♪. neil: all right. following surging markets here on news, maybe just a hint that new york city could be the closest it has ever come now in the better part of eight, maybe nine weeks, to reopening or at least setting a gameplan on reopening. i only say that because new york governor cuomo has just reported that overall hospitalizations are the lowest they have been. furthermore, he is saying, and this could preview how the state will operate, even new york city area will operate, once things do return to normal, he will

sign executive order authorizing businesses to deny entry to those who don't wear a mask or any type of facial covering. right now this has caused a dust-up in some states where someone comes in without a mask, the restaurant owner says you have to leave or grocery store says, you have to leave, the person doesn't leave. right now this is, enforcing that by edict, try that, pull that stunt in new york, you're out of there. meantime he is also saying that new york city itself needs to make a tad more progress before reopening can begin, saying that, right now, with the coronavirus deaths increasing, and in particularly in the new york city area, despite good news on hospitalizations that could buffer this. the only reason why i mention these rapid successions of bulletins out of the big apple and more importantly out of the empire state, it was number one state, number one city for cases of coronavirus, certainly for

fatalities connected to that virus. if the governor sees that arc is changing, it could be a welcome development. there are also representatives of broadway and acting community with the governor to talk about plans eventually to reopen broadway and all that, probably more like a labor day, post-labor day development. i'm talking there into september. so we have a lot going on here, and a lot more being focused on reopening in this country. just as they're cracking down in hong kong. the other sort of push and pull on stocks, in regards to chinese implementing new security measure overnight, that those in hong kong do not like. we had promised a response. we just don't know yet what that response could be. hillary vaughn in washington with more on that. hey, hillary. reporter: neil the state department says no reasonable person can claim hong kong is independent from china's

communist party and that secretary of state mike pompeo's digs to denounce hong kong's special autonomous status is not an escalation coming from the u.s. towards china but rather an undeniable reality as china continues to undermine hong kong's freedom, a new law was passed as the state department says is a communist party take over of the region. >> in the national peoples congress in china essentially calls these freedom-loving protesters terrorists. they're using national security in order to justify violent crackdowns on democracy. so i think we'll see what president trump and of course the congress has many options. reporter: some of those options could include sanctions. the treasury department in response to beijing's battle over control of hong kong could include freezing assets of chinese officials and businesses but also looking at visa

restrictions for chinese government officials t could affect nearly 66 billion-dollar trade relationship between the u.s. and hong kong, making them eligible to pay u.s. tariffs targeting china right now but china insists the u.s. should just stay out of it. their foreign ministry sponge man saying this, the national security law for hong kong is purely's china's internal affair that allows no foreign interference. neil, this is not the only problem on the horizon for china. the house just passed yesterday a bill that would approve sanctions again chinese government officials for detaining and torturing muslims in their country. that bill goes to the president. he is not said whether or not he will sign it. neil? neil: hillary, thank you very much. i want to gordon chang, best-selling author, expert on all things regarding china. gordon, always good to have you you. you might heard from the report, among things china is looking at doing, a things a lot of hong kong protesters thought

they never would but maybe under the cover of this virus they will be banning sedition, acts of sedition, banning any move toward secession. beefing up chinese security forces to operate within and around hong kong. what do you make of each and all of those? >> look, clearly secretary of state mike pompeo is correct when he said it's undeniable that hong kong right now is under the direct control of beijing, bypassing the hong kong legislative council by having this article 23 legislation passed in beijing, it's clear. so it's unfortunate but the united states is going to have to react because of those measures that you mentioned, neil, having china's security services operate openly in hong kong, really means that there is no autonomy. neil: well, as you were reporting way ahead of anyone they were secretly operating in hong kong, you know, it was like an open secret this is sort of

putting a stamp approval on it. why do you think the chinese are doing this to the degree they're doing this, especially now in this environment where the whole world seems to be against them, angry the way they handled the virus and everything else? or is it because of all of that? >> that's a great question, neil. one thing we do know is that beijing has been acting much more belligerently. it is not just the direct takeover of hong kong. we see chinese troops deep into indian territory deep in the himalayas. there are other incidents against six countries in the south china sea and east china sea. china picked up tempo of dangerous intercepts of u.s. navy in the peripheral waters this is a serious situation. we don't know why they're doing this. my best guess, it is just a guess, that the political system is fragile and xi xinping believes if he can create a diversion we won't look how the virus spread from china.

neil: let me add something. if we now established these are two separate systems under one country or whatever, our policy has been or recognized, and we see hong kong and china joined at the hip here, so they're not mutually exclusive what does that mean to you? what is the significance of that? >> on a personal level my wife comes from hong kong and i work there for 10 years. so to me it's really a sad development but it absolutely is necessary and what this means for hong kong is that it will no longer be a global financial center. yes, it will continue to be a financial center for financings in china itself like shanghai and shenzhen but without the rule of law, that is what this means, and without an independent judiciary, because beijing has said it is going to change the judiciary as well, you know, no one is really going to trust it. so we'll have business, it will leak out to places like singapore, taipei, maybe tokyo.

i could see some of that business coming into new york and london but what it really means is that hong kong will not be what we think of when we hear the term, hong kong. neil: gordon chang, some very scary stuff, my friend. thank you very much. gordon chang following developments better than anyone we know. big story in washington the president's crackdown on sites like twitter and facebook, well, they're not fair and not balanced and when it comes to coverage, certainly of this administration, they're overstepping it. question, what will he do about that? some freedom lovers are saying going little too far. others saying maybe not far enough. hey, blake. reporter: neil this comes in the form of an executive order we believe at some point later today from the white house n advance of this executive order, the twitter ceo jack dorsey is trying to lay out the case in part that the white house

shouldn't necessarily be signaling in on twitter employees who are the ones labeling the president's tweets with fact check distinction. here is part of the response from jack dorsey on twitter, he said, fact check, there is someone held accountable for our actions as a company, that is me. please leave our employees out of this. we'll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally, and, we will admit to own any mistakes we make. the white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany this morning had this response to dorsey. >> they get to quote, fact check the president of the united states in an untruthful way, not fact check chinese propaganda until we pointed it out and they started doing it moments ago. we don't get to ask who the fact-checkers are. that is untenable proposition. it is unfair proposition and we will ask who the fact checkers are.

