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Police officer filmed kneeling on George Floyd's neck charged with murder / VIDEO:How the killing of George Floyd has upended America
 |
First
published on Politicalcartoons.com, Canada, May 27, 2020 | By Dave Whamond
|
Police officer filmed kneeling on George Floyd's
neck charged with murder
Derek Chauvin charged with third-degree murder and
manslaughter as county prosecutor suggests additional charges may be brought
Kenya
Evelyn in Washington
@LiveFromKenya
Fri 29 May
2020 20.29 BSTFirst published on Fri 29 May 2020 19.29 BST
Derek
Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer captured on video kneeling on the neck
of 46-year-old George Floyd as he begged for his life, was charged on Friday
afternoon with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The state’s
bureau of criminal apprehension took Chauvin, a 19-year veteran, into custody.
“We are in
the process of continuing to review the evidence. There may be additional
charges later,” the Hennepin county attorney, Mike Freeman, said.
Based on
law enforcement review of body-cam video, state charging documents allege that
the now former Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for a
total of nearly nine minutes, including two minutes and 43 seconds after Floyd
became non-responsive.
Floyd’s
family released a statement calling the arrest a “welcome but overdue step on
the road to justice” and added that members “expected a first-degree murder
charge”, which they still demand.
“The pain
that the black community feels over this murder and what it reflects about the
treatment of black people in America is raw and spilling out on to streets
across [the country],” the statement read.
Under
Minnesota law, a first-degree murder charge would require prosecutors prove
Chauvin’s actions were willful and premeditated. Freeman confirmed authorities
are still investigating.
The charges
came as Andrea Jenkins, the city council vice-president, confirmed Floyd and
Chauvin knew each other as “co-workers for a very long time”. The men worked
together for more than 17 years as bouncers at a local club, El Nuevo Rodeo.
Maya
Santamaria, the owner of El Nuevo Rodeo, told CNN Friday that on “urban
nights”, Chauvin was known to treat black patrons more “skittish” and “anxious”
than the club’s usual Latino patrons, eagerly reaching for “pepper spray with
any little thing that might happen”.
“They
certainly acted like a group mentality,” she said. “They always had to call
backup. It was different than what we saw on our Latin nights.”
In
Washington, the US attorney general, William Barr, called the video footage
“harrowing to watch and deeply disturbing”. He also confirmed a separate US
justice department investigation “to determine whether any federal civil rights
laws were violated”.
Thursday
protests spill over
Smoke hung
over the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis on Friday after demonstrators
burned down the city’s third police precinct, the headquarters of the officers
involved in Floyd’s death.
As flames
engulfed the building, chants of Floyd’s name and “No justice, no peace” rang
out. Some protesters celebrated with fireworks, while police officers watched
from two blocks away but did not intervene.
Floyd died
in police custody on Monday after the white officer handcuffed him before
kneeling on his neck , despite Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe.
Four
officers, including Chauvin, were fired the next day.
Cellphone
video footage of Floyd suffocating under the officer’s knee has gone viral,
prompting three nights of protests in Minneapolis and reigniting longstanding
anger over systemic racism in America, especially in the criminal justice
system.
While the
majority of protesters were peaceful, some demonstrators looted businesses. Seven
people were shot and injured in demonstrations in Louisville, Kentucky, 40 were
arrested in New York city protests occurred in several other states.
“I’m really
angry about George Floyd because we went through all of this with Michael Brown
[who was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014] and it seems nothing
changes,” said Marie Johnson, who described herself as black and Native
American, as she watched looting in Minneapolis.
“But I’m
not at peace with this either. I get that people are angry but it feels like a
lot of people here are just grabbing the opportunity for free shopping.”
In
Louisville, protesters demanded justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman
fatally shot by police in her home in March.
The
families of Taylor, Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger who was recently
killed by two white male vigilantes – including a retired police officer – in
Georgia, released a statement late on Thursday calling their killings part of
“a national crisis”.
“Our
government needs to take immediate and widespread action to protect our black
and brown communities,” the statement read.
The
families appeared in a joint press conference on Friday to call for more police
accountability and an intervention by Congress and the United Nations.
