Airlines schedule major increase in flights in July as pressure mounts on ministers to ease quarantine

Airlines have scheduled a dramatic increase in flights in July in anticipation that Governments will lift travel restrictions for holidaymakers and save the industry from potential collapse, according to data seen by The Sunday Telegraph. The companies which have already laid off tens of thousands of workers are banking on a “V-shaped” recovery by scheduling 161,200 passenger flights and 29.5 million seats for July, just eight per cent down on last year’s July timetables. The strategy to open up business travel and holiday routes to hotspot favourites like Greece, Italy, France and Spain comes as most European countries are preparing to lift their quarantines or open their borders in mid June or at least by July 1. It will increase pressure on Boris Johnson to make good his suggestion last week that the UK’s quarantine - to be introduced on June 8 - could be replaced with “air bridges” to low-risk holiday destinations when it is reviewed on June 29. One senior industry source claimed: “The sense is that they might quietly do a U-turn after the first review period. Grant Shapps [the Transport Secretary] is against quarantine, the Treasury are against it, Beis is against it and DCMS hate it.” The exclusive data, from Cirium, a travel analytics firm, shows how the coronavirus pandemic devastated the aviation industry as it tore across the world. Scheduled passengers were 22.5 million in February, 10 per cent up on last year before it slumped by 93 per cent in April and May. It has risen in June to 38.5 per cent down on last year, as the Far East has opened up, and rises to just minus eight per cent in July as airlines anticipate Europe unlocking. June and July are “scheduled” rather than actual flights, which will depend on quarantines easing in June and July. Germany has lifted restrictions, Italy wants to resume travel on June 15, and Spain and Portugal are aiming for July 1. France hopes to drop border controls to and from EU countries after June 15 except with countries that impose quarantine on a “reciprocal” basis, namely the UK. Greece has excluded the UK from a “white list” of 29 countries it judges are low-risk enough from which to accept tourists from June 15 without quarantine although it will open up to more countries after it reviews their infection rates at the end of June. British Airways says it is aiming for a “meaningful return” to flying in July, RyanAir plans to ramp up flights to at least 40 per cent of its normal July schedule and EasyJet, which has laid off one in three staff, hopes to operate 30 per cent of its pre-crisis timetable from July to September. Paul Charles, chief executive of PC Consultancy, which advises the tourist industry, said Britain’s quarantine risked “killing” the economy. “Travel companies have not had any bookings for April or May. They are worried that if they don’t get them in June, they will go under,” he said. The Airport Operators’ Association (AOA) has urged ministers to aim for the first “air bridges” to “low risk” destinations by June 8 so that holidaymakers can sidestep quarantine and the requirement to self-isolate for 14 days on their return to the UK. The Department for Transport will shortly publish new guidelines for “safe” travel which will include face coverings or masks throughout the journey, temperature checks, social distancing in airports and contactless travel including for check-ins and payments. An AOA spokesman said: “Once these guidelines are agreed and given that they are based on a common European baseline, this puts in place the right conditions for opening up air bridges to low-risk countries.” The Home Office which has led the moves to introduce quarantine has, however, warned that it will block attempts to lift the quarantine unless it is safe and there is no risk of it sparking a second wave of coronavirus. A Department for Transport source said: “There is certainly a willingness in Government to do as much for this Summer as is safe.” Post-coronavirus air travel: No travel if you have symptoms If ill, no cost re-booking or refunds up to six hours before flying Face masks or coverings from arrival at airport to leaving terminal at destination Only passengers in the terminal, no tearful goodbyes at departure gates Contact-less electronic check-in and boarding Social distancing and one-way systems for waiting and queuing passengers Airports' association pressing for temperature checks Exemption from two-metre rule on plane No on-board duty free, reduced food and drink service, pre-packaged food and cashless payments

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'You're not going to out-concern me and out-care me': Atlanta's mayor makes a powerful plea against violence and destruction in George Floyd protests

"This is not a protest," Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said. "This is chaos. A protest has purpose."

