that's it for today, have a great week and we will see next fox news sunday. ♪ ♪ eric: well, well, it is graduation weekend for many students across the country. their schools are shut, one western governor though saying today that he does expect schools in his state to open this fall despite the threat from coronavirus. this is the number of new cases as reported has been declining in our country, though some spots are seeing increases as testing has widened. let's look at some of the latest numbers for you according to john hopkins university, the u.s. so far reported 88,000 deaths, that means every day, more than 1200 americans are still dying, but so far more than a quarter of a million have

recovered. this is america's news headquarters i'm eric sean, hi, arthel, welcome. arthel: hi, eric, welcome, everyone, i'm arthel neville. more businesses are flipping their closed signs to open, eric, even as some cases in some parts of the country continue to rise. america still need to take precautions. >> this is a really bad virus and we are just at the beginning. we are in different places in different parts of the country. in new york city where i am today and where i live, we are at the end of the beginning. in some other places of the country it hasn't yet hit in full force. the bottom line, chris, is that the safer we start, the sooner we can reopen our economy. arthel: let's go to steve harrigan, live in atlanta with the very latest, steve. steve: arthel, when you take a look at the situation in different state that is began

reopening economies early, it does seem to be at this point so far a still mixed bag. here in georgia which is one of the most aggressive states to reopen, there's been no spike in new virus cases, however, in texas which we opened 3 weeks ago there has been a spike in new cases, the highest single day total of new cases since the pandemic began, 1801 in texas, now texas officials say the reason is because of more testing and a number of governors say that to truly open the economies effectively we have to get children back in school in the fall. >> there's a critical link. in colorado it's about almost a quarter of our workforce that has kids, relies on the schools, it's similar elsewhere. you know, not everybody has a luxury to have two-parent household or one parent can stay home and there's many single parents and many families where both parents work. steve: some encouraging news when it comes to the big

picture, 7-day average death total across the entire u.s., the figure stands at 1400 per day. that is down roughly 30% from the same measurement just 3 weeks ago. eric and arthel, thank you. arthel: steve harrigan, thanks for the report, eric. eric: arthel, memorial day weekend is just one week away from now and this year will be a lot different than before as the country deals with coronavirus pandemic and that means that states along the coast, well, they are trying to avoid overcrowding. at the beaches we saw a lot of that in california, aishah haine with what is going on in the beaches. aishah: one beach supervisor at mothmont county that they were behaving and following social

distancing guidelines, same for new york and delaware and connecticut are planning to reopen beaches over memorial day weekend. new york city will keep shoreline closed for now. meanwhile the warmer weather is bringing people out in the city, mayor de blasio getting tough on those folks, congregating outside of bars and restaurants, drinking and not wearing masks. >> the police department will be out, the sheriff's department will be out watching very carefully on the upper east side in particular. i know that we had a particular problem there but everywhere in the city and we will not tolerate people starting to congregate. aishah: in florida some of the most popular beaches including miami beach are reopening this week ahead of the holiday weekend. the state begins phase 1 of reopening tomorrow, that includes allowing gyms to reopen and retail and restaurants can reopen with 50% capacity. governor desantis also allowing

floridans giving them some phone lines for vacation short-term rentals but not everyone will be welcome to visit. >> what we are doing is telling counties if you want short-term rentals, you requested to be authorized through -- through the state and provide your safety plan. if you tell me you're going to rent them out to people from new york city, i'm probably not going to approve that, okay. aishah: back here in new york city, governor cuomo is watching the numbers very carefully as the state reopens. he says testing is going to be a big part of the state's success. he even took a coronavirus live on tv earlier today, back to you. eric: all right, aishah, thanks so much, arthel. arthel: eric war of words between the current and former president, former president, president obama criticizing the administration handling of the

pandemic without mentioning president trump by name. this was in commencement address graduating students from historically black colleges and universities. let's go with david spunt with more. hi, david. david: if president trump is hit he's going to hit back harder. that's exactly what we saw today when he landed on the south lawn after spending a weekend with advisers at camp david. he spoke to reporters for about a minute which is unusually short for him to be speaking in front of the camera but this is what he said about former president obama. listen. >> look, he was an incompetent president, that's all i can way. grossly incompetent. >> this comes a day after the former president who normally doesn't speak out critically said to graduates as you mentioned across the country. >> this pandemic is fully finally turned back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they are doing, a lot of them aren't

even pretending to be in charge. in the world is going to get better it's going to be up to you. david: proper playbook to deal with the crisis, but obama supporters point out, wait a minute, they did leave a playbook and the trump of administration disbanded the response unit which was part of the national security council here at the white house back in 2018. now earlier in the week just about 5 or 6 days ago senate majority leader mitch mcconnell speaking to the president's daughter-in-law laura trump agreed agreed with criticism against obama administration saying he was not a playbook and corrected remarks on thursday with bret baier on special report. >> you said that the previous administration didn't leave a plan, they pushed back against that. >> i was wrong, they did leave behind a plan so i clearly made a mistake in that regard. david: president trump was on

camp david this weekend talking about vaccines and operation warp speed and talking about 300 million doses for americans by january just about 7 months or so, arthel. arthel: david spunt, thank you very much. eric. ♪ ♪ eric: arthel, the call is going to be heard again, start your engines because today nascar is back. you know it's the first major sporting event that's resuming here in our country since march in darlington racetrack mark meredith is down there. hey, mark. mark: hey, eric, as you mentioned at this hour we are expecting the return of nascar after a 10-week hiatus, i can show you why, if we were to pan over there and show you what's going on in the stands, there's really nothing, there's nobody in there except for the drivers, the pit crews and a handful of

journalists, none of the fans that would witness a race like this, health screenings for crews and making sure that social distancing will be enforced inside the raceway, teams are limited to 16 people maximum and schedules for this race have been consolidated. nascar decide today eliminate practice runs and that avoided to send additional car or more people and while there are no fans in the stands, many predict today would be a welcome sight for race fans everywhere. >> for all of us, you know, over the course of past 2 or 3 months we have been challenged in a lot of different ways and this is an opportunity i think for all of us to celebrate a little bit overcoming that challenge. mark:'s today race is being held

in honor of america's frontline workers and each will have name of professional helping to battle the coronavirus. >> i think it's quite a bit of disbelief. yeah, i'm a doctor, i come to work and i see patients, it's my life. this is where very out of the ordinary for me. mark: a lot of people eager to see that tribute to america's healthcare workers, but as we mentioned, none of the fans will be here. around darlington, this place would be packed normally and people with beers, selling t-shirts, no tailgating whatsoever, the roads were pretty much empty and security is enforcing making sure people don't come out here and try to get a glimpse of the action. instead, they will have to watch it on tv, eric. eric: the tributes certainly great maybe a lot of play ball and a lot of people want sports back, arthel. arthel: okay, eric, with memorial day weekend fast approaching states are making plans to keep people safe, new

york's governor andrew cuomo is urging residents to get tested for coronavirus even getting a test himself before the unofficial start of summer. here more on the preparations of the upcoming holiday weekend up next. safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! he's here. he's right here. - hi! - hi. hey! - that's totally him. - it's him! that's totally the guy. safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today.

