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(CNN) A Covid-19 outbreak at a Georgia sleep away camp this June could have implications for school reopening, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.The camp had followed some but not all of the CDC mitigation steps against the spread of the new coronavirus — but was not enough to keep campers and staff free of illness. “Settings, like multi-day, overnight summer camps, pose a unique challenge when it comes to preventing the spread of infectious diseases considering the amount of time campers and staff members spend in close proximity,” the CDC wrote in a statement. Source: Georgia sleepaway camp’s Covid-19 outbreak is a warning for what could happen when schools reopen, CDC says – CNN The article was originally published here!

New York (CNN Business) California Pizza Kitchen is the latest fast casual chain to file for bankruptcy as the pandemic and its debt burden hampers its operations. The 35-year-old pizza chain filed for Chapter 11 Thursday, explaining that the process will help it “reduce its long-term debt load, and quickly emerge from bankruptcy as a much stronger company.” It warned that it will close unprofitable locations, but didn’t say how many of its 200 global restaurants will be affected. “The unprecedented impact of Covid-19 on our operations certainly created additional challenges, but this agreement from our lenders demonstrates their commitment to CPK’s viability as an ongoing business,” CEO Jim Hyatt said in a release. Source: California Pizza Kitchen files for bankruptcy – CNN The article was originally published here!

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is for the first time floating a “delay” to the Nov. 3 presidential election, as he makes unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud. The dates of presidential elections — the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year — are enshrined in federal law and would require an act of Congress to change. The Constitution makes no provisions for a delay to the Jan. 20, 2021 presidential inauguration. Still, the mere suggestion of the delay was extraordinary in a nation that has held itself up as a beacon to the world for its history of peaceful transfer of power. Trump tweeted Thursday: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” Source: Trump floats November election delay – but he

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 32.9% annual rate in the April-June quarter — by far the worst quarterly plunge ever — when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%, the government said Thursday. The Commerce Department’s estimate of the second-quarter decline in the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, marked the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947. The previous worst quarterly contraction, a 10% drop, occurred in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration. Source: US economy shrank at record-breaking 33% rate last quarter The article was originally published here!

Colt now fears she may have to shutter her business permanently. Many small businesses nationwide are reaching similar breaking points in an economy with the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. Small firms have survived the pandemic so far with a mix of government aid, forbearance on debt and rent and creativity in selling to an increasingly homebound and financially distressed populace. As the first wave of U.S. aid runs short – and landlords and lenders lose patience – lawmakers are in tense negotiations over a new round of stimulus, which could include more money for small business. Source: U.S. small businesses face mass closures without more pandemic aid – Reuters The article was originally published here!

Twitter on Tuesday penalized Donald Trump Jr. for posting hydroxychloroquine misinformation, the social media giant said, underlining the tough stance it has taken in policing misleading posts from high-profile users including the president in recent weeks. Twitter said it ordered the president’s son to delete the misleading tweet and said it would “limit some account functionality for 12 hours.” The tweet, which featured a viral video showing a group of doctors making misleading and false claims about the coronavirus pandemic, was directly tweeted by Trump Jr.‘s account. That contrasts with his father, who retweeted multiple clips of the same video to his 84.2 million followers Monday night. Twitter removed the videos, deleting several of the tweets that President Trump shared, and added a note to its trending topics warning about the potential risks of hydroxychloroquine use. Source: Twitter penalizes Donald Trump Jr. for posting misleading Stella Immanuel coronavirus video – The

(CNN) Vaccine label changes have made vaccines even safer than they were before, and they remain “remarkably” safe, Israeli-based researchers reported Monday. A review of 58 different changes to labels on vaccines made between 1996 and 2015 has shown very few dangers in vaccination, and changes that were made were mostly to ensure people vulnerable to side effects or allergies were protected, they found. “These data highlight the robustness of the vaccine approval and postmarketing surveillance processes and confirm population vaccination as a major public health strategy,” the team at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center wrote in their report, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Vaccine experts worry about a small but vocal group of vaccine skeptics who have cast doubt on the safety of vaccines, which go through a rigorous process of testing before they are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and other global drug regulators. Source: Vaccines are remarkably safe,

Herman Cain, a 2012 Republican presidential candidate, remains hospitalized one month after being diagnosed with COVID-19, his team said Monday. “We know it’s been a few days since we last gave you an update on the boss,” Cain’s team wrote in a statement shared to his Twitter account. “But he is still in the hospital being treated with oxygen for his lungs.” The statement continued: In the meantime, the doctors say his other organs and systems are strong. Re-strengthening the lungs is a long and slow process, and the doctors want to be thorough about it. We’d like him to be able to come home now, which is frustrating, but we’re glad the doctors are being thorough and making sure they do the job right. Thank you for praying, everyone. Please keep doing it. He really is getting better, which means it is working. Cain, 74, learned he tested positive for the virus on June 29, according to a statement on his Twitter account earlier this month. Two days later, he was hospitalized at an A

THE Miami Marlins home opener was canceled on Monday after nearly half of the team’s roster tested positive for the coronavirus.The COVID-19 outbreak, which has since affected 12 of the team’s players and two coaches, may also affect the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees. Source: Miami Marlins cancel home opener against Baltimore Orioles after Nearly HALF the players test positive for coronavirus The article was originally published here!

Earlier this week, the Boston Red Sox shut down left-handed pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez’s throwing program after discovering health complications stemming from his bout with COVID-19. On Sunday, Rodriguez confirmed a report from WEEI’s Rob Bradford that his “complication” is myocarditis, or “an inflammation of the heart muscle,” per the Mayo Clinic. Rodriguez, 27, told reporters he was “still scared” about the condition after learning more about it in recent days, but that he doesn’t intend to opt out of playing at some point this season. “I want to be pitching yesterday, the day before, or today,” he said, according to Bradford. “I want to be out there every time I can, so I’m never thinking of getting out of the season. I feel bad every time I see a game happening and I’m not even in the dugout.” The current plan for Rodriguez entails him taking the week off before undergoing another MRI. At that point, doctors will determine if the inflammation has subsided and he can resume activit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Tom Cotton described slavery as “a necessary evil” in a published attack on a New York Times initiative to make slavery the focal point of American history for U.S. schools. Source: Republican Senator Tom Cotton calls slavery ‘necessary evil’ – Reuters The article was originally published here!

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle police declared a riot Saturday following large demonstrations in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood and deployed flash bangs and pepper spray to try to clear an area near where weeks earlier people had set up an “occupied protest zone” that stretched for several blocks. Via Twitter, police said they had made more than two dozen arrests for assault on officers, obstruction and failure to disperse. They also said they were “investigating a possible explosive damage” to the walls of the city’s East Precinct police station. Authorities said rocks, bottles, fireworks and mortars were thrown at officers as they attempted to clear the area over the course of several hours stretching into Saturday night. One officer was hospitalized with a leg injury caused by an explosive. Earlier, protesters in Seattle broke through a fence where a youth detention facility was being built, with some people setting a fire and damaging a portable trailer, authorities said. Source:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia has removed from its iconic state capitol the busts and a statue honoring Confederate generals and officials. That includes a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee positioned in the same spot where he stood to assume command of the state’s armed forces in the Civil War nearly 160 years ago. They are the latest Confederate symbols to be removed or retired in the weeks since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked a nationwide protest movement. Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat, quietly ordered the Lee statue and busts of generals J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and others removed from the historic Old House Chamber. A moving crew worked through the night Thursday — carefully removing the monuments and their plaques and loading them into a truck and taking them to an undisclosed location. Source: Virginia evicts Confederate monuments from its state Capitol The article

WASHINGTON (AP) — The viral pandemic’s resurgence caused the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits to rise last week for the first time in nearly four months, evidence of the deepening economic pain the outbreak is causing. The increase in weekly jobless claims to 1.4 million served to underscore the outsize role the unemployment insurance system is playing among the nation’s safety net programs — just when a $600 weekly federal aid payment for the jobless is set to expire at the end of this week. Source: Virus sends jobless claims up for first time since March The article was originally published here!