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Long-haul carrier Emirates says it fires staff amid virus

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Saudi Arabia reopens mosques with strict regulations for worshippers

Saudi Arabia's mosques opened their doors to worshippers on Sunday for the first time in more than two months as the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, eased restrictions imposed to combat the coronavirus. "It is great to feel the mercy of God and once again call people for prayers at mosques instead of at their homes," said Abdulmajeed Al Mohaisen, who issues the call to prayer at Al Rajhi Mosque, one of the largest in the capital Riyadh.

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Fire, pestilence and a country at war with itself: the Trump presidency is over

A pandemic unabated, an economy in meltdown, cities in chaos over police killings. All our supposed leader does is tweetYou’d be forgiven if you hadn’t noticed. His verbal bombshells are louder than ever, but Donald J Trump is no longer president of the United States.By having no constructive response to any of the monumental crises now convulsing America, Trump has abdicated his office. He is not governing. He’s golfing, watching cable TV and tweeting.How has Trump responded to the widespread unrest following the murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for minutes as he was handcuffed on the ground?Trump called the protesters “thugs” and threatened to have them shot. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he tweeted, parroting a former Miami police chief whose words spurred race riots in the late 1960s.On Saturday, he gloated about “the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons” awaiting protesters outside the White House, should they ever break through Secret Service lines. > In reality, Donald Trump doesn’t run the government of the United States. He doesn’t manage anythingTrump’s response to the last three ghastly months of mounting disease and death has been just as heedless. Since claiming Covid-19 was a “Democratic hoax” and muzzling public health officials, he has punted management of the coronavirus to the states.Governors have had to find ventilators to keep patients alive and protective equipment for hospital and other essential workers who lack it, often bidding against each other. They have had to decide how, when and where to reopen their economies.Trump has claimed “no responsibility at all” for testing and contact-tracing – the keys to containing the virus. His new “plan” places responsibility on states to do their own testing and contact-tracing.Trump is also awol in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.More than 41 million Americans are jobless. In the coming weeks temporary eviction moratoriums are set to end in half of the states. One-fifth of Americans missed rent payments this month. Extra unemployment benefits are set to expire at the end of July.What is Trump’s response? Like Herbert Hoover, who in 1930 said “the worst is behind us” as thousands starved, Trump says the economy will improve and does nothing about the growing hardship. The Democratic-led House passed a $3tn relief package on 15 May. Mitch McConnell has recessed the Senate without taking action and Trump calls the bill dead on arrival. What about other pressing issues a real president would be addressing? The House has passed nearly 400 bills this term, including measures to reduce climate change, enhance election security, require background checks on gun sales, reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and reform campaign finance. All are languishing in McConnell’s inbox. Trump doesn’t seem to be aware of any of them.There is nothing inherently wrong with golfing, watching television and tweeting. But if that’s pretty much all that a president does when the nation is engulfed in crises, he is not a president.Trump’s tweets are no substitute for governing. They are mostly about getting even.When he’s not fomenting violence against black protesters, he’s accusing a media personality of committing murder, retweeting slurs about a black female politician’s weight and the House speaker’s looks, conjuring up conspiracies against himself supposedly organized by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and encouraging his followers to “liberate” their states from lockdown restrictions.He tweets bogus threats that he has no power to carry out – withholding funds from states that expand absentee voting, “overruling” governors who don’t allow places of worship to reopen “right away”, and punishing Twitter for factchecking him.And he lies incessantly.In reality, Donald Trump doesn’t run the government of the United States. He doesn’t manage anything. He doesn’t organize anyone. He doesn’t administer or oversee or supervise. He doesn’t read memos. He hates meetings. He has no patience for briefings. His White House is in perpetual chaos. His advisers aren’t truth-tellers. They’re toadies, lackeys, sycophants and relatives.Since moving into the Oval Office in January 2017, Trump hasn’t shown an ounce of interest in governing. He obsesses only about himself.But it has taken the present set of crises to reveal the depths of his self-absorbed abdication – his utter contempt for his job, his total repudiation of his office.Trump’s nonfeasance goes far beyond an absence of leadership or inattention to traditional norms and roles. In a time of national trauma, he has relinquished the core duties and responsibilities of the presidency.He is no longer president. The sooner we stop treating him as if he were, the better. * Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a columnist for Guardian US

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Tropical storm Amanda leaves 9 dead in El Salvador: officials

Tropical storm Amanda, the first named storm of the season in the Pacific, lashed El Salvador and Guatemala on Sunday, leaving nine people dead amid flooding and power outages. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele declared a state of emergency, announcing it on his Twitter account. "We have nine dead," Salvadoran Interior Minister Mario Duran said, adding that the toll could rise.