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eric: well, we seem to have a bit of a technical problem. i don't think arthel is really frozen the way she just appeared to be, that does happen with the technology that we are dealing with at the moment so we will unfreeze arthel, we will dethaw her and get her back right back in just a moment and continue with our newscast. meanwhile prominent medical experts including anthony fauci have been warning americans to prepare for more coronavirus outbreaks this fall right along with the flu season. you know, the so-called second wave. the experts are saying that the steps we take now like building up testing, contact tracing and getting more supplies could be critical for protecting the economy and the healthcare system. this morning on fox news sunday

the former director of the center for disease control, dr. tom freedman told our chris wallace that our nation should be prepared for not just a second wave but what he called rolling multiwaves. >> it's not right to think of a second wave. unfortunately we are likely to see multiple waves in different parts of the country. we know that this can spread explosively if it gets out of control. that's why we have so be so careful. eric: and arthel, ready. arthel: to discuss this we are joined by the president of medical association dr. patrice harris. dr. harris, always a pleasure to have you on and i want to know if you agree with dr. freedman's prognosis that they'll be a second wave of coronavirus but multiple rolling waves, if you will, if you do agree with that,

what can we do now as individuals and on the local state and federal levels as well to prepare for those future waves of coronavirus? >> why i certainly agree that we need to be prepared, of course, we don't know for sure that we will have one huge wave or multiple waves, but it's really incumbent upon to use this time now, now that we are seeing decreases or plateaus in some area although we are seeing some increases so we are not out of the woods yet but we have to make sure that we prepare for any future waves and a part of that is testing. we also need to make sure we are looking at the current inventory of assets, beds, and so forth and we have to make sure that we have a plan, a strategy, both on the national level but also the state and local level. arthel: right, understood. you know, in an interview with usa today nobel prize economists paul romer says he envisions a

day where all americans are tested regularly for covid-19 and they will have to present proof before going into places like restaurants and even the dentist's office, does that seem farfetched or far-sighted? >> well, there's no question that we need strategic testing and we need a national coordinated strategy that details of that certainly will have to come, but it will come with good data and that, again, is why we need that data to come from testing. we need to first of all, make sure our tests are reliable and accurate, of course, we are still working on treatments and vaccines and so all of these put together will continue to make sure we are all doing our part to mitigate risks. we will never get to zero risks, but we will learn as we grow and we will certainly make future decisions based on the data. arthel: well, you know, dr. harris, you're a

psychiatrist and this pandemic is weighing on people's psyche and emotions whether they suddenly, you know, are losing someone from covid-19, to losing your livelihood, to the family being confined together, confined together, do those who are confined at home alone, how do we cope? >> well, certainly this pandemic is amplifying and putting a spotlight on a conversation that we've actually, of course, needed to have for a long time and that is the importance of mental health as part of overall health and so now we need to make sure that we are getting the message out to everyone that is coping or having difficulties coping. we need to make sure there are resources there. i know that unfortunately the resources available are variable but the good news on the front is that we have increase access to care through telehealth so it's going to have to take a

continued conversation right now and i know that we are committed from the position standpoint to lead the conversation in the future. i would say one huge message is don't be afraid to ask for help and everyone should give themselves a break, you know, not to try to be perfect or handle everything without support and health -- help. arthel, if i could add one more thing, such an important message. physicians have been calling me as patients are coming back into our offices, we are glad because care had been delayed in some instances, cares that needed to occur in person. we need patients to call ahead to make sure they have the right kind of masks and face coverings and i've been hearing about masks that may increase risk, so i just we wanted to get that message out, again, we need to make sure we are here for

ourselves and have appropriate mental healthcare and we want people to use appropriate face coverings as they are going back to physicians' offices, thank you for the indulgence. arthel: absolute i, thank you. finally wrapping this, i would like to get your reaction to critics or skeptics that label reports like this alarmist. >> well, listen, it is certainly appropriate for any of us to sound the alarm and what we should be worried about but i like to say that is an opportunity to act. i channel my worry and my anxiety and my concern into action, certainly i do, you know, just like everyone else have the normal fears and worry but we should all channel that into action and why again it's important weigh we act in wearing the face coverings and staying 6 feet apart and being prepared. now is the time to be prepared

for a potential resurgence and if we act now we can mitigate that and then we can say, yes, we did a good job as a country in making sure that we lowered our risks for any horrible outcomes because the flu season will come around again and this virus is not going away so let's use this opportunity to prepare. arthel: prepare and work together as one and we can be better off doing that, dr. patrice harris, president of the american medical association, thank you, thank you, thank you. >> thank you. eric: thank you, arthel and doctor, harvard university says that nashville has taken the hardest economic hit from the coronavirus out of any u.s. metropolitan area. the music city is on phase 1 of its reopening process, for example, restaurants can once again let people eat inside

their restaurant spaces but you know they say it's off to a slow start there with the scene still looking a lot different than it usually does. >> ryan is part owner in east nashville which is sticking with takeout for now. since start of pandemic business is down 50% and furlough most of staff. >> it's tough for us because we have a family kind of vibe here at the wild cow. it's definitely tough, you know, to not have work for people and to know, you know, firsthand that they are struggling. >> it's no shock that local businesses like the wild cow and economists all over the country are taking hard hits but according to harvard university data tractor national consumer spending is down more than any other metro area in america with big drops in hotel, restaurant

and transportation spending. for perspective the national average for this set of data is 20% and tennessee's other major metro areas memphis has only dropped 11%. >> when you break it down by sector, where particularly national leisure in hospitality industry does seem to have a drag effect on overall consumer spending. so that was not surprising at all. >> despite the jars numbers says it's not all bad news. >> we have showed tremendous amount of concern for our neighbors and for one another and have it here to the safety protocols. so i -- i don't necessarily see this data as being negative. >> based on the chamber's independent researching she's confident that nashville will eventually make a strong economic comeback.

arthel: democrats are making a big play for the senate majority, with 35 seats up for grabs in this upcoming election, a closer look at their strategy up next. they're our neighbors, and our friends. but now, they are forever our heroes, too. and while they're working to keep us safe,

