- HealthYahoo News
COVID-19 warning for expectant mothers — especially Black and Hispanic women
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the effect of the coronavirus on pregnancy has been a worrisome mystery; with little data available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website had previously said there was no evidence that pregnancy was a risk factor for COVID-19. A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released by the CDC on June 16 found that “among women of reproductive age with COVID-19, pregnant women are more likely to be hospitalized and at increased risk for ICU admission and receipt of mechanical ventilation compared with nonpregnant women.” The reassuring news in the report was that pregnancy did not appear to increase the risk of death from COVID-19.
- U.S.BBC
Gettysburg 'flag-burning hoax' sees armed far-right groups assemble
Rumours that anti-fascist protesters planned to burn American flags on the Gettysburg Civil War battleground site led to armed far-right groups turning up in numbers on US Independence Day. In response, far-right groups assembled on the historic grounds on Saturday - but no adversaries showed up. The posts that appeared on social media ahead of the Independence Day celebrations reportedly called for people to flock to the site in face paint.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Judge grants bond to ex-Atlanta cop charged with murder in Rayshard Brooks shooting
ATLANTA – The former Atlanta police officer charged with fatally shooting Rayshard Brooks can be released on bond, a judge ruled Tuesday. Fulton County Judge Jane Barwick said she does not believe Garrett Rolfe is a flight risk or would intimidate witnesses. Barwick set Rolfe's bond at $500,000.
- U.S.Time
24-Year-Old Protester Dies After Car Drove Into Peaceful Crowd in Seattle
One of two protesters injured after a car drove into a crowd of peaceful protesters on Seattle's Interstate 5 (I-5) early Saturday morning has died, authorities say. Summer Taylor, a 24-year-old Seattle resident, died at Harborview Medical Center in the evening, a spokesperson said to the Associated Press. On Friday, the Seattle Police Department closed I-5 at 11:56 p.m. PT for peaceful protesters, Washington State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead said during a press conference Saturday morning.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoPredominantly Black armed protesters march through Confederate memorial park in Georgia
A predominantly Black group of heavily armed protesters marched through Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta on Saturday, calling for removal of the giant Confederate rock carving at the site that civil rights activists consider a monument to racism.
- WorldThe National Interest
Great Power Showdown: How U.S. Navy Submarines Are Countering Chinese Expansion
Key Point: Submarines are an important part of maintaining a balance of power in the Western Pacific region. This month the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet submarine force announced that all of its forward-deployed submarines were simultaneously conducting "contingency response operations" in the Western Pacific in support of the Pentagon's "free and open Indo-Pacific" policy. This was to counter China's expansionism in the South China Sea, but also to downplay the notion that the U.S. Navy has been hampered by the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.
- CelebrityBusiness Insider
Alan Dershowitz wrote a Spectator column about Ghislaine Maxwell in which he says 'everyone should keep an open mind'
Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images In a column for The Spectator US edition, Alan Dershowitz poured scorn on the evidence of two women featured in the hit Netflix documentary about disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein, "Filthy Rich." Maxwell, a British heiress and longtime girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, has been arrested by the FBI. The grand jury indictment accuses Maxwell of grooming young girls, engaging in sexual acts with them, and lying about her involvement with Epstein in sworn statements.
- WorldReuters
Mainland China reports eight new coronavirus cases, two in Beijing
China recorded eight new coronavirus cases for July 4, up from with three a day earlier, the national health authority said on Sunday, while city officials in Beijing said nearly all the cases in a recent outbreak in the capital were mild. Of the new cases, six were imported and two were in Beijing, which has been scrambling to quash an outbreak traced to a massive wholesale market in the city early last month. In Beijing, 47% of the 334 confirmed cases since June 11 were staff at the Xinfadi market, Pang Xinghuo, a senior Beijing disease control official, told a media briefing on Sunday.
- U.S.Miami Herald
Florida breaks record with 11,458 new virus cases. Miami-Dade and Broward hit highs, too
Saturday's update on new confirmed COVID-19 cases from the Florida Department of Health reflected the state, Miami-Dade and Broward record new single-day highs, rocketing past previous peaks. Florida added 11,458 cases, beating the previous record of 10,109 by 13%. Of Florida's total, Miami-Dade County accounted for 2,418, and 1,348 came from Broward County.