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Derek Chauvin, officer arrested in George Floyd's death, has a record of shootings and complaints

The Minneapolis officer fired after George Floyd's death was involved in police shootings during his 19-year career.

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Amid Riots and a Pandemic, Church Attendance Resumes in ‘a Very Broken World’

By BY SHAWN HUBLER AND RICK ROJAS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3djRpCI

Video Appears to Show a Tanker Truck Driving Into Minneapolis Protesters

By BY THE NEW YORK TIMES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2yQEOrH

‘We’re Sick and Tired’: Voices From Minneapolis Protests

By BY KATIE G. NELSON, MIKE SHUM, SAMEEN AMIN, DMITRIY KHAVIN AND BARBARA MARCOLINI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2TTYlis

Symbol of N.Y.C. Unrest: A Burning Police Car

By BY AZI PAYBARAH AND NIKITA STEWART from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3gGd9L9

Destructive Power of Despair

By BY CHARLES M. BLOW from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3gzWNDX

What Trump and Toxic Cops Have in Common

By BY JENNIFER SENIOR from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/36MQrfT

Australia's stalled migrant boom derails golden economic run

Australia's three decades of uninterrupted prosperity are coming to an abrupt end as the global coronavirus pandemic crashes one of its most lucrative sources of income – immigration.

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Coronavirus changes how doctors deal with death

Five doctors administering end-of-life care reflect on the current crisis.

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Glimmer of hope for world's rarest primate

The discovery of a new breeding pair raises hope for the future of a critically endangered gibbon.

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George Floyd death: Why do some protests turn violent?

In the US, peaceful protests over police violence have escalated into widespread riots and looting.

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Remote working: How cities might change if we worked from home more

Our homes, transport and city-centre spaces would change if we worked from home for good.

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Russia and Turkey risk turning Libya into another Syria

Gen Haftar's forces have been beaten back from Tripoli but that does not mean peace is at hand.

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The man whose death convulsed US

He was an athlete, friend and father whose life and struggles were emblematic of any American.

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Nasa SpaceX launch: What is the Crew Dragon?

A guide to SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle, which carried astronauts to the space station.

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How Venezuela's fuel crisis is hitting coronavirus victims

Venezuela's fuel crisis has been so acute that even funeral homes are struggling to transport bodies to the cemetery.

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Coronavirus: The South African village preparing for Covid-19

For people in South Africa's rural areas trying to protect themselves from Covid-19, hand washing in clean water isn't possible.

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Trump delays 'outdated' G7 leaders' summit

The US president says he is postponing this year's meeting and wants to invite other leaders as well.

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Former Justice Department official says Trump is 'basically calling for the shooting of protesters'

Vanita Gupta, head of the department's Civil Rights Division in the Obama administration, said the Minneapolis Police Department was on her “radar” during her tenure.

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SpaceX's historic launch hurled a sequined plush dinosaur into space with NASA astronauts

The plushie indicates when the Crew Dragon spaceship has reached a state of zero gravity, but neither NASA or SpaceX have explained how it was chosen.

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'The Five' react to fired Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death

Derek Chauvin charged with third-degree murder, manslaughter in death of George Floyd; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'

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India announces major easing of coronavirus lockdown

India said Saturday it would begin a major relaxation of the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown from early June, even as the country saw another record rise in confirmed infections. Prime Minister Narenda Modi conceded that much of the country had since "undergone tremendous suffering" in an open letter to the public on Saturday. The end of the lockdown will be staged and for now will not include some "containment zones" where high infection rates have been detected, according to the home ministry.

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Hong Kong: China fury amid global pressure over security law

The UK and US condemn plans for a new security law at the UN Security Council, drawing Beijing's ire.

