Category Archives: Trump administration

Coronavirus live news: Greece reports highest number of cases in weeks as Danish expert advises against lockdown easing

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UN says getting students safely back must be ‘top priority’; France says ‘situation is precarious’; record fines for isolation breaches in Australia

France’s Accor, the world’s sixth largest hotel chain, said it was slashing 1,000 jobs worldwide in a major cost cutting plan accelerated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The group, which runs high-end chains such as Raffles and Sofitel, and budget brands like Ibis, plans to cut costs by €200m by 2022.

After weeks of railing against what he claimed were the potential risks of voting by mail, president Donald Trump has urged voters in at least one Republican state - Florida - to vote by any means.

Trump, who is trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in polls, has repeatedly warned in recent weeks - without evidence - that mail-in voting carries more risks than voting by absentee ballot and could result in widespread fraud.

Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA

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Coronavirus live news: UN warns world faces ‘generational catastrophe’ over school closures

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UN says getting students safely back to classroom must be ‘top priority’; Philippines reimposes lockdown; record fines for isolation breaches in Australia

We’re reporting that builders in the Australia could lose $450m daily under Melbourne stage 4 Covid-19 lockdown.

Work levels from big construction sites to trade businesses set to be pummelled amid predictions new curbs will ‘knock wind out of’ state

Related: Victorian builders could lose $450m daily under Melbourne stage 4 Covid-19 lockdown

Reuters is reporting that Taiwan has provisionally approved the use of dexamethasone, a cheap and widely-used steroid, to treat the new coronavirus because the island faces a shortfall of the antiviral drug remdesivir after the United States bought nearly all global supplies.

Taiwan Centres for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang told reporters on Tuesday that medical experts had decided to provisionally allow dexamethasone to be listed as a COVID-19 treatment but that procedures still needed to be completed before it could be given to any patients.

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Donald Trump claims Anthony Fauci ‘wrong’ about cause of Covid-19 surge

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President again contradicts his own health expert after doctor highlights troubled US response to virus

Donald Trump launched an extraordinary attack on his own top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, arguing against the doctor’s claim that high rates of infection in the US stem from a less aggressive reaction to the virus in terms of economic shutdowns and stay-at-home orders.

“Wrong!” countered the president as he retweeted a video of Fauci making the point in recent congressional testimony.

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Portland: 1,000 peacefully protest amid withdrawal of federal agents

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Overnight protest matches Thursday’s, with no major confrontations, as US government draws down forces

More than a thousand people showed up in downtown Portland early on Saturday to peacefully protest, about three days after the announcement that the presence of US agents there would be reduced – a deal that Oregon officials hope will continue to ease tensions as the city tries to move on from months of chaotic nightly protests.

Friday’s overnight protest mimicked Thursday’s, which was the first time in weeks that demonstrations ended without any major confrontations, violence or arrests.

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TikTok: Trump suggests US may ban Chinese-owned app

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The US is reportedly preparing to take action against the popular short video app over concerns for the security of personal data

Donald Trump on Friday again suggested the US may take action against the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, floating a potential ban.

“We’re looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on a trip to Florida.

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Will Trump actually pull federal agents from Portland? – video explainer

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Federal agents accused of behaving like an 'occupying army' are said to be pulling out of Portland, Oregon, in an embarrassing climbdown by the White House, but many protesters are sceptical over whether the agents will actually withdraw from the city.

The force, which have been dubbed by some as 'Donald Trump’s troops', were sent in by the president a month ago to end what he called 'anarchy' during Black Lives Matter protests sparked after the police killing of George Floyd.

The Guardian's Chris McGreal looks at what Trump was hoping to gain by sending paramilitaries into the city, if and how they will leave, and how their presence has fuelled anger among most residents

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US passes 150,000 coronavirus deaths amid fresh surge in cases

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Six months after first cases emerged in US, hospitals are under strain in multiple states

The US has crossed the threshold of 150,000 confirmed deaths from Covid-19, just six months after the first cases were diagnosed in China and with the outbreak far from under control.

The American death toll is the highest in the world by a significant margin and reached 150,034 on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University world coronavirus tracker.

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Trump halts daily briefing amid questions about support for ‘alien DNA’ doctor – video

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Donald Trump in his daily coronavirus briefing praises as 'very impressive' a doctor who dismissed the use of face masks, backed hydroxychloroquine and reportedly claimed that alien DNA is used in medical treatments. When asked about reports Dr Stella Immanuel believes scientists are creating a 'vaccine to make you immune from becoming religious', the US president claimed she had had success in using hydroxychloroquine before adding: 'I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.' On the topic of Dr Anthony Fauci's enduring popularity with the US public, he said: "So why don’t I have a high approval rating with respect – and the administration – with respect to the virus? We should have it very high ...  but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality, that’s all.'

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‘Beyond the pale’: antics of Trump ambassadors highlight crisis in US diplomacy

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The president has given key diplomatic roles to big donors – who have stood out for their lack of qualifications or aptitude

The US ambassador to Iceland, a dermatologist and major Republican donor, reportedly became so paranoid about his security he asked to carry a gun and to be taken everywhere in an armoured car.

Related: Bill Clinton pushed 'appeasement' of Serbs after Srebrenica massacre

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‘These are his people’: inside the elite border patrol unit Trump sent to Portland

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Bortac, a quasi-militarised outfit equivalent to the Navy Seals, has been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan

In January 2011, James Tomsheck, then a top internal affairs investigator inside US Customs and Border Protection, attended a meeting of about 100 senior CBP leaders in a hotel in Irvington, Virginia.

Amid the sanitized splendor of the hotel ballroom, he vividly recalls hearing the nation’s then highest-ranking border patrol agent, David Aguilar, laying out his vision for the future. Border patrol, the former CBP deputy commissioner said, was to become the “marine corps of the US federal law enforcement community”.

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Coronavirus US: polls put Biden ahead of Trump as deaths top 1,000 a day – live

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Shortly before he departed on Air Force One from Morristown Municipal Airport en route to Washington, Donald Trump announced that he will not be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before a Red Sox-Yankees game at Yankee Stadium next month due to scheduling conflicts.

“Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th,” he wrote on Twitter. “We will make it later in the season!”

Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!

The news website ProPublica has published a database containing complaint information for thousands of New York City police officers days after a federal judge paused the public release of such records.

The Associated Press reports:

ProPublica posted the database Sunday, explaining in a note to readers that it isn’t obligated to comply with judge Katherine Polk Failla’s temporary restraining order because it is not a party to a union lawsuit challenging the release of such records.

Deputy managing editor Eric Umansky said ProPublica requested the information from the city’s police watchdog agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, soon after last month’s repeal of state law that for decades had prevented the disclosure of disciplinary records.

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Portland: protesters bring down fence as confrontation with Trump agents rises

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The confrontation between protesters and federal paramilitaries in Portland escalated early on Sunday morning, when demonstrators finally broke down a steel fence around the courthouse after days of trying.

Related: What is happening in Portland and what does Trump hope to gain?

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Portland protesters counter teargas with leaf blowers in standoff with federal troops – video

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Black Lives Matter protesters used leaf blowers to blow back teargas in clashes with federal troops in Portland, Oregon. On the 57th day of protests in the city, thousands of demonstrators marched on a federal courthouse where they have clashed with officers throughout the week. The troops, deployed by Donald Trump against the wishes of Portland's mayor, fired teargas and pepper rounds into the crowd, and some responded by throwing fireworks back

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Coronavirus US live: Georgia Senate candidate awaiting Covid-19 results after wife tests positive

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Among real storms blowing around the US today, hurricanes are approaching Texas and Hawaii while a tropical storm heads for the Caribbean. The Associated Press is keeping watch here.

Among other kinds of storm, the kinds that blow themselves out on Twitter, the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and his partner, the musician Grimes, appear to have had a public argument about pronouns.

Related: Explain it to me quickly: did Elon Musk and Grimes really name their baby X Æ A-12?

Miami Dade county has now recorded more than 100,000 cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. According to the Miami Herald, there were 3,424 new cases reported on Saturday. The county’s population is around 2.7 million.

