California reverses coronavirus reopenings for businesses' indoor operations – live

As Florida governor Ron DeSantis started his update on the worsening Covid crisis in his state just now, a protester in a mask interrupted, shouting: “You are misleading the public. You are blaming the protesters. You guys have no plan, and you are doing nothing. Shame on you!” Watch here:

The protest comes one day after Florida broke the national record for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases as its daily average death toll continued to also rise.

DeSantis has said that even with the rising rates and growing safety concerns, he still wants schools to reopen as scheduled next month. The governor also recently downplayed the help his state was receiving from the state of New York for supplies, even though records show his aides thanking New York officials.

As the Covid-19 crisis dramatically worsens across the US, Trump has continued to share the falsehood that the US has “one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere”:

In fact, there are at least 14 countries that have lower death rates than the US, according to CNN, when looking at the 20 countries most affected by the virus. Experts told the network the fatality rate of around 4.5% in the US was the sixth highest in the world – a death toll more than twice as high as Brazil, with the second-highest toll.

A federal judge has permanently blocked a controversial Georgia law passed in 2019, which sought to ban abortions once there was a “detectable human heartbeat”, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

The law would have also granted personhood to a fetus, giving it the same legal rights as people after they’re born. US judge Steve Jones ruled against the state today, refusing to leave any parts of the law intact. The ruling permanently blocks the state from enforcing the law, which he had temporarily blocked in October and never went into effect.

The law had faced intense backlash from the film industry, and experts warned it would have deadly consequences for women forced underground:

The governor, Brian Kemp, a Republican and a supporter of the restrictions, has vowed to appeal the ruling, though he will face an uphill battle given that the US Supreme Court last month struck down other abortion restrictions from Louisiana. Some more background from the Associated Press:

At least eight states passed so-called heartbeat bills in 2019, including Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee. South Carolina is still considering one. All of the new bans joined the fate of earlier heartbeat abortion bans from Arkansas, North Dakota and Iowa in being at least temporarily blocked by judges. Louisiana’s ban wouldn’t take effect unless a court upholds Mississippi’s law.

In a separate ruling Monday, a U.S. district judge in Tennessee blocked a Tennessee law that Republican Gov. Bill had signed hours earlier banning an abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy and prohibiting abortions based on race, sex or diagnosis of Down syndrome.

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Sam Levin, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• California governor Gavin Newsom issued a statewide order that many recently reopened businesses must cease indoor operations, as the state grapples with a surge in new cases of coronavirus. The order impacts restaurants, wineries, movie theaters and museums, among other venues. Bars must also close all operations, according to the order.
• The justice department released the order commuting Roger Stone’s sentence. The order showed all elements of Stone’s sentences — including his prison time, his probation and his $20,000 fine — have all been voided. The department released the order hours after Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has presided over Stone’s case, requested clarification on whether the order affected Stone’s probation.
• Trump falsely claimed he has receive “rave reviews” for commuting Stone’s sentence. In reality, both Democrats and Republicans criticized the commutation as a miscarriage of justice. Republican senator Mitt Romney described it as “unprecedented, historic corruption.”
• California’s two largest public school districts are going entirely online when classes resume next month. The announcement makes the LA and San Diego districts the largest school districts in the country to announce they will not resume in-person instruction when the new academic year starts.
• Trump retweeted a claim that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “lying” about coronavirus. The tweet comes as the White House seeks to raise doubts about the credibility of Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.
• A US district judge set a new delay in federal executions. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s injuction came hours before the first federal execution in 17 years was set to take place at a federal prison in Indiana.

Sam will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports from California:

California’s governor has ordered all counties across the state to shut down the indoor operations of several recently reopened sectors of the economy, including restaurants, bars, movie theaters and malls following a surge in new coronavirus cases.

The state has seen an average of 8,211 new cases over the past week, an uptick from the 7,876 average recorded the week before. The positivity rate has increased to 7.4%, up from 6.1% a few weeks prior.

“It’s incumbent on all of us to recognize, soberly, that covid-19 is not going away anytime soon,” said Gavin Newsom, California’s governor.

The order will affect places of worship, fitness centers, zoos, museums, entertainment centers and personal care centers. It comes as the state’s monitoring list of counties experiencing surges has grown to include 30 counties.

Trump defended his highly controversial decision to commute the sentence of Roger Stone, the president’s former associate.

“I’m getting rave reviews for what I did for Roger Stone,” the president falsely claimed.

In reality, both Democrats and Republicans have criticized Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s sentence.

Republican senator Mitt Romney described Stone’s commutation as “unprecedented, historic corruption.”

Trump is now taking questions from reporters at his roundtable with families who have been positively impacted by police officers.

The first question was unsurprisingly about the White House’s recent criticism of Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.

“I have a very good relationship with Dr Fauci,” Trump said, describing the senior official as a “very nice person.” But the president added, “I don’t always agree with him.”

Over the weekend, the White House ciriculated an unsigned memo casting some of Fauci’s past comments on coronavirus in a negative light, leading some of Trump’s critics to accuse the president of attacking science.

The LA and San Diego unified school districts, the two largest public school systems in California, has announced classes will be entirely online when the new school year starts next month.

“Both districts will continue planning for a return to in-person learning during the 2020-21 academic year, as soon as public health conditions allow,” the school districts said in a joint statement.

“Our leaders owe it to all of those impacted by the Covid-19 closures to increase the pace of their work. No one should use the delay in the reopening of classrooms as a reason to relax. The coronavirus has not taken a summer vacation, as many had hoped. Indeed, the virus has accelerated its attacks on our community.

“The federal government must provide schools with the resources we need to reopen in a responsible manner.”

The announcement makes the two California school districts the largest ones in the country so far to announce they will not resume in-person instruction this fall.

The announcement comes as Trump and some of his top advisers push schools to reopen next month, even though the president’s administration has sent mixed signals about how schools can safely welcome students back.

Trump is now holding a roundtable “with several Americans whose lives were helped, and in some cases saved, by law enforcement,” as the White House described it.

The president opened the roundtable by complaining about how police officers were being “very unfairly treated” in the wake of the polie killing of George Floyd.

The roundtable comes as the country experiences a national reckoning over racism and police brutality in response to the killing of Floyd and many other black Americans in police custody, including Breonna Taylor.