- U.S.Politico
Florida reports record number of coronavirus cases amid nationwide surge
Florida reported another record-breaking spike in coronavirus cases on Saturday, with 11,458 people confirmed to have been infected with the virus as cases surge nationwide over the July 4 holiday weekend. Florida's daily case record Saturday, which comes after a week of record-breaking spikes in the Sunshine State and across the Sun Belt, is second only to New York state's one-day record of 11,571 new positive tests in mid-April. Texas also hit a daily new case record Saturday with 8,258 new cases, according to its health department.
WorldAFPRockets target US interests despite arrests: Iraq military
Two rocket attacks targeted American diplomatic and military installations overnight, Iraq's security forces said Sunday, a little over a week since unprecedented arrests prevented a similar incident. Since October, US diplomats and troops across Iraq have been targeted by around three dozen missile attacks which Washington has blamed on pro-Iranian armed factions. In the first move of its kind, elite Iraqi troops in late June arrested more than a dozen Tehran-backed fighters who were allegedly planning a new attack on Baghdad's Green Zone, home to the US and other foreign embassies.
- U.S.USA TODAY Opinion
As divisions threaten America, the pressure to cancel presidents is dangerous
Princeton University has decided to remove former President Woodrow Wilson's name from its school of Public and International Affairs, citing his “racist thinking and policies.” Looking solely through the lens of race relations, the case against Wilson is clear. In his 1912 run for the White House, Wilson would warm up the crowds with racial jokes that today would be unprintable. Gazing back across the long century since Wilson was in office shows the progress we have made as a country.
- U.S.Associated Press
Protester killed on Seattle freeway was dedicated to cause
A person killed Saturday when a man who drove his car onto a closed Seattle freeway and into a crowd protesting police brutality was remembered Sunday as someone who was dedicated to the cause. The other person hit in the incident, meanwhile, remained in serious condition Sunday at a Seattle hospital. The deceased, Summer Taylor, 24, spent the last six weeks “tirelessly standing up for others while working full time and supporting everyone around them," wrote Urban Animal on Instagram, the veterinarian clinic where Taylor worked in Portland, Oregon.
- U.S.Business Insider
Michael Cohen may have violated the terms of his prison release by eating out at a restaurant in Manhattan
The New York Post obtained photos showing Michael Cohen eating out at a Manhattan restaurant Thursday night. Cohen is currently serving a three-year sentence under home confinement, and eating out appears to be a violation of the conditions of his release from a federal prison camp. Business Insider reached out to the Bureau of Prisons for comment but did not immediately receive a response Saturday morning.
- WorldBBC
Katsina: The motorcycle bandits terrorising northern Nigeria
Motorcycle-riding armed bandits operating out of abandoned forest reserves are ransacking communities in Nigeria's north-west. The groups are the latest to join Nigeria's lucrative kidnap for ransom industry, and are quite brazen in their operations. In the last decade more than 8,000 people have been killed in the states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger and Zamfara, according to the International Crisis Group.
- PoliticsNBC News
How Lincoln Project anti-Trump Republicans got into his head. Spoiler alert: It was easy.
Seeking to defend President Donald Trump from questions over whether he actually reads his daily intelligence briefing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters last week "the president does read" and "is the most informed person on planet Earth when it comes to the threats we face." Within an hour, the Lincoln Project, a super PAC run by a host of so-called never-Trump Republicans, tweeted a six-second edited video of the moment out to its more than 1 million followers in its latest attempt to troll the president. Its members include George Conway, husband of top White House official Kellyanne Conway, and prominent Republican operatives like John Weaver, Reed Galen, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens, who have worked on the George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney and John Kasich presidential campaigns.