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US push for global alliance against China hampered by years of ‘America first’

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Beijing is flexing its muscles on multiple fronts but Trump’s retreat from world leadership leaves it ill-placed to helm a fightback

The confrontation between the US and China is gathering pace with each passing week. In the past few days, the Chinese consulate in Houston has been shuttered amid allegations it was a spy hub, and the US mission in the south-western city of Chengdu was closed in retaliation, on similar grounds.

The FBI has started arresting Chinese researchers at US universities with suspected links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), one of whom temporarily took refuge in the consulate in San Francisco, before surrendering.

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Trump is using federal agents as his ‘goon squad’, says Ice’s ex-acting head

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John Sandweg says the deployment of homeland security officials is a ‘manufactured crisis’ stemming from ‘a failure of leadership’

The former acting director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which works under the Department of Homeland Security, has condemned the Trump administration’s handling of protests in Portland by deploying federal agents into the city.

Related: Portland clampdown: why are federal agents there and what are they doing?

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Chad Wolf: who is the Trump official leading the crackdown in Portland?

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Trump’s fifth homeland security secretary has denied there’s a systemic problem in US law enforcement and overseen extreme immigration restrictions

Chad Wolf wasn’t Donald Trump’s first pick for homeland security secretary – he wasn’t even his fifth or sixth.

But now he is the figurehead for the federal government’s intervention in Portland, where his department’s militarized agents have been recorded pushing protesters into unmarked vehicles.

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The Guardian view on rethinking China: right, but not because the US says so | Editorial

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The UK’s suspension of the extradition treaty with Hong Kong reflects an international shift. But British and American interests are not identical

Mike Pompeo’s remark that Britain was making its own “sovereign choices” in dealing with China might have sounded better had he not concluded with a pat on the head: “We think – well done.”

The US secretary of state’s visit to London highlighted the complications of the government’s toughened stance. The hardening of attitudes towards China, seen throughout much of the west and elsewhere, has been driven primarily by Beijing’s increasing repression at home and forcefulness internationally. Much of the shift is a sensible recalibration. The government was right to extend the arms embargo on mainland China – which covers equipment potentially used for internal repression – to Hong Kong, and to suspend the extradition treaty with the region. Britain could hardly have done otherwise, given not only its historical responsibility, but also the extraordinary reach and draconian nature of the national security law.

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Coronavirus live news: EU agrees Covid-19 recovery plan, WHO warns over Africa spread

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€750bn EU Covid-19 recovery plan agreed in early morning talks; Trump to resume daily briefings, backs face masks as ‘patriotic’; two Brazil ministers test positive. Follow latest updates

Passengers of China-bound flights must provide negative Covid-19 test results before boarding, China’s aviation authority has said.

The Chinese government has sought to reduce the risk of imported coronavirus cases as international travel resumes.

The €750bn deal is the “most important economic decision since the introduction of the euro,” according to the EU’s economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, who said the most difficult challenge for the commission starts now.

Il vertice infinito è finito con un’intesa. #NextGenerationEU è la più importante decisione economica dall’introduzione dell’euro. Per la Commissione, che ha proposto il piano, comincia la sfida più difficile. #21luglio L’Europa è più forte delle proprie divisioni.

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Coronavirus live news: no sign of infection slowing across Americas; UK records 110 new deaths

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Some central American nations seeing highest weekly increase in cases; official UK death toll now stands at 45,422

The Nobel Foundation, which manages the Nobel Prizes, on Tuesday cancelled its traditional December banquet because of the coronavirus pandemic and said the award ceremonies would be held in “new forms”, AFP reports.

This is the first time since 1956 that the lavish banquet has been cancelled, according to the foundation. The event traditionally marks the end of the so-called Nobel Week, when the year’s prize-winners are invited to Swedish capital Stockholm for talks and the award ceremony.

Joe Biden, in a scathing speech in his campaign to become the next US president, said Donald Trump had ‘quit’ on US citizens and did not care about America.

In a speech on his plan for the economy, in which he promised to expand access to preschool for working families, directly linking the need for affordable childcare to America’s economic recovery, Biden said Trump was not taking the public health crisis seriously:

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