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arthel: well, the presidential race isn't the only big contest this year. democrats are also hoping to flip the senate. here is a look at the races across our nation, 35 senate seats are up for grabs. jacqui heinrich is following this from new york city. hey, jacqui. >> hey, arthel, republicans are defending 23 seats in november including special elections in arizona and georgia, for democrats to take control and break tide votes they would need to win four toss-up races and the white house. the closest races are in arizona, colorado, north carolina, montana and maine, colorado and maine are particularly concerning for republicans because president trump lost those states in 2016. senator susan collins is facing challenger who outraced her and made much about tie vote on kavanaugh which caused moderate support. in colorado cory gardner against

john hickenlooper who ran for president and mcsally also looking like an underdog with well-funded challenger and lost preelection 2018 but was appointed after the death of john mccain. the races are happening in tandem and democrats made referendum and therefore republicans and what happens as states reopen economies it could have big impact on voters. another reason why experts say it's likely to winner take all scenario come november. >> it's really unlikely that you can see a scenario where trump wins, wins reelection but republicans lose the senate and vice versa. i expect to see as the majority senate races, close call senate races. >> jacquie democrats are facing sex allegation of their own, might struggle in an area where president trump is lagging and

they hope today pick up votes especially single women and minority women, arthel. arthel: jacqui heinrich thank you. >> i'm not happy with china. they should have stopped this at the source. they could have stopped it right at the source so now you're telling me their hacking. i just say what else is new. we are watching it very closely. eric: president trump blaming china for not containing the coronavirus in early days of this horrible outbreak. he is hoping a vaccine will be developed by the end of the year. they also refer to a new warning, that comes from fbi and department of homeland security about china. officials are saying that chinese and by the way iranian hackers are attempting to steal vaccine and coronavirus research information by hacking into universities, private labs and pharmaceutical companies that are working on the cures.

dan fox news contributor, familiar with this, dan, first, china, coronavirus comes from china, beijing accused of covering up, lying about the death toll, now they are trying to steal our medical advances for what they're responsible for? >> dan: this is china's playbook, they have been founting -- mounting massive cyber attacks. china stole personnel information on u.s. government employees, so this is a try and true tactic that the chinese deploy and the president was right to call them out and it's a public service announcement to all those under siege from china and iran and i would add russia and north korea to that list, universities, not to mention defense contractors. it's also a warning to those enemy states china first and foremost among them that we will take action if they continue to do this.

eric: here is the warning from the cyber -- it's called the cyber infrastructure security agency and it says, quote, the fbi is investigating and targeting the compromise of u.s. organizations conducting covid-19 related research, prc, affiliated cyber actors and nontraditional and intellectual property and public health data related to vaccines, treatments and testing from networks and personnel affiliated with covid-19-related research and the potential theft of information jeopardizes delivery of secure, effective and treatment of -- options. dan, do you believe they are trying to steal it to help their people or put a money wrench in advances? >> dan: i'm sure the chinese would like to steal whatever advances we are making.

it's critical for our national health and recovery of our economy. that's key to our national security and to china would like to steal that information. what is also of concern potentially is that the hackers could either inadvertently cause damage to our data with one key stroke or i would not put it beyond the realm of possibility that they might seek to alter the data so that they would enable -- would disable our efforts to find a vaccine. that would be a pretty nasty cyber-attack but, again, it's over to our intelligence community, the fbi, the cia and others to determine the strategic intent of china and then in the weeds how that chinese hackers are attacking us. eric: do you think that our pharmaceutical companies, research labs and universities, are we sufficiently protected against these hacks? >> dan: well, i think that

there's a growing public-private partnership right now that we are seeing where our public sector particularly coming from the intelligence community working with the private sector to provide indications and warnings of threats and then the private sector with all of the technology that they need to defend themselves and incident response plan in the event we hope unlikely that they're hacked and then very strong countermeasures dealing with what i like to call the skin behind the keyboard, the iranians are using a very unsophisticated technique called spring passwords and all you need to do is to defend against that is train your people up so that they're aware of what the iranians are doing and i think that our private sector has increasingly done a better job of improving the training for all employees and i really think it's going to be critical going forward. eric: iran has really been hard hit by this, opposition groups says that the numbers of deaths are far beyond what the government admitted to and many critics saying the same thing

about china. from your years of being in the intelligence service, what is your sense about what really is going on in china and their responsibility for causing this catastrophe that is a global pandemic? >> dan: i think the commonality there and i think i would include north korea and russia with that group, china and iran, not only because they got cyber hacking capabilities but they are also brutal autocracies and they control narrative in their countries for regime security and whitewash damaged reputations overseas and that's especially true in china. the chinese are saying that they've only had 80,000 or cases, last year there was a leak of a report from a chinese medical defense university which indicated that those numbers were grossly reduced compared to real number which is in the

hundreds of thousands. so we really can't trust china much. they don't share the data on what happened. they still haven't told us who patient zero is and they are not allowing scientists to work with them. there's a real credibility gap. china is certainly not a reliable partner when it comes to stalling this pandemic which is threatening the world health and our economies. eric: dan hoffman saying we can't trust china much. some would say not at all. chinese say that they are, but look what's happened. dan, thank you and as always thank you for your service. >> dan: thank you. eric: arthel. arthel: eric, the hardest hit areas of europe are coming out of lockdown. live right from italy coming up next.

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arthel: it was once a major hot spot for the coronavirus and spain recording 87 deaths from the coronavirus, the lowers daily death toll since declaring a state of emergency to fight the pandemic two months ago. this as the country eases out of quarantine after a strict 2-month lockdown. amy kellogg is live in florence, italy where the death toll is also falling. amy. amy: yes, that's right, arthel, the government is banking on the numbers and the curve to remain low. tomorrow you can go back to tateria in italy, not sure how many will open up because there's confusion, owners where it's cozy and tight are worried if they need to lose half of capacity for social distancing it might be lard for them to make a euro.

now from tomorrow, you can also go to church in italy, probably more importantly to a lot of people. here we see st. peter's basilica getting a deep clean. italian prime minister says there's a risk that it could shoot back but opening up is a risk that italy needs to take. he wants both interregional and international travel to start back up here june 3rd but he specifically said travel in the context of european union hoping to inject life in the tourism industry for which closed borders could be and have been truly catastrophic. portugal is also counting down the days june 6th, beaches will be open again, you can check to see if there's space at the beach that you would like to visit and won't be able to pack them in the summer, they are hoping people will respect social distancing. portugal has faired better than neighboring spain. the country has had 28,000 cases

of coronavirus and just under 1200 deaths. finally, some norwegian members of parliament record a little number for today which is constitution day, the usual parades and street food had to be called off, of course, marching band played outside of a nursing home and hospital and in some coastal towns they replaced parades with flotilas of ships and they we wanted to bring joy and fun for people throwing their shapes with social distancing, i'm not sure how much social distancing they achieved in the video we saw and finally here in italy one more thing that the prime minister said it's very important tomorrow that finally people can relaunch their social lives, thank you. arthel: amy kellogg, thank you very much. >> definitely a very emotional kind of moving experience. personally, my dad is a veteran.

