- PoliticsAssociated Press
Donald Trump, Joe Biden win Louisiana's presidential primary
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have won Louisiana's twice-postponed presidential primary. Trump faced no true challenger for the Republican nomination, but four other GOP contenders ran against him on Louisiana's ballot Saturday. Biden faced 13 other Democrats on the ballot, though he already had locked up enough delegates in other states to become the party's nominee.
- U.S.The Telegraph
New Zealand mosque shooter dismisses lawyers to represent himself at sentencing
The gunman behind New Zealand's Christchurch mosque shootings sacked his lawyers on Monday and opted to represent himself, raising fears he would use a sentencing hearing next month to promote his white-supremacist views. Australian national Brenton Tarrant will be sentenced on August 24 on 51 murder convictions, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism arising from last year's massacre, the worst mass shooting in New Zealand's modern history. At a pre-sentencing hearing on Monday, High Court judge Cameron Mander allowed Tarrant's lawyers, Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson, to withdraw from proceedings at the request of their client.
- HealthNBC News
Do children spread coronavirus? What doctors say about going back to school
But this doesn't mean classrooms can be exempt from social distancing and other safety precautions, particularly if schools intend to welcome kids back on site in less than two months. "It really shouldn't be a debate of getting kids back to school, but getting kids back to school safely," said Dr. Jennifer Lighter, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at NYU Langone Health in New York. Having kids physically present in schools in the fall as much as possible would be an "ideal situation," Lighter said, but schools will need to implement policies that allow students to maintain some distance indoors and avoid close contact for prolonged periods of time.
- WorldReuters
Hamburg sex workers demand Germany's brothels reopen
Prostitutes demonstrated in Hamburg's red light district late on Saturday evening demanding that Germany's brothels be allowed to reopen after months of closure to curb the spread of coronavirus. With shops, restaurants and bars all open again in Germany, where prostitution is legal, sex workers say they are being singled out and deprived of their livelihoods despite not posing a greater health risk. "The oldest profession needs your help," read a notice held up by one woman in a brothel window in the Herbertstrasse, which was flooded with red light after being dark since March.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Japan is 'shocked' and furious at the US after a major coronavirus outbreak at 2 Marine bases in Okinawa — and says the US is not taking the virus seriously
Japanese authorities say they are "shocked" after a significant coronavirus outbreak at two US Marine bases in the country. 61 Marines have been infected with the virus in recent days, spread across two bases in Okinawa prefecture, home to about 26,000 US service personnel. "We now have strong doubts that the US military has taken adequate disease prevention measures," Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki said at a press conference.
- U.S.LA Times
Fox News condemns former Tucker Carlson writer for 'horrific' racist, sexist comments
Blake Neff, a writer for "Tucker Carlson Tonight," has resigned from the top-rated Fox News show amid reports he posted racist, sexist and homophobic comments to an online forum under a pseudonym. According to a report from CNN, Neff has been posting in AutoAdmit, an online forum also known as Xoxohth, a largely unregulated message board for law school students. Using the pseudonym CharlesXII, an apparent reference to the late Swedish king known for his military leadership and abstemious personal life, Neff shared an array of bigoted opinions on Black and Asian people, the Mormon church and immigrants.
- U.S.USA TODAY Opinion
United or Divided States of America? 6 ways to think about removing Confederate statues
While there is a lot of discussion these days about statues in the public square, it is important to note that taking down Confederate statues does not actually erase history. Their very presence in prominent public locations effectively dilutes the history of the North's victory over the South and the fight to save the United States of America. History is still to be found in books, archives and museums.
- WorldINSIDER
South Africa's 9 million smokers were faced with cold turkey when the government banned cigarette sales in March as a coronavirus measure. Now Big Tobacco is fighting back.
earlier in July. South Africa's government had also banned the sale of alcohol but has since eased that restriction, which according to an AP report, has led to an increase in "drunken brawls and traffic accidents, putting added strain on hospitals as they deal with the virus." Reuters FITA is also arguing that by banning the legal sale of cigarettes, the South African government is encouraging a black market trade, and putting thousands of jobs at risk.