reporter: in an interview with fox news's dana perino, facebook's mark zuckerberg said he doesn't believe platform companies should be quote, be arbiter of truth that people say online. however he also took issue with the president of the united states trying to intervene. >> he is thinking about regulations or perhaps shutting down social media sites, what is reaction to that? >> well, i mean, look, i would have to understand what actually would intend to do but, but in general, i think a government choosing to censor a platform, because they're worried about censorship doesn't exactly strike me as the, the, right reflex there. reporter: neil, we should point out this executive order coming from president trump and the white house still hasn't been officially released so we don't know the exact language in it as of couple hours ago. i was told they were still working on it, even as of this

morning, but i've also been told, neil, what the executive order will do is target leal protections, social media companies, platform companies as mark zuckerberg have. though there are also legal minds and legal scholars pointed out the president of the united states might not necessarily have the ability to make some of the changes that he might want to see. neil? neil: or the authority. blake burman thank you very much carly fiorina, former best-selling author, hp ceo and former presidential candidate. without taking political sides, there, i without saying twitter, facebook, other social media, maligning democrats wouldn't say boo about this. it hit home because it hit close to him. i'm wondering what dangers here that you see? >> well i think there are

several. let me back up, first, neil, you have known this as long as you and i have known for each other a long time, i think power concentrated is power abused. we now have too much power concentrated in the hands of very few, very powerful technology companies, facebook, twitter, google, amazon among them. it is why, unlike many republicans i've been calling for sometime thoughtful regulation, legislation, some set of actions taken to try to disperse some of this power. they have more power over our lives like ever before. on the other hand it is also true the internet has been an economic engine. it is why republicans have historically always avoided regulation of any kind. however, if we're going to take the step of saying there is too

much power concentrated in the hands of these too few very large technology companies that must be a very thoughtful, very careful, bipartisan approach to either regulation or to legislation or both. the president of the united states, no matter who he is, no matter what party he is, firing off an executive order in less than 24 hours after he got mad about something that was directed at him is frankly an abuse of power in the executive branch as well. neil: you know, when it comes to social media, journalists worry about this a great deal, carley, it is wild west, they can say anything or accusations can fly back and forth, people know that and with, you know, maybe some caution they sense that, but a lot of others do not and accept it at face value, whatever crazy stuff is said. same could apply to the establishment media, and other

stuff you say on the left or the right. wondering if it starts with policing social media. who is to say the next stop is going after other media for whatever reason? >> yes. exactly. oh, by the way, let's be clear. there is a ton of stuff that is outrageous, that is on social media. there are many things by left and right, by all kind of people that are out there on these social media platforms that are untrue, that are harmful, that are illegal. all of that stuff goes on all the time. so i'm not saying there isn't a problem. but the answer to the problem is not a knee-jerk reaction by an executive branch of the u.s. government. that is not how america works. if we would step back a moment, set aside the politics of are conservatives picked on more on

twitter than liberals, and rest of it, the president of the united states, whomever he or she is, doesn't punish publicly-traded companies because he gets mad at them. that is what it looks like to me. neil: one other issue that has come up, carley, on this is whether the president should be extra fact checked because he, down the road, she, is president? that there is a certain, you know, level, that goes with the office that you are held to a different standard, much as you were as a ceo, as you were as a presidential candidate, that there is a higher expectation that you were not going to exaggerate things, that you are not going to say things about barack obama's birth certificate, you are not going to go to the extent you're misrepresenting mail-in voting statistics, going after joe scarborough, calling him a

murderer, there should be a standard that is higher for you than, than others? do you agree with that? >> well, set aside just for a moment, neil, what the role of the social media company is in that. yes, i think the president of the united states, we would expect as citizens that any president would be held to a standard of at least truthfulness. now there are many things that the president has said, i don't think this is a political comment, there are many things that the president has said have not been purely truthful. you pointed out one-on-one ever your shows about hydroxychlorquine for example. he was never fact checked. i don't know why it was this particular thing twitter decided to fact check that got him so upset but i would certainly like to hold the president to the highest standards possible. i think that goes along with the

office. whether social media companies should be policing that, i don't know, but that is why any approach we take now, to what should be done about this concentrated power needs to be thoughtful, and careful, and bipartisan and include the industry and that means it is going to be a long, slow, process, not a fast, emotional process which is what this executive order is. neil: that is very reasoned explanation and sort of laying out of where we stand, spoken like a true computer industry titan. carly fiorina thank you very much. carley mentioned stuff practical. we have to step back and look at no matter what you're political views hearing it left and right. be careful what you wish for on both sides, be careful, you might get it. you're watching fox business.

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brick township mayor, beautiful neck of the woods. trying to do something for restaurants in the area, they are ready to go, they have great ideas to make it happen for outdoor dining and all the rest. mayor, good to have you. could you tell me a little bit what you're proposing here? >> thanks for having me. yeah, it is basically an idea to allow our restaurants in town to have outdoor dining wherever they may be. it might be on nice grassy area. maybe on some sand by the beach. could be in a parking lot or on a sidewalk depending where the business is located. the idea behind it -- neil: have you bounced this off the governor, mayor? >> so when the governor is going to do his opening of restaurants, he did specifically state that he is going to do some type of percentage of capacity, be it 25% or maybe 50% of capacity. i did talk to some restaurant owners who said it. if it is that amount of capacity, i'm still going out of business. this isn't going to help me at all. so the idea came to allow 100%

capacity outdoors, so restaurants can operate fully as a opposed to having reduced capacity. neil: for the mayor, and i understand you have to balance safety and everything else but a lot of these guys they drag on much longer like this they will not be around, their businesses won't be around, are you worried about that? >> yeah, that is the problem. we don't want to see everybody going out of business. small businesses for curbside pickup are not made for that. restaurants are made for dining indoors normally. a lot of times we wouldn't allow outdoor dining on a sidewalk or parking lot for safety reasons. now we'll have the police chief take a look. we'll have our fire official take a look, make sure no fire lanes involved or handicap parking involved, just allow them to be out there. this way they stay in business. they have been, obviously a lot of people are eating out, even though you have option of curbside, delivery, people are afraid. once you open up things, you're outside, people are more

comfortable, people are more likely to go to the restaurants. neil: only thing i wonder what it will be like? eventually restaurants will be allowed to open, to your point maybe under limited capacity to start, whether there is outdoor seating or not. i'm wondering whether you agree with the policy, it is a pretty tough policy that new york governor cuomo is proposing, those who go into facility, restaurant, whatever, retail establishment without a mask, the restaurant owner, store owner is free to kick them out with full weight of the law behind them? how do you feel about that? others recoil the thought of big brother but what do you think? >> as far as anything outdoor i don't see a need for a mask when you're outside. you maintain the tables all have to be six feet apart, at a minimum. and therefore you have that social distancing in effect, and obviously when you're eating in a restaurant you're not able to wear a mask. having it outdoor will help. we'll try to do the same for

gyms, with work out regimens, have them outside, and small businesses to set up tables outside. this way people don't have to be confined by the masks by going inside the establishment. neil: one quick question, if you will indulge me, mayor, do you think kids in your district will be returning to school in the fall, for that matter across new jersey returning to college in the fall? >> that's an unknown. i'm not sure where the governor is going to go with that. he hasn't given any indications. really hasn't come up on calls with the governor's office or schools. most of the time here in new jersey, the mayors are not in control of the school district. we're worried about our businesses, our summer camps, our beaches, lifeguards and things. those are the questions current. obviously as we get closer to september there will be questions about the schools. our superintendents will be asking us to have those answered but, i'm thinking, i'm thinking, if numbers keep going down the

way they are, i do think we'll be reopening by the time september comes. neil: yeah. you would think, mayor. i know you've had a lot of sleepless nights. thank you very much for joining us on this, developments in brick, everywhere else. john doocey, the brick township mayor. we'll watch with the airline industry right now. a lot of stocks bounced well off the lows right now. we're looking at the dow up better than 130 points. what is remarkable, despite the fact virtually all those airlines are still laying off people and looking to lay off even more. what doesn't belong and why. after this. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else.