he was deployed in iraq for a year and it's good to be able to pay our respects to our fallen heros. eric: that eagle scout, boy scout troop. every year karen and fellow scouts across the country honor on memorial day but placing flags in military cemeteries, the tradition that this year sadly fallen victim to coronavirus. the va is banning the boy scouts or any group from flag placements. next guest runs the county with cemeteries and trying to change the va's mind. you know, it is so inspiring and meaningful as karen says but the flag placing is jeopardized.

what are you trying to do? >> to me it's incredibly important this memorial day weekend that we take the opportunity to honor the fallen heros. we have thousands of boy scouts and girl scouts that do this every year and they place these flags and you're really teaching the next generation the importance of sacrifice and what that means, but i will tell you we have a safety plan in place. you can do this in a safe manner and i think it's very important as we begin to reopen our economy here in new york. i know the president is very focused on reopening our country. i want to reopen the va for our national cemeteries to allow these flag placements so that on memorial day weekend we can appropriately honor the men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country. i think it's critically important even if the midst of this covid-19 crisis that we do this. eric: yeah, i want to point out that this is really a national ban and that affects all u.s.

military cemeteries including arlington and va in its defense in statement said that in part in terms of long island said, quote, long island has not met state criteria of reopening and limits of social gatherings are still in place. families and community members are welcome to visit national cemeteries. throughout memorial day weekend and place individual flags on graves to honor friends and family. we ask that all visitors adhere to cdc state and local health safety. you don't want anyone to be sick, certainly, but what would you say to the va in terms of their ban on mass groups. could this be done let's say stretch it out over a few days, have small specific groups, have masks and social distancing. >> yeah, i think that's exactly right and what we said is we want to work with the va. we understand there are staffing

challenges but we said we will take the responsibility at the local health department. don't do a national ban and those communities that allow to do that safely, allow that to happen. we have begun process of reopening economy in new york city and it's been devastating economically, the loss of life, but we've begun to reopen and think about this, this memorial day weekend we will open our beaches in new york. the governor is opening the beaches. we will be having our beaches in suffolk county open and we are inviting the public and saying we can do that in a safe way. it would be really to me a provers situation where we have people going to the beaches safely yet the weekend we set aside to honor men and women who sacrifice for the country we can't figure out a way to simply place an american flag at their graves, it doesn't make any sense to me and i think if we can do this, it'll be a real

shot in the arm, lift people's spirits and send a message that we are coming back as community, state and as a nation. eric: that's an amazing contrast, you know, seeing a towel at the beach and the beach ball, but you can't have a group at least go into a cementrary. finally, you have long island national military cemeteries, they have more than, what, half a million graves of veterans who served, we have more veterans in your country than any place practically in the nation. >> that's right. eric: what does it mean to your residents to actually have this time? >> we have two national cemeteries, the only county in the country that has that and as the county in the state of new york has more veterans than anywhere else. we take honoring our veterans seriously and i think that -- that to be able to do this would really lift people's spirits and

show that we are on our way back. eric: suffolk county's executive, we will see what policies are changed if any or can be adjusted or compromise over the next week, we honor our veterans but we want everyone to stay safe and we thank you and we thank suffolk county, steve, good to see you. >> thank you. eric: and we will be right back. >> tech: don't wait for a chip like this to crack your whole windshield.

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arthel: several firefighters still hospitalized today after an explosion at hash oil manufacturer in downtown los angeles. a fire department captain calling it one to have worst scenes he has witnessed. christina coleman live in our los angeles bureau with the latest, christina. christina: 11 firefighters were injured and 3 of them released from the hospital today. they are recovering from burns after surviving a huge ball of fire that rocked the building in downtown los angeles. the fire expanded into what officials are calling a significant explosion or a flashover. this fire happened around 6:30 evening at smoke tokes, aware house distributor with supplies for butane honey oil and firefighters responded, firefighters inside the building and on the roof to try to find the source of the blaze when the huge explosion took place.

some firefighters had to run through a ball of flames to escape and some scrambled down a ladder engulfed in flames to get to safety rather and this explosion was so powerful that it damaged several nearby store fronts, blackened a fire engine across the street and melted some of the firefighters' helmets and significantly damaged other firefighter equipment. take a listen to the intense may day call for help. >> go with your may day. [inaudible] >> i have two down firefighters. >> 2 down firefighters. [inaudible] >> rescue 9. i need you to go and assist engine with two down firefighters. christina: the cause of fire is under investigation, arthel. arthel: oh, boy, thank you for that report

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arthel: the number of coronavirus cases declining each day and more than half of the u.s. and health officials are urging caution as some states with rising cases and deaths take steps to reopen their economies. here are some of the latest numbers according to johns hopkins university. the u.s. has reported more than 89,000 deaths. meanwhile, more than 1200 americans are dying each day. this is a brand-new hour of america's news headquarters. i'm arthel neville. eric: hello, arthel. hello, everyone. thank you for joining us.

i'm eric shawn. some health experts are saying the virus is at different stages in different places across the country. and americans still need to take precautions like wearing a mask in public and washing your hands well. this as even more restrictions are set to end tomorrow in some states, states where cases they say are still climbing like in texas. the lone star state saw its highest one-day death toll just last week. steve harrigan is following all this and the states that are opening, he's live in atlanta with the latest. hi, steve. >> reporter: one encouraging figure is the average death toll over seven days across the u.s., right now it stands at 1400, that's down by about 30% over the same measurement from three weeks ago. the former cdc head is issuing a warning that some of the states that are trying to reopen their economies may be moving too quickly. >> tragically, this is a really bad virus and we are just at the

beginning. we're in different places in different parts of the country. in new york city, where i am today, and where i live, we are at the end of the beginning. in some other places of the country, it hasn't yet hit in full force. >> reporter: when you look at some of the states that early on reopened their economies, it's really a mixed bag. texas reopened three weeks ago. right now, they are seeing a spike in new cases. the highest single day total since the pandemic began, more than 1800 cases. texas officials say that's because of increased testing. if you look in georgia, there has not been a spike and georgia's been very aggressive in reopening its economy. as far as fliers go, that's another sign of increased economic activity. the tsa says the number of people flying is up 50% since may 1st but still when you look at the overall number of fliers it's a fraction of the number that used to exist before the pandemic. 77 degrees, that's the key figure according to harvard and mit researchers when it gets that warm it's tougher for the

virus to transmit. they say warmer temperatures are no substitute for social distancing. eric, back to you. eric: steve, thanks so much. arthel. arthel: eric, thank you. it is getting warmer outside. but as the pandemic rages on, states are working on ways to allow outdoor activities while making sure everyone is safe. states like new jersey allowing beaches to reopen ahead of memorial day but other places, well, they're just not quite ready for that. let's go to aishah hasnie, live in new york city, with more. aishah. >> reporter: arthel, new york city is one of those places just not ready for that. the mayor basically saying that this is still the epicenter and that it's just not safe to reopen the shoreline. here he is on sunday morning futures. >> folks in local communities who walk on the beach, walk on the boardwalk, they can do that. but no swimming, no lifeguards, no congregating. nypd will be out there, parks department will be out there.