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Dragon-riding astronauts join exclusive inner circle at NASA

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken join NASA’s exclusive inner circle by catching a ride on a SpaceX rocket and capsule. It’s only the fifth time that NASA has put people aboard a brand new spacecraft line for liftoff. And it’s the first time the spacecraft belongs to a for-profit company in charge of the launch. The retired Marine colonel and former fighter pilot flew on NASA’s last space shuttle flight in 2011, closing out a 30-year era.

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Minnesota Riots Hurt Klobuchar’s VP Nomination Prospects, According to Biden Ally

The ongoing riots in Minnesota hurt Senator Amy Klobuchar's prospects for Democratic nomination as vice president, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) said on Friday.Klobuchar declined to bring charges against multiple Minneapolis police officers involved in shootings over the course of her seven-year tenure as attorney for Hennepin County. Minneapolis has seen four days of riots after resident George Floyd, an African-American man, died following his arrest at the hands of white officers."We are all victims sometimes of timing….This is very tough timing for Amy Klobuchar, who I respect so much," Clyburn told reporters. When asked directly if Klobuchar's chances at the nomination were diminished, Clyburn said, "that is the implication, yes,” although he added that Klobuchar "absolutely is qualified" to be vice president.Clyburn is the highest-ranking African American member of Congress, and was instrumental in Biden's victory over Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in the Democratic primaries. Following Clyburn's endorsement of Biden, the former vice president received overwhelming support from African American primary voters.Biden on Friday denied that his campaign's vice presidential nomination process was affected by the Minnesota riots."What we are talking about today has nothing to do with my running for president or who I pick as a vice president," Biden told MSNBC. "It has to do with an injustice that we all saw take place."Klobuchar has expressed regret for not prosecuting police officers accused of offenses, instead opting to send the cases to grand juries."I think that was wrong now,” Klobuchar said in a Friday interview on MSNBC. “I think it would have been much better if I took the responsibility and looked at the cases and made the decision myself.”

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Airlines schedule major increase in flights in July as pressure mounts on ministers to ease quarantine

Airlines have scheduled a dramatic increase in flights in July in anticipation that Governments will lift travel restrictions for holidaymakers and save the industry from potential collapse, according to data seen by The Sunday Telegraph. The companies which have already laid off tens of thousands of workers are banking on a “V-shaped” recovery by scheduling 161,200 passenger flights and 29.5 million seats for July, just eight per cent down on last year’s July timetables. The strategy to open up business travel and holiday routes to hotspot favourites like Greece, Italy, France and Spain comes as most European countries are preparing to lift their quarantines or open their borders in mid June or at least by July 1. It will increase pressure on Boris Johnson to make good his suggestion last week that the UK’s quarantine - to be introduced on June 8 - could be replaced with “air bridges” to low-risk holiday destinations when it is reviewed on June 29. One senior industry source claimed: “The sense is that they might quietly do a U-turn after the first review period. Grant Shapps [the Transport Secretary] is against quarantine, the Treasury are against it, Beis is against it and DCMS hate it.” The exclusive data, from Cirium, a travel analytics firm, shows how the coronavirus pandemic devastated the aviation industry as it tore across the world. Scheduled passengers were 22.5 million in February, 10 per cent up on last year before it slumped by 93 per cent in April and May. It has risen in June to 38.5 per cent down on last year, as the Far East has opened up, and rises to just minus eight per cent in July as airlines anticipate Europe unlocking. June and July are “scheduled” rather than actual flights, which will depend on quarantines easing in June and July. Germany has lifted restrictions, Italy wants to resume travel on June 15, and Spain and Portugal are aiming for July 1. France hopes to drop border controls to and from EU countries after June 15 except with countries that impose quarantine on a “reciprocal” basis, namely the UK. Greece has excluded the UK from a “white list” of 29 countries it judges are low-risk enough from which to accept tourists from June 15 without quarantine although it will open up to more countries after it reviews their infection rates at the end of June. British Airways says it is aiming for a “meaningful return” to flying in July, RyanAir plans to ramp up flights to at least 40 per cent of its normal July schedule and EasyJet, which has laid off one in three staff, hopes to operate 30 per cent of its pre-crisis timetable from July to September. Paul Charles, chief executive of PC Consultancy, which advises the tourist industry, said Britain’s quarantine risked “killing” the economy. “Travel companies have not had any bookings for April or May. They are worried that if they don’t get them in June, they will go under,” he said. The Airport Operators’ Association (AOA) has urged ministers to aim for the first “air bridges” to “low risk” destinations by June 8 so that holidaymakers can sidestep quarantine and the requirement to self-isolate for 14 days on their return to the UK. The Department for Transport will shortly publish new guidelines for “safe” travel which will include face coverings or masks throughout the journey, temperature checks, social distancing in airports and contactless travel including for check-ins and payments. An AOA spokesman said: “Once these guidelines are agreed and given that they are based on a common European baseline, this puts in place the right conditions for opening up air bridges to low-risk countries.” The Home Office which has led the moves to introduce quarantine has, however, warned that it will block attempts to lift the quarantine unless it is safe and there is no risk of it sparking a second wave of coronavirus. A Department for Transport source said: “There is certainly a willingness in Government to do as much for this Summer as is safe.” Post-coronavirus air travel: No travel if you have symptoms If ill, no cost re-booking or refunds up to six hours before flying Face masks or coverings from arrival at airport to leaving terminal at destination Only passengers in the terminal, no tearful goodbyes at departure gates Contact-less electronic check-in and boarding Social distancing and one-way systems for waiting and queuing passengers Airports' association pressing for temperature checks Exemption from two-metre rule on plane No on-board duty free, reduced food and drink service, pre-packaged food and cashless payments

