Your Friday Evening Briefing

May 1, 2020

Your Friday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Marcus Payadue

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

1. Sweeping lockdown orders are giving way to measures allowing millions of Americans to return to some parts of public life.

Nearly a dozen states tentatively reopened on Friday. But clashes emerged across the country over how it should be done. Partisan battles flared in Illinois and Michigan, where protesters, some of them armed, demanded that Democratic leaders loosen restrictions. And Texas opened restaurants and businesses just a day after the state reported its highest death toll from the coronavirus.

Here’s the latest and a map of which states are starting to open.

Ultimately, the act of reopening will be carried out by individuals, and the decision has not been easy. In homes across the country this week, Americans whose governors said it was time to reopen, as in Colorado, above, wrestled with what to do, weighing what felt like an impossible choice.

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Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

2. As the U.S. wrestled with reopening measures, global Labor Day demonstrations were reimagined in cities under lockdown around the world.

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In Athens, hundreds of Greeks wearing masks and gloves and standing six feet apart gathered outside Parliament, above. In Spain, labor unions planned to hold only online events, after courts struck down proposals to gather outdoors.

May 1 also means rent is due for many. From New York to Los Angeles, tenant groups are encouraging millions of renters to withhold rent this month, which landlords warn would be devastating.

BSIP/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images

3. The F.D.A. issued an emergency approval for the antiviral drug remdesivir, shown to modestly speed recovery in severely ill coronavirus patients.

The approval had been expected following modestly encouraging results from a federal trial announced earlier this week.

And as researchers continue to work toward a vaccine, several manufacturers worry that the Trump administration may be waiting too long before ordering an ample supply of medical equipment, above, needed to deliver a vaccine.

We also looked at a strange symptom of the coronavirus infection: It’s known as Covid toe.

Sasha Maslov for The New York Times

4. The pandemic is already reshaping college classrooms for the fall.

A large number of high school seniors appear to be putting off a decision about where to go to college — or whether to go at all. Enrollment drops and lost revenue could be devastating for schools.

Of some 700 universities with a May 1 acceptance deadline, about half have already given students an extra month to decide; some colleges are waiving deposit requirements; and wait-listed students like Tiffany Tang, above, are quickly getting offers of admission.

MSNBC's Morning Joe, via Associated Press

5. Joe Biden denied an allegation of sexual assault by Tara Reade, in his first public address of the former Senate aide’s accusation.

“This never happened,” he said in a statement and later reiterated in an interview on MSNBC, and called on the National Archives to release any document related to the allegation. It was the Biden campaign’s most concerted effort yet to contain any possible danger for his presidential candidacy.

Blair Gable/Reuters

6. Canada banned all military-style assault weapons nearly two weeks after the country’s deadliest mass shooting. The ban was delayed by the pandemic.

“These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada.”

In making the announcement, Mr. Trudeau noted several gun killings and repeatedly cited the shooting rampage in rural Nova Scotia that left 23 people dead, including the gunman.

Andrew Testa for The New York Times

7. Cattle produce more methane than many large countries. But a biotech company may be on the cusp of an ecological and financial breakthrough.

A Swiss company called Mootral is studying whether an edible product can change cows’ digestive chemistry and make them produce less methane in their burps and flatulence, a well-known contributor to climate change.

The start-up’s business model depends on convincing typically conservative livestock and dairy companies that they will receive carbon-offset market credits. That’s proving a little difficult in a pandemic, but if it works, the result could be one of the simplest and fastest ways to cut a major source of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Suzanne Plunkett for The New York Times

8. “If no one’s doing it, the city has no vibe.”

Buskers, musicians and muralists like Nathan Bowen, above, have been entertaining London for centuries. But now the capital has gone quiet and the future of their activities looks uncertain. Mr. Bowen may be the exception: Boarded-up shops during the lockdown have presented a fresh blank canvas.

Beautify, a California-based tech company, is hoping to embrace that idea. It wants to to create 1,000 murals by 1,000 artists in 100 cities, on walls offered by business and property owners, with images of hope.

One recurrent theme for street art around the world these days: a deep appreciation of health care workers.

Bryan Derballa for The New York Times

9. The garden is closed, but the trees and everything else in Brooklyn are still growing.

We visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s 52 acres of cherry blossoms, azaleas, crab apple trees and daffodils and spoke with some of its two dozen gardeners still working to keep the plants flourishing. It is a feast for the eyes.

And it’s not too late to grow your own flower garden. Here’s how to get a bit of homegrown color — even if you haven’t started planting yet.

Alec Soth for The New York Times

10. And finally, the new Saturday night.

Protected between two days free from work, Saturday nights traditionally represent “the fleeting opportunity for pure self-fulfillment,” writes our critic-at-large Amanda Hess. Needless to say, things are a little different these days.

We had 33 photographers show us what the world looks like on the weekend.

If you’re in need of a pick-me-up, here are a few of the best online events happening Friday through Sunday. May we also suggest this marathon reading of “Moby-Dick.”

However you spend your weekend, we hope it’s pleasurable.

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