if people are smart about it and listen to the rules, great. if not, we actually might have to put up fencing to keep people off the beach. >> reporter: new yorkers, however, will be able to enjoy state-run beach as those will open over the holiday weekend. new jersey, as you mentioned, dips its toe intuse the water this weekend, large crowds descending on the few beaches that reopened on friday. one beach supervisor in monmoth county said that beach-goers were behaving themselves. outdoor theaters like the warwick drive-in in new jersey opened up for the first time this season. new jersey remains the second most impacted state when it comes to deaths from coronavirus. casinos will also be allowed to reopen in mississippi, just in time for the holiday weekend. the state's gaming commission allowing that under some strict guidelines, sure to be a big boost for the state's economy. while small business owners in other states like new hampshire continue to struggle. >> the one area where we're

having the most trouble opening is that of a hotel or tourism where you're essentially inviting and want to invite you under a normal circumstance. folks out of massachusetts, new york, new jersey, that's not practical for the northeast right now, not a path we can go down. >> reporter: now, back here in new york city, of course the warmer weather bringing out lots of people to congregate outside of bars and restaurants, drinking, not wearing masks and the mayor really getting tough on those folks, saying that the nypd is going to be out patrolling. arthel. arthel: thank you very much, aishah. eric. eric: well, arthel, president obama making waves. he delivered two virtual commencement addresses over this weekend. and the former president used that public platform to slam the current white house response to the coronavirus crisis and without uttering his name he clearly alluded to president trump. meanwhile, the president

returned from a weekend spent with his advisors at camp david and when he landed at the white house he hit back, not mincing words about his predecessor. >>.david spunt is live at the we house with the very latest on this increasing at thi tit-for-. >> reporter: it appears president trump won't let this one go a while ago he tweeted about his predecessor, barack obama. when he came on the south lawn, he made that announcement and i want to tell you this. first of all, former president barack obama spoke to a graduation, a group of historically black colleges across the country. this what is the former president said, then i'll play what current president trump said. >> this pandemic is fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. a lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge. if the world's going to get better, it's going to be up to

you. >> reporter: then current president trump, who just landed on the south lawn about two and-a-half hours ago, said this. >> look, he was an incompetent president. that's all i can say. grossly incompetent. >> reporter: president trump and members of his team, eric, they say they did not have a proper playbook to deal with the coronavirus crisis but the former president's supporters including vp biden, the former vp, they point out they did leave a playbook, they say the trump administration dispannedded the pandemic response unit, part of the security council, in 2018. another big story i'm following at the white house, late friday night president trump announced he was firing the state department inspector general, steve linick. democrats on the hill have called for an investigation, mrt since 2013. a source close to the investigation tells fox news that linick was investigating secretary of state mike pompeo

for allegedly using a political appointee at the department of state to perform personal tasks for secretary pompeo and his wife. >> the president has the right to fire any federal employee but the fact is, if it looks like it's in retaliation for something that the ig, the inspector general is doing, that could be unlawful. >> reporter: linick is the fourth inspector general to be removed in the last six weeks. the third to be removed late on a friday night. you see the other ones right there, a white house official told me yesterday, eric, that secretary pompeo actually came with the recommendation to remove linick. president trump agreed and accepted. again, democrats on the hill calling for a full investigation. eric. eric: yeah, about more issues later on this week. david spunt at the white house. david, thank you. arthel. arthel: well, eric, democrats getting a massive $3 trillion

coronavirus relief package through the house as the nation continues to feel the strain of record unemployment. but the bill facing long odds in the upper chamber with senate republicans dismissing it as a nonstarter. garrett tenney has more. >> reporter: now that states are starting to open back up, senate republicans want to hold off on putting together the next relief package for a few weeks to see how things go and where the greatest needs are. but today, house speaker nancy pelosi criticized that thinking, saying there is no time to waste. >> they may think it's okay to pause. but people are hungry across america. hunger doesn't take a pause. people are jobless across america, that doesn't take a pause. people don't know how they're going to pay their rent across the country. we have to address this with humanity. >> reporter: senate republicans are balking at the 3 trillion dollars package, claiming it has items that aren't directly

related to items related to the pandemic. >> fellow republicans in the senate have tried to see things from the speaker's point of view but we can't get our heads that far up our rear ends and i think any fair-minded american would agree, once they read the bill. >> reporter: all of this goes towards the bigger question of how long it will take for the u.s. economy to recover and the chairman of the federal reserve thinks it may take until the end of next year. >> assuming there's not a second wave of the coronavirus, i think you'll see the economy recover steadily through the second half of this year. for the economy to fully recover, people will have to be fully confident and that may have to await the arrival of a vaccine. >> reporter: in terms of timing, most health officials continue to say a vaccine likely won't be ready until the any del of next year -- middle of next year at the soonest. in washington, i'm garrett tenney, fox news. eric: well, it's still two

weeks before the official start of the hurricane season but guess what? all eyes are on tropical storm arthur, now forming in the atlantic, off the florida coast. arthur is expected to brush the outer banks of north carolina by tomorrow. meteorologist adam klotz joining us live. he's keeping an eye on where arthur is going and potentially could hit. hey, adam. >> hey, there, eric. we're tracking arthur at this point, continuing to lift off the coast of florida, getting up along the coast of georgia and then the carolinas. here's where the storm currently sits, winds at 45 miles an hour. you're seeing the very outer bands on the north edge of this storm beginning to brush up along the north carolina coast. things are going to deteriorate overnight before eventually we see this make a path by the state on monday morning. there's your timeline and there's the cone of uncertainty. and there's still some uncertainty about where exactly this will move, still most of the models are keeping this just barely off the shore. these are tropical models, a