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A Tennessee police chief had a message for fellow law enforcement: turn in your badge if 'you don't have an issue' with George Floyd's death

David Roddy's tweet about police brutality has garnered over 159,000 retweets. He has been part of the Chattanooga Police Department for 24 years.

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As Minneapolis rioters set buildings ablaze, grocer pleads to save his stores

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Trump says U.S. will be 'terminating' relationship with WHO

The president criticized the World Health Organization for their response to the pandemic and said U.S. funds would be redirected to other public health needs.

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SpaceX’s Successful Blast-Off Signals New Era of Human Space Exploration

With a flash of light, billowing smoke, and a thunderous roar, American astronauts on Saturday afternoon blasted into space aboard an American spacecraft for the first time since NASA decommissioned the aging, unsafe Space Shuttle fleet in 2011. The first manned flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft not only restores the United States’ ability to launch people into orbit, it also signals a possible new era of space exploration. Thousands of people tuned into livestreams of the historic launch from NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center near Orlando. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine and President Donald Trump flew in to see off astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley and observe the launch. “This is going to be like the World Series, the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup all rolled into one,” Zeb Scoville, NASA’s flight director, told reporters in the weeks leading up to the launch.Mission-controllers canceled a previous launch attempt on Wednesday owing to bad weather. As late as Saturday morning, SpaceX tweeted that there was a 50 percent chance of a storm interfering with the day’s lift-off. But the weather remained clear and the spacecraft lifted off just before 3:25 p.m. ET.  In a sharp break from the old way of launching into space, California rocket company SpaceX owns the Crew Dragon and its self-landing, reusable Falcon 9 rocket. NASA just rents the spacecraft and the rocket at a cost of around $55 million per passenger.“We’re doing it differently than we’ve ever done it before,” Bridenstine told reporters. “NASA is not going to purchase, own and operate hardware the way we used to purchase, own and operate hardware.”The space agency hopes that this new arrangement will fuel a whole industry of private companies offering ever-cheaper rides into space for science, mining, manufacturing, and even tourism. Aerospace firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin are also developing manned capsules. A self-sustaining space economy could take years to evolve. First, SpaceX and NASA must deliver Behnken and Hurley to the International Space Station, circling Earth at an altitude of 250 miles. SpaceX Turns Back the Clock to Return Americans to Orbit“The stakes are clearly high,” Eric Stallmer, president of the Washington, D.C., Commercial Spaceflight Federation, told The Daily Beast. “This shows how far industry has advanced and is ready to support America in space—at greater levels of safety, faster development and far lower costs than traditional-owned government systems.”For Musk, Saturday’s launch was the culmination of nearly two decades of work. Musk, one of the founders of PayPal, started SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of driving down the cost of rocket launches. SpaceX’s earliest launches in 2008 and 2009 were failures. Musk and SpaceX kept at it. By 2010 more of the company’s launches were succeeding than failing. NASA pumped some money into the company. The U.S. Air Force hired it to launch satellites and robotic space planes. But a manned spacecraft was one of Musk and SpaceX's ultimate goals.Barring any malfunctions, the journey to the space station will take just short of a day. Steered by a sophisticated artificial-intelligence autopilot, the cone-shaped, roughly dumpster-sized Crew Dragon will maneuver to within 60 feet of the space station. That’s when the Behnken and Hurley will take over, tapping touch-screen controls to activate thrusters that