- PoliticsYahoo News
White House defends Trump's claim that 99 percent of COVID-19 cases are 'harmless' with chart showing 5 percent are fatal
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany came to her press briefing on Monday prepared to defend President Trump's claim over the weekend that “99 percent” of U.S. coronavirus cases are “totally harmless” with two charts illustrating the country's COVID-19 death rate. But McEnany's slides showed a case fatality rate — the percentage of confirmed cases that result in death — of 4.6 percent, not the 1 percent implied by Trump. During a July 4 “Salute to America” speech on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump boasted that the administration has conducted more than 40 million coronavirus tests.
- U.S.Yahoo News
Video shows Black man pinned to tree in what he calls 'attempted lynching' at Indiana lake
Indiana authorities are investigating a report by a Black man who said he was pinned to a tree by a group of white men, an attack he likened to an “attempted lynching.” Parts of the incident were captured on video by one of the man's friends. In a post to Facebook, Vauhxx Booker wrote, “I don't want to recount this, but I was almost the victim of an attempted lynching.”
- U.S.Yahoo News
Exonerated Central Park Five members speak out: ‘Not too many things have changed since 30 years ago’
In 1989, five Black and Hispanic teens were falsely accused of raping and nearly killing Trisha Meili, a white woman jogging in Central Park. Known collectively as the Central Park Five, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were convicted in two trials despite a lack of eyewitness testimony or DNA evidence and spent between six and 13 years in prison. Exonerated in 2002 after an investigation confirmed that a convicted murderer and rapist had committed the crime, the Central Park Five sued the city and state of New York, settling for millions.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Texas Governor Is ‘Putting Lives at Risk,’ Local Officials Say
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo believes she knows what her county needs to fight back against COVID-19. “I'm at the mercy of what powers he positively gives us,” Hidalgo told The Daily Beast. As Texas faces a resurgent coronavirus and some officials have emphasized concerns about hospitals in the state becoming potentially overrun or overwhelmed, Hidalgo can find plenty of reasons to worry.
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.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Kremlin vows to retaliate against fresh UK sanctions against Russians
The Kremlin spokesman says that Moscow will respond to new UK sanctions against Russian citizens including a senior investigator and prison officials. Britain on Monday used a new legislation drafted in the memory of a killed Russian tax adviser to sanction 25 Russian nationals linked to prosecution and mistreatment of tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky as well as 20 Saudis involved in the murder of a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that Moscow “can only lament such hostile steps.”
- U.S.Business Insider
Florida's governor promised to release the state's daily COVID-19 hospitalization rate. That still hasn't happened.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images Florida remains one of the few states to not release data on its daily COVID-19 hospitalization rate. At a press conference on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ignored questions about when he would release the data, the Miami Herald reported. The Florida Department of Health reported 7,361 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the rate of positive tests spiking to over 19%.
- U.S.NBC News
U.S. says foreign students may have to leave if their school goes online-only
The government announced Monday that international students will not be allowed to stay in the country if the institution in which they're enrolled is holding online-only courses this fall, and those failing to comply with the rules will risk deportation. Students on F-1 and M-1 visas who face such a situation "must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status," the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a news release. The news comes as some colleges and universities, including Harvard, have announced they plan to hold online-only courses this fall as the United States struggles to get the coronavirus pandemic under control.
- U.S.The Independent
New York mayor blames 'dislocation' caused by coronavirus for wave of shootings that left 10 dead and 54 injured over weekend
At least 10 people were killed among 64 shootings reported in New York City over the Fourth of July weekend, which saw a violent spree in several major cities still reeling from coronavirus infections and widespread protests against police violence. For the first time since 2016, the city surpassed 400 shootings by mid-year. The New York Police Department reported that the city saw 528 shootings by the end of June, one of the most violent halves of the year in more than 20 years.
- U.S.Yahoo News
Don't count on ever seeing Trump's 'Garden of American Heroes'
Call me cynical, but I have a feeling the National Garden of American Heroes announced by President Trump on Friday will never get off — or into — the ground, even if he doesn't put his son-in-law in charge of it. That is partly, of course, a recognition of the incompetence of Trump's administration, which has presided over an epic public health disaster and whose signature border wall initiative, guided by Jared Kushner, is proceeding at the rate of approximately 1 mile per year of new construction, not counting upgrades to existing barriers.
- U.S.INSIDER
A former National Guard colonel apologized but will keep her professor job after saying sexual harassment is the 'price of admission for women' in the military
University of Wisconsin , Fort Hood Betsy Schoeller, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and retired member of the Wisconsin Air Guard, apologized for her comments in a Facebook group on a news article about murdered US Army soldier Vanessa Guillén. Schoeller wrote that "sexual harassment is the price of admission for women into the good ole boy club" and "if you're gonna cry like a snowflake about it, you're gonna pay the price." A petition to remove Schoeller as a lecturer from UWM has amassed more than 135,000 signatures, but the university said "legal reasons" concerning her right to freedom of speech won't let it fire her.
