‘This is unstoppable’: America’s midwest braces itself for a Covid-19 surge

Experts predict an increase in deaths across the region, made significantly worse by lawmakers who question the value of face coverings

Three months ago, the Republican governor of Missouri chose not to wear a mask in a shop, because he said he wasn’t going to let the government tell him what to do. Mike Parson visited a hardware store to celebrate its reopening after he lifted Missouri’s coronavirus lockdown over the objections of health professionals and mayors of major cities.

Parson said the worst of the pandemic was past and the economic impact of the shutdown was worse than the virus. As for masks, the governor dismissively claimed “there was a lot of information on both sides” over whether to wear one so he wasn’t going to require people to do so.

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Coronavirus live news: US nears 5m cases as Australian border closures ramp up

US approaches horrific milestone; border restrictions tightened in Australian state of New South Wales; Brazil passes 100,000 deaths

Coatsworth is asked about the fatality rate in Australia. He says he hasn’t seen the data in the last week or two but Australia has generally been better than much of the rest of the world.

The reasons include the already high standard of Australian health care and in particular intensive care units and staff.

“But we’re also learning more and more. We’re applying new treatments and [a medication] that’s demonstrating in a recovery trial to decrease mortality. We have at our disposal... and our specialists that are backed up by the Australia New Zealand Intensive Care Society and are discussing the clinical treatment of patient whose are gravely ill with Covid-19 and how you ventilate them is a challenge and the contact of proning which is where you ventilate someone on their tummy, rather than on their back, has proven to be critical. The timing you do that.

Dr Nick Coatsworth, deputy chief medical officer in Australia is giving a national briefing.

Nationally in Australia there are 295 dead from Covid-19, and 658 currently hospitalised with 51 in intensive care.

It is not going to be acceptable for any single country to have the vaccine and Australia is joining with a number of different countries around the world through the initiative to ensure that any vaccine that is developed is available.

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Venezuela jails former US soldiers for 20 years over botched bid to overthrow Maduro

Two ex-Green Berets hired to oust president were sentenced in a secretive hearing that their lawyers say breached their right to a defence

A Venezuelan court has sentenced two former US special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a blunder-filled beach attack aimed at overthrowing president Nicolás Maduro.

Lawyers for the former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, said they were barred from the secretive jailhouse proceedings Friday night in what they consider a violation of their constitutional rights to a defence.

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Nasa to change ‘harmful’ and insensitive’ planet and galaxy nicknames

Space agency says ‘certain cosmic nicknames are insensitive’ and vows to drop any reference to them

Nasa has signaled it is joining the social justice movement by changing unofficial and potentially contentious names used by the scientific community for distant cosmic objects and systems such as planets, galaxies and nebulae.

In a statement last week, the space agency said that as the “community works to identify and address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field, it has become clear that certain cosmic nicknames are not only insensitive, but can be actively harmful”.

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Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota rally to be blocked at tribal land checkpoints

Clampdown comes as fears mount that mask-free bikers headed to large gathering could spread coronavirus to tribal groups

Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota’s 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will not be allowed through Cheyenne River Sioux checkpoints, a spokesman for the Native American group said on Saturday.

The decision to prevent access across tribal lands to the annual rally, which could attract as many as 250,000 bikers amid fears it could lead to a massive, regional coronavirus outbreak, comes as part of larger Covid-19 prevention policy. The policy has pitted seven tribes that make up the Great Sioux Nation against federal and state authorities, which both claim the checkpoints are illegal.

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Trump bypasses Congress with order for coronavirus relief including less unemployment aid – as it happened

We’ll be shutting down today’s blog shortly. Here’s a glance at today’s major news items:

Trump’s decision to unilaterally extend federal unemployment insurance through executive order will almost certainly prompt a legal challenge from Democrats on the grounds that only the legislative branch has the constitutional authority to determine federal spending.

But the US president brushed aside concerns on Saturday, suggesting that he believes public sentiment will carry the day.

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Doctors and medical students across the US push to register patients to vote

More than 60 hospital networks are taking part in campaign as some of the usual ways of registering are curbed by the pandemic

An emergency room doctor in Boston is assembling thousands of voter registration kits for distribution at hospitals and doctor’s offices.

Later this month, students at Harvard and Yale’s medical schools are planning a contest to see which of the Ivy League rivals can register the most voters.

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Border agents discover ‘most sophisticated tunnel in US history’ in Arizona – video

US border officials claim an incomplete tunnel found stretching from Mexico to Arizona could be the most sophisticated in US history. The tunnel runs from San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, to San Luis, Arizona, where it stops short of reaching the surface. It is 3ft wide and 4ft high (1 x 1.3 metres). Smugglers have been using tunnels to move drugs and people across the border for decades

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Brazil’s ex-health minister attacks Bolsonaro as Covid-19 deaths top 100,000

Luiz Henrique Mandetta says the Brazilian president’s ‘misguided’ handling of the crisis has failed to comfort families

Jair Bolsonaro’s former health minister has accused the Brazilian president of failing to offer “a single word of comfort” to the families of the 100,000 Brazilians who have lost their lives to Covid-19.

In an interview marking Brazil’s latest Covid-19 milepost, Luiz Henrique Mandetta – who was sacked in April after challenging the president’s internationally condemned coronavirus response – expressed consternation that Brazil’s leaders had failed to recognise so much pain.

