My Daily Grind News

A New York judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the publication of Mary L. Trump’s scathing book about her uncle, President Trump, which describes him as the “world’s most dangerous man,” saying no copies can be distributed until he hears arguments in the case. The order leaves it uncertain whether the book will be published as scheduled on July 28. Judge Hal B. Greenwald ordered a hearing next month on a request for an injunction by Trump’s brother Robert, who has argued that Mary Trump is not allowed to publish anything about her family as part of a settlement in an inheritance case. His attorney, Charles J. Harder, said in a statement Tuesday that he would seek the “maximum remedies available” for the “truly reprehensible” actions of Mary Trump and her publisher, which he said have caused “enormous damages” to his client. Source: Publication of explosive tell-all book by Trump’s niece temporarily blocked by New York state judge – The Washington Post The article was origina...

A 72-year-old California woman trying to take photos of a bison was gored by the animal at Yellowstone National Park, park officials said Monday. The woman, who was not identified by the park, “sustained multiple goring wounds” and was flown to an Idaho hospital Thursday, the National Park Service said. Requests for more details on the woman’s condition were not immediately returned Monday night. She “approached within 10 feet of a bison multiple times to take its photo,” the park service said in a statement. The bison most likely felt threatened after being repeatedly approached, Yellowstone Senior Bison Biologist Chris Geremia said in the statement. Source: Woman, 72, gored by bison at Yellowstone after getting too close for photos, park says The article was originally published here!

(CNN) In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America’s principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials — including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff — that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations. The calls caused former top Trump deputies — including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as wel...

Here’s one way to take some attention off of the report that Russia paid Taliban mercenaries to kill U.S. soldiers. Today the president tweeted this video from the Florida retirement community, The Villages. The video shows some people protesting what appears to be a golf-cart parade in support of Donald Trump. The video isn’t a model of good behavior on either side, so there is no reason for the president of the United States to share it. BUT what makes it indefensible to share is the moment where one man shouts “white power.” Trump tweets that man is among “the great people of The Villages.” Source: Trump Tweets Video Where A Supporter Shouts “White Power” – News & Guts Media The article was originally published here!

It’s a cash cliff millions of Americans face this summer as the emergency benefits — which lifted U.S. consumer incomes by a record 10.8% in April — expire. The loss of that safety net looms in the weeks ahead, well before a sustained recovery is likely to take hold from the sudden and deep recession brought on by the novel coronavirus. Personal income dropped 4.2% in May, data Friday showed. The $600 supplement Congress added to weekly unemployment benefits is due to expire July 31. Without new support, recipients face a substantial loss of income – particularly devastating for those like the Ramirez family who worked in hard-hit sectors like hospitality where new jobs are scarce. During high unemployment and a still-raging pandemic, the end of enhanced jobless benefits could drag on consumer spending, set off a wave of missed rent and mortgage payments and translate to a slower recovery, economists said. Source: A cash cliff spells trouble for U.S. unemployed, and everyone el...

Gilead Sciences disclosed its pricing plans as it prepares to begin charging for remdesivir in July. The U.S. has been distributing the drug donated by Gilead since it was authorized for emergency use in May. Source: Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir to Cost $3,120 for Typical Patient on Private Insurance – WSJ The article was originally published here!

Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky told Axios in an interview that global travel may never fully recover, and that he sees a future where people travel much more within their own countries, possibly for longer stays. Driving the news: “I will go on the record to say that travel will never, ever go back to the way it was pre-COVID; it just won’t,” Chesky told us by Zoom from his home in San Francisco. “There are sometimes months when decades of transformation happen.” Chesky, who said travel has changed more tectonically than during the Great Recession of 2008, said Airbnb data shows these trends: “People are not getting on airplanes, they’re not crossing borders, they’re not meaningfully traveling to cities, they’re not traveling for business.” “They’re getting in cars. They’re traveling to communities that are 200 miles away or less. These are usually very small communities. They’re staying in h...