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neil: retail haves and have-nots, not a lot of in the

middle. kristina partsinevelos with that. hey, kristina. reporter: retail back in the spotlight. traders are optimistic, u.s. consumer spending will increase as the economy reopens and two major u.s. dollar store chains are reaping the benefits. first, dollar general, their earnings blew it out of the park. based on strongest sales in the past quarter in the past 14 years. the company says the strength has to do with shift in consumer behavior. we're on hunt for more affordable items, essential items and we want it now. dollar tree says they will increase the store count. they plan to open 500 stores just this year alone. as we hunt for cheaper items, the obvious thing would be shopping online. often we think of amazon. however i spoke to one retail expert who said amazon may not be the winner after all of this. listen in. >> online was winning until price gouging. now it is moving to online bricks and clicks. omni channel, kristina, with

people buying online and picking up in store versus uniquely buying online. reporter: he also went on to tell me that we could see an uptick in spending on clothes. not because we're looking for those summer outfits. but because we're stuck indoors and we're gaining weight but is that enough to help those struggling retailers out there? five major u.s. retailers, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy just in the month of may, with the latest being tuesday morning. you have jcpenney on there as well as neiman marcus. the big question, what does this mean for the retail sector? you're seeing several retail stocks climbing higher over the past 24 to 48 hours. traders are optimistic. consumer spending might increase with additional stimulus from the administration. restaurant bookings increased as well as spending on travel. that means retailers will have to adapt to a new normal which is survival mode. we're hunting for value at

affordable prices. back to you, neil. neil: thank you very much, kristina on that. looking at airline industry as well. even though the stocks come up mightily within the last few weeks, they're still telegraphing some problems. american airlines among those looking to lay off folks, maybe up to 30% of executives and administrative staff members. a aviation analyst, kyle good to have you,. >> good afternoon, neil. neil: good afternoon to you. i see lay off plans and others are signal, might make job cuts of their own. what do you make of all of this? >> bottom line airlines in serious trouble. american airlines first-quarter loss is $2 billion and it is ited by year-end, american airlines could be in the hole by $40 billion. the passenger count are really

down. american for april is operating with 80% schedule cut. for june that schedule will be about a 70% cut. bottom line there is so much uncertainty in the future will passengers get back on the airplanes? as you know there will be very little business travel in the future. once this 25 billion the government subsidies, once the fall comes, they're going to be back right where they were in april they will need another cash infusion probably by the government in order to survive. it really is a dire situation for the airlines. neil: so what about the rescue dough they got? i shouldn't say it is not all rescue dough. a lot is a loan they pay back, i get that, but that was supposed to cushion the blow, certainly the job layoff announcements. are you surprised? >> part of that 25 billion-dollar deal the airlines have to maintain specific flight schedules and

service levels. continuing adequate level of service. so basically the planes were crisscrossing in the sky pretty much empty, burning fuel, as far as we know spreading coronavirus from city to city. if i was running the airline, if i was the government, i would not allow this to happen. the airlines pretty much, saved as much cash as possible, ground the airplanes. just have service between major cities subsidized by the government. but they're just losing. give you an example, american airlines currently is burning through $70 million a day in cash. with these cutbacks, they're estimating neighborhood of $50 million. all the other airlines are lose-losing to 50 to $100 million a day. why is this happening? they will be in the same spot right this fall where they were two months ago. neil: incredible, kyle, thank you very much much, i think, my

friend. stay well, kyle bailey, pilot, aviation analyst. uncanny read about his industry. could explain why you have no less the mayor of florence, italy saying, we need help. florence is one of the top destinations for travelers in the world. trouble is no one in the world is traveling after this. can my side be firm?

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is thinking? i've been covering wall street for some years. there are some people in finance who are democrat. who have joe biden's ear and those are my sources without giving names of them but just so you know, i'm not exactly talking to the watercooler guys. these are major players. a couple things here on joe biden's vp list and it is interesting that kamala harris from i understand is the top choice as of now. the reason for that is the flub on the "charlemagne tha god" radio show. she was on short list of four or five people because she has stature, she is a senator from california, african-american woman but that, because of that flub she is the at the top. what is fascinating about harris, neil, simply, that if you talk to anybody in the biden camp about month 1/2 two months ago, they were saying no way. she was very nasty to joe during the debates on busing and some

other issues but you know, times have changed. the party is coming together and after that radio flub where he made comments about, you know, what black, who black people should vote for, clearly a black woman on the ticket is something that a lot of people inside the biden camp believe will shore up the ticket with the african-american base which is very important, particularly in winning some much those states that hillary clinton lost back in 2016, pennsylvania, you want inner-city turn out there, michigan, wisconsin. but a couple things here, neil. from what i am being told, again, this is what people are telling me, it is not written in stone biden is unlikely to announce the vp choice until the dems figure out the specifics of their convention, whether they have a virtual convention, a digital convention or some sort of hybrid of in-person and digital, so you can get some sort of social distancing. the convention is pushed back to

mid-august, now. there is a date range. they still haven't figured that out. they have to figure that out before he can really announce his vp candidate at least that is what i'm being told, they are various convention formats. it will be interesting to see what they come up with. the republicans as you know, want to have a real convention. kamala harris early front-runner. surprise to me, she was there for the reason i mentioned. biden campaign is vetting as many as 10 people i'm told. they need to do deeper background checks. 10 people on a reallies. of those people, you have amy klobuchar, the senator from michigan, excuse me, from minnesota. you know, thought of very highly among democrat, establishment democrats, probably would have been the lead candidate, front-runner now if it weren't

for the flub. gretchen whitmer, the governor of michigan and elizabeth warren the senator from massachusetts, seen as a dark horse. if she takes that, that, if she does become the vice president, you have to give up that seat, a republican governor probably pick a republican for the senate seat, you kind of don't want that. then the person who is emerging as a player, i didn't know much about gina r raimondo from rhode island. yale law degree, harvard, served in the private sector. worked in private equity before going to governor. seen as doing a decent job during the covid lockdown. very smart. a mike bloomberg supporter early on. she is obviously supporting biden that he is the nominee or expected nominee, not totally, totally official yet. but her name is coming up. doesn't mean she will get it, but she is emerging on the list.

again, amazing kamala harris, who was persona non grata about two months ago, is now, if we were going to say right now, you can't say right now, because joe biden has to make the decision, and he hasn't. she is the front-runner. neil, back to you. neil: yeah. jfk and lbj were not fast friends and ronald reagan and -- sometimes politics turns pragmatic. always breaking news. that is what he does. he is the best. stay with us, we're following interest rates too because as stock prices are rising, at least when it comes to mortgage rates, they're tumbling but people are not taking advantage of that. why do you think that is. staying connected your way is easier than ever.