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Trump says Democrats are holding coronavirus relief bill ‘hostage’ – video

Donald Trump says he will act unilaterally to suspend payroll taxes for all Americans until the end of 2020 and possibly longer and extend supplemental unemployment benefits and other coronavirus aid if no deal can be reached with Democrats on a new spending bill. 'If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need,' Trump says on Friday during a news conference at his  resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. He added that an executive order could be signed by the end of the week, without specifying whether he meant this week or next week

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‘We’re making it up as we go along’: how Trump’s America failed the Covid test

Coronavirus has been allowed to run amok by governors and the president, spreading inexorably into the rural heart of America

A letter landed on the desk of the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, this week that given the public health catastrophe swirling all around him might give him pause. His state is one of 21 across the US that have been placed by the White House coronavirus taskforce in the “red zone”, indicating the disease is now so prevalent that immediate restrictions must be imposed to avoid dire consequences.

Kemp, a Republican governor and Donald Trump ally, has adopted a controversial approach to Covid-19. Since early July the virus has roared across his state, with new infections rising sharply to top a devastating tally of 182,000.

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Notorious former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio loses bid to win back seat

Known for launching immigration crackdowns, the former sheriff lost the Republican primary to his former aide Jerry Sheridan

Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff notorious for his abusive policing and hardline anti-immigration tactics, has lost his bid to win back the post he held for 24 years.

An early Donald Trump supporter and proponent of the racist theory that Barack Obama was not born in the US, Arpaio lost the Republican primary for Maricopa county sheriff to a former aide, Jerry Sheridan. Sheridan will face off against Democrat Paul Penzone in the November elections.

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Trump pledges executive orders to extend Covid relief, but offers few details

President says he will suspend payroll tax and extend unemployment through end of year amid gridlock in Congress

Donald Trump has promised unilateral action to provide economic relief for millions of Americans hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but he offered few specific details and admitted the move is likely to face legal challenges.

The president’s pledge to rescue people from poverty and homelessness took place against the unlikely backdrop of his luxury golf club, where annual fees run to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, with members in T-shirts not physically distancing as they watched and applauded him.

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Russia, China and Iran seeking to influence US ahead of elections, top intelligence official says

Statement says China is opposed to Trump but offers more concrete evidence of Russia’s efforts to undermine Biden

Russia is backing Donald Trump, China is supporting Joe Biden and Iran is seeking to sow chaos in the US presidential election, a top intelligence official has warned in a sobering assessment of foreign meddling.

The statement on Friday by William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, raises fears of a repeat of the 2016 election, when Russia manipulated social media to help Trump and hurt his opponent Hillary Clinton.

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Saudi detention of ex-official’s children prompts rare rebuke from Trump administration

Letter signed by US state department representative calls for ‘immediate release’ of adult children of Saad Aljabri

The Trump administration has issued a rare rebuke of Saudi Arabia over the detention of two of the adult children of a former Saudi intelligence official who has been credited with protecting Americans from al-Qaida threats.

A letter signed by a state department official said any persecution of Saad Aljabri’s family members by Saudi authorities was “unacceptable” and urged the “immediate release” of the two children, Omar and Sarah Aljabri, who were arrested from their home in Riyadh in March and have been held in detention indefinitely.

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‘Most sophisticated tunnel in US history’ discovered between Mexico and Arizona

Although it’s not clear exactly what the structure was intended for, it had ventilation, a rail system and extensive reinforcement

An incomplete tunnel found stretching from Mexico to Arizona appears to be “the most sophisticated tunnel in US history”, authorities said.

The tunnel, intended for smuggling, ran from a neighborhood in San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, to San Luis, Arizona, where it stopped short of reaching the surface. It was built in an area that’s not conducive to tunnels because of the terrain, and it had a ventilation system, water lines, electrical wiring, a rail system and extensive reinforcement, federal officials say.

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Canada to retaliate dollar for dollar after US announces 10% tariff on aluminum

Canada to impose C$3.6bn in tariffs as Chrystia Freeland says: ‘Any American who buys a can of beer … will suffer’

Canada has announced that it will retaliate dollar for dollar – to the tune of C$3.6bn – after the US announced a 10% tariff on Canadian aluminum.

Donald Trump announced the new aluminum tariffs on Thursday at a campaign stop at a Whirlpool appliance plant in Ohio, accusing Canada of taking advantage of its trade relationship with the US.

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‘It’s just madness’: bikers throng South Dakota town despite Covid threat

  • At least 100,000 expected for Sturgis rally in state’s Black Hills
  • Worker at local bar says crowd seems larger than usual

At least 100,000 people are expected to attend the 10-day annual Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota’s Black Hills from Friday, as opportunities for the local economy have overridden concerns it could become a coronavirus superspreading event.

Related: Coronavirus US: death toll tops 160,000 as relief package impasse continues – live updates

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Power struggles and a ‘personal piggy bank’: what the NRA lawsuit alleges

The 168-page filing from New York’s attorney general alleges a spendthrift group where dissent was not tolerated

The National Rifle Association has for decades been one of the most powerful lobby groups in the US, fending off attempts to rein in gun laws through the strength of its millions of members.

Related: New York attorney general sues to shut down NRA, alleging 'brazen illegality'

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Italy infections jump 38% in a day as Japan confirms record number of new cases – as it happened

‘The holiday is over,’ says Norwegian health minister; PPE destroyed in Beirut blast; Africa passes 1m confirmed cases. This blog is now closed.

U.S. president Donald Trump said he would take part in a conference call on Sunday with leaders of Lebanon, France and other countries following the devastating blast in Beirut.

He also said he will be doing a press conference shortly, which would touch on both Beirut and the coronavirus.

I will be doing a news conference on the ChinaVirus, the just announced very good economic numbers, and the improving economy, at 7pm from Bedminster, New Jersey. Also, the subject of the Beirut, Lebanon catastrophe will be discussed.

Australia passed 20,000 coronavirus cases yesterday, with case numbers doubling in less than a month thanks to the outbreak in the Victorian capital of Melbourne.

Melbourne residents are beginning their first full weekend under stage four lockdown conditions, which will remain in place until 13 September.

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