RED BLUFF, Calif (AP) — A man drove into a Northern California distribution center and started shooting at people Saturday afternoon, killing an employee and wounding four others before he was killed by police, authorities said. The shooting by a 31-year-old man with a semi-automatic rifle started about 3:30 p.m. at the Walmart distribution center south of Red Bluff, a city of about 14,000 people about 131 miles (210 kilometers) north of Sacramento, California. Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said at a news conference that the shooter circled the parking lot four times before crashing into the building and opening fire with the rifle. Red Bluff Police officers shot and killed the suspect, KHSL-TV reported. The employee who died was Martin Haro-Lozano, 45, of Orland, California, Johnston said. Source: 2 dead after shooting at California distribution center The article was originally published here!

Mask wearing has become a topic of fierce debate in the United States. People opposed to mask mandates have staged protests, and one local health official in Orange County, Calif., quit her job after receiving a death threat for a mask order. Not long after, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Californians to wear face coverings in public. Meanwhile in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott recently allowed some counties to impose mask mandates on businesses, despite an earlier order forbidding penalties on individuals for not wearing masks. While politicians spar over the topic, a growing number of scientific studies support the idea that masks are a critical tool in curbing the spread of the coronavirus. Source: Face Mask Debates: Here’s What We Know About The Science : Shots – Health News : NPR The article was originally published here!

The owner of a North Carolina racetrack advertised “Bubba Rope” for sale in a social media marketplace days after NASCAR announced a noose had been found in the garage of driver Bubba Wallace, who is Black, at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Mike Fulp, the owner of the half-mile 311 Speedway in Stokes County, made the pitch Wednesday on Facebook Marketplace: “Buy your Bubba Rope today for only $9.99 each, they come with a lifetime warranty and work great.” Source: North Carolina racetrack owner offers ‘Bubba Rope’ for sale The article was originally published here!

Hours after Gov. Jay Inslee, D, ordered Washington state residents to cover their faces in public, a Republican sheriff in a rural swath of the state’s southwest suggested they should be doing no such thing. “Here’s what I say,” Lewis County Sheriff Robert Snaza told the crowd outside a church Tuesday, carrying a megaphone and sporting his green and beige uniform but no face mask. “Don’t be a sheep.” Few of the people cheering on Snaza covered their faces either, according to video of the scene taken by the Daily Chronicle of Centralia, Wash. Indeed, the words on a billboard above the crowd seemed to capture their feeling about the pandemic: “Oh, no! A virus. Quick – burn the bill of rights.” Source: ‘Don’t be a sheep’: Sheriffs rebel against new statewide mask requirements – San Antonio Express-News The article was originally published here!

WASHINGTON (AP) — As coronavirus cases rise in more than half of the states, the Trump administration is urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act. The administration’s high court filing Thursday came the same day the government reported that close to half a million people who lost their health insurance amid the economic shutdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 have gotten coverage through HealthCare.gov. The administration’s legal brief makes no mention of the virus. More than 20 million Americans could lose their health coverage and protections for people with preexisting health conditions also would be put at risk if the court agrees with the administration in a case that won’t be heard before the fall. The Trump Regime is straight-up EVIL. They are STILL trying to crush the Affordable Care Act (aka, “Obamacare”)  even though  40+ MILLION people have lost their jobs and, consequently, their health insurance. Why would the Trump Regime do this? Ther...

The true number of Americans who’ve been infected with COVID-19 may top 20 million, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said on a call with reporters Thursday. The assessment comes from looking at blood samples across the country for the presence of antibodies to the virus. For every confirmed case of COVID-19, 10 more people had antibodies, Redfield said, referring to proteins in the blood that indicate whether a person’s immune system has previously fought off the coronavirus. Those samples aren’t just from people who have had antibody testing. They also come from testing performed on donated blood at blood banks or from other laboratory testing of blood. Currently, there are 2.3 million COVID-19 cases reported in the U.S. The CDC’s new estimate pushes the...

Each household in Philadelphia flushes up to 20 gallons of sewage per day down the toilet, amounting to millions of gallons flowing through 3,000 miles of sewer lines toward treatment plants. And that sewage might help Philadelphia to detect a sudden rise in coronavirus. The city’s health and water departments have teamed up with Temple University’s Water, Health, and Applied Microbiology Laboratory for a pilot program that will determine if testing Philadelphia’s wastewater “can provide valuable information … [to] better predict the occurrence of COVID-19 in the city’s population,” according to a statement by officials with the two departments. Heather Murphy, director of the Temple lab and an assistant professor at the school’s College of Public Health, said that although there is an agreement in place, a contract has not been signed, so she could could not yet offer many details. Broadly, here’s how it works: People can shed the virus in their stool. Though it doesn’t appea...

