Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
US secretary of state seeks to refocus US human rights efforts as he launches report by government commission
Mike Pompeo has sought to redefine the US approach to human rights by giving preference to private property and religious freedom as the foremost “unalienable rights” laid down by America’s Founding Fathers.
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, has suggested that US schools should reopen regardless of what the science says. 'The president has said unmistakably that he wants schools to open,' she said. 'The science should not stand in the way of this.' Donald Trump has said school districts must offer a full schedule of classes, arguing that parents are under tremendous strain from managing their children and work at the same time
Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough sold 950,000 copies
Legal attempts to prevent book’s publication failed
The bombshell family tell-all book by Mary Trump, the US president’s niece, sold almost a million copies by the end of its first day on sale and remains firmly at the top of Amazon’s bestseller list.
Trump’s book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, referring to Donald Trump, was published on Tuesday and had sold 950,000 copies by the end of the first day, including pre-sales, ebooks and audio books.
The news that there may be a delay in re-opening pubs in Ireland has been described as a “hammer blow” by the Licensed Vintners Association, which represents pub owners, who said the future of 7,000 pubs and 50,000 jobs hung in the balance.
Ireland has paused its phased easing of lockdown and extended rules on face coverings amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. Leo Varadkar, the tánaiste (deputy prime minister), told parliament today that pubs, nightclubs and other venues will open no sooner than 10 August, and possibly later.
Covid-19 was found to be the direct cause of death among 89% of the pandemic’s victims in Italy, according to a report on Thursday by the country’s higher health institute and national statistics agency.
The study was based on the death certificates of 4,942 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 and carried out until 25 May, by which time 31,573 people were officially reported to have died of the disease.
Mary Trump’s tell-all book set a sales record for Simon & Schuster, Trump’s publisher said in a statement about the book, which was released on Tuesday.
According to Simon & Schuster, the book sold more than 950,000 copies through Tuesday, setting a new company record.
Simon & Schuster says Mary Trump’s book “sold a total of more than 950,000 copies through Tuesday, July 14, the first day the book went on sale.” It’s a company record.
Despite the rising number of coronavirus cases in Georgia, the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, issued an executive order yesterday that voids local mask mandates.
The order encourages residents to wear masks, but it goes on to state, “Any state, county, or municipal law, order, ordinance, rule, or regulation that requires persons to wear face coverings, masks, face shields, or any other Personal Protective Equipment while in places of public accommodation or on public property are suspended.”
It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us. Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can.
In #Savannah, we will continue to keep the faith and follow the science. Masks will continue to be available!
Wesley Ira Purkey spoke out against capital punishment before receiving lethal injection in Indiana
The United States on Thursday carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.
Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Promising details were released this week about Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine but it remains in the early stages of development
Hopeful news about a Covid-19 vaccine developed by US government researchers and Moderna Inc has buoyed expectations – and markets – on the potential for a preventive measure against a global pandemic that has killed more than half a million people and upended daily life.
Moderna first announced its vaccine, backed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prompted an immune response in 45 adults in May.
Joe Biden is polling well ahead of Donald Trump, potentially putting more states in play – but complacency has been banished
Less than four months out from the November election, the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has been consistently polling ahead of Donald Trump.
The president’s approval numbers remain underwater, and Democrats believe they can seriously compete in traditionally red states including Texas, as Trump faces sustained criticism for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis linked to it, as well as the ongoing anti-racism protests against police brutality.
The Twitter accounts of major public figures and corporations, including Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Apple appear to have been hacked as part of a bitcoin scam Wednesday. Twitter said it was looking into the situation.
Supreme court justice, 87, treated for possible infection
Ginsburg had procedure to clean stent, spokeswoman says
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been released from a Baltimore hospital after being treated for a possible infection, a court spokeswoman said on Wednesday, in the latest health issue for the US supreme court’s oldest member.
Ginsburg, 87, returned home and is “doing well,” spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said in a statement. Ginsburg underwent a procedure at Johns Hopkins hospital on Tuesday to clean a bile duct stent that was inserted last August, the court said.
Incident at port of Bushehr latest in series of fires and blasts that could be part of sabotage campaign
At least seven vessels have caught fire in a southern Iranian shipyard, in the latest in a series of explosions and fires that analysts speculate could be part of a state-sponsored sabotage campaign targeting the country’s industrial, nuclear and military sites.
No casualties were reported at the port of Bushehr, the city that hosts Iran’s only nuclear power plant, but images distributed by state media showed plumes of thick smoke billowing into the air and several fire trucks at the site.
Prosecutors say Maxwell, who has pleaded not guilty to involvement in Jeffrey Epstein crimes, has declined to identify spouse to officials
The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who faces federal charges in Manhattan for allegedly enabling Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of minor girls, is married, prosecutors said during a court proceeding.
