. Faulkner said Biden’s comment was “more than just a little offensive, it is short sighted, it is a blind spot for this former vice-president. He should’ve got up immediately on whatever venue, microphone he had.” She then read a statement from Black Voices for Trump. The statement was authored by Katrina Pierson, a Trump spokeswoman who spoke to reporters with Senator Scott earlier and according to the New York Times “grew defensive in response to questions about Mr Trump’s own history of racist remarks”. The Times added: I know the president and I know his heart and I know his intent,’ she said, accusing the news media of taking Mr Trump ‘out of context’. At the White House earlier, Donald Trump cited “liquor stores and abortion clinics” as services some governors have deemed essential and allowed to stay open during the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s not right,” the president said, announcing his decision to “call houses of worship essential” and call upon governors to allow such places “to open right now”. Trump does not like liquor. He is a teetotaler, and vocally so, and claims never to have taken a drink. Trump does not like abortion, vocally so since he declared his run for the presidential nomination of a party committed to achieving its end. Back in 2016, however, he wasn’t very vocal when a New York Times columnist asked if any woman he had been involved with had ever had an abortion. “Such an interesting question,” Trump told Maureen Dowd. “So what’s your next question?” There’s also the perennial question of just how religious Trump is, and what support for him says about evangelical Christians in particular. Here’s John S Gardner’s review of a recent attempt to make the Christian case for Trump: