US briefing: 'Pearl Harbor moment' approaching, as UK PM taken to hospital

Good morning, I’m Molly Blackall with today’s essential stories.

‘Pearl Harbor moment’ approaching as US prepares for ‘toughest weeks’

The US surgeon general warned on Sunday that the country was approaching a “Pearl Harbor” moment, as the country braces for unprecedented numbers of coronavirus deaths. Jerome Adams told NBC News’s Meet the Press that the next week was “going to be our Pearl Harbor moment. It’s going to be our 9/11 moment.” Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, had a similar message, saying: “This is probably going to be a very bad week.”

The warnings came as news broke that the navy captain who was removed from his post and criticised by Donald Trump after he wrote a letter raising his concerns for the health of his crew had tested positive for coronavirus. Brett Crozier, who was cheered by sailors as he left his ship, had pleaded with the US navy for more resources to enable his crew to self-isolate, after coronavirus broke out onboard. Trump fired Crozier after describing his decision to write the letter as “terrible”.

• Europe. The falling coronavirus numbers in Europe offer hope for the US as it prepares for the challenge of the coming weeks, with France, Italy and Spain reporting a decline in deaths or cases.

• Follow state-by-state developments with our US coronavirus map.

Fauci: no evidence Trump’s anti-malaria drug works against coronavirus

Dr Anthony Fauci contradicted Donald Trump yet again in the White House briefing on Sunday, when he warned that there was no scientific evidence to suggest that the anti-malaria drug the president has been promoting can act as a remedy to coronavirus. This is the second time Fauci has spoken against the effectiveness of the drug, despite Trump telling citizens in the White House briefing on Sunday to “take it. What do you have to lose?”

• Jared Kushner. Donald Trump’s son-in-law is leading “a shadow taskforce” in a post created for him in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, working with private companies to obtain medical equipment and assessing requests from governors for aid. Critics wonder why he has been given the role, and what this means for Trump’s governance.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger has launched a range of T-shirts and hoodies emblazoned with his coronavirus slogan “Don’t be an ass, stay inside”, to raise money for disadvantaged families hit by the pandemic.

British PM admitted to hospital with coronavirus

The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, has spent a night in hospital after showing coronavirus symptoms for more than 10 days. While 10 Downing Street insisted the move was purely precautionary, it has been seen as a sign that his illness has escalated, and brought his ability to continue leading the country into question. Despite this, a senior minister has insisted Johnson can run the country from his hospital bed.

• Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government has begun sending emergency food and aid to tens of thousands of women working in the country’s sex trade, as the industry shuts down due to coronavirus.

Russia refuses to cancel military parade

Russia has resisted calls to cancel its Victory Day parade in early May, and has been continuing rehearsals with 15,000 soldiers, despite the coronavirus pandemic. Putin is set to welcome the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the second world war, in what is pegged as an opportunity to demonstrate that Putin is no longer politically isolated from the west.

• Wet markets. The UN’s biodiversity chief has called for the closure of “wet markets”, selling live and dead animals. A wet market in Wuhan, China, is thought to be the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, and similar markets around the country have already been temporarily banned.

• Coronavirus around the world. Our world map shows where coronavirus has spread, and where it is most deadly.

And in other news …

• The US inspector general of the intelligence community who was fired by Donald Trump after sparking the impeachment process has encouraged other inspectors general to speak out against misconduct. Michael Atkinson said he was “disappointed and saddened” at his ousting on Friday, which he thought derived from having “faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial inspector general”, but pleaded with other inspectors general not to allow “recent events to silence” them.

• The alleged source of the National Enquirer’s 2019 exclusive on the affair of the Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, has launched a lawsuit against the publication, raising further questions about how the story was obtained. Michael Sanchez, brother of Bezos’s girlfrien,d Lauren Sanchez, was reportedly paid $200,000 for intimate information about the extramarital relationship, which led to Bezos’s multibillion-dollar divorce from his wife. In a new lawsuit, Michael Sanchez claims he was scapegoated and alleges that the Enquirer used other sources including hacking Bezos’s phone.

• Radiation near to the site of Chernobyl, where the world’s worst nuclear accident took place, has increased to 16 times above normal after a forest fire in the area. The fire, which broke out on Saturday, has spread to 100 hectares of forest, and caused the Ukrainian government to scramble more than 100 firefighters to the blaze.

• A Frenchman has been found freezing and exhausted in the Pyrénées after setting off across the mountain range to buy cheap cigarettes from Spain. The man had intended to drive from his home in the south of France but was stopped at a police checkpoint and turned back, so instead decided to walk. He was found by mountain rescue teams after phoning for help, and given a €135 ($166) fine for breakdown lockdown regulations.

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Opinion

The president’s support base is being acutely impacted by coronavirus, writes Lloyd Green, and the pandemic could spell the end of the Trump organism.

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