Dealbook: Your Weekend Briefing

May 17, 2020

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By Remy Tumin and Elijah Walker

Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. We’re covering the decline of new virus cases in U.S., former President Barack Obama’s commencement addresses and the prospect of an uncertain summer.

The New York Times

1. The number of new U.S. virus cases has declined in recent days, but progress is uncertain.

The country finds itself at a perilous moment in the course of the coronavirus pandemic. With more than two-thirds of states significantly relaxing restrictions on how Americans can move about, experts predict a resurgence.

Months after the virus began spreading, only about 3 percent of the population has been tested for it, leaving its true scale and path unknown. The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency clearance for a testing kit that lets people take a nasal sample at home.

Is it safe to enjoy outdoor activities or go to a restaurant? The risk is in the details, experts say.

More than 1.4 million people in the U.S. have been infected and at least 88,660 have died. Here’s the latest map and case count.

Have you been keeping up with the headlines? Test your knowledge with our news quiz. And here’s the front page of our Sunday paper, the Sunday Review from Opinion and our crossword puzzles.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

2. Top Democrats are investigating President Trump’s removal of the State Department watchdog, citing what “may be an act of illegal retaliation.”

Mr. Trump removed Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general who had served in that post since 2013, at the urging of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a White House official said. Above, Mr. Linick in October.

In a statement, Representative Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said he had learned that the inspector general had opened an investigation into Mr. Pompeo.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

3. “I can’t turn my brain off.”

Before Covid-19, health care workers were already vulnerable to depression and suicide. Mental health experts now fear even more will be prone to trauma-related disorders.

Trauma therapy programs are being set up around the country to address the ballooning problem. Christina Burke, above right, an I.C.U. nurse, and her peer counselor Bridget Ryan both cried during a counseling session.

“As the pandemic intensity seems to fade, so does the adrenaline,” said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, the chairman of the emergency department at St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson, N.J. “What’s left are the emotions of dealing with the trauma and stress of the many patients we cared for.”

4. “If the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you.”

Former President Barack Obama gave two virtual commencement speeches to graduating high school and college classes of 2020, touching on themes of leadership, respect and community. He also criticized the current administration’s handling of the pandemic.

“This pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” he said during a ceremony for historically black colleges and universities. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

Mr. Obama was one of many celebrity speakers during a weekend’s worth of virtual events kicked off by Oprah Winfrey on Friday.

The transcripts of his full remarks can be found here and here.

Daniel Dorsa for The New York Times

5. Summer is coming. It’s still unclear what it will look like.

Resort towns that rely on tourism during the 15 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day say not reopening would be devastating economically but fear the consequences of opening too soon.

State-run beaches in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware will be open with some restrictions for swimming by Memorial Day. But in New York City, the welcome relief of a dip at Coney Island or Rockaway Beach won’t be coming anytime soon.

One summer tradition is moving ahead: drive-in movie theaters, like the one above in Warwick, N.Y.

Dustin Chambers/Reuters

6. Ahmaud Arbery stopped at an empty construction site on Feb. 23, likely for a sip of water. Minutes later, he was chased down by two armed white men.

We traced Mr. Arbery’s final jog across the Satilla Shores neighborhood in coastal Georgia, a stretch marked by increasingly blurred racial boundaries. Mr. Arbery, who was black, died on a street, above, where neighbors were vigilant and apparently on edge over a recent spate of property crimes.

More than two months after his death, the two men were arrested and charged with murder.

Courtland Wells for The New York Times

7. The pandemic is prompting the Democratic Party and Joe Biden’s campaign to redraw a far bolder agenda than anything the party establishment has embraced before.

Should they hold power next January, Democratic leaders say they must be prepared to pump trillions more into the economy; enact sweeping infrastructure and climate legislation; pass a raft of aggressive worker-protection laws; expand government-backed health insurance and more. Above, Mr. Biden in March.

To win in 2020, Stacey Abrams, a former nominee for governor in Georgia, says the Democrats need to reach a different kind of swing voter — those who don’t vote because they don’t believe it will have an effect. And she believes she is the person who can help Mr. Biden do that.

Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via Shutterstock

8. The Bundesliga, Germany’s major soccer league, returned this weekend albeit with empty stadiums. The return of baseball may not be so easy. Above, an empty Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Major League Baseball will soon formally present the players’ union with a lengthy document detailing health protocols for a return in early July. Rob Manfred, commissioner of the M.L.B., said this week said that games would go on even if a player tests positive for the coronavirus.

Then there’s the financial component. Mr. Manfred said the owners could lose $4 billion without a season in 2020. Even if the M.L.B. convinces the union that it can create a safe workplace, the sides would then have to bridge their philosophical divide on finances, our baseball columnist writes.

9. You can’t travel, but you can let your imagination wander.

In the Abruzzo region of Italy, harvesting saffron is a centuries-old tradition. A photographer visited with the “Saffron Queen” and her family as they collected stigmas from crocuses for the lucrative crop.

And for T Magazine’s annual Travel issue, writers retraced the land routes of ancient explorers along the Silk Road, looking at food, religion, art, poetry and silk making.

Calla Kessler/The New York Times

10. And finally, dig into one of our Best Weekend Reads.

This week, we profiled the most sought after audiobook narrator, remembered the actor Jerry Stiller, examined how a Nebraska horse track, above, became must-see TV, and more.

For more ideas on what to read, watch and listen to, may we suggest these 10 new books our editors liked, a glance at the latest small-screen recommendations from Watching, and our music critics’ latest playlist.

Congratulations to all the graduates and their families. In the words of Oprah Winfrey, “Bravo. Brava, brava, brava.”

Have a celebratory week.

Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern.

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