COLUMBUS, Ohio —The arrest of Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (Republican) and four others Tuesday involved $60 million, a racketeering and bribery investigation, a nuclear plant bailout, and one of the largest money laundering cases in the state’s history. There are many moving parts to the complicated investigation. Here are the basics: ‘A very covert investigation’ The federal investigation was launched about a year ago and eventually included secretly taped conversations, bank statements, text messages and other documents to show scope of the complex conspiracy. “It was a very covert investigation,” said U.S. Attorney David DeVillers. “I am not going to get into the means of our investigation, but it was critical that we, as the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, kept this a secret…” Source: Larry Householder: What we know about the $60M bribery investigation The article was originally published here!

(CNN) Senate Republican leaders, undeterred by the scathing criticism leveled against them for blocking President Barack Obama’s election-year Supreme Court nominee in 2016, are signaling that they are prepared to confirm a nominee by President Donald Trump even if that vacancy occurred after this year’s election. The push comes despite ample apprehension from influential Republicans that the GOP could pay a political price for treating a nominee under Trump differently than they did under Obama. It also comes as Democrats are increasingly worried about the fragile health of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 87-year-old liberal jurist who recently made public a new bout with cancer, and the possibility of other retirements. “We will,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Republican leader, when asked if the Senate would fill a vacancy, even during the lame-duck session after the presidential election. “That would be part of this year. We would move on it.” Thune’s

White House officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday their goal is to reach an agreement on a new coronavirus stimulus plan by the end of next week, a deadline that leaves them little margin for error with expanded unemployment benefits set to expire. They must still bridge numerous differences, and White House officials and Republicans aren’t even united in their approach. To try to resolve some issues, top administration officials arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday to begin negotiations. Some of President Trump’s priorities in the next coronavirus spending package met with bipartisan resistance. Numerous Senate Republicans have dismissed certain White House’s demands, such as a payroll tax cut, with one member referring to idea as only likely to survive in a “first draft.” Source: Mnuchin, Meadows meet with congressional leaders, after Trump’s coronavirus budget plan gets frosty reception – The Washington Post The article was originally published here!

White House officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday their goal is to reach an agreement on a new coronavirus stimulus plan by the end of next week, a deadline that leaves them little margin for error with expanded unemployment benefits set to expire. They must still bridge numerous differences, and White House officials and Republicans aren’t even united in their approach. To try to resolve some issues, top administration officials arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday to begin negotiations. Some of President Trump’s priorities in the next coronavirus spending package met with bipartisan resistance. Numerous Senate Republicans have dismissed certain White House’s demands, such as a payroll tax cut, with one member referring to idea as only likely to survive in a “first draft.” Source: Mnuchin, Meadows meet with congressional leaders, after Trump’s coronavirus budget plan gets frosty reception – The Washington Post The article was originally published here!

The largest teachers’ union in Florida filed a lawsuit Monday against Gov. Ron DeSantis over his administration’s push to fully reopen all public schools next month — even as coronavirus cases in the state are spiking. The Florida Education Association (FEA) accused DeSantis and other state officials of violating a state constitutional mandate to keep public schools “safe and secure.” The union asked a state court in Miami to halt the governor’s reopening edict, according to a copy of the suit obtained by NBC News. The lawsuit, filed in circuit court, names several defendants: DeSantis, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, the Florida Department of Education and the Florida State Board of Education. The legal filing is sure to escalate a nationwide political debate over school reopenings amid the pandemic. “Gov. DeSantis needs a reality check, and we are attempting to provide one,” FEA President Fedrick Ingram said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “The governor nee

