The Analyzer News Roundup For May 20, 2020
This morning, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from Michigan and Nevada, citing dissatisfaction with the states’ decisions to enact widespread mail-in voting.
According to Fox News, Trump and GOP leaders have been consistent in their calls against extended balloting by mail, while their Democratic counterparts point to the fact that cases of voter fraud are limited and that Republicans are trying to suppress voter turnout.
Meanwhile, Michigan is facing large scale floods and California’s ban on visiting religious institutions due to Covid-19 is being overturned.
Thousands of mid-Michigan residents were forced to evacuate after the Tittabawassee River, which reached its major flood stage Tuesday afternoon, breached two dams this morning. Amid Trump’s threats to cut federal funding and the coronavirus outbreak, the unprecedented floods pose serious threats to safety of the citizens.
According to CNN, the flood is already 6 feet above major flood stage and past the previous record, set in 1986. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer warned that downtown Midland, a city of more than 40,000 people, could go under 9 feet of water according to current predictions.
A letter from federal attorneys expressed civil rights concerns over California’s decision to prohibit assemblies at houses of worship. As Politico writes, the Department of Justice noted that the decision to deem religious service non-essential has not been rightly justified.
“California has not shown why interactions in offices and studios of the entertainment industry […] are included on the list as being allowed with social distancing where telework is not practical, while gatherings with social distancing for purposes of religious worship are forbidden,” the letter says.
In world news, South Korean high school seniors returned to school today, although plastic barriers and face masks are still required. Meanwhile, Brazil reported its worst daily death toll from COVID-19 to date, counting 1,179 deaths and 17,408 new cases.
According to the World Health Organization, there are now more than 5 million coronavirus cases globally, while the total number of reported deaths climbed to 325,712.