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neil: disney, universal, a host of other theme parks, waiting for the a-okay to attempt opening. that is proving a lot easier said than done. grady trimble with us right now at illinois great adventure, six flags, whatever the terminology is, grady. reporter: six flags great adventure, that's right, neil. it is outside of chicago.

it is still closed with no date yet to reopen. when it eventually does, a lot of same safety precautions new guidelines will be seeing that other theme parks are rolling out. i want to show you a safety video that six flags put out. they will require all the guests to watch this video before coming to their parks. guests will have to macon line reservations in order to limit capacity at the park. once they arrive, thermal cameras will check their temperatures. if they are allowed into the park, masks will be required for guests and employees as well. in terms of six flags parks opening, there is one in oklahoma set to reopen on june fifth. there are no dates set for others across the country. six flags, in response to when the parks will open, tells us this, as businesses begin to reopen around the country we're working closely with state and local officials to determine when we may be able to do so. shifting gears a little bit to disney, we saw shanghai open the

disneyland park earlier this month. to much fanfare but you can see, people are spaced out. they're social distancing. they're wearing masks, giving us a bit of a preview what it will look like when disney opens, magic kingdom and animal kingdom in orlando on june 11th. see world's ceo planning to open parks in the next couple weeks there in orlando. he says that parks are going to look different, but guests will get used to it, become more comfortable with the new normal at theme parks. they say they have plenty of space for social distancing. listen. >> if you think about just how big our parks are, being able to walk around, coming in to see a show or presentation, we can stagger seatings and people can get in there and have a good time. reporter: theme park stocks took a precipitous fall in march when all these shutdowns began. theme park stocks are epacross the board as reopening plans are

announced. neil: thank you very much. grady trimble on all of of that then there is the issue of disney and when it will open and staggered schedule in mind and distancing around july. pete werner follows this very closely. has a very popular site, very popular podcast as well that looks into sort of disney unplugged and other things you can do, very helpful advice to those visiting the magic kingdom and beyond. pete, very good to have you. what are you hearing on the disney reopening and what travelers should know about some of the restrictions that will likely be in place? >> actually to correct, july 11th, i think for magic kingdom and animal kingdom. i think the gentleman said june 11th. july 15th for epcot and hollywood statute yes, sir. they are going to announce they're going to require masks. i think they're going to take some best practices from what they're currently seeing at

shanghai, and bring that into the parks. they have got a preview of what it is going to be like at disney springs. that opened last week. and so far that's been going good. but i think, you're going to see far fewer people showing up than you might otherwise would expect. neil: what about booking for that time? people booked reservations long before the virus. how do they select who gets to come? >> right now they stopped accepting reservations. disney reservation is not online, for consumers, travel agents for anybody. right now they're figuring that out. they had done a promotion back in early april for those whose reservations were canceled due to the closure, offering them free dining over the summer. it is up in the air right now what will happen with those folks. so, again, it is kind of unprecedented times.

so they're just, the kind of trying to figure it out as they go. neil: you know for a lot of people who, you know, they're not big on crowds at amusement parks or certainly larger venues like disney or universal but they might be intrigued by the possibility, hey, i might get in on this, because it will be limited crowds, i might get on and off rides quickly or events. it might actually intrigue a lot of people. what do you envision? >> well it certainly intrigues me but i'm their core audience. i'm a hardcore disney fan. we did a survey a few weeks ago when they announced disney springs was going to open, not a scientific survey but of our audience, disney's highest affinity group. 66% said they're not ready to come back but 33% that are coming back do want to come back. they want that experience. i mean the first disney resorts will reopen, disney vacation club resorts open an june 22nd.

a few weeks before the parks open. i got my reservation. i plan to be there. there are a lot of people, a lot of people, are you know, saying what you just said, you know, when was the last time we got a chance to experience the magic kingdom with maybe 30% capacity? it doesn't happen. doesn't happen very often. neil: you know, pete, it will be very hot in july in disney and you're walking around in these masks which can be a little bit, you know, limiting, very hot, make you feel even hotter. is disney going to be requiring even when you're outside, forget about going inside, venues, everyone is always wearing a mask, no matter where they are in or out? >> as far as, if we're looking at disney springs, they do have sections set up around disney springs, if people are getting uncomfortable they can remove their mask. generally speaking, yes, they were going to be you wear masks

walking around the parks. that is actually, disney wants the crowds to stay really low. while shanghai is a model the dynamic here at walt disney world is different than any other theme parks, disney theme parks anywhere around the world. just sheer size of it. so i think they want to start slow, and you know, as far as whether it is safe to go back, i got to tell you, i'm not an apologist for disney by any means, everything they have done with this, this whole covid-19 situation has been with public safety and safety of their cast members as a priority. neil: right. >> so if they're saying it is safe to reopen, i feel confident with that. neil: all right. we'll see. if they throw in the turkey leg i think you have got a deal. pete werner, always good to see you, my friend. thank you very much. we'll have more after this. dow up 173 points. disney not really joining in that parade. we'll have more after this.

