Despite its slow start, Canada is now lapping U.S. on COVID vaccination. Is right-wing media to blame?

With nearly 70 percent of its population now at least partially vaccinated, Canada is well on its way to reaching herd immunity. The U.S. — which has stalled out around 56 percent — is not. Experts say that the proliferation of right-wing media — including OAN, Newsmax and Fox News, whose U.S. opinion hosts have spent months insisting that COVID-19 vaccines “could be dangerous; that people are justified in refusing them; and that public authorities have overstepped in their attempts to deliver them” — may be one of the biggest reasons why.

Police: Man arrested, tried to sexually assault girl in Fort Worth restaurant bathroom

Police have arrested a man who they say forced a 16-year-old girl into a restaurant bathroom in Fort Worth and tried to sexually assault her, according to a news release from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Thursday that they arrested Anthony Maldonado, 35, in Willis. An arrest warrant for Maldonado was filed in Tarrant County on charges of kidnapping and unlawful restraint involving a juvenile after he was accused of attempting to sexually assault the teenage girl, according to the release.

Russia transfers ex-U.S. Marine to region with tough Soviet-era prisons

A former U.S. Marine who is serving a nine-year sentence in Russia was being transferred from a remand cell in Moscow on Friday to the Mordovia region which has a large number of tough, Soviet-era prisons. Trevor Reed was convicted last year of endangering the lives of two policemen in Moscow while drunk, a charge he denied. He said the ruling was "clearly political", and Washington called the trial "theatre of the absurd".

Hong Kong national security police raid student union office

Hong Kong's national security police on Friday raided the office of a university student union after student leaders last week commemorated a man who killed himself after stabbing a police officer. Police raided the office at the University of Hong Kong and cordoned off the area around it. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam earlier this week urged the university and police to take action after student leaders passed a motion expressing “deep sadness” and appreciating the “sacrifice” of the man who attacked the police officer.

The Warthog and the senator: The politics of retiring a warplane

The U.S. Air Force is desperate to get rid of some of its fleet of expensive, slow and outdated A-10 Warthog airplanes, but politicians have blocked the move, aiming to keep the local dollars flowing. President Joe Biden wants to retire dozens of the 40-year-old warplanes to free up funding to modernize the military. The negotiations over the A-10, which the Air Force has wanted to retire for more than two decades, show the extensive measures Democrats will take to protect their slim majority in the Senate.

China, moving cautiously, starts carbon trading market

Chinese power companies bid for credits to emit carbon dioxide and other climate-changing gases as trading on the first national carbon exchange began Friday in a step meant to help curb worsening pollution. The official Xinhua News Agency said the experimental first phase of carbon trading at the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange includes some 2,000 companies in the power industry that produce about 40% of China's emissions. China is the biggest carbon emitter, but President Xi Jinping said last September that output should peak in 2030 and then decline.

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  China’s power sector starts carbon trading market

  MarketWatch
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  Top Carbon Market Launch Won’t Help China Tame Emissions Yet

  Bloomberg

Partial roof collapse of Miami-Dade apartment building causes evacuation, firefighters say

The roof of a three-story apartment building has partially collapsed in northwest Miami-Dade County, authorities say. Firefighters are conducting evacuations. Around 4 p.m., Miami-Dade police received calls about the collapse at the apartment building at 17500 NW 68th Ave. Police say no injuries have been reported during or after the collapse.

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  Miami-area building evacuated after roof collapse

  Associated Press Videos
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  Death toll in Florida condo collapse rises to 97

  Reuters

You Need a Coffee Table With Storage–And We’ve Got 17 for You

Because we can't all live in a minimalist fantasy, try a coffee table that hides stuff for you Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Fully vaccinated Americans may enter Canada as of mid-August

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday Canada could start allowing fully vaccinated Americans into Canada as of mid-August for non-essential travel and should be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travelers from all countries by early September. Trudeau spoke with leaders of Canada's provinces and his office released a readout of the call. “Canada would be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travelers from all countries by early September,” the readout said.

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  Canada may allow fully vaccinated travellers by early September - Trudeau

  Reuters
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  Trudeau: U.S.-Canada border could open to fully vaccinated Americans in August

  Politico

Officials in Kashmir ban animal sacrifice on Muslim holiday

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have banned the sacrifice of animals during the upcoming Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday, in a ruling that is likely to further stoke anti-India anger in the disputed Muslim-majority region. Generally, cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, and slaughtering them or eating beef is illegal or restricted across much of the country. Despite the ban on cow slaughter in Kashmir, beef is widely available across much of its Muslim-majority areas.

Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: Fleeing for fear of new ethnic conflict

Almost every night, a handful of young men slip across the well-guarded border, swimming across a fast-flowing brown river and trudging into Sudan to escape what they say is a sudden upsurge in ethnic violence in the far western corner of Ethiopia's Tigray region. This fertile area, still held by soldiers and militias loyal to Ethiopia's federal government, is now seen as a likely next target for Tigray's rebel fighters, as they seek to strengthen their control over the region and secure a potentially crucial supply route into neighbouring Sudan. The conflict in Tigray is now showing dangerous signs of transforming into a more widespread ethnic conflict that could suck in other parts of Ethiopia.