Twitter revealed that last week’s massive hack affecting Joe Biden, Elon Musk and other prominent political and business leaders was even worse than it initially appeared. The company said in a blog post on Saturday that hackers who gained access to Twitter’s internal systems by manipulating its employees were able to reset the passwords and send tweets from 45 of the 130 accounts they targeted. The attackers were also able to view the personal information including the email addresses and phone numbers of all targeted accounts, and potentially more information. Even more striking: The hackers were able to download a wide swath of information – including an archive that contains direct messages, tweets and profile information – for eight accounts. None of these were verified users, the company said. Source: The Technology 202: The Twitter breach was worse than it looked. That’s raising big security questions. – The Washington Post The article was originally published here!

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A health official on the Texas Gulf Coast said 85 infants have tested positive for the coronavirus. Corpus Christi Nueces County Public Health Director Annette Rodriguez said Friday that the 85 infants are each younger than 1, but offered no other details, including how the children are suspected to have become infected. “These babies have not even had their first birthday yet. Please help us to stop the spread of this disease” by staying home except for necessary trips, socially distancing and wearing masks in public, Rodriguez said during a public health update in Corpus Christi. Source: Texas coronavirus cases include more than 80 infants The article was originally published here!

Tens of millions of Americans who lost their jobs because of the pandemic are now in danger of having their incomes slashed for a second time. The supplemental unemployment benefits of $600 per week that Congress approved four months ago are set to expire in less than two weeks — threatening to hurt strapped households and the U.S. economy, as billions of dollars’ worth in spending suddenly comes to a halt. As Congress comes back into session this week, lawmakers will debate whether to extend the supplemental benefits, which have been a lifeline for more than 30 million people across the United States. “The extra $600 from the government has obviously helped me tremendously,” said bartender Courtney Woodruff, who lost her job at a Denver brewpub. “I don’t really spend a lot. My money is going towards rent and food right now. “While ordinary unemployment benefits usually cover just a fraction of a worker’s lost wages, the additional $600 per week from the federal government was desig

Brad Parscale’s abrupt demotion Wednesday night “shocked” some inside the Trump campaign, sources familiar with the move told Fox News, even as President Trump’s sliding poll numbers and the recent Tulsa rally debacle had raised questions about his future. The president announced on Facebook and later on Twitter Wednesday night that Parscale would be replaced as campaign manager by Bill Stepien, who had served as deputy campaign manager. Source: Parscale replacement ‘shocked’ Trump campaign staffers, despite speculation | Fox News The article was originally published here!

Because of job losses between February and May of this year, 5.4 million laid-off workers became uninsured. These recent increases in the number of uninsured adults are 39% higher than any annual increase ever recorded. The highest previous increase took place over the one-year period from 2008 to 2009, when 3.9 million nonelderly adults became uninsured.These record-breaking increases in the number of uninsured have taken place during the country’s worst public-health crisis in more than a century and the sharpest and deepest economic downturn since World War II. Nevertheless, no federal COVID-19 legislation signed into law has attempted to restore or preserve comprehensive health insurance. Now is the time to fill that gap by including protections for comprehensive health insurance in the next COVID-19 bill. Source: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Resulting Economic Crash Have Caused the Greatest Health Insurance Losses in American History – Families Usa The article was originally publi

The coronavirus pandemic has had an enormous impact on the planet in all facets of life. Now, a new study has quantified just how big that impact has been on the global economy: a loss of $3.8 trillion and 147 million people without jobs. Source: COVID-19 pandemic triggered ‘economic contagion,’ costing world’s economy $3.8T and leaving 147M unemployed | Fox News The article was originally published here!

The federal government on Tuesday carried out its first execution in almost two decades, killing by lethal injection a man convicted of murdering an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. The execution of Daniel Lewis Lee came over the objection of the victims’ relatives and following days of legal wrangling and delays. Lee, 47, of Yukon, Oklahoma, professed his innocence just before he was executed at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. “I didn’t do it,” Lee said. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’m not a murderer.” Source: U.S. carries out the first federal execution in 17 years – CBS News The article was originally published here!