Trump
denounced protesters as “thugs” on Thursday night and appeared to threaten
lethal force, tweeting that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”.
Trump
rarely comments on incidents of police brutality against black people.
Twitter hid
Trump’s post, saying it violated their policies “regarding the glorification of
violence”.
On Friday
morning the police and national guard sealed off the streets around the third
precinct, allowing in only clean up crews to deal with the debris of the
previous night’s destruction. The ground was layered with shattered glass.
Some
passers by taunted the police officers with promises to be back later.
Then came
news that the police officer who was filmed kneeling on George Floyd’s neck was
charged with murder.
“Y’all
should be charged with murder,” shouted a young man on a bike at the police
line. “Y’all got blood on your hands. Not just George’s blood. Centuries of
blood.”
Then he
cycled off.
Others were
more sanguine.
“Maybe
it’ll help quiet things down,” said Ashley Sanders, who said she took part in
only the peaceful side of the protests the previous evening.
“I hate to
say this but if these buildings weren’t burning, would they have taken it as
seriously? ”
Others were
less forgiving. Ayanle Hashi was cleaning up the looted shops in the bottom of
his apartment block. He had stood guard all night for fear his home would be
razed.
“How does
this help George Floyd get justice?” he said. “You think the police care if these
people destroy this place where we live?”
Sandra
Hilbrands, wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt, joined a volunteer clean-up crew
picking up glass.
“Our city
needs help right now more than anything,” said the primary school teacher. “I’m
very privileged. I don’t know what it is like to be afraid of the cops. I think
people are reacting.” Initially reluctant, she did watch the video. “I have to
watch this. I have a responsibility,” she said.
The
presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Joe Biden, said: “The original
sin of this country still stains our nation today and sometimes we managed to
overlook it. But it’s always there. And in weeks like this, we see it plainly
that we are a country with an open wound.
“None of us
can be silent,” he continued. “None of us can … hear the words ‘I can’t
breathe’ and do nothing.”
Trump also
faced intense backlash to the tweet that spread outside political circles. Pop
star Taylor Swift joined the uproar on Friday, vowing to “vote [Trump] out in
November” “after stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism [his] entire
presidency”.
Barack
Obama later called for Americans to come together to heal the country’s “legacy
of bigotry”.
“This
shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America,” Obama said, referring to the discrimination
many Americans experience in their day to day lives, and called on Americans to
come together to create a “new normal” to root out institutional racism.
Donald Trump announces US plans to sever all ties with WHO / Trump turns against WHO to mask his own stark failings on Covid-19 crisis
Trump announces US to sever all ties with WHO
Trump spends majority of White House speech attacking
China
Health body has ‘failed to make the greatly needed
reforms’.
Julian
Borger in Washington
Fri 29 May
2020 22.40 BSTLast modified on Sat 30 May 2020 04.56 BST
Donald
Trump has announced the severance of all US ties with the World Health
Organisation, three weeks ahead of a deadline he laid down earlier this month.
In a speech
in the White House Rose Garden which was chiefly devoted to castigating China,
and threatening new sanctions over its actions in Hong Kong, the president
claimed that “China has total control over” the WHO.
“We have
detailed the reforms that it must make and engage with them directly, but they
have refused to act because they have failed to make the requested and greatly
needed reforms,” Trump said.
“We will be
today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and
redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public
health needs.”
The US is
the biggest funder of the global health body, paying about $450m in membership
dues and voluntary contributions for specific programmes.
On May 19,
Trump sent a four-page letter to the WHO director general Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus warning he would permanently cut US funding of the WHO and
reconsider US membership if the organisation did “not commit to major
substantive improvements within the next 30 days.”
He
announced US withdrawal on Friday, only 10 days after the letter.
After that
ultimatum was announced, a few US health officials urged the WHO to signal its
willingness to change to the Trump administration in the hope it would change
the president’s mind, but US sources said there was no concerted dialogue
between the administration and the WHO over reform.
Earlier
this month, the World Health Assembly (WHA) of member states agreed there
should be a thorough review of the organisation’s response to the pandemic.