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trend is the friend here because the number of cases is looking stable and furthermore, hospitalizations are going down almost cross the board, particularly in new york, where governor cuomo says he's encouraged by the latest stats. to jackie deangelis now on the latest on what some states are doing and how those numbers are looking. jackie? jackie: good afternoon, neil. that's right. the trend is also positive when it comes to the stock market. it looks like we will have three days this whole week right now so far of gains. lots of green the screen. the markets are basically finding good in the bad this morning. we did get the jobless numbers, 2.1 million more people did file, but this is eight weeks where the trend is downward so the market is looking at the safe reopening saying if we can do this safely and get back to work, that's a good thing. new york city is one of the places being watched most closely as stage one preparations are starting to be made. i can tell you from walking a

lot, you are showing sixth avenue there, i walk up and down to get to and from work, and i have seen it's coming to life, slowly. that shot used to be empty. you see some cars there. there has been some traffic flow. long island reopening, the city, though, officially still on pause at the moment. governor cuomo, mayor deblasio say the city is on track for its phase one opening first or second week of june. that transit pattern is going to be in focus. that will impact businesses that can be open but still, hundreds of thousands of people will get back twoso work in phase one. in iowa, moving a little farther away, bars getting the green light to reopen. remember they are a big part of the iowa city life. some people say let's go, others saying maybe it's too soon but the rules will be different. capacity will be limited to half, patrons will be urged to stay at their tables and food will have to be served, not just drinks. in neighboring nebraska, the bars are still closed but they

are getting set for reopening on monday. washington, d.c. also starting phase one tomorrow. the mayor on fox news last night saying this. >> people will be able to go to parks, outdoor dining at restaurants and personal services added back, but we can't just go back to large gatherings in the same activities that we were doing in march until we know we have contained the virus. jackie: an abundance of caution is the theme, but i move over to the gym story because in north carolina, and new jersey, this is a real sticking point. lawsuits being filed in both places to reopen. gyms are such a gray area because some argue that you can disinfect and social distance and you know, it can help but that it's really difficult to do it in that environment. a lot of businesses still watching the rules very closely. they want to get back up and running, but this is going to take some time. we are moving along, the right steps are being taken so far. at least the market thinks so. back to you.

neil: jackie, thank you very very much. jackie deangelis on all of that. you know you're in trouble if you are a social media concern like facebook when both the president of the united states and speaker of the house aren't really too enthusiastic about kind of stuff you have been doing and saying. susan li on the social media crackdown to come. susan: yeah, that's right. you know you're in trouble when pelosi and trump agree. we are expecting an executive order from the white house later on today that will likely hold companies like facebook, like twitter accountable if they curb, unfairly curb political speech from both sides of the aisle, namely conservative bias here and also possibly remove some of the protections the social media companies enjoy from liability from users' content. now, this big debate ignited this week after twitter for the very first time fact-checked a few of president trump's tweets, slapping it with two warning labels on his mail-in ballot

tweets. for several years, many have suggested that twitter either outright ban the president from the platform or delete some of his tweets, including recent ones that involved msnbc host joe scarborough and the death of his congressional aide in the early 2000s. those tweets, twitter says, does not violate their terms of service that they have refused to delete those specific tweets, but then we heard from mark zuckerberg, the ceo and founder of facebook, and he waded into this debate. listen. >> twitter decided for the first time ever to fact check one of president trump's tweets. i wonder if you thought twitter may have made the wrong decision here. >> we have a different policy i think than twitter on this. i just believe strongly that facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. i think in general, private companies probably shouldn't be or especially these platform companies shouldn't be in the position of doing that. susan: jack dorsey had something to say about this, if we can bring up the tweet from jack dorsey. arbiter of truth is what stuck

out to him. he says this does not make us an arbiter of truth. our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in s t dispute so people can judge and make the decisions for themselves. house speaker pelosi seems to be siding with jack on this one. >> their business model is to make money at the expense of the truth and the facts. what they are is somebody who is avoiding taxes and regulation and that's what they're about. so when you see all they want is to not pay taxes, which they got their tax break in 2017, the tax scam that gave all those advantages to the high end, and they don't want to be regulated so they pander to the white house. susan: a lot of issues there that house speaker nancy pelosi covered but in terms of political ads, it's true that twitter and facebook have different policies.

twitter says we will remove what we believe to be untruths, whereas facebook says we will not, i guess we will not edit any political speech because it's up to the individuals to express what they feel. neil: susan, thank you very very much. susan li on all of that. i want to get the read on all of this first. we have other news to cover with him as well. judge andrew napolitano, fox news judicial analyst, much much more. judge, first off, when you have nancy pelosi and the president kind of on the same page that they're not -- for different reasons, some of these social media concerns, should those concerns be worried? >> well, that's why we have a first amendment, to keep the majority, the people who run the government, to keep their hands off of free speech. twitter and facebook are entitled and the other platforms are entitled to employ whatever

rules they want. they can post what they want, they can correct what they want, they cannot post what they want. they are not regulated by the first amendment but they are protected by the first amendment. for the government to go after them because the president was offended by what they say was a correction, and he says was a political statement, that's what the first amendment was intended to protect. they have their views, the president has his views. but the government has no business censoring speech. i haven't seen this executive order, it hasn't been published yet but it's almost inconceivable to me it could be anything more than i'm going to tell the doj to look at you guys and see if you are acting in good faith. big deal. acting in good faith or bad faith, it still has the first amendment to keep the government out of their speech. neil: i suspect that none of this would be happening if these sites were ripping liberals apart.

it was only when they, in the case of dorsey and twitter, when they reined in some over-the-top comments from the president that got his ire. i get that. but let me ask you about that. do you think the president should be held to a higher standard on these sites in his musings and comments because he is who he is? yeah, he should. what do you say? >> well, the president has a very unique way of communicating and it is offensive and lowbrow to a lot of people but it also resonates to a lot of people, and he gins up his base and reaches more of them than any other president in the modern era by using this mechanism, but that doesn't give the president the authority to use the government to strike back at the mechanism when they purport to correct what he says. neil: but don't you find it

potentially chilling that even if nothing comes of an executive order, that it could keep these guys in line to effectively do his bidding so as not to tick him off? >> you're right, neil. so chilling is -- i forgot you know all this constitutional law. wonder where you got it from. chilling comes to mind as government behavior which gives pause or second thought to the speaker before the speaker speaks, and chilling has been condemned by the supreme court. so if the president keeps up with these threats, or if the president issues an executive order which is fraught with threat or retaliation for what twitter did to him a few days ago, he could very well be enjoined by the courts because of chilling. look, the present supreme court is the most pro-first amendment supreme court in the history of the united states of america. the president and mrs. pelosi

and all those who would join with them will be on very very thin ice if they think they can use the power of the government to interfere with free speech. neil: it is a slippery slope, my friend. you're the best. thank you, judge. continued good health. that whole legal thing, you seem to have nailed down. judge andrew napolitano. just an incredible mind. in the meantime, taking a look at some incredible markets here but some warnings that they could be pacing a little ahead of themselves, largely on the view and others have expressed this, that a good number of americans are now receiving very generous unemployment benefits. about 40 million americans kind of in that position, little bit more, who over the last ten weeks have filed for first-time jobless claims. the problem with that is some of them are so generous that it could delay them re-entering the work force because they are doing much better now than they would be, not only if they returned to their old jobs if

they were so lucky, but if they got another job. it is a conundrum. how to handle that and how the markets embrace that or get prepared for that? rebecca walser joins us right now, uncanny read of the markets and the economy. good to have you with us. what do you think of that? some of the concerns at goldman, last week morgan stanley, raising this concern where people would be less inclined to go back to work. is this a real issue? >> it is. it is, neil. we have a lot of anecdotal evidence already. "newsweek" had a report a couple days ago. "wall street journal" had a report last week that said about half of all of the unemployment recipients are actually getting a higher check than their previous job paid with the $600 federal boost that comes and gets added to the state check on a weekly basis. so that $600 plus their state unemployment check which basically is funded boy the sta state, the cares act gave a $600