Former Vice President Joe Biden has jumped out to a 9-point lead on President Donald Trump with five months to go until the election, but the CNBC All-America Economic Survey finds the president still has the edge among voters on the critical issue of the economy. The June survey shows Biden leading Trump by 47% to 38% among registered voters, up 4 points from his lead in April. Biden benefited from increased support among young as well as wealthier voters, and he consolidated his base, seeing a 7 point gain in his approval among Democrats. Trump lost considerable ground among independents, suffering an 11-point drop. Those independents, however, did not end up in Biden’s column. Instead, there was an 11-point increase in independents declaring themselves undecided. Source: Biden leads Trump on all issues except economy, according to CNBC All-America Survey The article was originally published here!

Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has defeated Republican Martha McSally to win the Arizona Senate race, the Associated Press projected Monday evening. With Sinema’s victory to flip the open seat of retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, she becomes the first Democrat Arizona has elected to the Senate since 1988. She will not only be the state’s first female senator but will also be the first openly bisexual senator in U.S. history. Shortly after the race was called in her favor, Sinema wrote on Twitter that she will “be an independent voice for all Arizonans.” Source: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema Wins Arizona Senate Race, Flipping Second GOP Seat : NPR The article was originally published here!

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Guinea’s best hope for coronavirus patients lies inside a neglected yellow shed on the grounds of its main hospital: an oxygen plant that has never been turned on. The plant was part of a hospital renovation funded by international donors responding to the Ebola crisis in West Africa a few years ago. But the foreign technicians and supplies needed to complete the job can’t get in under Guinea’s coronavirus lockdowns — even though dozens of Chinese technicians came in on a charter flight last month to work at the country’s lucrative mines. Unlike many of Guinea’s public hospitals, the mines have a steady supply of oxygen. As the coronavirus spreads, soaring demand for oxygen is bringing out a stark global truth: Even the right to breathe depends on money. In much of the world, oxygen is expensive and hard to get — a basic marker of inequality both between and within countries. Source: Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many gasping for life The article was...

The White House is considering a massive overhaul at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the Trump administration tries to pin the blame on the agency for the bungled U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report. The CDC would undergo a performance review, multiple senior administration officials told Politico. The audit would likely highlight several failures, such as the inability to deploy working tests in the early months of the pandemic. White House staffers have discussed narrowing the CDC’s mission or adding political appointees, Politico said. The goal, one official said, would be to make the agency more “nimble” and “responsive,” according to Politico. Over the last few months, President Donald Trump has been trying to deflect criticism of his response to the outbreak and could be looking for an entity beyond China to blame. Source: White House considers CDC shakeup over Covid-19 response, report says The article was originally published he...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Existing home sales in the U.S. plunged 9.7% in May. It was the third straight monthly decline and further evidence of the harm the virus pandemic has done to the housing market. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that the monthly decline pushed sales down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million, the slowest pace since a home buyers tax credit expired in October 2010. Sales fell in all regions of the country, with the biggest decline coming in the Northeast where virus infections were especially heavy. Sales of both existing and new homes have fallen sharply during the traditional spring selling season as communities were locked down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Source: Existing home sale plunge 9.7% in 3rd straight monthly drop The article was originally published here!

The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to avoid nine hand sanitizer products manufactured in Mexico because, it said, they may contain methanol, a substance that can be toxic if absorbed through the skin or ingested. In an advisory dated Friday, the agency said it had tested samples of two products, Lavar Gel and CleanCare No Germ, and found they had 81% and 28% methanol, also known as wood alcohol. “Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizers and should not be used due to its toxic effects,” the agency said. Source: FDA Warns of Potentially Toxic Hand Sanitizers | Boston.com The article was originally published here!

Chief Justice John Roberts is under the microscope as the Supreme Court prepares to issue its first major ruling on abortion rights in the Trump era, which will give the clearest indication yet of the court’s willingness to revisit protections that were first granted in Roe v. Wade. The tie-breaking vote may rest with Roberts, and the case stands to test his role as the court’s new ideological center as well as his allegiance to past rulings. Source: All eyes on Roberts ahead of Supreme Court’s abortion ruling | TheHill The article was originally published here!