WorldYahoo News VideoNelson Mandela's daughter Zindzi Mandela dies at 59
Zindzi Mandela, daughter of Nelson Mandela, has died, a spokesperson for the African National Congress said on Monday. She was 59.
- PoliticsNY Daily News
Jeff Sessions swings back at Trump for 'juvenile insults' as fight for political future looms in Alabama
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions lashed out Saturday at President Donald Trump after his onetime ally launched another salvo ahead of the Republican Senate primary run-off on Tuesday in Alabama. Sessions, whom Trump has derided as “Mr. Magoo,” touted himself as a trusted and independent conservative. “My honor and integrity are far more important than these juvenile insults,” Sessions wrote in a reply to Trump on Twitter.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Coronavirus survives in the air for more than an hour, says Sage expert
For months the Government has asked workers to operate from home, but on Friday the Prime Minister - pictured in a shop wearing a mask for the first time - said: “It's very important that people should be going back to work if they can now. I want to see more people feeling confident to use the shops. The controversial two-metre rule is based on an understanding that the virus travels through the air on droplets from a person's mouth or nose.
- U.S.Associated Press
City mulls razing site where 1st Alaska flag flew
The fate of one of Alaska's most historic yet neglected structures could be decided Monday as city officials in Seward weigh whether to demolish a former Methodist boarding school where the Alaska territorial flag was first flown almost a century ago and where its Alaska Native designer lived. Benny Benson was among the orphans and displaced children who lived at the Jesse Lee Home, many of whom were sent there after the Spanish flu devastated Alaska Native villages. Benson, a 13-year-old Aleut boy sent to the home after his mother died of the flu, won a territory-wide contest in 1927 to design the flag, which became the state flag after statehood was granted in 1959.
- WorldReuters
U.S. weighs limited options to deal with China over Hong Kong: WSJ
Steps against Hong Kong's financial system risk hurting U.S., Western and Hong Kong companies and consumers, according to the report https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-weighs-limited-options-to-punish-china-over-hong-kong-11594576800?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=10, citing U.S. officials and analysts. Measures like more targeted sanctions against Chinese officials and trade moves against products made in Hong Kong would have little impact on Beijing's integration of the city into the mainland's political and security system, the Journal added. On Thursday, Trump administration officials discussed Hong Kong plans in a White House meeting, people familiar with the gathering told the Journal.
- WorldBusiness Insider
An ICU boss in the hardest-hit part of Italy says many patients who recover from COVID-19 still have 'chronic damage'
Sky News The head of ICU at a hospital in Bergamo, northern Italy, said many patients there who were treated for COVID-19 now have serious long-term health issues. Bergamo was the worst-hit area in Italy's worst-hit region, Lombardy. Some 3,000 people died in Bergamo, with the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in the thick of it.
WorldAFPBosnia Muslims mourn their dead 25 years after Srebrenica massacre
Bosnian Muslims marked the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre on Saturday, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II, with the memorial ceremony sharply reduced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Many mourners braved the tighter restrictions put in place to stem the spread of COVID-19 to attend the commemorations which culminated in a ceremony laying to rest the remains of nine victims identified over the past year. On July 11, 1995, after capturing Srebrenica, Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in a few days.
- U.S.The Independent
Coronavirus: Hotline to report people not wearing face masks set up in US county amid surge in Covid-19 cases
A county in Ohio has launched a hotline so that callers can report people who do not use face masks, amid concerns over a surge in the number of coronavirus cases across the state. Armond Budish, the executive of Cuyahoga county, announced the service on Friday and said complaints would be managed by county officers and would be forwarded to local health authorities. Mr Budish's comments came two days after the wearing of masks was made obligatory in the seven Ohio counties most badly affected by Covid-19, following an order given by the Republican state governor Mike DeWine.
- PoliticsTime
After Mueller's Op-Ed, Sen. Lindsey Graham Now Says He'll Call the Former Special Counsel to Testify
Sen. Lindsey Graham has announced that he will grant Democrats' request to have former special counsel Robert Mueller testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The surprising statement from one of the Senate's leaders comes a day after Mueller broke a longstanding silence to defend his probe, and its consequential conviction of Roger Stone, in a public op-ed. Graham, a South Carolina Republican and the Judiciary Committee's chair, has attempted to discredit Mueller's inquiry in the past.