Calvin “Nick” Salyers is accused of fatally shooting fellow Alexander, Arkansas, police officer Scott Hutton through the door of Salyers’ home. Source: Calvin Salyers: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com The article was originally published here!

Donald Trump suggests he trusts the opinion of an ex-game show host over his country’s own public health institute, the Centers for Disease Control. The president shared a tweet from Chuck Woolery that said “Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors.” With more than 135,000 people dead in the United States from coronavirus, the former host of Love Connection thinks this is all about the election. Curious how Woolery (and Trump) would explain the almost 13 million cases worldwide. Source: Donald Trump Retweets Game Show Host Who Says “Everyone Is Lying” About COVID-19 – News & Guts Media The article was originally published here!

WASHINGTON — Elaine C. Duke, then President Trump’s acting secretary of homeland security, arrived at the Roosevelt Room, down the hall from the Oval Office, on a steamy August afternoon in 2017 expecting a discussion about President Trump’s pledge to terminate DACA, the Obama-era protections for young immigrants. Instead, she said, it was “an ambush.” “The room was stacked,” she recalled. Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s assault on immigration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other White House officials demanded that she sign a memo ending the program, which they had already concluded was illegal. She did not disagree, but she chafed at being cut out of the real decision-making. Source: Elaine Duke on Leading Homeland Security Under President Trump – The New York Times The article was originally published here!

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, has been taken back into federal custody after the Bureau of Prisons alleged he had “refused the conditions of his home confinement.” The move comes less than two months after Cohen was let out of federal prison early as part of the Justice Department’s push to stem the spread of coronavirus among inmates. The president’s former self-proclaimed “fixer” who would later become a nemesis to Trump had been serving a three-year term for financial crimes and lying to Congress. Last week, Cohen was photographed by The New York Post eating outside the French restaurant Le Bilboquet, which is near his Manhattan apartment, sparking some speculation that he was violating the terms of his release. The Bureau of Prisons statement did not address that, noting only that on May 21, Cohen had been “placed on furlough pending placement on home confinement.” Source: Michael Cohen taken back into federal custody – The Washington Post The artic

Joe Biden plans to unveil a proposal Thursday to spend $700 billion on American products and research, challenging President Trump’s “America First” agenda with a competing brand of economic nationalism and setting the stage for an election-year showdown over the country’s financial future. The Biden campaign says his plan for manufacturing and innovation will bring back jobs lost this year and create at least 5 million more with sweeping investments in domestic technology; reduce dependence on foreign countries to supply critical goods; and implement trade and tax policies that empower U.S. workers. “Biden does not accept the defeatist view that the forces of automation and globalization render us helpless to retain well-paid union jobs and create more of them here in America,” says a 15-page summary. “U.S. manufacturing was the Arsenal of Democracy in World War II and must be part of the Arsenal of American Prosperity today, helping fuel an economic recovery for working families.”

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education is attempting to take pandemic relief funds away from K-12 public schools and divert the money to private schools, California and four other Democratic-led states argued in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Trump administration. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the lawsuit, which was joined by Maine, New Mexico, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. The suit also names Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as a defendant. Becerra said the department unlawfully interpreted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which established guidelines to distribute $13.2 billion in aid to schools nationwide using Title I funds earmarked for students from low-income families. Source: States sue U.S. Department of Education over diverted virus relief funds for schools | PBS NewsHour The article was originally published here!