Chicago saw its highest number of gun violence victims in a single weekend this year with 104 people shot across the city from Friday evening to Monday morning, 14 of them fatally. Five of those killed were minors. The weekend saw more shooting victims but less fatalities than the last weekend of May, when 85 people were shot, 24 of them fatally — Chicago’s most deadly weekend in years. In a Sunday news conference, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown reflected on the surge in gun violence. “Bullets don’t just tear apart the things they strike,” Brown said. “Bullets also tear apart families. Bullets destroy neighborhoods and they ruin any sense of safety in a community.” Source: Chicago shootings: 104 shot, 14 fatally, over Father’s Day weekend – Chicago Sun-Times The article was originally published here!

The day before Attorney General William Barr abruptly announced plans to replace Geoffrey Berman as the Manhattan U.S. Attorney, supervisors in Mr. Barr’s Justice Department asked Mr. Berman to sign a letter criticizing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for the city’s enforcement of social-distancing rules to block religious gatherings but not recent street protests, people familiar with the matter said.Mr. Berman refused to sign the letter Thursday, after engaging in a brief back-and-forth drafting process, the people said…. Source: Attorney General Barr, Berman at Odds Over Letter Criticizing New York City Mayor – WSJ The article was originally published here!

The IRS issued an advisory last week to clarify that the economic impact payments distributed as part of the latest stimulus package belong to recipients, not a nursing home or assisted-living facility. The IRS and other federal agencies have reported hearing situations where nursing homes and other elderly care organizations have seized the payments, arguing that because the residents are receiving Medicaid, the facilities are entitled to the money. “The IRS issued this reminder following concerns that people and businesses may be taking advantage of vulnerable populations who received the Economic Impact Payments,” the agency said. “These payments do not count as a resource for purposes of determining eligibility for Medicaid and other federal programs for a period of 12 months from receipt. They also do not count as income in determining eligibility for these programs.” The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also put out an advisory. Source: Personal Finance from The Washington Post...

John Bolton reportedly received a $2 million advance for his tell-all book about his time as President Trump’s national security advisor, and if it sells well, additional royalties could follow.But a judge’s ruling has raised questions about whether Bolton will be allowed to keep the money for his work, entitled The Room Where It Happened. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth on Saturday rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to block the formal publication of the book on Tuesday. He noted that news organizations already had copies, hundreds of thousands were at warehouses about to be shipped, and Bolton was giving interviews. Source: John Bolton’s Big Paycheck For His Book May Be In Jeopardy : NPR The article was originally published here!

GENEVA — The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours. The U.N. health agency said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the U.S. next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came in in India. Experts said rising case counts can reflect multiple factors including more widespread testing as well as broader infection. Overall in the pandemic, WHO reported 8,708,008 cases — 183,020 in the last 24 hours — with 461,715 deaths worldwide, with a daily increase of 4,743. Source: WHO reports largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases – Chicago Tribune The article was originally published here!

About 120,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus. While the national number of daily deaths has declined in recent weeks, new confirmed cases are on the rise in almost half the country, including spikes in Florida, Texas and Arizona, where the president is headed Tuesday. “We saved millions of lives, and now it’s time to open up,” President Trump said definitively Saturday night during his campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla. Source: 5 Things To Watch This Week: Coronavirus, Politics And Police : NPR The article was originally published here!

Minneapolis (CNN) One man was killed and 11 other people were injured in an overnight shooting in Minneapolis, police said. A total of 12 people suffered gunshot wounds shortly before 12:30 a.m. Sunday in the 2900 block of Hennepin Avenue South, the Minneapolis Police Department said. The 11 survivors hose suffered non-life threatening injuries, police said. At first, the gunfire sounded like fireworks, witness Erik Thompson said. But it kept going. Source: Minneapolis shooting: One person was killed and 11 others were wounded, police say – CNN The article was originally published here!

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — President Donald Trump launched his comeback rally Saturday by defining the upcoming election as a stark choice between national heritage and left-wing radicalism. But his intended show of political force amid a pandemic featured thousands of empty seats and new coronavirus cases on his own campaign staff. Trump ignored health warnings to hold his first rally in 110 days — one of the largest indoor gatherings in the world during a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 120,000 Americans and put 40 million out of work. The rally was meant to restart his reelection effort less than five months before the president faces voters again. Source: Trump comeback rally features empty seats, staff infections The article was originally published here!