list of them, several running up along the outer banks, others staying off the coast. ear way, the storm is going to get close enough that we're already seeing tropical storm warnings, advisories, currently you've got a tropical storm warning across a large portion of the coastal communities in north carolina. again, this is something that's going to be moving in tomorrow morning and then lingering through the day on monday as it slowly eventually turns its way back out to sea. these models update every couple hours and it makes a big difference on the path. this is forecasted precipitation. as of right now, all of the reds and oranges off the coast, that means the heaviest rain, the 6 to 8 inches of rain might not even make landfall but a slight shift inland and we would be talking about flooding possibilities across this region. particularly on some of those outer bands, some of the islands. this is a little out of the ordinary, typically the season -- the season does begin on jun. above average activity is

expected and eric, as i get ready to toss this back to you, may is not typical but we have seen a storm before june 1st the last four or five years. so it's going to be an active year. kind of a good wake-up call as we get ready for what will be an active season. eric. eric: and it's good to see all that red dropping in the atlantic ocean and not as you said on land. adam, thank you. arthel. arthel: definitely. okay, eric. democrats taking a big gamble in this election year, hoping their candidates can deliver a senate majority. details on that, up next. motor? nope. not motor? it's pronounced "motaur."

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eric: democrats are hoping to flip the senate this fall. let's take a look at the state that has seats up for grabs. there are 35 seats in all, 22 of those seats are currently controlled by republicans and some are on the edge. jacqui heinrich is following who is where from new york city. hi, jacqui. >> reporter: hey, eric. well, including two special elections, republicans will be defending 23 seats come november and while it gives them the incumbency advantage, it's happening with a presidential election that's been tested by coronavirus.

democrats have cast coronavirus as a failure of the trump administration and as states start to reopen their economies, republican led states are generally siding with president trump's push to get the economy going as democrats take a more cautious approach. it means what happens next will likely produce a winner take all scenario where whoever wins the white house will also take the senate. >> whoever gets that right, if these states open up early in a place like north carolina for example or florida, and they don't suffer a respike, a re-- you know, the reemergence of the virus, and the world doesn't end i think people are going to give the republicans credit for pushing that envelope. conversely, if they do i think republicans or voters are going to hold them accountable. >> reporter: the closest races are in arizona, colorado, north carolina, montana and maine. but as many as eight republican senators are considered vulnerable. colorado and maine are

concerning for republicans because president trump lost those states in 2016. maine senator susan collins is facing a changer who significantly out-fund raised her. cory gardner is facing off against john hickenlooper who also ran for president. in arizona, martha mcsally lost her last election but was appointed to her position after the death of john mccain. experts say it's likely the republican senators will keep their seats if president trump wins but both sides are messaging around healthcare and the economy so it will come down to what voters think is the best approach come november. eric. eric: it will be a fierce fight. jacqui, thank you. arthel. arthel:.>> it is routine and lr government officials to ask for a name and a confidential classified briefing to be, quote, unmasked. what is illegal is somebody then leak that name. is this what the election is settled on? i don't think so. but it does stink. arthel: that is karl rove

reacting to new developments in the michael flynn case. all of if names of obama administration officials who sought to unmask flynn have been given. he pleaded guilty to making fault statements to federal authorities. prosecutors are requesting to drop the case but the judge is delaying a final decision. joining me now, john bussey, associate editor for the wall street journal and fox news contributor. first, can michael flynn be sentenced when the department of justice says there was no crime? >> fascinating situation. so the justice department says they can't prove that there was a crime but michael flynn, remember, has pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with the russians shortly after president trump was elected, before the inauguration. so he's already pled guilty.

the judge is now asking an outside judge to examine the case and determine whether or not michael flynn can be held in contempt for having lied in his guilty plea and whether or not that actually goes to criminal perjury so that the judge might find him of self in a position of having to sentence him for a slightly different infraction but an infraction nonetheless. arthel: okay. so now let's go to the unmasking of those names. it's not illegal to have names unmasked. so what kind of charges, if any, do any of the people on that list requested to have those names unmasked might face? >> well, i'm not a legal expert but i don't think any charges, because the process of unmasking it sounds maligned, sounds something sereptitious.

it's in the thousands that people ask for the identity of somebody caught in a surveillance tape where there might be national security issues involved and clearly there was one here. this was a person in the trump campaign who was speaking to russians and who ultimately pled guilty to lying to the fbi about it. thousands of times this is asked for by people in administrations over the years. and a factor in the trump administration, that thousands of times has gone up. there's more of the unmasking part which is simply asking for the identity of the person and of course have you to be a high level official, you can't just be anybody in the administration. so i think that this feels a lot more routine than people are suggesting. there's a suggestion by the trump administration that there is something maligned about this when in fact i think the judge is probably going to have a

difficulty -- a difficult time agreeing with that. arthel: do you think -- will the trump administration try to run with this and somehow make it a campaign talking point, possibly, or is this something the american people really want to hear about in the middle of a health and economic crisis? >> yeah, i think those are both two very good questions and rhetorical ones and i think at this stage the trump campaign is already trying to make it an issue. because vice president biden was on that list of people. there were a number of people that asked for who was this that was talking to the russians and biden's name is on that. they'll try make an issue out of it. i think the suggestion in your question, arthel, is right on the mark. i think the american people right now are looking at 97,000 people -- i'm sorry, 91,000 people already dead from crus in the unite--coronavirus in the ud

states, that number going up. 1.5 million cases, that number going up. they're worried about making their rent next month, worried about historic levels of unemployment. this feels like something of a political side show, not a core issue that americans are going to be voting on come november. arthel: and the side show's worked in the past. will they work now, to that same point, quickly, please, john. >> yeah, i would think not. i think that americans have probably heard enough about this case. i think it's now in the hands of the judge, the judge obviously disagreed with the justice department's decision under william barr to withdraw the case. i think that's going to happen on a parallel track. most americans are going to be looking at am i going to be laid off, am i going to have a job next year, what do i do about keeping food on the table and am i safe to go back to work and what looks to be a kind of unmanaged health crisis in the

united states. arthel: john bussey, we have to leave it there. thank you. >> pleasure. eric: speaking of that health crisis, a new drug is showing promising signs in fighting coronavirus. you know the treatment they say is still in short supply across the country. coming up, how doctors can get their hands on remdesivir and could it slow a potential second wave? we'll take a look. your mission:

