Junior UK minister Douglas Ross has resigned from the British government over the controversy surrounding Boris Johnson’s senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, who travelled more than 250 miles from his London home during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown in March.
“I have just tendered my resignation from the UK government and my position as Under Secretary of State for Scotland,” Ross wrote in a letter posted to his official Twitter account on Tuesday.
“There was much I still hoped to do in this role but events over the last few days mean I can no longer serve as a member of this government,” he added.
Ross’ resignation follows a press statement made by Cummings on Monday, in which the aide admitted to travelling to Durham in northern England during the lockdown, despite the fact that his wife was ill.
Cummings said he made the trip to ensure the welfare of his child, asserting that while his wife had fallen ill in London, she did not have symptoms of coronavirus.
“I was worried that if both my wife and I were seriously ill, possibly hospitalized, there is nobody in London that we could reasonably ask to look after our child and expose themselves to Covid,” Cummings said.
Ross said that while Cummings’ intentions “may have been well meaning,” the subsequent reaction to the news “shows that Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked.”
“I have constituents who didn’t get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn’t visit sick relatives because they followed the guidelines of the government,” Ross added.
“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior advisor to the government was right.”
Almost 200 schools in the South Korean capital of Seoul and the country’s North Gyeongsang province will postpone school reopenings that were originally scheduled for Wednesday, education authorities said.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said seven elementary schools and five kindergartens pushed back their start dates because a 6-year-old tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Most affected schools will now open on June 1.
North Gyeongsang Province’s Office of Education announced that 182 schools — including kindergartens, elementary and middle schools — in the province will also open on June 1 because a kindergarten instructor tested positive for the virus on Monday.
Asian stocks and US futures rose Tuesday, as a growing number of cities and countries around the world took steps towards reopening.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 (N225) climbed 2.6%, leading the way in the region.
On Monday, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted the state of emergency for the entire nation. Abe said he was also working to increase the government’s stimulus packages to more than 200 trillion yen ($1.9 trillion), or about 40% of the annual output of the world’s third-biggest economy.
Japan’s cabinet is expected to approve the new package on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI) advanced about 2%, adding to Monday’s gains.
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A man in South Korea who refused to adhere to quarantine rules in one of the country’s hardest-hit areas was sentenced to four months in prison on Tuesday.
The Uijeongbu District Court in Gyeonggi Province sentenced the unnamed defendant for violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act.
Authorities said he refused to stay either at home or in a government-designated quarantine facility, visiting public places — including a sauna and a convenience store — despite multiple warnings not to do so.
Sometime in the next few days, the 100,000th American will succumb to Covid-19 in a pandemic that President Donald Trump once predicted would just “miraculously” disappear.
Yet despite, and perhaps because of, his earlier cavalier attitude, Trump spent the long holiday weekend bemoaning everything but the tragic roll call of death — while also finding time to claim he got “great reviews” for handling the crisis.
In his most politically significant maneuver, he heaped intense pressure on North Carolina’s Democratic governor to permit a normal, crowded Republican National Convention, despite fears such a mass gathering could seed virus hot spots. Trump warned he could pull the huge money-earner out of Charlotte, which was picked to play host in August.
The move came as the President intensified his push for a full reopening of the country and television footage showed packed beaches and boardwalks in some states as Memorial Day crowds fueled fears that social distancing may be breaking down.
On social media, he waged a weekend of Twitter wars against his critics, targeting a favorite foil, Barack Obama, after Trump’s return to the golf course — his 266th such trip in office — sparked calls for him to concentrate more fully on the pandemic.
And he indulged his preoccupations on his tax returns, Hillary Clinton, Fox News, slanders against MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, the Russia investigation, Joe Biden’s mental health, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, mail-in voting in November and highlighted dangerous and unproven Covid-19 therapies promoted on conservative media he has tested himself.
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It’s nearing 3 p.m. in Singapore and 4 a.m. in Rio de Janeiro. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you missed:
- Crisis in Brazil: Brazil recorded 11,687 new coronavirus cases within 24 hours, the country’s health ministry said on Monday, taking the nationwide total to 374,898. Only the United States has recorded more.
- An unusual holiday in the US: Photos and video of Memorial Day weekend celebrations across the US — usually considered the unofficial start of summer — showed plenty of people going to the beach and gathering on boardwalks, but not a lot of social distancing or masks. More than 19,000 new coronavirus cases were identified in the country on Monday.
- Economic woes in Singapore: The city-state’s recession may be much deeper than expected this year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the economy. GDP growth is now forecast to drop between 4% and 7% — down from an expected decline of 1% to 4%, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
LATAM Airlines Group, the largest air carrier in Latin America, has filed for bankruptcy in large part due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said in a statement on its website.
The company is planning to reorganize operations under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. CEO Roberto Alvo said the company will focus “on transforming our group to adapt to a new and evolving way of flying, with the health and safety of our passengers and employees being paramount.”
In the meantime, reservations, employee pay, flight vouchers, and passenger and cargo operations will not be impacted, according to the statement.
“Our group has shared our journey with the people of Latin America, thriving in times of growth and pulling together to overcome times of adversity,” the statement said. “LATAM will emerge from this process a more efficient, resilient, and ultimately strengthened airline group that is better placed to serve Latin America.”
This is the second major airline in the region to file for bankruptcy this month. Colombia-based Avianca filed for bankruptcy May 11, citing coronavirus-related financial problems.
Photos and video of Memorial Day weekend celebrations across the US — which is usually considered the unofficial start of summer — showed plenty of people going to the beach and gathering on boardwalks, but not a lot of social distancing or masks.
From Florida to Indiana and across the country to California, Americans were out enjoying the weekend as states loosened coronavirus restrictions.
Read more about what happened across the country here. Images from the holiday weekend can be found here.
Singapore’s recession may be much deeper than expected this year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the wealthy city-state.
Officials there Tuesday slashed the country’s economic forecast for the third time this year. GDP growth is now set to drop between 4% and 7% — down from an expected decline of 1% to 4%, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The darkening outlook marks a major departure from just a few months ago. Earlier this year, Singapore was seen as one of the few countries that had its coronavirus response under control.
But it has recently experienced an alarming second wave of infections, leading to heightened restrictions. The island nation now has 31,960 confirmed cases, up from just a few hundred in March, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Singapore was already headed for recession last year as its exports slumped due to the US-China trade war.
Now, “we think the economy is already in recession,” Sung Eun Jung, of Oxford Economics, wrote in a research note Tuesday.
To shore up the flagging economy, the government has deployed billions of dollars in stimulus measures.
A new package is also expected later on Tuesday, when Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat presents a relief plan for businesses in an address to parliament.