will gently nudge the capsule toward one of the station’s airlocks. “Growing up as a pilot my whole career and having a certain way to control a vehicle, this is certainly different,” Hurley told reporters.The capsule and the station will combine their atmospheres, allowing the newly-arrived astronauts to safely board the orbital facility.NASA and SpaceX haven’t decided yet how long Behnekn, Hurley, and their capsule will stay with the space station. Their visit could end in a month or three months, at which point the astronauts will ride the Crew Dragon back down to Earth, streaking through the atmosphere then deploying a parachute before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Navy will steam in to recover the crew and capsule.With its conical shape and parachute-recovery method, the Crew Dragon has a lot in common with the Apollo capsules that carried astronauts to the moon in 1969. “But don’t let looks deceive you,” space historian Roger Launius told The Daily Beast. “The technology of Apollo and technology of today are strikingly different.”The Crew Dragon boasts the latest computers, controls and amenities, including a high-tech space toilet. Its crew and passengers wear sleek new spacesuits. NASA plans to pack no more than four astronauts at a time into the Crew Dragon’s uncluttered interior, but in its most capacious configuration it can carry up to seven people. “It’s an outstanding flying machine,” Behnken said.It took years of research and development costing $3 billion to ready the Crew Dragon for its first manned mission. NASA and the U.S. space industry haven’t designed a spacecraft from scratch since the Space Shuttle. SpaceX Rockets Were Endangered by Forged Inspection Reports: DOJThat was 40 years ago. Without the benefit of recent experience, the Crew Dragon’s developers had to relearn old lessons. “It was a little Wild West early on,” SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell told reporters.Minor miscalculations, a single line of bad code, a tiny hole in the spacecraft’s structure—any of these could have doomed Crew Dragon. Boeing learned that the hard way during an unmanned test mission involving its own Starliner capsule back in December. The Starliner’s autopilot mistimed a thruster blast, burning up its fuel supply and making it impossible for the craft to reach the International Space Station. Boeing plans to repeat the test sometime this year.SpaceX experienced a test-failure of its own on Friday, when the fourth prototype of the company’s new Starship rocket exploded following a test in Texas. Musk was well aware of the risk involved in the Crew Dragon launch. “If it goes wrong, it's my fault," he told CBS This Morning on Wednesday.Anticipating all the possible ways space travel can go wrong is one of the keys to doing it safely. That’s what worried James Oberg, a former NASA mission controller. “The degree to which the SpaceX team has absorbed this insight and developed and applied this wisdom remains undemonstrated,” Oberg told The Daily Beast a few days before the launch. “Their track record to date, including vigorous and on-target responses to setbacks, is encouraging,” Oberg said. “I’ll still be holding my breath.”As the Crew Dragon climbed high over Florida, accelerating to 33 times the speed of sound—fast enough to escape Earth’s gravity—Musk and Oberg finally could breathe easy. After a nine-year gap, Americans were safely on their way into space aboard an American craft. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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China home-built aircraft carrier conducting sea trials

China’s Defense Ministry said the navy’s only entirely home-built aircraft is carrying out sea trials to test weapons and equipment and enhance training of the crew.

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Pompeo demands Russia free ill American accused of spying

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday demanded that Russia free a former US marine accused of spying in Russia after the man underwent urgent surgery in a Moscow hospital. Fifty-year-old Paul Whelan had emergency hernia surgery late Thursday after suffering "severe abdominal pain," his brother David Whelan said in a statement Friday. Paul Whelan, who also holds Canadian, Irish and British citizenship, was detained in Moscow in December 2018 for allegedly receiving state secrets.