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abbvie may be able to help. >> that conclusion came about a technical review from a number of scientists within hhs, nih and barta, was also aligned with scientific assessment from w.h.o. and a number of global experts who looked at every potential drug and ranked remdesivir as the drug that had the most potential for benefit. eric: that's ousted vaccine expert dr. rick bright, testifying on capitol hill, saying that remdesivir has the greatest potential he thinks for treating patients with coronavirus. he says the drug mimic's the virus' genetic material, ultimately slowing the spread. so will it really work and if you get sick will it be available to you? dr. george diaz join us, the section chief for infectious diseases at providence health in

washington state and he treated the first u.s. coronavirus case, that was a 35-year-old man known as patient one. doctor, thank you for your service, what you're doing and thank you for being here with us today. >> thank you, eric, for having me. eric: of course. what realistically do you think the chances are that this is the one, this drug or maybe could be one of those that are so needed as a desperate cure? >> well, dr. fauci has seen the data out of the nih and indicated this will be part of the standard of care of treatment. both of the studies at nih and gilead have shown benefit in treating patients with remdesivir in terms of reducing recovery time and increasing chance of discharge to home. within the health system we looked at the data and are seeing mortality benefit as well. i think it will be part of standard of care and that's one of the yens the fda -- one of the reasons the fda granted emergency use authorization for this anti-viral.

eric: gilead says they have enough for about 78,000 people. is that enough? if you get sick, you're in the hospital, what are the chances of you being able to have that drug now? >> yeah, there were initially concerns. gilead donated 1.5 million dose toss the u.s. government. initially there were concerns about transparency of distributing the drug. thankfully, over the last couple weeks, that process has been made much more open and transparent. they've sent doses and anti-viral to each state and each department of health is tasked with distributing the drug. within the state of washington, they've contacted all of us within the state, hospitals to make a frank assessment of the patients we need to treat and so that process i think is going well. right now, there ought to be enough anti-viral within our state to treat each patient that needs it. there are certainly concerns about the production of the drug to be able to match the need going forward over the next few

months. eric: do you think there will be enough over the next few months especially if there's a potential second wave later on this year with the influenza season? >> yeah, i think it's really hard to know at this point. i'm sure that gilead inincreasing their manufacturing at this point and they plan to release many more doses. we're not exactly certain of the timing of that and certainly it's a concern that we may not have as much access to the drug as we would like along those lines, because of this within our health system we engaged with our ethics department to create an ethical framework in the event we don't have enough of the anti-viral to provide to our patients going forward. at this moment in time, it appears that we do but certainly this is an issue that we will be watching very carefully. eric: do you think that remdesivir would be a stand-alone or with hiv that we've seen, used as a cocktail, potential various drugs to fight

coronavirus? cedar sinai for example has a research project with what inflammation, heart cells, where they said six patients who were on ventilators were basically cured and almost all i think sent home, they're doing another study now with 20. do you see other paths along with remdesivir that could be the answer to us finally beating coronavirus? >> yeah, that's a good question. i would say that at this point i think we're fairly certain that remdesivir has quite a bit of activity against the virus, patients that are presenting earlier the disease likely will do better. those patients that present a little later have very aggressive disease, they may benefit from additional agents besides remdesivir. there's numerous studies ongoing within the country looking at secondary therapies that may be effective. we're looking at immune modulators within the health system as well. those are very promising also. that information will take weeks

to months to be able to be published as well. eric: and finally, we're talking about what happens when you get sick. how about a vaccine? what realistically we hear, what, 12 months, 18 months. what do you think? where we will get the vaccine from? what are you looking at? >> yeah, there's a lot of companies looking to develop vaccines right now. with the initial grants that we're provided by numerous companies, over 50 that that applied and i think that realistically early 2021 would be about as hopeful as we could be in terms of having a safe and effective vac seen. we're really focusing on therapeutics and hopefully remdesivir turns out to be effective against this pending those vaccines being available. eric: absolutely. how's patient one doing? he was released? >> yeah, he's doing quite well. i spoke with him a couple weeks ago. he has been released from

quarantine and he's back to normal. this is typical for some patients that respond quickly to remdesivir. so we're hopeful that it will help many, many patients with this disease. eric: that is great news. that's very encouraging and we wish him well and wish you well too, for all the work that you do, dr. george diaz in washington state. doctor, thank you. >> thank you so much, eric. eric: of course. arthel. arthel: indeed we do. eric, thank you. native american owned casinos, a huge source of income for many tribes, are starting to reopen across the country despite stay at home rules, precautions vary from property to property. but they include things such as spacing, temperature checks, as well as masks and gloves for customers. let's go to dan springer now, he's live in arlington, washington, with more. hey, dan. >> reporter: hi, arthel. there's clearly pent-up demand for entertainment in the country. the casino behind me has been busy nonstop since it opened

this past week. >> america is ready to come outside, man. we're ready to come outside, have some fun, you know. we never know who has the virus or who don't have the virus at the end of the day. but i feel like this is a good start. >> reporter: currently there are 11 tribal casinos open in five states but that will change in a big way very soon. at least five more indian casinos are set to open in washington state tomorrow and many more scheduled to resume operations around the country. all but one of the casinos in the u.s. had shut down over covid-19 concerns even though they're not subject to any governor's stay at home orders due to their sovereign nation status. they are reopening with a lot of new safety rules, like required face coverings, fewer slot machines and tracking system in case someone gets sick and they need to trace all contacts. >> through our sophisticated system and surveillance systems,

we know exactly where you are inside our property. in the case that something was to happen, we will know exactly how long, where you were, and who you were in contact with. >> reporter: with 1,000 coronavirus deaths in washington state, governor jay inslee has been asking the tribes to remain closed. he relaxed very few of his restrictions and small businesses with a fraction of the 800 customers packing into this casino are still shut down to any foot traffic. some republican lawmakers sued the governor to force him to open up the economy but inslee blasted their argument as biologically ignorant and heartless. >> i've never seen the governor pass up an opportunity to pick a fight with republicans and i think that's just -- he saw an opportunity there, where with the tribes there's nothing -- no reason for him to pick a fight with the tribes. >> reporter: and perhaps the reason is the tribes with all of their big casino revenue have supported the governor's races, his campaigns over the years to the tune of $400,000. back to you, arthel.

arthel: dan springer reporting in arlington, washington. thanks, dan. eric. eric: arthel, major league baseball, they're trying to hash out a deal for a shortened season. when it comes to the -- amid rising resistance from some of the players, coming up, why some of the biggest stars of the sport are speaking out and what they're saying. alright, i brought in ensure max protein to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. yeeeeeah! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar ensure max protein. now available in twelve-count. stock up today!