Explosive Interview Directly Implicates Trump in Tax Scheme

A witness in the New York investigation against the Trump Organization has told prosecutors that Donald Trump personally guaranteed he would cover school costs for the family members of two employees in lieu of a raise—directly implicating the former president in an ongoing criminal tax fraud case. The explosive claims come from Jennifer Weisselberg, the ex-wife of a longtime company employee, during a teleconference call with investigators on Friday, June 25, according to two sources who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. On that afternoon's Zoom call, those sources said, investigators with the Manhattan district attorney and New York state attorney general asked Jennifer Weisselberg whether Trump himself was involved in the company's alleged tax-dodging scheme of making corporate gifts instead of increasing salary that would be taxed.

Hunt for indigenous children's unmarked graves in Canada 'barely scratched the surface' -researcher

A juvenile rib, a tooth and survivors' testimony that children were dragged from their beds in the middle of the night to dig graves in an apple orchard gave clues on where to conduct the radar search that found unmarked graves of children at a former Canadian residential school, researchers said on Thursday. Sarah Beaulieu, a specialist in ground-penetrating radar from the University of the Fraser Valley, conducted searches in May on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. They led to the discovery of about 200 suspected unmarked graves of children, some believed to be as young as 3, sparking a public uproar.

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  Canada: More unmarked graves likely at former residential school site

  BBC
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  Why Canada is mourning the deaths of hundreds of children

  BBC

Pope reverses Benedict, reimposes restrictions on Latin Mass

Pope Francis cracked down Friday on the spread of the old Latin Mass, reversing one of Pope Benedict XVI's signature decisions in a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics who immediately decried it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy. Francis reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass that Benedict relaxed in 2007. The pontiff said he was taking action because Benedict's reform had become a source of division in the church and been used as a tool by Catholics opposed to the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the liturgy.

Afghanistan's neighbors wary as US seeks nearby staging area

American diplomats are escalating a charm offensive with Central Asian leaders this week as they work to secure a close-by spot to respond to any resurgence of outside militants in Afghanistan after the U.S. military withdraws. But even as high-level U.S. diplomats head to the region, they're meeting with more doubts from Afghanistan's neighbors about any such security partnering with the United States. That stands in contrast to 2001, when Central Asian countries made available their territory for U.S. bases, troops and other access as America hit back for the 9/11 attacks plotted by al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: Reaction to J&J, booster shots, flu vaccines & more

More than 33.9 million people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Friday morning, July 16, according to Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been more than 189 million confirmed cases of the highly infectious virus, with more than 4 million reported deaths. About 100 people who have received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have developed a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barré Syndrome about two weeks after getting their shot, federal health officials said.

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  US officials flag "small" reaction risk with J&J vaccine

  Yahoo News Video
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  EXPLAINER: Are we going to need COVID-19 booster shots?

  Associated Press

Viewpoint: Why Sikhs celebrate kindness

Founded some 500 years ago in what is now India's Punjab region, Sikhism is the world's fifth-largest religion. Author Jasreen Mayal Khanna writes on the tradition of selfless service ingrained in the community. From the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar to the Paris terror attacks, the farmers' marches in India to the protests in America against George Floyd's killing, people from this 30 million-strong community worldwide have made it a tradition to help complete strangers in their darkest moments.

Arizona election auditors seek more records, voter canvass

Contractors hired by Arizona Senate Republicans to oversee a partisan review of the 2020 election said Thursday that they don't have enough information to complete their report, and urged legislators to subpoena more records and survey voters at home. Leaders of the GOP audit described a wide variety of reasons their review is taking months longer than the 60 days initially planned, including confusion about damaged ballots and a lack of access to certain data. As the audit drags on, some Republicans worry the spectacle of widely discredited operations will drive away voters in next year's elections.

Family sues after school bus drags 6-year-old girl along street by her backpack

A video of a Kentucky school girl's terrifying ordeal from 2015, in which she was dragged along by a school bus, has been released as a trial begins into the incident. The girl, who was aged six at the time, was getting off the Jefferson County school bus six years ago when her backpack appeared to get stuck in its doors. School bus driver Melinda Sanders is accused by the girl's family of failing to notice the child getting off the bus.

Women’s groups call for UN peacekeeping force in Afghanistan

Women's rights supporters and faith leaders are calling for a United Nations peacekeeping force for Afghanistan to protect hard-won gains for women over the last two decades as American and NATO forces complete their pullout from the war-torn country and a Taliban offensive gains control over more territory. Under the Taliban, women were not allowed to go to school, work outside the home or leave their house without a male escort. In a May 14 letter obtained by The Associated Press, 140 civil society and faith leaders from the U.S., Afghanistan and other countries “dedicated to the education and rights of women in Afghanistan” asked U.S. President Joe Biden to call for a U.N. peacekeeping force “to ensure that the cost of U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan is not paid for in the lives of schoolgirls.”

At least 100 people have died after devastating flooding across Germany and Belgium, as officials warn the death toll could keep rising

Western Germany and Belgium were hit by devastating floods following heavy rains this week. At least 100 people have died in the two countries, and 1,300 people are missing in Germany, per the AP. At least 100 people have died and more than 1,000 people are missing as devastating floods hit Germany and Belgium this week.

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  Heavy floods hit Western Europe, at least 42 dead, dozens missing

  Yahoo News Video
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  Photos reveal devastating impact as more than 100 killed by floods in Europe - 'Warnings not taken seriously'

  Yahoo News UK