My Daily Grind News

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday postponed New Zealand’s general election, scheduled for Sept. 19, for four weeks as authorities grapple with a new wave of coronavirus cases that has set back the country’s pandemic recovery.The decision follows confirmation last Tuesday that several members of a family in Auckland had tested positive for the virus, ending the Ardern government’s record of more than 100 days without a known case of community transmission.Ardern’s move followed calls from leaders of other parties, including Winston Peters, deputy leader of her ruling coalition, to postpone the vote. She denied, however, that political pressure played a role in her decision.“Even if I had not picked up the phone and contacted anyone, I believe this is still the outcome I would have arrived at,” she told reporters, stressing that she had “absolutely no intention” of delaying the vote, rescheduled for Oct. 17, a second time. Source: New Zealand...

(CNN) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy continues to hold a multimillion-dollar stake in his former company XPO Logistics, a United States Postal Service contractor, likely creating a major conflict of interest, according to newly obtained financial disclosures and ethics experts. Outside experts who spoke to CNN were shocked that ethics officials at the postal service approved this arrangement, which allows DeJoy to keep at least $30 million in XPO holdings. DeJoy and USPS have said he fully complied with the regulations.Raising further alarms, on the same day in June that DeJoy divested large amounts of Amazon shares, he purchased stock options giving him the right to buy new shares of Amazon at a price much lower than their current market price, according to the disclosures. This could lead to a separate conflict, given President Donald Trump’s disdain for Amazon, and his reported effort in 2018 to pressure DeJoy’s predecessor to raise prices on Amazon and other firms, wh...

Two states have determined the majority of signatures on the rapper’s presidential petitions are invalid. Source: Could Kanye West Be Charged With Electoral Fraud? | Vanity Fair The article was originally published here!

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Viacom and CBS Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone, the media mogul who took his father’s movie theater chain and built it into an empire that included Paramount Pictures, CBS and MTV, has died at 97, ViacomCBS and National Amusements said on Wednesday. Source: Billionaire Sumner Redstone, media mogul who headed Viacom, dead at 97 – Reuters The article was originally published here!

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday picked Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate, a historic decision that elevates the first Black woman and first Asian American woman to run for vice president at a moment when the country is grappling with its racial past and future. Biden’s announcement, made in a text and tweet, aligns him with a former presidential rival whose most electric campaign performance came when she criticized his record on school integration during a debate. The decision is the most consequential of Biden’s presidential campaign and has major implications not only for the November election but for the future of the Democratic Party. Biden, 78 years old by Inauguration Day, would be the oldest president ever and has said he considers himself “a transition candidate.” The choice places Harris, who was a more vibrant and energetic presence on the campaign trail but was also at times unsteady, at the forefront of the party’s futu...

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (D) advised Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to “politely decline” any offer to be presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate. Brown wrote that the vice presidency would likely hinder any further political ambitions for Harris. “Historically, the vice presidency has often ended up being a dead end. For every George H.W. Bush, who ascended from the job to the presidency, there’s an Al Gore, who never got there,” Brown wrote in an op-ed for the San Francisco Examiner. He’s not wrong about the AG position being better for her long-term. But he is wrong to suggest Al Gore failed at ascending from the Vice President to the President – the SCOTUS voted for President that year and elected George W. Bush in a 5-4 vote. Brown is also maybe a little jelly because he was California’s top dog for a long time (head of the State Assembly) and he’s about to get double-lapped by his former girlfriend...

(CNN) More than 97,000 children in the US tested positive for coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report says. The report, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, said in those two weeks, there was a 40% increase in child cases across the states and cities that were studied. The age range for children differed by state, with some defining children as only those up to age 14 and one state — Alabama — pushing the limit to 24. Source: US Coronavirus: More than 97,000 children tested positive for Covid-19 in the last two weeks of July, report says – CNN The article was originally published here!