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arthel: the decision to delay major league baseball's 2020 season is costing teams millions of dollars and team owners are now trying to mitigate losses. espn reports that executives approved a july start to the season along with a 50/50 revenue split with players. some of the sports biggest stars are picking back. blake snell says for me to take a pay cut is not happening because the risk is through the roof.

it's a shorter season, less pay. joining us now is jared diamond, national baseball writer for the wall street journal and author of the book, "swing kings." the pay cut seems to be a nonstarter. how quickly can they negotiate financial terms and what other alterations are necessary to get players back on the diamond? >> they don't have much time. if they want to start this season in early july which is their goal, they want to be playing on the 4th of july if possible, they have to have this deal done by the end of this month. and that only leaves us about two weeks now, a little bit less. there are a bunch of hurdles to climb. one is health and safety. the league submitted a long document to the union this weekend outlining all of the protocols about testing, about travel, about all of the health and safety issues. if they're able to agree on that, they'll move to the economics which is probably the bigger obstacle even to overcome. arthel: so you mentioned testing, i understand they would

be considering social distancing. would that affect fans as well in the stadium or just social distancing amongst players and what about this notion of not allowing them to eject saliva, let's say. >> now the plan is to have no fans in the bal ballpark, at let when they start. there is a hope that maybe later, in the late summer or fall, we could start to bring some fans back in limited numbers. that's a long way down the road. right now we're talking about no fans in the stadium and players having to be social distanced, the amount osama bi possible. the dugout and bullpen will be realized. players will be tested for coronavirus three times a week or so. spitting has been banned which in baseball is quite a thing to have. they're asking players not to high-five, asking players not to

shower at the ballpark not to take uber and lyfts to the stadium. the document will get longer by the time it's finalized. it goes into excruciating detail about what players can and can't do. they're being asked to change their whole routines that they've done professionally for their own careers. that's just what it's going to take if we're going to have baseball in 2020. arthel: that's a question, will we? will there be a major league baseball came come even july? >> if you asked me this two weeks ago i would have said probably not, or a month ago. today, i feel better about it. i'm not saying it's a guarantee. there's a lot to do. if i had to say yes or no right now, i think they'll find common ground. the reason i think that is economically these issues are complicated. we're talking about an $11 billion industry that is going to lose billions, make billions less than it's accustomed to making. they still have to come to an

agreement. but i think both sides, players and leagues, despite their rhetoric, understand that not playing baseball in 2020 strictly because of money would be a terrible look for both sides. telling the american people, hey, we had a health and safety plan to play baseball but we couldn't agree on the money, even the smaller pot than they're used to having, people would not respond to that well. i think they realize that. i think they'll come to an agreement but eventually one of these two sides is going to have to come off its position and we're going to learn a lot in the next 10 of days or so. arthel: well, i mean, listen, fans do -- you're right, they probably would not want to see them arguing over money. at the same time, i think fans understand that players, they have a shorter shelf life than owners do. you know, so they have to get their money when they can get their money, when their body is performing, when they are not injured, when they can still play. there's that. >> that's what players say.

the average major league career is about four years. we always hear the argument, it's billionaires versus millionaires but the reality is, that's not true. many, many baseball players are not millionaires. yeah, the established stars that we know about are but most major league baseball players, a large portion of them are kind of going up and down from the minors, they may get a couple months in the major leagues. it's not true to say that all these guys have tens of millions of dollars in the bank. they feel like we're the ones going out there, risking our health, our careers are short maanyway. we agreed to have our salaries prorated for the number of games. they're not willing at this point to take a further pay cut. really, i do understand both positions here. i don't think it's a simple sort of negotiation and that's why it's going to be so fierce for the next week or so. arthel: we'll watch it and maybe we'll have you back on to

tell how it all plays out. jared diamond, thank you so much. >> thank you. arthel: we'll be right back. this is what it's all about. why the heart beats the pulse races why the weight of the world is carried with a smile. and where the comfort that's so desperately sought, is found. this is what's worth protecting embracing. and ensuring for others, especially now. this is why medicare from blue cross blue shield continues to improve what we can do for you. putting over 80 years of healthcare expertise into action. and making coverage even more accessible in times when it's needed most. we're here for you now, and always.

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eric: israeli prime minister

benjamin netanyahu finally swearing in his new government. netanyahu agreeing to share power with his former rival, benny ganz. trey yingst is live in jerusalem with how they'll work it out. >> reporter: after three rounds of elections in under a year, israel now has a government. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu did speak today before being sworn in, saying his government will move forward with a decision to annex parts of the west bank. it has received criticism from palestinians who say it's another nonstarter for the american led peace process. they say it could lead to a new conflict. in 18 months his former opponent will be sworn in as prime minister. this part of the deal comes as the new government will take place during a tumultuous time for the prime minister. a week from today a trial for netanyahu is set to begin where he faces charges of fraud, corruption and bribery.

to give you a sense of how quickly things can change in israel, a man named yahir la pede who was going to serve for the foreign minister for net ya hugh will be the -- netanyahu will be the main opposition head. i want you to hear what he had to say earlier today. >> in politics, the coronavirus is an excuse for a corrupt party at the expense of the taxpayer. after all the empty talk of an emergency government, the government being formed today is the largest and most wasteful in the history of the country. >> reporter: the updates come as we follow another key story out of the region. early this morning the chinese ambassador to israel was found dead in his home. therthere are no updates as to w he died. it is a story many in the region will be looking at in the days to come. eric. eric: that's pretty shocking about the chinese ambassador. we'll see what the situation is with that. you mentioned a situation with

jordan. how will this affect do you thinker the regional tensions in terms of this new partnership and also with the coronavirus, we saw the video with the prime minister and other top officials wearing masks. >> reporter: exactly. the coronavirus has really changed the current dynamic in the middle east. you remember the beginning of the year the focus was on iran. we saw the trump administration make that decision to take out that top iranian general, qassem soleimani, in the beginning of january and the regional talk was could there be a war with iran. now we've seen coronavirus hit not only countries like israel, but also the iranians very hard so we're going to be watching to see how things develop in the days, weeks and mondays to come. eric. eric: even stopped the notes in the western wall, taking every precaution they can like others across the globe. trey yingst, also good to see you from jerusalem. thank you. and we will be right back. your work is essential.

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held at racetracks around the country. from all of us at fox news channel, congratulations to the class of 2020. that does it for us. fox reports up next. eric: what a great idea. jon: former president obama offering what appears to be a rare puckly rebuke of president trump, slamming the coronavirus response, saying many u.s. officials aren't even pretending to be in charge. good evening, i'm jon scott and this is a special two hour edition of the fox report. jon: former president obama making those remarks in an online commencement address. this as president trump continues to lash out at his predecessor, blaming him for the 2016 investigation into former national security advisor michael flynn. meanwhile, congressional democrats launching an investigation into the president's firing of state department inspector general steve linick, a move that's