- 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.Yahoo News
DeSantis cuts $28 million from disease treatment at Florida prisons as pandemic's toll worsens
Nevertheless, Gov. Ron DeSantis used his veto powers last month to excise from the state budget a $28 million initiative to treat prisoners for hepatitis C and the coronavirus. The veto was one of many DeSantis made in the proposed $93.2 billion state budget. Among the dozens of other rejected funding items were a $530,000 security grant for a synagogue in Tallahassee and $500,000 to support babies born with visual impairments, not to mention a host of remote-learning and physical infrastructure programs.
- U.S.The Guardian
Gun violence kills 160 as holiday weekend exposes tale of 'two Americas'
He authorized 1,000 national guard troops to “protect state property and patrol our streets”. Despite an effort that included an additional 1,200 officers on the streets and pleas from the city's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, for residents not to reverse limited progress that had been made against the epidemic of gun violence, Lightfoot lamented the children whose “hopes and dreams were ended by the barrel of a gun”. The city's south and west sides have seen worse weekends this year, however, and a one-year-old and a three-year-old were killed during recent shootings.
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.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoWhite House defends Trump claim that ‘99%’ of virus cases are ‘harmless’
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday responded to President Trump's claim that “99 percent” of coronavirus cases are “totally harmless.
- EntertainmentArchitectural Digest
Olson Kundig’s Latest Design Embraces Its Hawaiian Habitat
On a stunning lava rock field site in Kona, this stunning home seems to hover over the landscape as a series of pavilions Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.NBC News
College students are preparing to return to campus in the fall. Is it worth it?
Zou, 22, is a senior taking online summer classes at the University of California, Los Angeles, which plans to offer classes in person with the option of remote learning this fall. Along with millions of college students across the United States, she transitioned to online instruction when college campuses closed to curb the spread of the coronavirus back in March. For students like Zou, taking online classes was a difficult adjustment.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Trump Aide Peter Navarro’s Bonkers CNN Interview: ‘Give Peace a Chance, Give Hydroxy a Chance’
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro appeared on CNN on Tuesday morning for yet another off-the-rails interview, this time devoting much of his energy to promoting anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine following a disputed new study finding some efficacy in treating the coronavirus. Last week, in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration revoking the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine due to serious safety issues and lack of benefit for COVID-19 patients, a Michigan study found the Trump-touted drug helped patients survive from the virus. Appearing on CNN's New Day, Navarro quickly brushed off a series of questions from anchor John Berman about the rapid surge of new coronavirus cases in several states, immediately hyping hydroxychloroquine as a game-changer that can greatly reduce mortality rates.
- U.S.The Independent
Republican official apologises for cartoon comparing order to wear masks to Nazi extermination camps
A Kansas Republican official has apologised following the publication in his newspaper of a political cartoon likening face mask requirements to the Holocaust. The Anderson County Review, a rural newspaper in Kansas owned by the county GOP chair Dane Hicks, ran a cartoon suggesting compliance with state face mask mandates was akin to stepping onto a train bound for a concentration camp. The cartoon features an image of Kansas governor Laura Kelly wearing a face mask with a Star of David on it.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Coronavirus herd immunity may be 'unachievable' after study suggests antibodies disappear after weeks in some people
Fourteen percent of people who previously tested positive for antibodies tested negative just weeks later. The study suggests people who experience mild symptoms do not have long-lasting protection. "Immunity can be incomplete, it can be transitory, it can last for just a short time and then disappear," Raquel Yotti, the director of Spain's Carlos III Health Institute, said.
- WorldReuters
FBI chief says China threatens families to coerce overseas critics to return to China
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday urged China-born people in the United States to contact the FBI if Chinese officials try to force them to return to China under a program of coercion that he said is led by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Wray issued the unusual appeal in an address to a think tank in which he reiterated U.S. charges that China is using espionage, cyber theft, blackmail and other means as part of a strategy to replace the United States as the world's dominant economic and technological power.
- U.S.INSIDER
A white Florida man who was filmed yelling at a Black homeowner while waving a BB gun also faked being a Navy SEAL for years, report says
Joseph Fucheck, 58, was arrested last month after being caught on video holding an airsoft gun while harassing a Black man in North Miami-Dade, Florida. The Miami Herald has since reported this claim to befalse. A white man who was caught on video holding an airsoft gun while harassing a Black man last month in Florida is not a Navy SEAL veteran, as he claimed in the tirade.
WorldAFPAustralia warns of 'arbitrary detention' in China
Australia warned its citizens Tuesday they could face "arbitrary detention" if they travel to China, the latest sign of growing tensions between the two nations. The foreign ministry issued the warning in updated travel advice, which also noted that Chinese authorities had detained foreigners for allegedly "endangering national security". Australia has already told its citizens to avoid all international travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the updated advice did not raise the overall level of the warning against travel to China.
- PoliticsThe National Interest
Coronavirus Relief Checks by Month’s End? Mitch McConnell Thinks So.
In backing up President Donald Trump's recent comments, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he expects Congress to pass one final coronavirus rescue package later this month. I think the country needs one last boost,” McConnell said during a recent press conference in Kentucky. McConnell added that he is “pretty sure” that a bill, which will be put together in his office with consultation from the Trump administration, should be ready to go within the next couple of weeks.