It happened one day during my first year of college at Rutgers University, in my home state of New Jersey. The anti-apartheid movement was raging on my college campus, there was still a massive buzz about Jesse Jackson’s first run for president and I had instantly become woke, as we say, because of names such as Winnie and Nelson Mandela, because of the Aids and crack epidemics, and because of my adopted big sister on campus, an older student named Lisa Williamson, who would later become the famed activist and bestselling author Sister Souljah.
For sure, Lisa was one of the most incredible speakers I had ever heard. She was a fearless leader, and I became so instantly fond of her, I even called her “Ma” just like I did my own mother. And she adored me, taught me and shared with me everything that she knew and was learning, in real time.
Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases expert, has pushed back at a concerted campaign by Donald Trump and his allies to discredit his response to the coronavirus pandemic. 'I believe for the most part you can trust respected medical authorities,' Fauci told a virtual forum at Georgetown University in Washington. 'I believe I’m one of them, so I think you can trust me.'
With countries all over the world affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the US has emerged as a global hotspot. The Trump administration has been criticized for being slower to act than other countries. The US currently leads the world in both confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University.
It’s important to point out that the actual death toll is believed to be far higher than the tally compiled from government figures.
The failure of leaders to take into account the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on women, and their roles in lessening its harm, will mean a long, slow recovery that could cost the world economy trillions of dollars, Melinda Gates has warned.
Even a four-year delay in programmes that promote gender equality, such as advancing women’s digital and financial inclusion, would wipe a potential $5tn (£4tn) from global GDP by 2030.
Brazil has suffered 1,233 more deaths and registered 39,924 new cases, its health ministry has said. The country has now recorded a total off 75,366 deaths and confirmed 1,996,748 cases in all, making it the world’s second worst-affected.
As the figures were released, the far-right president, who has repeatedly dismissed the dangers posed by the pandemic, publicly acknowledged a second positive test that suggests he has not recovered. Bolsonaro told reporters he would get tested again in a few days.
Scotland could ask people arriving from England to quarantine, its first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said. In an interview with ITV’s Peston programme due to be broadcast in the next couple of hours, she has said:
Scotland would have the ability through public health measures to ask people to quarantine if they came to Scotland. And I’ve said, again, this is not political, it is not constitutional, I’m taking these decisions purely from a public health perspective. We do see prevalence of the virus at a lower level at the moment – although we’re not complacent – than we do in England.
But that’s not something I want to do if we can avoid that. I think the first thing we want to do is work very constructively as we do already with authorities in England to look at good outbreak management and where that requires localised travel restrictions, then rely on that in the first instance.
Well, my calculation is that if we are more successful in driving the virus to very low levels, getting as close as possible to elimination of it before a potential second wave in the autumn and winter, then we will build ourselves a much more sustainable foundation for economic recovery.
So, the judgement is that taking a couple of weeks, and that’s pretty much what we’re talking about here, longer to come out of lockdown, if that buys us a more sustainable recovery in the medium to long term, then that’s the right thing to do.
Restrictions imposed on Indian city of Bangalore and state of Bihar; Venezuela’s capital Caracas to go into a strict lockdown on Wednesday; Face masks mandatory in France; Follow the latest updates
AFP is reporting on Tokyo being on its highest coronavirus alert level after a rise in new cases - particularly in younger people, in nightlife areas and also in workplaces and in families - as experts said the rising infections were a clear “red flag”.
However, the move to a “red” alert does not mean the city will ask businesses to close or events to be postponed. Even during a national state of emergency in April, there was no “lockdown” in Japan of the type seen in Europe.
AP are also reporting on how virus restrictions in Australia are being reimposed, shutting businesses and curbing people’s social lives as communities try to curb a disease resurgence before it spins out of control.
Residents of Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, were warned today to comply with lockdown regulations or face tougher restrictions. Melbourne’s 5 million people and part of the city’s semi-rural surrounds are a week into a new, six-week lockdown to contain a new outbreak there.
Analysis: The administration’s barrage of attacks on the public health expert comes as little surprise, observers say
Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases expert, has pushed back at a concerted campaign by Donald Trump and his allies to discredit his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials and advisers have publicly sought to undermine Fauci in at least five separate instances over the past four days, even as the coronavirus surges across the US, with the death toll now above 135,000.
In fact, studies have found that Black Americans are up to 3.5 times as likely to be killed by law enforcement
Donald Trump has once again stoked racial grievances, telling an interviewer who asked a question about the police killing of George Floyd that white people also get killed by law enforcement in the US.
In an echo of his comments on white nationalist marchers and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, when he said there were “fine people on both sides”, the president did not take the opportunity to talk about the problem of racially-motivated police brutality on Tuesday but switched to talk about white victims.