The US had
lobbied to have Taiwan invited to the assembly as an observer, and had
significant western support for the proposal. But European diplomats said the
US was half-hearted in its campaign and lost the tussle with China.
“What’s
interesting, looking at the last WHA meeting for me, was a very clear sign that
American influence has diminished significantly,” said Abraham Denmark, a
former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia. “It was
embarrassing that we weren’t able to wrangle international support for our
policy goals in that meeting, and that China was able to really get what they
needed out of that.”
The move
appeared to confirm the suspicions of many in the WHO and in western capitals
that Trump never intended to seek reforms or open a dialogue with the WHO, but
left the body for political reasons. He has sought to blame it for the depth of
the coronavirus pandemic in the US.
“It was
never about reforming the WHO. That was all lies,” Democratic Senator Chris
Murphy, said on Twitter. “It was always about distraction and scapegoating.
Leaving castrates our ability to stop future pandemics and elevates China as
the world’s go-to power on global health. What a nightmare.”
On a day in
which several US cities were still reeling from a night of protests and looting
which had erupted after the death of George Floyd, the president did not
address the unrest – or the murder charge brought upon the white police officer
who was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
Instead,
Trump’s speech on Friday was mostly focused on China, reviving longstanding
complaints about Beijing’s trade practices, blaming Beijing for the pandemic,
and denouncing its imposition of a harsh Chinese security law on Hong Kong. He
confirmed that the US would restrict entry to Chinese students, and cease to
treat Hong Kong as autonomous, ending preferential trade relations.
He also
said there would be sanctions against Chinese officials.
“The US
will also take necessary steps to sanction PRC [People’s Republic of China] and
Hong Kong officials directly or indirectly involved in eroding Hong Kong’s
autonomy,” he said.
Leaving the
WHO would mean abrogating a treaty, the latest in a series of international
agreements Trump has pulled out of. The US is the only member state which can
legally withdraw from the WHO, a privilege Washington insisted on before it
ratified the WHO constitution.
Amanda
Glassman, the executive-vice president of the Centre for Global Development,
said that the US had extensive ties to the WHO, and would lose a lot of
influence on global health research and policy-making.
“We have
very deep and long relationships with the WHO as the space where we coordinate
global health policy” Glassman said. “I think it’s totally inefficient to do it
in a bilateral manner.”
Beth
Cameron, a biologist and former senior official in the National Security
Council said on Twitter: “There aren’t words for how much this decision will
hurt the US, our global partners, and our ability to to impact the #COVID19
pandemic that is a threat to our national and global peace and security.”
Trump turns against WHO to mask his own stark
failings on Covid-19 crisis
Dishonest decision to pull funding from World Health
Organization will endanger public health
Julian
Borger in Washington
Wed 15 Apr
2020 02.29 BSTLast modified on Wed 15 Apr 2020 20.25 BST
Donald
Trump’s declared suspension of funding of the World Health Organization in the
midst of a pandemic is confirmation – if any were needed – that he is in search
of scapegoats for his administration’s much delayed and chaotic response to the
crisis.
The US is
the WHO’s biggest donor, with funding over $400m a year in both assessed
contributions (membership fees) and donations – though it is actually $200m in
arrears.
Theoretically
the White House cannot block funding of international institutions mandated by
Congress. But the administration has found ways around such constitutional
hurdles on other issues – by simply failing to disburse funds or apply
sanctions, for example.
The funding
could be formally rescinded, but that would require Senate approval, or
“reprogrammed” by being diverted to another purpose that the White House could
argue is consistent with the will of Congress.
“Whatever
form it takes, this is a deeply shortsighted and dangerous decision - at any
time, let alone during a ... pandemic,” said Alexandra Phelan, assistant
professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown
University.
“It’s a
bizarre decision that would be profoundly detrimental to global public health,”
said Gavin Yamey, the director of Duke University’s center for policy impact in
global health. “He’s trying to distract from his own errors that have led to
the worst government response to Covid-19 on Earth.”
Public
health officials generally agree that the WHO’s response to the pandemic has
not been perfect, but much improved on the organisation’s lambasted performance
in the face of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, and immeasurably better than how the
US has handled Covid-19.