- U.S.Reuters
Mexico finds remains of another missing student, attacks 'false' history of events
Investigators have found a bone fragment belonging to one of 43 students who disappeared in Mexico in September 2014, prosecutors said on Tuesday, only the second set of remains to be definitively identified in a case that roiled the country. The abduction and apparent massacre of 43 student teachers from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College became a symbol of Mexico's chronic failure to tackle gang violence and corruption. When President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office 19 months ago, he pledged to shed light on the crime after the last government's conclusions about the case were widely criticized.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Mary Kay Letourneau, Teacher Who Abused and Then Married Student, Dies of Cancer
Mary Kay Letourneau—who gained tabloid infamy for raping her 12-year-old former student, having children with him, and later marrying him—has died of cancer, her attorneys said. “Expected but sad anyway,” her attorney David Gehrke, told TV station KOMO. Letourneau was a married mom of four working as a sixth-grade teacher in Washington state in 1997 when she was arrested for sexual contact with Fualaau.
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.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.
- 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.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 Independent
Trump administration refusing to let Dr Fauci appear on CBS show, host says
CBS News host Margaret Brennan has claimed that the Trump administration has prevented Dr Anthony Fauci from appearing on her show for three months. The moderator of CBS' Face the Nation, claimed on the show on Sunday that the administration had not approved an interview with Dr Fauci since 5 April. Dr Fauci, one of the country's top infectious disease experts and part of the US government's coronavirus task force, has appeared on various other networks over the last few months to discuss the coronavirus crisis, according to Newsweek.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Michigan drivers met with startling billboard message: 'Driving while Black? Racial profiling just ahead'
Motorists in Michigan were met with a startling message Monday on an electronic billboard in Redford Township. The organizer behind the billboard lives in Livonia and said it is an effort to awaken the city to problems that continue to exist with profiling and other forms of racism. The mayor called the billboard counterproductive.
- U.S.Business Insider
In Los Angeles, the massive Dodger Stadium testing site closed for 4 days, even as the city sees a rise in cases and the county struggles to meet the demand for testing
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez Los Angeles' largest coronavirus testing site at Dodger Stadium closed for four days over the weekend, local outlet KTLA reported. The site could administer 6,000 tests a day and is anticipated to allow for 6,500 tests once it reopens. LA county medical services director Dr. Christina Ghaly said the city was already struggling to meet its testing needs prior to this weekend.
- U.S.Miami Herald
Mom kidnaps daughter and flies to Mexico to give Russia US defense secrets, feds say
A 47-year-old woman is accused of taking her 6-year-old daughter and top secret government documents to Mexico to try to broker a deal with Russian officials. She didn't have custody of the girl — or permission to take the classified documents, according to Justice Department officials. Elizabeth Jo Shirley, of West Virginia, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of “international parental kidnapping” and taking national defense information, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Tucker Carlson Doubles Down on Duckworth Attacks, Calls Her a ‘Coward’ and ‘Fraud’
A night after saying Iraq War veteran Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) hates America, Fox News host Tucker Carlson doubled down on his attacks, describing the Purple Heart recipient who lost her legs in combat as a “coward” and “fraud.” During his Monday night broadcast, the primetime conservative star played an abbreviated clip of Duckworth saying there should be a “national dialogue” over the possible removal of statues, touting it as proof that she supposedly wants to “get rid of George Washington” while questioning her patriotism. “You're not supposed to criticize Tammy Duckworth in any way because she once served in the military,” he added.
- WorldBBC
China bubonic plague: Inner Mongolia takes precautions after case
The first case was reported as suspected bubonic plague on Saturday at a hospital in Urad Middle Banner, in Bayannur city. It is not yet clear how or why the patient might have become infected. The second suspected case involves a 15-year-old, who had apparently been in contact with a marmot hunted by a dog, a tweet from Global Times said.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Russia is killing US soldiers. Trump's response is a shameful dereliction of duty
Donald Trump's response to Russia's attempts to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan is a dereliction of duty, and yet another sad reminder that the actions of the US president cost American lives. Numerous reports detail how the Trump administration – and the president himself – were aware as early as 2019 that Russia had been offering bounties to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to kill US soldiers. The United States reportedly has evidence of money transfers from a bank account controlled by Russian military intelligence to a Taliban-linked account and has identified a possible middleman who helped distribute the cash to the Taliban.
- WorldAssociated Press
Iraqi expert on armed groups shot dead in Baghdad
An Iraqi analyst who was a leading expert on the Islamic State and other armed groups was shot dead in Baghdad on Monday after receiving threats from Iran-backed militias. Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Hisham al-Hashimi, 47, outside his home in the Zeyouneh area of Baghdad, a family member said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The family member heard five shots fired.