boost per week and that's giving half of the people on unemployment a higher take-home or after tax because they are not paying taxes obviously, than they would get when they were working. so you already have businesses that are reopening that are recalling employees and especially businesses that participated in the ppp program where they need to get these employees back on the payroll within eight weeks in order to have the loan be forgiven and these employees are pushing back and saying you know what, i'm afraid to come back, i don't want to come back, and they want to stay on unemployment. but this unemployment extension or bump-up does end at the end of july. not to mention the fact that you are not supposed to act unem mriment unemploeyment if you have a job. and being recalled is a job. that's an issue. neil: will the government catch up and say ah-ha. how much of a spring-back do you envision? every time i'm fortunate to have you on, we always raise this issue. the v-shaped, u-shaped, l-shaped, no shape, what is it

going to be? >> i expect that we are going to have a great third and fourth quarter. i really do think that the economy -- i'm not going to say we will get back to our previous highs. i don't think that that's realistic. we just have too many things that are happening. a lot of people are questioning supply chains, a lot of things are different. you do have people that are generally afraid to go back to movie theaters, eat in crowded restaurants, maybe attend a sporting event they certainly would have participated in before. i do see there is going to be some longer term effects and some new things in the new way of doing things but i do see, neil, you can just drive, i know you are in new york city, you are not seeing it necessarily yet in the city there, but you can just -- i can tell, it was like a ghost town everywhere i went. i flew at the beginning of this month. the airport was completely deserted. now it is packed. i mean, i don't know where all these people are going. if businesses aren't open and restaurants aren't open and bars aren't open, i don't know where these people are going because it is a packed world out there. i'm like wow, this is shocking to me and i'm the eternal optimist.

neil: yeah, you are definitely seeing anecdotal evidence on roads, in states, for example, that have had very tight restrictions in place, new jersey and new york come to mind. i guess what i'm asking here is we have seen evidence of pent-up demand for housing, a lot of people that are ready, poised to do something, mortgage applications are moving, we are seeing some signs of the right retail establishment opens, some mall operators are finding that crowds will be drawn in. so play that out. what does the summer look like for you? >> yeah. i see that people -- here's the thing. when you are afraid and you have been at home for eight weeks and you haven't gone out, all you are watching and no disparagement to the news because that's the business you're in and i'm on it, too, but the news is perpetually negative. and so you have this viewpoint of the world and then you go out and see that there are many many people that are out there that are taking their chances and i think people are being careful. i'm not suggesting we not be

careful. i'm talking about socially distant and maintaining maybe wearing a mask and those kind of things. but certainly when you are outside, i saw a gentleman this morning walking on the boardwalk of our ocean, wearing a mask and there was no one around him. i just thought not sure that that's going to really be helpful for you, buddy. so you just start to see people and the more you go out and you see people that are normalizing the situation and trying to find, i hate to say it, but the new normal, the more people are going to feel enabled and empowered to say yes, you know what, i don't need to stay holed up and let's be honest. no matter what your perspective is of getting back to work or not, we as a country cannot continue and we will fail if we do not return to some type of normal life. every pandemic, we move on. we go on. that's not to say we are careless and don't care about the people that were lost. we certainly do. we as a society honor them by moving on and continuing on and that's what we must do now. i think people when they start to go out, they will see that yes, life can go back to some

kind of normal. we have to get on with it. neil: we will see. some of them get a little nutsy. i heard one say i can't wait to go back to the malls. holy cow. >> shopping. it's all about the shopping. neil: nothing against the malls. nothing against the malls. all right. i can feel the hate mail coming. more after this. ♪ limu emu & doug

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only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ neil: all right. some are saying china is just saying damn you to the world because they are going ahead and enacting these incredible security crackdowns in hong kong. obviously that bred protests and the like. a lot of people who were arrested earlier in the year, some are sentenced to prison for ten years. so obviously china's sending a very very strong signal there's a new sheriff in town and it's us. we are joined by the former deputy assistant secretary of defense, ronald reagan institute director, much much more. roger, good to have you. obviously china is saying this is it, we are not going to tolerate this anymore. what are we in for? what do you think? >> well, china is suppressing

freedom and democracy and they are in breach of an agreement they made with the united kingdom that there be one country, two systems, and they would allow freedom and democracy in hong kong and through this national security law that's pending, they would be violating it. that's what secretary pompeo addressed yesterday. neil: we have said in response that we don't have a separate policy for hong kong and china. they are joined at the hip, as one. what is the significance of that to you? >> well, it's highly significant because we simply treat hong kong differently, as we should. they are a free city and as a result, we trade with them, we give them voice and now that is all in question but we have to be careful here as we do that, because we donwant to make suret to punish the people in hong kong had awho are seeking freedd

instead, challenge those in china and hong kong that seek to suppress freedom and democracy. neil: so obviously, you know the chinese aren't stupid. they must know that by doing this, they are alienating the world even more, to say nothing of how they handled the whole coronavirus thing, and they know the wrath this is going to get. it's already getting it. aside from the protesters. they don't really seem to care. am i missing something? >> we will find out. i think china will believe that they can do this if the world doesn't respond and if the united states doesn't respond. i'm sitting here at the reagan institute, president reagan addressed this issue four forthrightly in his day when we were dealing with the chinese regime and the soviet union and we were not willing to accept that freedom is for the few. instead it was a universal right and we need to make that clear and stand up. we have to remember that china

is a signatory on the u.n. universal declaration on human rights. the deputy national security adviser made an excellent speech a few weeks ago in chinese talking about how china is not only a signatory but also their intellectuals helped craft it. china is bound by these agreements and we must hold them accountable. neil: we will watch it closely. tha very good seeing you, roger. former deputy assistant secretary of defense at the ronald reagan institute, the director. we are following that. we are also following another dragon launch set for saturday. if at first the weather delays, try it again. what does it look like? after this. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else.