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Trump Hopes for His Own Booster Shot from SpaceX Rocket Launch

By BY PETER BAKER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3gJZF1d

Photos From the Protests in 29 Cities Over Racism and Police Violence

By BY WEIYI CAI, JULIETTE LOVE AND JUGAL K. PATEL from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3dkl3aW

Draw a Self-Portrait

By BY CARSON ELLIS from NYT At Home https://ift.tt/36LkuVb

Here’s What You Need to Know About Breonna Taylor’s Death

By BY RICHARD A. OPPEL JR. from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3eAuQdj

LGBT: Covid-19 forced me back home where I'm 'unwanted'

'Emma' lost her job and had to move back to the village where she feels 'misunderstood'.

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George Floyd: ‘As a black American I am terrified’

After the death of George Floyd, young African-Americans in Minneapolis say they are scared for their safety.

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Coronavirus: The self-isolation choir with worldwide members

This weekend thousands of people will gather as an online choir to perform Handel’s Messiah.

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SpaceX launch: Nasa astronauts blast off to the International Space Station

Two astronauts launched into orbit for historic mission to the International Space Station.

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Analysis: With a new law for Hong Kong, Beijing makes clear sovereignty is its bottom line

Beijing's bottom line is sovereignty. Hong Kong is a 'purely internal affair that allows no foreign interference,' Chinese government spokesman says.

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Coronavirus deaths in US top 100,000

The US has seen more deaths (currently 100,047) and infections (1.69 million) than any other country.

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The Bird Watcher, That Incident and His Conflicted Feelings on Her Fate

NEW YORK -- His binoculars around his neck, Christian Cooper, an avid birder, was back in his happy place on Wednesday: Central Park during migration season. He was trying to focus on the olive-sided flycatchers and red-bellied woodpeckers -- not on what had happened there two days earlier.That was when Cooper, who is black, asked a white woman to put her dog on a leash. When she did not, he began filming. In response, the woman said she would tell the police that "an African American man is threatening my life" before dialing 911.On Tuesday, the video went viral on Twitter and garnered more than 40 million views, setting off a painful discourse about the history of dangerous false accusations against black people made to police.The birds were a welcome distraction from thinking about what had happened next: By that day's end, the woman, Amy Cooper (no relation) had surrendered her dog and had been fired from her high-level finance job. As he wandered the park's North Woods on Wednesday shortly after dawn, Christian Cooper said he felt exhausted, exposed and profoundly conflicted, particularly about her fate."Any of us can make -- not necessarily a racist mistake, but a mistake," he said, "And to get that kind of tidal wave in such a compressed period of time, it's got to hurt. It's got to hurt."A gray catbird darted around his hiking boots."I'm not excusing the racism," he said. "But I don't know if her life needed to be torn apart."He opened his mouth to speak further and then stopped himself. He had been about to say the phrase, "that poor woman," he later acknowledged, but he could not bring himself to complete the thought."She went racial. There are certain dark societal impulses that she, as a white woman facing in a conflict with a black man, that she thought she could marshal to her advantage," he said."I don't know if it was a conscious thing or not," he added. "But she did it, and she went there."Cooper's love of birding began at age 10, he said, when his parents, two Long Island schoolteachers, enrolled him in a 4-H program. There, in a woodworking class, he crafted a bird feeder that he set in his lawn.The creatures that flocked to it set off a fascination that has endured for four decades, through his time at Harvard, where he graduated with a degree in political science, and into his years as an editor for Marvel Comics, where he is credited with creating one of the first gay characters in the Star Trek comic universe.A northern rough-winged swallow alighted on a branch and Cooper, 57, trained his lenses on it for a while.Then he resumed. "If we are going to make progress, we've got to address these things, and if this painful process is going to help us address this -- there's the yellow warbler!" Cooper said, cutting himself off to peer around with his binoculars.At length, he turned his eyes away from the tops of the London plane trees and continued where he had left off:"If this painful process -- oh, a Baltimore oriole just flew across!-- helps to correct, or takes us a step further toward addressing the underlying racial, horrible assumptions that we African Americans have to deal with, and have dealt with for centuries, that this woman tapped into, then it's worth it," he said, setting his binoculars down on his chest."Sadly, it has to come at her expense," he added.On Tuesday, Amy Cooper was fired by her employer, Franklin Templeton, where she had been a head of insurance portfolio management, according to her LinkedIn page.Cooper, who graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, also surrendered her dog, Henry, to the rescue organization she had adopted him from, the same day, according to a Facebook post by the group.She issued a public apology to Christian Cooper, whom she had encountered in a semi-wild part of the park called The Ramble, where dogs must be leashed.After she refused to tether her dog on Memorial Day, Christian Cooper said, he attempted to lure the dog with treats, to induce her to restrain her pet. In a statement, Amy Cooper said she had misread his intent."I reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions when, in fact, I was the one who was acting inappropriately by not having my dog on a leash," she said in the statement.She did not respond to multiple requests for comment.On Wednesday, New York City's Commission on Human Rights began an investigation into Amy Cooper's actions.On his birding walk Wednesday, Christian Cooper said he had read her apology.He called it "a start." He said he was not interested in meeting her or in any face-to-face reconciliation.What he was interested in were birds, like the sighting in 2018 of a rare Kirtland's warbler that led him to sprint from his office in Midtown Manhattan to the park to catch a glimpse.Cooper, who now works in communications and lives on the Lower East Side, has fed his passion with birding trips to Central Park and around the world, and he is on the board of the New York City Audubon Society.He has developed a virtuoso's ear for their birdsong, and can identify them by chirp. ("There's a myth that I have the best ears in the park," he said. "It's a myth.")As he has pursued his passion, he has been keenly aware of the fact that there appear to be few other African American men invested in the hobby, excluded by the same subtle messaging he gets when he is followed around in shops, he said.And he is aware that the image he cuts -- as a man often shuffling the undergrowth after a rare bird, with a metal object, the binoculars, in his hand -- can read differently for a black person than for a white person.It doesn't stop him."We should be out here. The birds belong to all of us," he said. "The birds don't care what color you are."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