Several Republican senators say they will not attend the Republican National Convention to re-nominate President Trump in Jacksonville, Fla., in August. So far, Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Susan Collins of Maine are expected to skip the August 24 gathering, and there could be more. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who voted for Trump’s removal during the Senate impeachment trial, also won’t be there, according to an aide. Grassley, 86, said on a call with local reporters on Monday he’ll miss the convention as a result of pandemic fears. He also noted it will mark the first time he won’t attend in 40 years.”I’m not going to go. And I’m not going to go because of the virus situation,” Grassley told the Des Moines Register and others. This year’s Republican convention has faced a turbulent path. It was originally slated for Charlotte, N.C., but the bulk of it was moved last month to Jacksonville following Trump’s demands for fewer safety precautions from COV

(CNN) Remember “Typhoid Mary” Mallon? She was an Irish immigrant who worked as a cook for New York families and contaminated at least 122 people with typhoid fever in the 1880s, leaving five dead. Can the AC filter in your home, office or local mall protect you from Covid-19? As the first known healthy carrier of the bacterial disease, which is transmitted by a toxin in feces, Mallon refused to believe she was an asymptomatic conduit for typhoid fever. She refused to give stool samples to authorities and continued to spread the bacteria via her unsanitary ways until she was caught and quarantined twice for a total of 26 years, dying alone without friends. While no one wants to think of themselves as a super spreader of Covid-19, a new study has given support to the idea that “silent transmission” — the spread of virus by someone with no obvious symptoms — could be responsible for half of all novel coronavirus cases in the United States. Source: ‘Silent spreaders’ may be responsible

Without a moral compass in the Oval Office, our country is dangerously adrift, writes Robert Redford. This November, unity and empathy, experience and intelligence are on the ballot. Joe Biden is on the ballot, and he will bring these qualities back to White House. Source: Robert Redford: This is who gets my vote in 2020 (opinion) – CNN The article was originally published here!

The Trump administration has sent a letter to the United Nations withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a dramatic move that could reshape public health diplomacy. The notice of withdrawal was delivered to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the letter has not been made public. Under the terms of a joint resolution passed by Congress in 1948, the United States must give a year’s notice in writing and pay its debts to the agency in order to leave. It is not clear whether the president can pull the United States out of the organization and withdraw funding without Congress. When Trump first threatened to withdraw, Democratic lawmakers argued that doing so would be illegal and vowed to push back. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) tweeted Tuesday that Congress had received notification of the withdrawal. Source: United

Nearly five million Melbourne residents will be put under another lockdown after coronavirus cases surged in Australia’s second-largest city. From midnight on Wednesday, residents will be confined to their homes for six weeks – unless undertaking essential business such as travelling to work, studying, shopping for food or attending medical appointments – as officials scrambled to contain a coronavirus outbreak.The decision was announced on Tuesday, hours before the busy border between Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, and New South Wales is scheduled to close for the first time in a century. Source: Australia: Melbourne heads back into coronavirus lockdown | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera The article was originally published here!

RIO DE JANEIRO — President Jair Bolsonaro, suffering symptoms of Covid-19, disclosed Tuesday that he has the coronavirus but doubled down on his assertion that the pandemic that has killed more than 65,000 Brazilians poses little risk to healthy people. Mr. Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the virus and undermined lockdown and social distancing measures, urging Brazilians to continue working and encouraging mass rallies of his supporters. At one point he dismissed the virus as “a measly cold,” and when asked in late April about the rising death toll, he replied: “So what? Sorry, but what do you want me to do?” Source: Bolsonaro Is Sick With Coronavirus – The New York Times The article was originally published here!

Two women have been hospitalized, one with life-threatening injuries, after a vehicle barreled past a police barrier and into protesters on a freeway overnight in Seattle. Washington State Patrol said Saturday that the driver of the white Jaguar sedan, a 27-year-old man, is in custody. At this point, officers have not offered a motive, though Capt. Ron Mead said officers believe the suspect was not impaired. At a news conference early Saturday, Mead did not offer further details on how authorities believe the man bypassed a police closure to reach the victims. But he warned that the incident offers a stark lesson for protesters.”My hope is, as a result of this tragedy, protesters will reconsider their desire to be on the interstate,” he said, “because I cannot guarantee their safety, plain and simple.” Source: 2 People Injured After Vehicle Careens Into Protesters In Seattle : NPR The article was originally published here!

