The Justice Department is dropping its prosecution of Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, who admitted he lied to FBI agents about his dealings with Russian officials before Trump was inaugurated. The decision—backed by U.S. Attorney General William Barr—reflects Trump’s continuing effort to counter unproven allegations that his campaign colluded with President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s effort to throw the 2016 election. (Trump said he just discussed the investigation of Russian interference with Putin. Today.) The clearing of Flynn also aids Trump’s 2020 reelection strategy: With Flynn’s case dropped, Trump no longer needs the politically sensitive option of pardoning him. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler called the decision by Barr, who has been criticized for making the Justice Department Trump’s personal law firm, “outrageous.” —Josh Petri

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Here are today’s top stories

The White House blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from issuing specific guidance for U.S. daycares, restaurants, churches, theaters and other businesses to reopen as safely as possible. The decision reportedly came after intense lobbying on behalf of businesses and churches, but unidentified administration officials contend the recommendations were too prescriptive. See the rejected CDC guidelines here.

Guidelines be damned: More than a dozen states loosened lockdowns in the past week even though many have yet to fully control the spread of the virus. The data suggest all of them are courting disaster, including spikes in new infections and avoidable American deaths, Max Nisen writes in Bloomberg Opinion.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reversed a decision to allow the emergency use of dozens of N-95 face masks made in China, after it said testing found many didn’t work properly. A new study of recovered Chinese Covid-19 patients finds 5% to 15% may have tested positive again, and researchers have little understanding of why. The coronavirus has infected more than 3.8 million people and killed more than 267,000 worldwide. New York reached its own grim milestone on Friday, surpassing 20,000 deaths. Here’s the latest on the pandemic. 

More than 3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. Total claims rose to a new record of 22.6 million, sending the unemployment rate to 15.5%, according to the Trump administration. Friday’s jobs report is expected to show employers cut 21.7 million jobs in April. That’s 27 times the worst monthly decline during the 2007-2009 recession and about 11 times the previous record decline in September 1945, when the nation demobilized with the end of World War II.

Of course, the pandemic jobs bust is hurting some more than others. The last hired are often the first fired in a recession. Given that the U.S. unemployment rate a few months ago was at record lows, many of those last hired were at the greatest disadvantage to begin with. Now, the conservative obsession with rooting out welfare fraud has sabotaged efforts to dispense aid to Americans in their time of need.

Neiman Marcus filed for bankruptcy after efforts to manage its crushing debt load unraveled. The filing is just one of many expected in the coming days. Few industries will be spared.

What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director says the U.S. stock market (which has little relationship to today’s grim economic reality) is holding recent gains in part because investors are betting yet another bailout bill is coming. But Washington is moving slowly, and it may take a market swoon to concentrate the minds of politicians.

What you’ll need to know tomorrow

• The pandemic is disrupting the illegal drug trade.
• Tesla abruptly suspended production at its China plant.
• Paul Tudor Jones buys Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation.
• The alarming rise of algorithms as heroes of the stock recovery.
• Uber posted its first-ever decline in ride-hailing business.
• Forests are vanishing more slowly, but they’re still vanishing.
• This Mother’s Day, get your mom what she’s missing the most.

What you’ll want to read tonight in Businessweek

U.S. Meat Plants Are Virus Breeding Grounds

March was a time of spreading disease and denial across the American meat and poultry industry. Laborers in immense slaughterhouses passed the contagion on while in processing lines and in locker rooms, then in their homes. Plants began to slow or to go idle. The toll on workers and the nation’s food supply is only now becoming clear.

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