Juneteenth: Trump changes Tulsa Oklahoma rally date 'out of respect'

US President Donald Trump is postponing his first post-coronavirus lockdown election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma so it does not fall on a holiday commemorating the end of US slavery.

He tweeted that the 19 June rally would be held a day later out of respect for the occasion, known as Juneteenth.

The choice of date had drawn criticism amid nationwide anti-racism protests.

The location was also controversial, as Tulsa saw one of the worst massacres of black people in US history in 1921.

Up to 300 people died when a white mob attacked the prosperous black neighbourhood of Greenwood, known as the "Black Wall Street", with guns and explosives. About 1,000 businesses and homes were also 

Why is Juneteenth significant?

Juneteenth is not a federal holiday, but is widely celebrated by African Americans.

It celebrates the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to enslaved African Americans in Texas.

Texas was the last state of the Confederacy - the slaveholding southern states that seceded, triggering the Civil War - to receive the proclamation, on 19 June 1865, months after the end of the war

President Trump initially defended the timing of his rally, telling Fox News: "Think about it as a celebration. My rally is a celebration. In the history of politics, I think I can say there's never been any group or any person that's had rallies like I do."

But critics accused him of disrespecting the date and the significance of Tulsa to US history.

"This isn't just a wink to white supremacists - he's throwing them a welcome home party," said Democratic Senator Kamala Harris 

Explaining the decision to move his rally, Mr Trump tweeted: "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, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents. I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to honor their requests..."

America Great Again" rally in Tulsa will be the president's first campaign event since 2 March, when the coronavirus pandemic put a halt to mass gatherings.

Mr Trump is seeking re-election in November 2020, but polls show him lagging behind his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Campaign rallies are seen as a key method of energising his base, and Oklahoma is traditionally a Republican-voting state. 

event will proceed against a backdrop of ongoing protests against racial inequality and police brutality, triggered by the death of African American man George Floyd on 25 May. Mr Floyd, who was unarmed, died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a policeman knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.

The rally is being held in a 19,000-seat indoor arena, and concerns have been raised about the potential risks.

The US has the world's highest official death toll from coronavirus. More than 114,600 people have died there with the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and there have been more than two million confirmed infections.

Oklahoma has one of the country's lowest infection rates, and businesses are reopening - but the state's Governor Kevin Stitt has urged residents to keep social distancing and to "minimise time spent in crowded environments".

People buying tickets for the Tulsa rally online have to click on a waiver confirming that they "voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to Covid-19" and will not hold the president's campaign responsible for "any illness or injury".

Correspondents say that while the virus remains a threat, Mr Trump's campaign considers that large crowds at the recent protests will make it harder for his opponents to criticise his rallies.

The president has said he plans to hold further events in Florida, Texas, North Carolina and 

Is Donald Trump's re-election bid in peril?

Polls indicate that the president is trailing Joe Biden - by double digits in some surveys. A recent Economist magazine analysis gives Biden a five in six chance of winning by an electoral margin reminiscent of Barack Obama's comfortable win in 2008.

Trump is running with the same strategy as in 2016, but his struggles suggest that this year the national mood may be different. The American public, grappling with more than 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, a resulting economic slump and now nationwide protests about racial injustice and policing, may have no stomach for further confrontation. The president's bellicosity and bravado, which has served him in the past, at times seems out of step with a public that wants empathy, healing and reconciliation.

The president is touting "law and order" at a time when public opinion has dramatically shifted in favour of the Black Lives Matter movement and toward the belief that racial and ethnic discrimination is a real problem that will be a priority when voting in November.

UK economy shrinks record 20.4% in April due to lockdown

2009 economic downturn.

But analysts said April was likely to be the worst month, as the government began easing the lockdown in May.

The ONS also published figures for the three months from February to April, which showed a decline of 10.4% compared with the previous three-month period.

"April's fall in GDP is the biggest the UK has ever seen, more than three times larger than last month and almost 10 times larger than the steepest pre-Covid-19 fall," said Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS.

"In April, the economy was around 25% smaller than in February.

What is GDP and how is it measured?

What is a recession?

"Virtually all areas of the economy were hit, with pubs, education, health and car sales all giving the biggest contributions to this historic fall."

Carmakers and housebuilders were particularly badly hit, Mr Athow added.

However, he told the BBC's Today programme: "It's highly likely April will be the low point.

"Our own surveys and wider indicators have suggested a pick-up in economy activity, but I think it's really too early to know how quickly economic activity will recover in the coming months."

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: "In line with many other economies around the world, coronavirus is having a severe impact on our economy.

"The lifelines we've provided with our furlough scheme, grants, loans and tax cuts have protected thousands of businesses and millions of jobs - giving us the best chance of recovering quickly as the economy reopens.

"We've set out our plan to gradually and safely reopen the economy. Next week, more shops on the High Street will be able to open again as we start to get our lives a little bit more back to normal."

A fifth of the economy lost in the month of April, a quarter since lockdown began.

These numbers are not just records for a month, they are completely off the scale.

And yet at the same time, it's not entirely surprising that if the lifeblood of an economy is locked down that the hit should be so severe.

Empty streets, empty shops, empty offices and empty skies lead to numbers such as this.

The charts make the financial crisis of 2008-09 look like a blip.

The ONS numbers add to the pressure to ease the lockdown more quickly, but fears around the control of the disease have led to a step-by-step cautious approach.

There is some pressure on the Treasury to consider similar economic rescue packages to those made across Europe.

Germany, for example, has cut VAT and offered billions in a package to help families with children and purchasers of green cars. France is offering huge rescue funds to the car and aerospace industry.

The unprecedented jobs schemes here will help to protect livelihoods. But with this scale of hit, it will not be enough.

Deep recession

During the global financial crisis, from the peak in February 2008 to the lowest point of March 2009, a total of 13 months, GDP shrank by 6.9%.

April's unprecedented contraction is three times that.

The UK's economy was already shrinking even before April.

It contracted by 2% in the first three months of 2020, as just a few days of impact from the virus pushed it into decline.

Economists expect an even bigger slump in the April-to-June period, plunging the country into a deep recession.

"Given the lockdown started to be eased in May, April will mark the trough in GDP. So we are past the worst," said Andrew Wishart, UK economist at Capital Economics.

"But the recovery will be a drawn-out affair, as restrictions are only lifted gradually and businesses and consumers continue to exercise caution.

"And while the trough in activity is now behind us, the fiscal cost of the collapse and the rise in the unemployment rate to over 8% that will result are only just starting to emerge."

Tej Parikh, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said coronavirus had caused "unparalleled" economic turmoil which was "likely to scar the UK economy for some time yet".

"Having provided businesses life support, the government must now figure out how to stimulate activity," he added.

"Waiting until later in the year to act will risk more businesses and jobs will be lost."