The WHO
first raised the alert over the Wuhan outbreak on 5 January, and beginning on 7
January it was briefing public health officials from the US and other national
governments on the outbreak in regular teleconference calls. On 9 January the
WHO distributed guidance to member states for their own risk assessment and
planning.
Trump and
his supporters have focused on a 14 January WHO tweet reporting the findings of
preliminary Chinese studies suggesting “no clear evidence” of human-to-human
transmission.
While the
WHO was obliged to report on the latest findings of a member state at the
source of the outbreak, its officials told their counterparts in technical
briefings on 10 and 11 January, and briefed the press on 14 January, that
human-to-human transmission was still a strong possibility given the experience
of past coronavirus epidemics and urged suitable precautions.
Yamey said
it was ridiculous to point to a single tweet early in the pandemic as the fixed
position of the WHO. “The whole point of science is that we have initial
hypotheses and initial ideas, and we update those ideas as more and more data
emerges,” he said.
On 23
January the WHO updated its account of the coronavirus threat, confirming
human-to-human transmission and warning that the global risk was high. One week
later it formally declared a global emergency.
Announcing
the cut in funding on Tuesday, Trump accused the WHO of failing to send its
experts to the source of the outbreak to gather samples. That failure
decisively set back the effect to contain the pandemic, he claimed.
In fact
Beijing blocked a WHO delegation from visiting Wuhan in the first weeks of the
outbreak. The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had to fly to
Beijing to meet Xi Jinping on 29 January to negotiate entry and information
sharing. A WHO team was allowed to visit Wuhan on 22 February. Tedros has been
criticised for his flattery of Xi and the Chinese response, in the face of
Beijing’s obstructionism and cover-up attempts. His defenders said that such
diplomacy was the price for entry.
Trump did
more than his own fair share of Xi flattery. On 24 January, the president
tweeted “China has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus … The
United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency.”
The claim
that the delay in the WHO acquiring samples crippled the international response
is also false. Chinese scientists publicly released the genetic sequence of
Covid-19 on 11 January.
By early
February the WHO was in a position to distribute a Covid-19 test worldwide, but
the US government opted not to have it fast-tracked through approval. The US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instead produced its own test
at about the same time, but it was flawed and had to be recalled. US testing
would be set back more than six weeks compared to the rest of the world.
While
virtually no testing was under way in the US throughout February, Trump assumed
the consequently low number of confirmed US cases meant that his country had
somehow escaped. “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA,” he
boasted on 24 February, nearly a month after the WHO declaration of emergency.
“We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World
Health [Organisation] have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market
starting to look very good to me!”
Trump’s turn
against the WHO only gathered pace over the past week, as more and more reports
emerged of the administration’s own complacent and dysfunctional response.
The impact
of a block on US funds is likely to mitigated by other countries, who have
almost unanimously expressed confidence in the WHO, stepping up their own
financial backing. The UK, for example, has announced £200m in new funding for
international efforts to contain and combat the pandemic, of which £65m is
earmarked for the WHO.
How well
Trump’s scapegoating of the WHO will play in the US election is impossible to
predict, but on the world stage it will undoubtedly be seen as yet another step
in an accelerating US abdication of global leadership.
Renault is Macron’s problem champion / EasyJet axes almost a third of staff on virus fallout
Renault is Macron’s problem champion
The troubled carmaker announced a radical
restructuring program.
By ELISA
BRAUN AND JOSHUA POSANER 5/29/20, 6:45 PM CET Updated 5/29/20, 7:23 PM CET
PARIS —
French President Emmanuel Macron is hoping to use national and EU financial
firepower to rescue crucial companies and bolster their roles as champions —
that makes Renault a problem.
The French
carmaker is bleeding red ink and on Friday announced a three-year restructuring
plan, with 4,600 jobs set to go in France alone as part of a global effort to cut
costs by €2 billion.
The
pandemic, which saw Renault's car sales in France fall by 83.8 percent in
April, has only accelerated the carmaker's decline to a struggling brand
buckling under the weight of a costly transition to clean mobility while locked
in a troubled alliance with Japanese automaker Nissan.