Six Trump campaign staffers on the advance team for the president’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Trump campaign confirmed to CBS News. According to the campaign, the staffers were immediately quarantined and will not have contact with any rally attendees. “Per safety protocols, campaign staff are tested for COVID-19 before events. Six members of the advance team tested positive out of hundreds of tests performed, and quarantine procedures were immediately implemented,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement. “No COVID-positive staffers or anyone in immediate contact will be at today’s rally or near attendees and elected officials. As previously announced, all rally attendees are given temperature checks before going through security, at which point they are given wristbands, facemasks and hand sanitizer.” The rally, Mr. Trump’s first since March, is taking p...

An expansive plume of dust from the Sahara Desert has surged into the tropical Atlantic Ocean. This dust plume is forecast to reach the Caribbean by later this week. Some of the dust could reach the Gulf of Mexico and the United States next week. Dust generally hampers tropical cyclone development. Source: Saharan Dust Could Spread to Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Into Next Week | The Weather Channel The article was originally published here!

The city of Tulsa announced a last-minute curfew that began Thursday night and will continue Friday and Saturday, restricting people from a large area surrounding the arena where President Trump will hold his first campaign rally in months. An executive order signed by Mayor G.T. Bynum (R) says the curfew, which begins at 10 p.m. and lifts at 6 a.m. all three nights, is intended to quell potential overnight violence as thousands intend to pour into the city to protest the president’s visit. It’s unclear whether the Trump supporters who have camped out for days to secure a prime spot to see the president on Saturday will be cleared out as well, but some videos posted on social media appeared to show people leaving the area carrying tents and lawn chairs. Bynum declared a “civil emergency” after law enforcement informed the mayor that “individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tuls...

BERLIN (AP) — Britain lowered its coronavirus threat level one notch Friday, becoming the latest country to claim it’s getting a national outbreak under control. The U.K.’s Joint Biosecurity Center recommended moving the COVID-19 risk in the country from the second-highest level, 4 – meaning transmission is high or rising exponentially – to level 3, where an epidemic is in general circulation. Health officials say there’s been a steady decrease in cases across the U.K. but localized outbreaks are still likely. Britain has Europe’s highest pandemic death toll with more than 42,000 virus-related deaths and over 300,000 confirmed cases. Source: Britain lowers virus alert, Germany sees spike in cases The article was originally published here!

Late last month, several porn companies’ statements of support for Black Lives Matter were met with intense skepticism from black performers. In response to a statement of solidarity sent by the porn site Brazzers to “black talent, members, colleagues and fans,” performer Kristi Maxx responded, “Cool! Thanks. We would love for y’all to diversify your talent and shoot more black women.” Performer Lasha Lane responded similarly to a tweet from Vixen: “Start by hiring more black models instead of just tweeting perhaps.” The next day, performer Ricky Johnson started a thread detailing his and other black performers’ experiences of racism in the business. Soon, performers across the industry were weighing in with accounts of discriminatory hiring practices and pay, including white women being rewarded with lucrative contracts for their first so-called “interracial” scene. The conversation quickly moved beyond Johnson’s popular thread, as performers deconstructed industry-wide racism, fr...

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the program protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, a reprieve for nearly 650,000 recipients known as “dreamers.” The 5 to 4 decision was written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and joined by the court’s four liberals. It was the second defeat this week for the Trump administration, as the Supreme Court begins to unveil its decision in marquee cases. The administration has tried for more than two years to “wind down” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, announced by President Barack Obama in 2012 to protect from deportation qualified young immigrants who had been brought illegally to the country. But, as lower courts had found, Roberts said the administration did not follow procedures required by law, and did not properly weigh how ending the program would affect those who had come to rely on its protections against deportation, and th...

As protests gripped Oakland on May 29, a white van pulled up outside a federal courthouse. A door slid open, and a man peppered the two security officers outside with bullets, killing one and wounding the other. For a little over a week, the crime was a mystery. Was it tied to the protests just blocks away? Even after the suspected killer was dramatically caught in the nearby mountains eight days later, his motive was murky. Now, federal authorities say the man, identified as Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32, was an adherent of the “boogaloo boys,” a growing online extremist movement that has sought to use peaceful protests against police brutality to spread fringe views and ignite a race war. Federal investigators allege that’s exactly what Carrillo was trying to do last month. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged Carrillo with murder and attempted murder, and leveled aiding and abetting charges against Robert Alvin Justus Jr., who has admitted to serving as a getaway dr...