- WorldAssociated Press
Iran confirms damaged nuclear site was centrifuge facility
Iran on Sunday confirmed that a damaged building at the underground Natanz nuclear site was a new centrifuge assembly center, the official IRNA news agency reported. Iranian officials had previously sought to downplay the fire, which erupted early on Thursday, calling it only an “incident” that affected an “industrial shed. However, a released photo and video of the site broadcast by Iranian state television showed a two-story brick building with scorch marks and its roof apparently destroyed.
- U.S.LA Times
Mississippi students voted to move a Civil War statue. Now they fear a Confederate shrine
When Joshua Mannery voted last year to remove a statue of a Confederate soldier that has towered over the heart of the University of Mississippi for more than a century, he understood that change takes place slowly on this historic Southern campus. Now that construction crews have arrived on campus to move the white marble figure, student leaders are demanding that the project be halted after learning that university administrators plan to spend more than $1.1 million in private funds to renovate the cemetery and erect headstones for the Confederate dead, install security cameras and shine new lighting on the memorial. “It just doesn't seem normal that we have to protest the creation of a Confederate shrine — and yet here we are,” said Mannery, a fourth-year political science and English double major.
- U.S.National Review
Protests May Have Spread Coronavirus, Some Cities Say
Officials in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami-Dade County, Fla., have acknowledged that anti-police protests and riots may have led to increased spread of the coronavirus, according to a Fox News report. All three cities have experienced an uptick in coronavirus cases after weeks of protesting sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Many Democrats and public-health professionals alike had voiced support of the demonstrations, including Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti.
- U.S.USA TODAY
In CA: You weren’t imagining it: There really WERE more fireworks this year
It was a busy weekend for emergency responders as people took the Fourth of July into their own hands. And: Less than 1% of businesses visited get cited for failing to follow the state's coronavirus operating guidelines. Plus: Gentrification is widespread across the state, a new report finds.
- U.S.Business Insider
Airlines saw a spike in passenger volume for the July 4th holiday weekend, but the numbers are still dismal for the industry
US airlines saw more than 700,000 passengers per day three times over the July 4 holiday weekend. Additionally, more than 700,000 people flew over three days of the long holiday weekend — July 2, 3, and 5, according to the US Transportation Security Administration — breaking that barrier for the first time since March 18, early into the pandemic quarantines. For instance, although the TSA saw 764,761 passengers on July 2, nearly 2.1 million people flew on the same day in 2019.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
15 Air-Purifying Plants to Cleanse Your Space of Chemicals and Toxins
Breathe easy with these powerhouse plants that purify the air Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.The Independent
‘Let me borrow your bike’: Atlanta police officer takes passing man’s bicycle to chase fleeing murder suspect
Police in Atlanta were able to apprehend a murder suspect thanks to a passerby's bicycle. The Atlanta Police Department said in a statement that the suspect had been seen around the Old Fourth Ward area last Tuesday when one cop commandeered a bicycle to chase the man down. The department said on Twitter afterwards that a cyclist had assisted with 21-year-old Nicholas Fonseca's arrest, who was wanted in connection with a 28 June shooting.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoThe Lincoln Project continues anti-Trump ad campaign
On Tuesday, the Lincoln Project, a conservative political action committee formed in late 2019, released an ad titled “Whispers,” which suggests those in President Trump's inner circle are secretly mocking him. This is the latest in a series of attack ads produced and distributed by the committee, whose members include George Conway, Steve Schmidt and other prominent Republicans who oppose Trump. Yahoo News has assembled a compilation of some of the Lincoln Project's most controversial advertisements.
- PoliticsReuters
Party-switching Congressman who pledged loyalty to Trump sparks heated N.J. primary
Congressman Jeff Van Drew outraged New Jersey Democrats and delighted Donald Trump last year when he switched parties and pledged his "undying support" to the Republican president. He will face challenges from all sides on Tuesday, as Democrats pick a candidate to challenge him in the Nov. 3 election and Republicans choose whether to let Van Drew seek a second term or give the chance to a rival Republican. That is just one of the choices facing voters in the New Jersey primary.
- WorldThe National Interest
Could 'Baby' Aircraft Carriers Be the Next U.S. Navy Super Weapon?
The Navy can buy smaller, cheaper carriers rather than the $13 billion Ford-class behemoths it is currently constructing, according to a new study by RAND Corporation. The RAND study is a public version of a classified study conducted in 2016 at the behest of the U.S. Navy, which was ordered by Congress to examine cheaper options than the Ford-class carriers. It would be powered by forty-year nuclear reactors that couldn't be replaced, rather than the current twenty-five-year reactors on the Fords that can replaced to extend the life of the ship.
BusinessAFPRegeneron COVID-19 treatment enters final stage trials
The pharmaceutical firm Regeneron on Monday announced it was entering the late stages of its human clinical trials investigating a drug to both treat and prevent COVID-19. The drug, called REGN-COV2, is a combination of two antibodies that block the coronavirus' "spike protein" which it uses to invade human cells. The company is moving to the final Phase 3 stage of a trial to determine if its drug can prevent infection among people recently exposed to the virus -- for example through a person in their household.
What to Read Next
Terry Crews and CNN's Don Lemon clash over Black Lives Matter during broadcast
USA TODAY Entertainment