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India's economy seen slowing rapidly in March quarter, with worse to come

Gross domestic product data out later on Friday is expected to show India's economy grew at its slowest pace in at least two years in the March quarter as the coronavirus pandemic weakened already declining consumer demand and private investment. The median forecast from a Reuters poll of economists put annual economic growth at 2.1% in the March quarter, lower than 4.7% in the December quarter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained the lockdown ordered on March 25 to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the world's second most populous country, though many restrictions were eased for manufacturing, transport and other services from May 18.

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New report alleges killings, mass detentions in Ethiopia

A new report by the rights group Amnesty International accuses Ethiopia’s security forces of extrajudicial killings and mass detentions even as the country’s reformist prime minister was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The report issued Friday says security forces killed at least 25 people in 2019 in the East Guji and West Guji zones of the restive Oromia region amid suspicions of supporting a rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army, and a once-exiled opposition group. The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was awarded the peace prize in December for sweeping political reforms and restoring ties with neighboring Eritrea after two decades of hostilities, acknowledged that “the reform process has at times experienced bumps” but called the report “a one-sided snapshot security analysis that fails to appropriately capture the broader political trajectory and security developments."

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George Floyd Was Pinned Down for Nearly 3 Minutes After He Became Unresponsive, Prosecutors Say

By BY SARAH MERVOSH from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2zBC0iK

China and the Rhineland Moment

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Ex-Officer Charged in Death of George Floyd in Minneapolis

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George Floyd Worked With Officer Charged in His Death

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‘The Pain Is Too Intense’: Biden Challenges White Americans

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Germany's Merkel rejects Trump invite to attend G7 summit in Washington: Politico

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused to accept U.S. President Donald Trump's invitation to attend an envisaged summit of the Group of Seven (G7) in the United States, Politico reported on Friday.

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Trump cutting U.S. ties with World Health Organization over virus

The United States will end its relationship with the World Health Organization over the body's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday, accusing the U.N. agency of becoming a puppet of China.

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