A Republican sheriff in Arizona who said he would not enforce the state’s emergency coronavirus orders has come down with COVID-19. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb announced on Facebook on Wednesday that he had tested positive, likely from attending a campaign event on Saturday. He says he found out when he was called on Tuesday to meet with President Trump at the White House and was screened for the virus. “Unfortunately, as a law enforcement official and elected leader, we do not have the luxury of staying home,” Lamb wrote. “This line of work is inherently dangerous, and that is a risk we take when we sign up for the job. Today, that risk is the COVID-19 virus. On Saturday, I held a campaign event, where it is likely I came into contact with an infected individual.” So let me get this right? His JOB is to enforce laws and directives by the state and county he serves. And he chose not to do it. Why is he still employed? There are  40 million people o...

(CNN) The federal government is stuck with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine now that the US Food and Drug Administration has revoked permission for the drug to be distributed to treat coronavirus patients. The government started stockpiling donated hydroxychloroquine in late March, after President Trump touted it as “very encouraging” and “very powerful” and a “game-changer.” But Monday, the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization to use the drug to treat Covid-19, saying there was “no reason to believe” the drug was effective against the virus, and that it increased the risk of side effects, including heart problems. What? You mean to tell me “Dr. Trump” was wrong about something  extremely important ? Source: Hydroxychloroquine: US stockpile stuck with 63 million doses of the drug – CNN The article was originally published here!

WASHINGTON—President Trump’s decision-making consistently prioritized his re-election and his family’s well-being ahead of the national interest, according to a new book from his former national security adviser, John Bolton, who describes “obstruction of justice as a way of life” inside the Trump White House and denounces what he says is the president’s penchant to “give personal favors to dictators he liked.” In a scathing account of his 17 months working for the president, Mr. Bolton describes Mr. Trump as “stunningly uninformed,” easily swayed by authoritarian leaders and often the subject of scorn among his own advisers. Among the episodes he recounts are June 2019 meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in which he says Mr. Trump pleaded with his counterpart to help him win re-election by purchasing agricultural products from the U.S. and gave China his blessing to continue building camps for Uighur Muslims, which Mr. Bolton likened to concentration camps. Mr. Trump broadly ...

MINNEAPOLIS — A former day care provider convicted of hanging a toddler has been sentenced to probation.Nataliia Karia received 10 years probation on Monday for hanging a toddler in her daycare and running over two men with her minivan, before attempting suicide. She had faced 13 years in prison. All of the victims of the November 2016 incident survived their injuries.Through an interpreter, Karia asked for forgiveness. “I apologize and I don’t know if you will be able to forgive me. I have no excuse for what I did,” she said. Judge Jay Quam said this is one of the hardest cases he’s ever had adding if this was a normal case, given everything that happened, he would give the most severe sentence that he could. Minneapolis, I’m convinced you’re just filled with evil law enforcement and judges. You kinda suck. Source: Daycare provider who hanged toddler sentenced in Minneapolis The article was originally published here!

New York (AFP) – Donald Trump’s niece is set to publish a no-holds-barred memoir next month that “shines a bright light on the dark history” of the US president’s family, her publisher says. Mary Trump will release “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” on July 28, according to Simon & Schuster. It marks the first time that a member of Trump’s family will publish unflattering stories about the former real estate tycoon and reality TV star. Mary Trump, 55, is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr, the president’s older brother, who died in 1981 at age 42 due to complications from alcoholism. The 240-page book will detail events she witnessed as a child while spending time at her grandparents’ house in New York’s Queens borough, where her uncle and his four siblings grew up. “She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of ...

Top economists are warning lawmakers not to get transfixed by seemingly rosy data showing the economy finding its legs following the coronavirus pandemic. The recovery remains wobbly — and may get worse as some of the bailout funds expire. Reports out Tuesday showed retail sales in May and home builder sentiment in June rebounded surprisingly sharply, helping power a stock market rally that pushed the S&P 500 up 2 percent. But as traders bought on that news, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was urging senators not to grow complacent. “Significant uncertainty remains about the timing and strength of the recovery,” he said in virtual testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. “Until the public is confident that the disease is contained, a full recovery is unlikely.” Source: The Finance 202: Top economists want Congress to spend more on coronavirus recovery – The Washington Post The article was originally published here!