"The
kind of [health] crisis we have just come through has forced us to act,"
said Renault's Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard at a press conference announcing
the restructuring plan. He said the coronavirus had simply made the need to
reform "more urgent."
Jobs cuts,
closing factories and angry workers are a problem for Macron.
"Today the company can longer take the weight of
the expenses given the collapse of the market" — Jean-Dominique Senard,
chairman of Renault
The French
government has announced an €8 billion rescue package for the car industry, as
well as a promised state guarantee for a €5 billion loan for Renault — as long
as the carmaker strikes a deal with its unions over factory closures and joins
fellow French carmaker PSA in the Commission-led project to build a European
battery industry for electric cars.
On Friday,
Senard said the company didn't need the cash yet. He was also lukewarm on the
need to invest in battery cell technology. "In batteries we are very well
supplied for the years to come," he said.
Saving
companies like Renault — in which the French state has a 15 percent stake — is
part of Macron's post-pandemic vision of building up national and European
champions able to do battle on global markets. The government gave Air France a
€7 billion bailout, part of which involved assurances that the airline would
continue to buy aircraft from Airbus — another industrial champion.
In comparison
to PSA, which turned a profit and is gearing up to merge with Fiat Chrysler,
Renault is in a much more difficult spot. It posted a €141 million loss last
year, its alliance with Nissan is in tatters, and it needs to slash production.
The restructuring
plan will see Renault cut 15,000 jobs worldwide, and start talks with its
unions over what to do about excess production at some of its 14 French plants.
"Today the company can longer take the weight of the expenses given the
collapse of the market," said Senard.
Renault is
leaving the big decisions until after July 1 when Luca de Meo, the former boss
of Volkswagen unit Seat, takes over as CEO.
"Why
make a rather sad announcement like that of job losses without announcing a
development plan," asked Senator Olivier Jacquin, a French Socialist
senator working on transport. "It's a bit surprising from that point of
view."
Getting the
job cuts out of the way now might clear the decks for new corporate leadership
to set out long-term goals, but it does nothing help Macron steer his
government through a major economic crisis. The prospect of mass redundancies
also exposes him to political pressure.
"When
the government is putting €8 billion on the table, this cannot be done without
putting conditions for the development of an industrial strategy," said
Sébastien Jamuel, a Communist MP for Dieppe in the north of France where
Renault has a plant. "Industrial sovereignty must be regained, but not
only in the world of words, but also actions and demands that the shareholder
state must make."
EasyJet axes almost a third of staff on virus
fallout
Roland
Jackson
Agence
France-Presse
London,
United Kingdom / Thu, May 28, 2020 /
02:15 pm
British
no-frills airline EasyJet said Thursday that it will axe up to 4,500 jobs, or
almost a third of its workforce, as coronavirus ravages demand and grounds
global air travel.
"We
are planning to reduce the size of our fleet and to optimise the network and
our bases. As a result, we anticipate reducing staff numbers by up to 30
percent across the business and we will continue to remove cost and
non-critical expenditure at every level," said Chief Executive Johan Lundgren
in a statement.
The job
cuts will impact up to 4,500 of the carrier's 15,000 staff, a spokesman told
AFP. A consultation process will be launched in the coming days.
The
COVID-19 outbreak has devastated the global aviation sector, with passenger
numbers slumping during lockdown measures as air travel demand evaporates.
EasyJet
follows competitors British Airways, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic, which have
all slashed staff numbers to save costs.
"We
realise that these are very difficult times and we are having to consider very
difficult decisions which will impact our people, but we want to protect as
many jobs as we can for the long-term," added Lundgren.
"We
remain focused on doing what is right for the company and its long-term health
and success, following the swift action we have taken over the last three
months to meet the challenges of the virus."
EasyJet had
grounded its entire fleet at the end of March, and currently plans to resume to
the skies in mid-June with a limited number of flights.
"Although
we will restart flying on 15 June, we expect demand to build slowly, only
returning to 2019 levels in about three years' time," added Lundgren.
"We
want to ensure that we emerge from the pandemic an even more competitive
business than before, so that EasyJet can thrive in the future."
