AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

World joins US protests but leaders restrained about Trump

BERLIN (AP) — People have taken to the streets of Berlin, London, Paris and other cities around the world to demonstrate in support of Black Lives Matter protesters in the United States and to vent anger over President Donald Trump’s response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

But at the top, the leaders of traditional allies of the United States have taken pains to avoid criticizing Trump directly, walking a fine line to reconcile international diplomacy with domestic outrage.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau let silence speak for itself when asked to comment on the decision to forcibly clear peaceful protesters outside the White House to make way for a Trump photo-op at a nearby church, standing pensively at his lectern apparently mulling his answer for more than 20 seconds before answering that Canada also suffered from “systemic discrimination” — never mentioning the American president.

“We need to be allies in the fight against discrimination, we need to listen, we need to learn, and we need to work hard to fix, to figure out how we can be part of the solution on fixing things,” he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sidestepped questions from ZDF public television about Trump last week, saying the killing of Floyd was "really, really terrible. Racism is something terrible, and society in the United States is very polarized.”

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The Latest: Pakistan seals off hot spots amid virus surge

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani authorities have identified and sealed off nearly 1,300 hot spots to contain the rising trajectory of new coronavirus infections.

The sealing of high-risk area comes as Pakistan reported 6,472 news cases on Saturday, the country's highest single-day total. Pakistan has confirmed a total of 132,405 cases, including 2,551 deaths.

Pakistan put its entire population of 220 million under lockdown in March. The government has since eased restrictions, saying it was necessary to save the country’s economy, but it has caused a surge in infections.

Prime minister Imran Khan has resisted demands from experts to reinforce the lockdown.

Authorities, however, are now using the term “smart lockdown” to close shops and markets and force people to stay home in areas where confirmed cases have increased in recent weeks. Some residential areas were also sealed in the capital, Islamabad, to contain the spread of the virus.

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Some states hit pause, others press on amid spike in virus

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Utah and Oregon put any further reopening of their economies on hold amid a spike in coronavirus cases, but there was no turning back Friday in such states as Texas, Arkansas and Arizona despite flashing warning signs there, too.

One by one, states are weighing the health risks from the virus against the economic damage from the stay-at-home orders that have thrown millions out of work over the past three months.

And many governors are coming down on the side of jobs, even though an Associated Press analysis this week found that cases are rising in nearly half the states — a trend experts attributed in part to the gradual reopening of businesses over the past few weeks.

Texas hit highs this week for hospitalizations and new COVID-19 cases, prompting Houston's top county official, Lina Hidalgo, to warn that “we may be approaching the precipice of a disaster.” Meanwhile, the state went ahead with allowing restaurants to expand eat-in dining Friday to 75% of capacity, up from 50%.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve been concerned,” 32-year-old Renata Liggins said as she settled in front of a plate of brisket at Black’s Barbecue in Austin and the number of people now hospitalized with COVID-19 in Texas climbed to its highest level yet, at more than 2,100. But "it just feels I can finally breathe a little bit.”

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Treasury chief refusing to disclose recipients of virus aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — Building ramparts of secrecy around a $600 billion-plus coronavirus aid program for small businesses, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has moved from delay to denial in refusing outright to disclose the recipients of taxpayer-funded loans.

Mnuchin told Congress at a hearing this week that the names of loan recipients and the amounts are “proprietary information.” While he claimed the information is confidential, ethics advocates and some lawmakers see the move as an attempt to dodge accountability for how the money is spent.

Businesses struggled to obtain loans in the early weeks of the program, and several hundred publicly traded companies received loans despite their likely ability to get the money from private financial sources. Publicly shamed, a number of big corporations said they would return their loans.

“Given the many problems with the program, it is imperative American taxpayers know if the money is going where Congress intended — to the truly small and unbanked small business,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday. “The administration’s resistance to transparency is outrageous and only serves to raise further suspicions about how the funds are being distributed and who is actually benefiting.”

The Small Business Administration — an agency with about 3,200 employees and an annual budget shy of $1 billion — is shouldering the massive relief effort for U.S. small businesses and their employees left reeling by the economic punch of the pandemic. A signature piece of Congress’ multitrillion-dollar coronavirus rescue, and touted by President Donald Trump, the unprecedented lending program is intended to help small employers stay afloat and preserve jobs in a cratering economy losing tens of millions of them.

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Trump addresses West Point grads amid tension with military

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — His relationship with top military officials strained, President Donald Trump on Saturday will address the graduating class at the U.S. Military Academy against a backdrop of urgent questions about the role of soldiers in a civil society.

Trump's commencement speech to the 1,100 graduating cadets during a global pandemic will be delivered as arguments continue to rage over his threat to use American troops on domestic soil to quell protests stemming from the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Tensions between the White House and the military have escalated since nationwide protests began over the death of Floyd, a black man who was pinned by the neck by a white police officer for several minutes despite saying he couldn’t breathe.

In the past two weeks, Trump yelled at Defense Secretary Mark Esper for publicly opposing Trump's call to use active-duty troops to crack down on the demonstrations. Trump then shut down Esper’s attempt to open a public debate on removing the names of Confederate Army officers from military bases.

Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, further risked Trump's ire Thursday by declaring it had been “a mistake” for him to accompany Trump on a June 1 walk through Lafayette Square. The trip ended with the president holding up a Bible and posing for the news media outside St. John's Church, which was damaged by fire during the unrest.

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Protests in Trump country test his hold in rural white areas

In the lake country 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, hundreds danced, prayed and demanded racial justice in Cadillac, a Michigan town that was long home to a neo-Nazi group.

It was not an isolated scene. In eastern Ohio, even more demonstrated in rural Mount Vernon, a town with its own current of racial intolerance, just as others did in Manheim, Pennsylvania, a tiny farming town in Lancaster County, with its small but active Ku Klux Klan presence.

The protest movement over black injustice has quickly spread deep into predominantly white, small-town America, notably throughout parts of the country that delivered the presidency for Donald Trump. Across Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, more than 200 such demonstrations have taken place, many in cities with fewer than 20,000 residents, according to local media, organizers, participants and the online tracking tool CrowdCount.

“That’s what’s so striking, that these protests are taking place in rural places with a white nationalist presence,” said Lynn Tramonte, who grew up near Mount Vernon and is monitoring the Black Lives Matter demonstrations around Ohio.

The protests in these Republican-leaning areas offer a test of the president's ability to reassemble his older, white voting bloc. If he cannot replicate that coalition, it would leave Trump with few options, especially since he continues to lose support in suburbs.

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Biden's VP list narrows: Warren, Harris, Susan Rice, others

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden’s search for a running mate is entering a second round of vetting for a dwindling list of potential vice presidential nominees, with several black women in strong contention.

Democrats with knowledge of the process said Biden’s search committee has narrowed the choices to as few as six serious contenders after initial interviews. Among the group still in contention: Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, as well as Susan Rice, who served as President Barack Obama's national security adviser.

Those with knowledge declined to name other contenders and said the process remains somewhat fluid. Additional candidates may still be asked to submit to the extensive document review process now underway for some top contenders. Those familiar with Biden's search spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the process.

The campaign dismissed the idea of a shortened list as early speculation. “Those who talk don’t know and those who know don’t talk,” said Andrew Bates, a Biden spokesperson.

Biden, who has already said he will pick a woman as his running mate, is facing increased calls from Democrats to put a woman of color on the ticket — both because of the outsize role that black voters played in Biden's road to the nomination and because of the reckoning over racism and inequality roiling the nation following the death of George Floyd. The black Minneapolis man died after a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck for several minutes, an episode that was captured on video.

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Trump reschedules campaign rally after Juneteenth uproar

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he is rescheduling his first campaign rally in months to a day later so it won't conflict with the Juneteenth observance of the end of slavery in the United States.

Trump had scheduled the rally — his first since early March — for June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Black leaders said it was offensive for Trump to pick that day and that place, a city that in 1921 was the site of a fiery and orchestrated white-on-black attack.

Trump tweeted late Friday, “Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday."

He said he is moving the rally to June 20 “to honor their requests.”

Trump's signature rallies often draw tens of thousands of people but have been on hiatus since March 2 because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 110,000 people in the U.S.

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Airman may face death penalty in California cop killing

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — The sheriff's deputy reached a house at the end of the narrow Northern California dirt road and decided getting help from more deputies would be a good idea. The terrain was steep, the redwood forest thick.

The deputy turned the patrol car around and headed back down the hill, just as a van passed by heading up. It was a close call.

The van's driver, officials say, was U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, who lay in wait for more law enforcement to arrive before ambushing them from the steep hillside above in a barrage of gunfire and explosives.

Carrillo, 32, was charged with 19 offenses, including murder and attempted murder of peace officers, and was calm and unflinching Friday during his first appearance in Santa Cruz Superior Court. The charges include the possibility of life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has put a moratorium on executions but Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeffrey Rosell said Friday he hadn't yet decided whether he would seek the death penalty.

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AP PHOTOS: Nursing home residents allowed comfort of family

ALZANO, Italy (AP) — After more than three months of separation and worry, loved ones are being allowed to reunite with residents of the Martino Zanchi Foundation nursing home in the northern Italian town of Alzano.

Alzano, close to Bergamo, is the site of one of Italy’s biggest coronavirus outbreaks, centered around the town’s hospital, and there is an investigation into whether officials failed to take swift action to make the town and nearby Nembro a “red zone.” It is in this context that many family members appreciated the unilateral move by the nursing home staff to close on Feb. 23, in defiance of local authorities who said the measure was too stringent.

“It was a form of disobedience, out of common sense, that has paid off,” said Maria Giulia Madaschi, the nursing home’s director.

Since May 18, family members have been allowed to visit — at a safe distance and when possible in the nursing home’s garden. Each afternoon for a couple of hours, close relatives of the 77 residents visit at 20-minute intervals.

“It was very emotional,” Sergio Moioli, 63, said of his reunion with his 86-year-old mother, Carmela Bergamelli. He stood on one side of a bridge, while she sat in a wheelchair on the other. “She asked about everything. ... When she seems me, she can’t stop talking. She has this desire to communicate. We let her talk.”