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg says users will be able to turn off political adverts on the social network in the run-up to the 2020 US election. In a piece written for USA Today newspaper, he also says he hopes to help four million Americans sign up as new voters. Facebook has faced heavy criticism for allowing adverts from politicians that contain false information. Rival social platform Twitter banned political advertising last October. “For those of you who’ve already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you — so we’re also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote. Mark, your Passive-Aggression is showing. How about you turn that off? Source: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts – BBC News The article was originally published here!

The Justice Department filed a suit Tuesday seeking to block the release of a book by former White House national security adviser John Bolton, asserting that his much-anticipated memoir contains classified material. The moves sets up legal showdown between President Trump and the longtime conservative foreign policy hand, who alleges in his book that the president committed “Ukraine-like transgressions” in a number of foreign policy decisions, according his publisher. “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” is due to go on sale June 23, and has already been shipped to distribution centers across the country. The civil suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, accuses Bolton of breach of contract by violating his nondisclosure agreement. The legal action was necessary, the complaint says, in order “to prevent Defendant John R. Bolton, a former National Security Advisor, from compromising national security by publishing a book containing classified information—in...

Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr don’t want John Bolton’s book to see the light of the day. And now they are threatening to go to court to try to stop the release. The former national security adviser’s book “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” is set to be in bookstores a week from today. The book has already been delayed since March, reportedly due to the review process. ABC News reports the Trump administration could file a lawsuit as soon as today “in federal court seeking an injunction to block the book from being released in its current form.” Source: Donald Trump Threatens Legal Action Against John Bolton – News & Guts Media The article was originally published here!

Seoul, South Korea — North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office building just north of the heavily armed border with South Korea on Tuesday. It was a dramatic display of anger that sharply raises tensions on the Korean Peninsula and puts pressure on Washington and Seoul amid deadlocked nuclear diplomacy. It also came after North Korea issued a new threat to send North Korean troops into demilitarized border areas. The demolition of the building, which was located on North Korean territory and had no South Koreans working there, is largely symbolic. But it’s likely the most provocative thing North Korea has done since it entered nuclear diplomacy in 2018 after a U.S.-North Korean standoff stoked fears of war. It will pose a serious setback to the efforts of liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in to restore inter-Korean engagement. Source: North Korea blows up liaison office shared with South Korea, threatens to send troops to border – CBS News The article was o...

In the course of a five-minute speech, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms became a national figure credited with trying to soothe tensions across her city and saw her stature rise as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. “When I saw the murder of George Floyd, I hurt like a mother would hurt,” Ms. Bottoms said at a news conference May 29 as people across the country protested Mr. Floyd’s killing while in police custody in Minneapolis. Source: Atlanta Mayor’s Shooting Response Watched Closely After Protests Speech – WSJ The article was originally published here!

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a form of immunity that has shielded police officers from lawsuits alleging brutality and other civil rights violations, an issue that found renewed attention after nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody. The justices declined to hear eight separate cases presenting reconsideration of the doctrine of qualified immunity that establishes protection from lawsuits for government officials, particularly police officers. Justice Clarence Thomas issued a six-page dissent, calling on his colleagues to revisit the protections and expressing “strong doubts” about the court’s approach to qualified immunity. The doctrine, created by the Supreme Court decades ago, allows civil suits only when it can be shown that an official’s actions violated a “clearly established” statutory or constitutional right. When determining whether the right was clearly established, courts consider whether a reasonable official would have know...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal anti-discrimination laws protect gay and transgender employees, a major gay rights ruling written by one of the court’s most conservative justices. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the court’s liberals in the 6 to 3 ruling. They said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination “because of sex,” includes LGBTQ employees. “Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear,” Gorsuch wrote. “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.” Source: Supreme Court says gay, transgender workers are protected by federal law forbidding discrimination on the basis of sex – The Washington P...