Travellers
arriving in Britain will meanwhile face 14 days in quarantine from next month
to prevent a second coronavirus outbreak.
The
pandemic has battered the air transport sector by all but grounding planes,
resulting in layoffs, bankruptcies and rescue plans worldwide -- although
Lufthansa is wavering over a nine-billion-euro ($9.9 billion) German state
lifeline.
The
International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast this week that global
airlines will lose some $314 billion (286 billion euros) in 2020 revenues on
the back of coronavirus.
EasyJet
added Thursday that it would not provide any outlook as a result of the turmoil.
"At
this stage, given the level of continued uncertainty, it is not possible to
provide financial guidance for the remainder of the 2020 financial year.
"However,
as shown in this release, we continue to take every step necessary to reduce
cost, conserve cash burn, enhance liquidity, protect the business and ensure it
is best positioned on our return to flying."
Merkel rebuffs Trump invitation to G7 summit / Back off, Trump. Germany wants to Make Europe Strong Again
 |
Back off, Trump. Germany wants to Make Europe
Strong Again
Berlin’s EU presidency motto has echoes of MAGA.
By JOSHUA
POSANER AND HANS VON DER BURCHARD 5/29/20, 1:10 PM CET Updated 5/29/20, 1:19 PM
CET
BERLIN —
Forget Make America Great Again. Here comes Make Europe Strong Again.
The German
government has settled on “Gemeinsam. Europa wieder stark machen" — which
translates into English as "Together. Making Europe strong again" —
as its slogan for the country's upcoming presidency of the Council of the EU,
which kicks off on July 1.
The official English motto is a less Trumpian
"Together for Europe's recovery," however.
Chancellor
Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Friday that the motto —
launched along with a Möbius strip logo and website — aims to illustrate the
German presidency will have to "find compromises and solutions to tackle
the challenges posed by the corona pandemic" across Europe.
The logo is
meant to symbolize "joint action emerging from the EU's diversity again
and again," he said.
Merkel said earlier this week that China would be one
of the priorities of the German presidency.
Merkel said
earlier this week that China would be one of the priorities of the German
presidency. On Friday, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Berlin wants to develop
“a robust EU strategy on China” during the coming six months, with a flagship
summit of all EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for
September 14.
“I believe
that the best way to influence China is to make it clear that the European
Union is very united … and that it will not be possible to break individual
countries out of this unity,” Maas said.
Authors:
Joshua
Posaner and Hans von der Burchard
|
Merkel rebuffs Trump invitation to G7 summit
US president wants landmark event but chancellor
‘cannot agree’ to travel due to ongoing pandemic.
By MATTHEW
KARNITSCHNIG, DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, JACOPO BARIGAZZI AND ANDREW GRAY 5/29/20,
6:10 PM CET Updated 5/30/20, 12:40 AM CET
BERLIN —
Angela Merkel has rebuffed Donald Trump’s invitation to attend a G7 summit,
which the U.S. president is keen to portray as a symbol of a return to
normality from the upheaval of the coronavirus crisis.
"The
federal chancellor thanks President Trump for his invitation to the G7 summit
at the end of June in Washington. As of today, considering the overall pandemic
situation, she cannot agree to her personal participation, to a journey to
Washington," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told POLITICO
Friday.
"She
will of course continue to monitor the development of the pandemic."
Merkel's
refusal to accept Trump's invitation is the latest in a long line of examples
of the difficult relationship between the two leaders. Trump has repeatedly
criticized Germany, and Merkel specifically, over issues ranging from Berlin's
trade surplus to its defense spending and commitment to NATO. Merkel has
pointedly and publicly taken issue with the Trump administration's unilateral
approach to a range of foreign policy issues, from climate change to the Iran
nuclear deal.
In a call
between Trump and Merkel this week, the two leaders had heated disagreements on
topics including NATO, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and
Germany, and relations with China, according to a senior U.S. official, who
declined to be named. Seibert, the German spokesman, did not respond to a question
about whether the conversation was heated.
The White
House had not commented by the time of publication.