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neil: all right. we know the world is in a world

of hurt and some of the most popular tourist destinations are feeling it, but florence, italy? yeah, florence, italy. so much so that it's looking for funds from anyone and everyone just to sustain this historic landmark. beautiful landmark, at that. doesn't amy kellogg know it. she has the latest. amy? reporter: hi, neil. this is the cradle of the renaissance, of course. the likes of michelangelo, davinci, machiavelli all hail from here or close to here. the local coin became an international monetary standard back in the day. you've got to believe that it is difficult for the mayor of this very proud city to have to go cap in hand around the world. that's what he's going to be doing to try to raise some funds to keep florence afloat. we estimate they've got about a deficit of $200 million from

lost tourism revenue from this covid crisis, even though of course, florence wasn't very badly hit by the virus. but that's a lot of money to lose for a city like florence. the mayor claims that beyond this great loss of income hurting people whose livelihoods depend on tourism, it will put the integrity of some of the world's most important artworks like the david in danger. the same with the gallery which launched virtual tours during the lockdown but it doesn't make up for lost ticket sales. ten million tourists visit florence each year and the italian government apparently has been really slow to come up with the funds so the mayor here is launching an appeal to the greater world and in return, he says he will give donors, he will first make them ambassadors to florence, he said, or ambassadors of florence in the world, then he will give them a say in the cultural development of the city. >> our slogan is florence needs

the world and the world still needs florence. because we are not a simple city. we are an international cultural capital. i want to make a plea, a plea to patrons, investors. reporter: mayor nardella says his first stop will be in china. i asked him why that was. he says because china was here for italy in the early days of the crisis, bringing planeload full of help. for the record, the united states did provide $50 million of aid to italy but that somehow was less publicized than the chinese aid. the mayor says he's keen to get to america and keen for americans to come back and enjoy this beautiful city.

neil? neil: it is that. thank you very much. what a great report. amy kellogg in florence, italy. if you haven't been there, it looks for now like you won't have to compete with too many crowds here but a world of financial hurt. in the meantime, maybe the second time will be the charm at cape canaveral tomorrow as that spacex dragon rocket gets another shot at the stars. it's scheduled for 3:22 p.m. on saturday. a theoretical physicist joins us right now, "the future of humanity" bestselling author. mitch, what do you think of this whole journey? eventually it will get up there, i have no doubt, and the significance of private enterprise leading the way? >> well, when historians write the chapter on space exploration, they are going to introduce an entirely new chapter, the commercialization of the heavens. think about it. mom and dad will one day go into orbit around the planet earth. prices can plunge as a

consequence. remember in the shuttle mission, it is a first to have reusable booster rockets. it cost $10,000 to put a pound of anything into orbit. that is your weight in gold. think of the amount of gold. that's what it costs to put you in orbit around the planet earth. could this plunge prices down by a factor of two, maybe five. neil: you know, i talked to a number of the original apollo astronauts, those still alive, who were telling me look, anything that gets up into the heavens again, we're for but this idea about cost, cost, cost, you know, that was not the way it was in the old days. i don't know the reality of that. i do know a lot of those apollo astronauts are still wincing years later that 21 apollo missions changed to 17 and people simply lost interest. i guess what i'm asking you,

does private enterprise have a crucial role to play here? does that negate any of the other things that come along with just venturing to the heavens? >> i think so. remember that we are currently hitchhiking on the russians. it costs $85 million for one seat on the soyuz space craft to the space station. with reusable rockets, we are talking about having that price plunge maybe by a factor of two in the coming years. this is going to rewrite the way we access outer space. outer space has always been the privilege of the super powers and great nation states. in the future, that could change. remember that much of the economy is now done in orbit around the planet earth. this could be the opening shot for private enterprise and international cooperation. neil: this vehicle, this rocket, this dragon capsule, can hold as many as seven astronauts. there's only two right now if it

gets going. that presumably will come in handy on some of these further out missions beyond the moon and beyond. how confident are you in that lunar agenda? >> well, i think that a time frame is set in stone pretty much by the president of the united states, 2024 is the target time to put the first men and women back on the moon, and then perhaps a lunar orbitter around the moon soon after that, and the lunar orbitter in turn would be a stepping stone to a manned mission to mars, perhaps around 2030 or so. this is all doable. but remember in the old days, we used to throw cash at the space program. it was a bottomless pit. it was unsustainable. that's why this new chapter is being written. a sustainable space program

that's not going to bankrupt the nation. neil: very pragmatic approach. very wise one. very good having you. theoretical physicist, so much more, bestselling author. that's set for saturday, 3:22 p.m., they will take another crack at this. problematic weather in the meantime but they hope this time, they will get going. they will have a little pressure with it because guess who's coming down again to watch it, or try to. the president of the united states and the vice president. no pressure, guys. more after this. you turn 40 and everything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that.

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neil: the rush for a vaccine, about a dozen companies worldwide are working on it. this is an interesting combination because while roche and gilead sciences have promising technology, they are combining forces working on a

potential drug that could work as well. so multiple efforts there. dr. marty mccarron joins us now, johns hopkins professor of health. doctor, what do you think of this team? pretty powerful one. >> i like it, because it's a new and different approach. remdesivir will probably be a part of any combination trial from this point forward because remdesivir has essentially become a new standard of care. the problem is just that the supply is limited. a team is interesting because it was developed for arthritis, as an anti-inflammatory or immune modulator. that is, it addresses the cytokine storm the virus provokes and that storm is actually what injures the lung tissue. it's a new approach, one we haven't really heard from and one that's very promising, according to a lot of virologists. neil: how do you think this whole opening up of the global economy is going right now? some bumps along the way but how do you think it's all going?

>> it's a little disappointing to see people at the extremes. people need to take a reasonable, rational approach and realize the real question is not whether or not to be open or closed, it's whether or not to be using good practices, hygiene, masks, distancing, and our greatest risk going into the fall is being complacent. folks need to recognize that we have this virus for essentially one-third of our winter. going into next season, we could have it for the entire winter plus influenza. it's an unknown. we don't know if we will see a resurgence but people need to recognize it's not over. alabama, florida, mississippi, wisconsin, minnesota are still reporting high numbers of hospitalizations and we are still seeing outbreaks. we just need to learn from the data. 43% of the deaths are in nursing home patients. density and low income status, people crowded in a small housing situation is a major risk factor. those that use public

transportation and climate, the increasing cases right now is being offset by the change in the climate because of the seasonality of this virus. neil: you know, this might be a dumb question but you have always been patient at dealing with them from me. when disney world reopens, i understand in july, that everyone is going to be required to wear a mask. knowing disney world, it's a beautiful place, small world, whole nine yard, i get it, but very hot and humid and everyone has to wear a mask. that can be a little jarring for a lot of folks, can't it? what do you think of that? >> yeah, look, i think if people are able to maintain some reasonable distancing or interact with people in whom they live in the same household under the same roof, they don't need to wear a mask. we know the outdoors is safer. when we told people to stay at home in the early stages of this pandemic, we probably instead should have told them stay on your property or be outdoors or be in a park or go somewhere where you can be exposed to sunlight.

it turns out the sun belt really did not get affected like some of the other states and that's probably because they are more likely to be doing things outdoors. it's not just the uv light and the heat, it's also the increased humidity which is a well-known barrier. so disney is certainly a very humid place, orlando and some of these parks. so i'm reassured by that fact. neil: all right. we will watch it closely. always good having you on, my friend. uncanny read of all the latest virus developments. keeping you posted on the great reopening that's going on. technically, in staten island, new york, outer borough in the new york city region, businesses are not supposed to be reopening, but some are. so far, without much protest. after this.