“Republican Voters Against Trump” released a new ad on Friday bringing to light old compliments given to Former Vice President Joe Biden by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.In 2015, Graham said, “What is Donald Trump’s campaign about? He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. You want to know how to make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”The RVAT Ad goes on to include Graham’s former effusive praise of Biden’s character, made by before Trump won the presidency, in which he says the former VP was “as good a man as God ever created.” “If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, there’s probably, you got a problem. You need to do some self-evaluation, because what’s not to like?” Graham continues saying, “He is as good a man as God ever created. He said some of the most incredibly heartfelt things that anybody could ever say to me. He’s the nicest person I think I’ve ever met politics.” The ad ends with Graham calling on Republican voters to reject  Trum...

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow reiterated Sunday the $600 additional weekly unemployment benefit created to aid those who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic will end in late July.”I mean, we’re paying people not to work. It’s better than their salaries would get,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “That might have worked for the first couple of months. It’ll end in late July,” he added, saying the extra benefit was necessary during the height of the coronavirus lockdowns. Kudlow said that “almost all businesses” understand the $600 additional benefit is “a disincentive.” He said the Trump administration is instead “looking at a reform measure” that will provide an incentive for returning to work, but it will not be as substantial. Source: Kudlow says $600 additional unemployment checks will end in July – POLITICO The article wa...

ATLANTA (AP) — One minute, Rayshard Brooks was chatting cooperatively with Atlanta police, saying he’d had a couple of drinks to celebrate his daughter’s birthday and agreeing to a breath test. The next, they were wrestling on the ground and grappling over a Taser before Brooks took the weapon and ran. Seconds later, three gunshots sounded and Brooks fell mortally wounded. Atlanta police video released Sunday showing a seemingly routine sobriety check outside a Wendy’s restaurant that quickly spun out of control, ending in gunfire. The killing of the 27-year-old black man in an encounter with two white officers late Friday rekindled fiery protests in Atlanta and prompted the police chief’s resignation. Source: `Stop fighting!’ Atlanta sobriety test quickly turned deadly The article was originally published here!

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is floating a theory that travel from Mexico may be contributing to a new wave of coronavirus infections, rather than states’ efforts to reopen their economies. The notion was discussed at some length during a meeting of the administration’s coronavirus task force in the White House Situation Room Thursday that focused, in part, on identifying commonalities between new outbreaks, according to two administration officials familiar with the discussions. COVID-19 cases are currently rising in nearly half of states across the country, according to an Associated Press analysis. That includes Arizona, where hospitals have been told to prepare for the worst, and Texas, which now has more hospitalized patients than ever. Source: White House eyes travel from Mexico as source of virus spike The article was originally published here!

(Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve put a spotlight on job losses and risks to the financial sector in its semi-annual report to Congress released Friday. “Despite increased resilience from the financial and regulatory reforms adopted since 2008, financial system vulnerabilities — most notably those associated with liquidity and maturity transformation in the nonbank financial sector — have amplified some of the economic effects of the pandemic,” the Fed said. “Accordingly, financial-sector vulnerabilities are expected to be significant in the near term. ”The central bank also highlighted the risks to the economy and job losses, with a section dedicated to the topic. The Fed’s policy committee this week voted to keep interest rates near zero and central bankers penciled in no rate hikes through 2022. In their first forecasts since December, Federal Open Market Committee participants projected an unemployment rate of 9.3% at year’s end, edging down slowly over the next...

Google has tweaked Meet’s UI yet again, adding a feature meant to simulate in-person workplace presentations. Back in April, the tech giant rolled out a Zoom-like tiled layout option that gave the video conferencing service the ability to display up to 16 participants on screen. Now, it has updated that tiled layout, allowing users to see attendees even when someone is presenting. Presentations now appear as a large tile at the center of the screen, while active participants’ video feeds will be shown at the side or the bottom. Google says it’s hoping the change can help make remote meetings feel more like in-person meetings. In addition, the video conferencing app now retains the last layout users choose until they manually select a new one. Source: Google Meet adds presentations to its tiled layout | Engadget The article was originally published here!

Starbucks said Friday that employees will be allowed to wear clothing and accessories in support of Black Lives Matter, responding to a backlash and boycott calls after the coffee chain banned staff from wearing their own T-shirts and pins supporting the movement. Source: Starbucks reverses stance and allows staff to wear Black Lives Matter clothing | Business | The Guardian The article was originally published here!