(Reuters) – Two U.S. aircraft carriers were conducting exercises in the disputed South China Sea on Saturday, the U.S. navy said, as China also carried out military drills that have been criticised by the Pentagon and neighbouring states. Source: U.S. sends carriers to South China Sea during Chinese drills – Reuters The article was originally published here!

Federal authorities in New York on Wednesday seized a shipment of weaves and other beauty accessories suspected to be made out of human hair taken from people locked inside a Chinese internment camp. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told The Associated Press that 13 tons (11.8 metric tonnes) of hair products worth an estimated $800,000 were in the shipment. “The production of these goods constitutes a very serious human rights violation, and the detention order is intended to send a clear and direct message to all entities seeking to do business with the United States that illicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in U.S. supply chains,” said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Trade. Source: AP Exclusive: Hair weaves from Chinese prison camps seized The article was originally published here!

(CNN) Joe Biden’s campaign is assembling hundreds of lawyers nationwide to monitor potential voting issues as part of its extensive voter protection efforts heading into the general election. Speaking at a virtual fundraiser Wednesday, the presumptive Democratic nominee said his team has organized 600 lawyers and others across the country to “try to figure out why the chicanery is likely to take place.” He also said they have recruited 10,000 people as volunteers. The efforts come as Biden repeatedly has warned President Donald Trump may work to disrupt the election, and he’s accused the President and Republicans of pursuing a “systemic program on vote suppression.” The campaign is also bracing for how the coronavirus pandemic could impact voting in the fall, from in-person voting to mail-in ballots. Source: Biden campaign readying hundreds of lawyers in expansive vote protection effort – CNNPolitics The article was originally published here!

Businessman, media contributor, and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to Newsmax TV. Cain, who is a contributor for Newsmax, was admitted to a hospital Wednesday for treatment for COVID-19. According to Cain’s staff, he is in stable condition and is not on a ventilator, a standard treatment for patients experiencing severe symptoms from the novel virus. It is unclear where Cain contracted the illness or how many contacts he had been in close proximity with, but the former GOP candidate was seen at a recent rally for President Trump on June 20. Source: Former presidential candidate Herman Cain diagnosed with coronavirus | TheHill The article was originally published here!

Russians have overwhelmingly voted in favor of changes to the country’s constitution that enable President Vladimir Putin to potentially stay in power up to 2036. With all the votes counted, the electoral commission said Thursday morning that the final count showed 77.9% of those who voted were in favor of amendments to the constitution of Russia and 21.2% against, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Data showed voter turnout was 65%, the commission said. The constitutional amendments covered a raft of issues ranging from the minimum wage and pensions, to giving Putin the right to run for two more six-year terms in office. The 67-year old’s current term ends in 2024. Source: Russia vote: Victory for Putin who could now stay in power until 2036 The article was originally published here!

Donald Trump hammered his predecessor, Barack Obama, routinely on Twitter – especially during the 44th president’s second term. Since the former reality television show host became president himself, many of those tweets have been used by critics to suggest he is hypocritical. That is the case yet again, this time amid questions about US intelligence reports earlier this year that Russia had placed bounties on the heads of American and coalition military forces in Afghanistan. If Taliban and Taliban-linked militias killed any, Russia would provide payouts, US officials have told multiple US media outlets. Source: Trump used 2014 tweet to allege Obama skipped his intelligence briefings | The Independent The article was originally published here!

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Seattle police are working to clear out a protest zone in the city that has become “lawless and brutal” after weeks of violence, including four shootings and the deaths of two teenagers, the city’s police chief said on Wednesday. The move came after Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan declared the gathering of people in and around the police department’s East Precinct and Cal Anderson Park an “unlawful assembly,” the city’s police chief, Carmen Best, said in a statement. Source: Seattle police clearing out ‘lawless and brutal’ protest zone – Reuters The article was originally published here!