- U.S.Reuters
Soaring U.S. coronavirus cases, hospitalizations overshadow July 4 celebrations
In the first four days of July alone, 15 states have reported record increases in new cases of COVID-19, which has infected nearly 3 million Americans and killed about 130,000, according to a Reuters tally. Florida's cases have risen by over 10,000 for three out of the last four days, including climbing by 10,059 on Sunday, surpassing the highest daily tally reported by any European country during the height of the coronavirus outbreak there. Cases are also soaring in Arizona, California and Texas and trending upwards in Midwest states that once had infections declining such as Iowa, Ohio and Michigan, according to a Reuters analysis of how much cases rose in the past two weeks compared with the prior two weeks.
- WorldThe National Interest
This Chinese Submarine Could Drop a Nuclear Weapon on America
Here's What You Need To Remember: The nuclear submarine club is indeed a highly exclusive club—and those with nuclear ballistic missiles even more so. China's Type 094, or Jin-class nuclear submarines are capable, but they may be tools for promoting national prestige rather than true nuclear deterrence. The Type 094, or Jin-class as it is also known, is operated by the People's Liberation Army Submarine Force.
- LifestyleMiami Herald
Applebee’s employee dies in parking lot while celebrating July 4, Texas police say
A Fourth of July celebration in Texas came to a tragic end when a woman fell from a moving vehicle in an Applebee's parking lot and died early Sunday, officials say. Around 12:30 a.m., police said a 24-year-old Applebee's employee and some of her coworkers decided to set off fireworks in the Houston restaurant's parking lot after closing for the night, KHOU reported. The 24-year-old woman and an 18-year-old friend stood on the rear bumper, KPRC reported.
WorldAFPChina detains professor who criticised Xi over coronavirus
Chinese authorities on Monday detained a law professor who published essays criticising President Xi Jinping over the coronavirus pandemic and accusing him of ruling "tyrannically", according to friends of the man. Xu Zhangrun, a rare outspoken critic of the government in China's heavily censored academia, was taken from his home in suburban Beijing by more than 20 people, one of his friends said on condition of anonymity. Xu published an essay in February blaming the culture of deception and censorship fostered by Xi for the spread of the coronavirus in China.
- U.S.BBC
Brain-eating amoeba: Warning issued in Florida after rare infection case
A case of a rare brain-eating amoeba has been confirmed in Florida, according to health officials in the US state. The Florida Department of Health (DOH) said one person in Hillsborough County had contracted Naegleria fowleri. The microscopic, single-celled amoeba can cause an infection of the brain, and is usually fatal.
- WorldAssociated Press
Israeli military says Gaza militants fire 3 rockets
The Israeli military said aircraft struck targets in the northern Gaza Strip late Sunday following a barrage of rocket fire into southern Israel. In a statement, the military said attack helicopters and fighter jets struck “underground infrastructure” belonging to Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group. Earlier Sunday, the army said a total of three rockets were fired by Gaza militants toward Israel, setting off air-raid sirens in southern Israel.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Madeleine McCann suspect 'could have snatched another child', say parents of young girl he allegedly exposed himself to
The German paedophile suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann “could have snatched another child”, say the parents of a young girl he allegedly exposed himself to in 2017. Christian Brückner was arrested in Portugal for exposing himself at a playground, leaving parents terrified that the convicted sex offender could have gone further and taken their children away in his van. The new details of Brückner's twisted behaviour in the Algarve have once again put the spotlight on Portuguese authorities as to why they did not link the career criminal to the country's biggest ever missing persons case.
- U.S.Business Insider
An asymptomatic coronavirus carrier infected an apartment neighbor without sharing the same space. A study blames the building's elevator buttons.
According to a new study, transmission likely occurred in the elevator, when the neighbor touched the same buttons that the quarantined traveler had. The neighbor was later linked to 70 other coronavirus infections in the local community. Coronavirus particles can live on surfaces like plastic and stainless steel, which are common in elevators, for up to seven days.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY Opinion
Trump and Barr are making false claims about mail-in ballots to scare us out of voting
Nevertheless, last month, when he wasn't busy ineffectually trying to replace the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan with a Trump loyalist, Attorney General William Barr took out after voting by mail as rife with fraud. In this, he was echoing his master, President Trump. In an interview he gave to Fox News, the attorney general said voting by mail “opens the floodgates to fraud.
