Editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit resigns after ‘brown face’ photos The force of furious national protests over racist policing is rippling through many different industries now, as workers speak up about racist practices and racist bosses in culture industries like fashion, publishing, and media. The editor-in-chief of beloved cooking brand Bon Appetit announced today that he is stepping down after photographs of him in “brown face” were recirculated on social media, and an editor spoke out about the “systemic racism” she had experienced at Bon Appetit and its parent company Conde Nast, including alleging that “currently only white editors are paid for their video appearances.” Bon Appetit’s popular test kitchen videos had already attracted scrutiny, with Bay Area food writer Soleil Ho describing in January “how often staffers of color are sidelined or relegated to cameos on their white colleagues’ shows.” “The way we define what is contemporary and fashionable in food is tied to whiteness as a cultural norm — and to its ability to incorporate other cultures without actually becoming them,” Navneet Alang wrote last month in a feature for Eater on Bon Appetit’s test kitchen, and on the way that white chefs like Alison Roman have profited from marketing watered-down, rebranded recipes from other cultures. Adam Rapoport announced his resignation on Instagram. 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. 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. 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.” 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. 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.” 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. “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.” 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. 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. 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”, . 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. World Bank warns of crisis 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. 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. 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.” 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.”