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that's it. i'm calling kohler about their walk-in bath. [ sigh ] not gonna happen. my name is ken. how may i help you? hi, i'm calling about kohler's walk-in bath. excellent! happy to help. huh? hold one moment please... [ finger snaps ] hmm. the kohler walk-in bath features an extra-wide opening and a low step-in at three inches, which is 25 to 60% lower than some leading competitors. the bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience.

are you seeing this? the kohler walk-in bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. neil: all right. the paycheck protection program was a big old hit. obviously oversubscribed, no matter how much they upped it, people were responding and trying to get their hands on it. edward lawrence on maybe we overdid this. what do you think? reporter: in the last 30 minutes or so, the house of representatives passed critical changes to the payroll

protection program, 4 sfooe17-1. the loans on the program are starting to become forgivable as the program started eight weeks ago here. the bill called the payroll protection program flexibility act would extend a grace period from eight weeks to 24 weeks. it will also offer more flexibility to small businesses by changing the rule requiring 75% be spent on salaries. the new ratio would be 60% on salaries, 40% on other costs. the bill also allows businesses to get the loans to defer payroll taxes. >> there have been a number of people particularly in the restaurant industry that have said eight weeks isn't quite enough to get people back to work and be in position to have that loan frivorgiven. they want it extended and that's something we're looking at. reporter: secretary of labor eugene scalia says they estimate 50 million jobs have been saved because of the program. the federal reserve also noted

in their beige book the payroll protection program helped many businesses limit or avoid layoffs. former white house adviser gary cohn believes this will be another important part of a greater assistance package that must happen to help the rebound. >> washington still needs to do more to help businesses reopen. we need to make sure we take care of the legal liability issue. i think more and more businesses would open if they felt they didn't have a threat of a legal action or liability action if someone got sick coming to work. reporter: the senate comes back into session on monday. there was overwhelming support in the house, likely to be the same in the senate when they do take up this bill. back to you. neil: edward lawrence, thank you very much. want to go to joe borelli on all of that, the new york city councilman, also trump 2020 new york co-chair. joe, before i get to what's happening in staten island, businesses trying to reopen and some getting punished when they try that, what do you make of

revisiting the whole paycheck protection program, maybe variations of it, but it seems like that was certainly well received. there were bumps along the way, clearly, but that people might be revisiting it. what do you think? >> i think the revisiting of it is going to be necessary as we realize that eight weeks simply just wasn't enough. i mean, the criteria might have to change so that we can pick up some of the businesses that for various reasons might have been left out or not qualified. but overall, big picture, i think businesses are finding out that eight weeks is simply not long enough, that they are going to need before they are operating at full tilt. here in new york city, for example, we are not even phase one, never mind the phases that some businesses will be able to even open. neil: let's talk a little about those businesses, particularly in the staten island area, one of the outer boroughs of new york, and this concern that a lot of them are chasing these requirements that they have to stay closed. there was one owner i know that

disputed that, argued against that, tried to reopen. we just learned it was hit with a $1,000 fine to shut the door again. you were there. could you tell us about it? >> yeah. i woke up needing some sun block so i went to sunbelievable and tried to make a purchase. it's a tanning salon but the reality is, this is a business that for one family on staten island, this is how they put food on their plate. there just does not seem to be any sense of urgency from governor cuomo or mayor deblasio to ensure these things open. there are four things happening in new york city. there's bread lines. there are one million meals per day being given out to people who were not impoverished on february 28th. there is businesses large and small that went bankrupt. there's workers finding out their jobs are just not going to be there when it opens up. finally, we had a giant budget deficit that's not caused by expenses. we always spend money here in new york city. the cause is that we lost all

our revenue, all our sales tax, all of our recording taxes, things like that. the commonality to all of these problems is that the solution lies in reopening and jump-starting small businesses like this tanning salon and the 150,000 other ones in new york city. neil: it looked like big crowds were there. were they supporting the salon owner? just fill me in. >> yeah, no, these were people that had heard that the police were likely to shut down the business. most of them were fellow business owners who operate similar things or restaurants or whathave you, and a lot of them were just people who are just fed up. you know, here in staten island, we can go right over the bridge to new jersey, where you can go to a rest raurant and do certai things. the metrics for opening up new york just don't seem to be fair. the governor originally told us this had to be a regional thing, with all our neighboring states. then the governor of connecticut

and governor of new jersey simply left us in their dust. then he opened up the states per region of the actual state itself. then he started going by county. there just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. when you realize the mayor and governor are just winging it like most business owners are going to be forced to, you really have to question whether continuing just closing people down is the right thing to do. neil: how do you think it's going to go next month? >> look, i think people are going to be disheartened when they realize that they are not in phase one. phase one really opens up most businesses that have been allowed to operate in some capacity as is. when you talk about restaurants, they're not going to be in new york's phases until phase three and even then with capacity limitations. the economics simply don't bear out. if you are a restaurant and can only open with one-third capacity or 25% of capacity, it still doesn't pay for you to bring in your kitchen staff and wait staff, et cetera.

i think the desire is there to reopen. we know that people around this city are taking matters into their own hands, whether they are opening under the table or just going to neighboring jurisdictions, or just going out in parks and enjoying a cold drink with their pals. but the sentiment is changing in new york city and the governor and mayor need to see that the way out of a lot of our problems that we are going to have down the road is towards reopening quickly and safely. neil: joe borelli, well said. always good seeing you, my friend. as joe was talking, we are getting some potentially good news that could speed up or at least keep on track the reopening of new york. coronavirus updates here in the city show that hospitalizations are continuing to trend down and in the city itself, the lowest daily positive testing rate since the outbreak began. so there is that. hope for all. after this.

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neil: new jersey phil murphy is talking to the press right now. he says guidelines on retail will be clarified in the next few days. right now there is no retail. we're talking about curbside pickup, that sort of thing. a lot of great malls in new jersey, if you are a fan of malls, i'm not, but a lot of people are. i don't want to offend you. tell me when the mall will open. they women be discussing rental assistance plans tomorrow.

we don't know the details what has been talked about, some statewide help to help cushion blow whatever rent you're paying to the degree you're paying it, how much the state wit fork over. all that coming in a few days from new jersey. thankthankthank you, charles. charles: riverside maul, short hills mall, garden state mall, you name it my wife will be there. i'm charles payne. breaking the s&p is back above 3,000 first time since march. economic data improving continuing jobless claims today. they declining four million in the last month. curbing liable protection for social media companies, result of twitter putting a