Merkel's
refusal to attend the summit in person risks scuppering Trump's attempts to
present the gathering as a landmark moment drawing a line under the lockdowns
and travel bans imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump
canceled the summit in March due to the crisis and said he would host a
videconference instead. But in a tweet on May 20, he said he might reschedule
the summit, proclaiming, "It would be a great sign to all —
normalization!"
The White
House said this week it plans to hold the summit in late June in Washington,
rather than the original venue of Camp David, the presidential retreat, where
Trump moved the event after facing an outcry over plans to hold it at one of
his own golf resorts in Miami.
"The
president thinks no greater example of reopening in this transition to
greatness would be the G7, and G7 happening here," White House Press
Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Tuesday.
"We
will protect world leaders who come here, just like we protect people in the
White House," McEnany added. "So we want to see it happen. We think
it will happen. And, so far, foreign leaders are very much on board with the
idea."
But Merkel,
who is a research scientist by professional training, has said that she believes
June is still too soon to hold large gatherings given that the virus is still
circulating, and experts are urging continued vigilance and social distancing,
even as economies begin to open up again.
Officials
aware of the transatlantic discussions said Trump was furious over Merkel's
reluctance to attend the summit and on Thursday he phoned French President
Emmanuel Macron in a pique.
In a
readout of Trump's call with Macron on Thursday, the White House said:
"President Trump and President Macron discussed progress on defeating the
coronavirus and reopening global economies. The two leaders agreed on the
importance of convening the G7 in person in the near future. President Trump
and President Macron also discussed critical global and bilateral issues."
Officials
aware of recent transatlantic discussions said Merkel had voiced similar
opposition to EU leaders gathering in person for a summit in Brussels on June
19, and said face-to-face talks should not resume until July.
The EU is
under extreme pressure to reach a deal on its new seven-year budget, which is
due to start on January 1 and now includes a huge rescue and recovery package
to help address the economic shock of the pandemic. Most leaders believe an
agreement can only be reached by getting everyone together in the same room.
But while
officials said Merkel's reluctance to attend the G7 summit was primarily based
on the ongoing health situation, they also said European G7 leaders are
concerned that Trump may simply want to use their visit for an election-year
photo op, and as a basis for declaring the world is getting back to work —
thanks to him.
Officials
said that there had been very little of the traditional preparation that
precedes the annual G7 summit, including detailed discussion about the agenda,
and often intensive negotiation over the drafting of formal conclusions. Those
negotiations were expected to be particularly tough given Trump's divergence
from the others on a number of issues, especially trade and climate change.
Macron has
said he would be willing to attend the summit.
One
official said the lack of preparation had heightened concerns among EU leaders
about the potential political drawbacks of traveling to the U.S. — especially
if they had not yet had a chance to meet in person in Brussels to discuss their
own affairs.
Merkel, who
will turn 66 in July, is the second-oldest G7 leader after Trump, who is about
to turn 74, and they, along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, who is 65,
would be considered at high risk of complications from coronavirus.
U.K. Prime
Minister Boris Johnson, aged 55, is the only G7 leader known to have contracted
COVID-19 and had to be hospitalized in an intensive care unit.
In a
readout of a call between Johnson and Trump on Friday, 10 Downing Street said:
“On the upcoming G7 Summit, the Prime Minister and President discussed the
importance of leaders meeting in the US in person if possible."
Macron has
said he would be willing to attend the summit. France is easing most of its
lockdown restrictions on June 2, and travel between EU countries is expected to
resume on June 15. But a ban on nonessential travel from outside the EU remains
in effect, and a decision on when to lift it is expected by mid-June.
Abe has
expressed similar openness, though Japanese media have noted that under current
guidelines, the prime minister and his entourage would be required to
quarantine for 14 days upon returning to Tokyo. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe
Conte has also voiced a willingness to travel to Washington, as has Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. European Council President Charles Michel has
said that he, too, would be up for the trip — if health conditions permit it.
Privately,
however, one official familiar with the situation said that other EU leaders
would support Merkel and would not attend Trump's summit if Merkel thought it
was a bad idea.
Meridith
McGraw in Washington and Charlie Cooper in London contributed reporting.
Authors:
Matthew
Karnitschnig , David M. Herszenhorn , Jacopo Barigazzi and Andrew Gray
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