- WorldBBC
Xu Zhangrun: Outspoken professor freed after six days
An outspoken critic of China's rulers, Professor Xu Zhangrun, has been released after six days in police custody, friends say. The Beijing constitutional law professor was already under house arrest when he was detained on 6 July. He had criticised China's response to coronavirus and what he sees as a Mao-like cult of personality under China's current leader, Xi Jinping.
- WorldThe Daily Beast
In Moscow’s Afghan Bazaar, Searching for a Bagman Who Pays Bounties for Dead Americans
He was identified by The New York Times at the beginning of this month as a middleman U.S. and Afghan security services believe paid bounties to the Taliban and criminal gangs in Afghanistan to kill American and other coalition soldiers. A unit of the Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, allegedly was behind the operation. Both the U.S. and Afghan security services have been investigating the bounty scheme for months, raiding homes and offices and arresting at least a dozen suspects.
- U.S.USA TODAY
'You can't do that': Fox News host Wallace confronts DeVos on threat to redirect funds from schools
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said Sunday there was no danger in sending children back to school amid the coronavirus pandemic and stood by a threat to withhold federal funds from schools that do not resume in-person classes. "There's nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous," DeVos told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. "We know that children contract and have the virus at far lower incidence than any other part of the population, and we know that other countries around the world have reopened their schools and have done so successfully and safely."
- WorldAssociated Press
Okinawa governor wants tougher action as 61 Marines infected
The governor of Japan's Okinawa island demanded a top U.S. military commander take tougher prevention measures and more transparency hours after officials were told that more than 60 Marines at two bases have been infected with the coronavirus over the past few days. Okinawan officials on Sunday reported a total of 61 cases — 38 of them at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which is at the center of a relocation dispute, and another 23 at Camp Hansen — since July 7. The disclosure of the exact figures came only after Okinawa's repeated requests to the U.S. military.
- WorldReuters
Fire breaks out at petrochemical facility in southwest Iran
The fire was caused by an oil leak but did not lead to any casualties or financial damage, Mohsen Beyranvand, the governor of Mahshahr county said, according to IRNA. A gas explosion shook a residential building in Iran's capital Tehran on Saturday, injuring one person, the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted the city fire department as saying. A chlorine gas leak occurred at a unit of the Karoon petrochemicals plant near the port of Bandar Imam Khomeini on the Gulf on July 4, injuring dozens, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported.
- HealthThe Telegraph
Coronavirus can damage the heart, major study finds
Coronavirus can damage the heart, with more than half of hospitalised patients' scans revealing abnormalities, a major new study has found. A survey of 69 countries, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), found that 55 per cent of 1,261 patients studied had abnormal changes to the way their heart was pumping, with around one in seven showing evidence of severe dysfunction. The majority (901 patients) had never been diagnosed with heart problems before, leading scientists to conclude that Covid-19 itself may seriously affect the heart.
- U.S.Business Insider
Florida mayor warns 'it won't be long' until hospitals hit capacity, as Florida sees record-high levels of new coronavirus cases
Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez expects "it won't be long" until South Florida's hospital are filled with coronavirus patients. The greater Miami area is already seeing a "sharp increase in the number of people going to the hospital, the number of people that are in ICU, and the number of people on our ventilators," the Republican mayor said in a Sunday interview on CNN's "State of the Union." Florida also reported Sunday the nation's largest-ever one-day increase in coronavirus infections, with more than 15,000 new cases.
WorldAFPInventor of Israel's Iron Dome seeks coronavirus 'game-changer'
Daniel Gold, who led the team that invented Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system, has a history of safeguarding the country against what he identifies as existential threats. With the nation facing surging coronavirus cases amid a pandemic that has triggered unprecedented economic hardship, Gold is trying to replicate his Iron Dome breakthrough in protecting Israel against the virus. Gold, who heads Israel's Defence Research and Development Directorate and holds PhDs in electronic engineering and business management, has become a celebrated figure in the Jewish state.
