| Coronavirus: South Africa bans alcohol sales again to combat Covid-19 Posted: 12 Jul 2020 04:49 PM PDT  It is one of several restrictions introduced by President Ramaphosa amid rising infection rates.
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| China Is Winning the Trillion-Dollar 5G War Posted: 12 Jul 2020 03:00 PM PDT |
| 'Let's get going': UK tells businesses to prepare for Brexit crunch Posted: 12 Jul 2020 02:42 PM PDT  Britain is urging businesses and individuals to prepare for the Dec. 31 end of the Brexit transition period with an information campaign titled: "The UK's new start: let's get going." Britain left the European Union on Jan. 31, three and a half years after a referendum, but a transition period has delayed any major change in the relationship. Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said on Sunday progress was being made in talks but there were still divisions.
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| 'Let's get going': UK tells businesses to prepare for Brexit crunch Posted: 12 Jul 2020 02:30 PM PDT |
| 'Against the refugees': Aid groups condemn U.N. decision to limit Syrian aid crossings Posted: 12 Jul 2020 11:44 AM PDT  The United Nations Security Council on Saturday adopted a resolution that leaves only one of two border crossings open for aid deliveries from Turkey into Syria. "The veto is against us," Mustafa Alkaser told NBC News from a refugee camp in Syria's northwestern Idlib province. "It's against the refugees, against the free Syrians who once stood up against Bashar al-Assad and demanded their freedom and dignity," he said Sunday in a telephone interview.
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| Appeals court: 1st federal execution in 17 years can proceed Posted: 12 Jul 2020 11:42 AM PDT  A federal appeals court ruled Sunday that the first federal execution in nearly two decades can proceed as scheduled on Monday. The ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a lower court order that had put the execution of 47-year-old Daniel Lewis Lee on hold. Lee, of Yukon, Oklahoma, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection on Monday at a federal prison in Indiana.
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| Britons whose passports expire in next year should apply for new one now to prepare for post-Brexit travel Posted: 12 Jul 2020 11:18 AM PDT  Millions of Britons whose passports are due to expire in the next year are being urged to apply for a new one now, as part of a stepping up of efforts to prepare for the end of the Brexit transition period. Holidaymakers travelling to popular European destinations from Jan 1 will be required to have six months validity on their travel documents, which is likely to cause a stampede of renewals at UK passport offices. It's estimated that some five million UK citizens have passports which are valid for less than a year, meaning they should act now in order to travel in the new year. Those who do not renew in time will "not be able to travel to most EU countries" as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It comes as the Government today (Mon) launches a new £93 million public information campaign "The UK's new start: let's get going" to help Britons prepare for life outside the EU. Adverts will be launched across television, radio and online, with key information also relayed by text message. One such change means that those planning to go abroad with pets in January will need to act by September to ensure they are able travel.
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| 21 injured in fire aboard ship at Naval Base San Diego Posted: 12 Jul 2020 11:14 AM PDT  Twenty-one people suffered minor injuries in an explosion and fire Sunday on board a ship at Naval Base San Diego, military officials said. The blaze was reported shortly before 9 a.m. on USS Bonhomme Richard, said Mike Raney, a spokesman for Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. San Diego is the Bonhomme Richard's home port, and the ship was undergoing routine maintenance at the time of the fire.
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| Protests in Israel and record death toll in Iran as coronavirus cases surge across Middle East Posted: 12 Jul 2020 10:56 AM PDT  Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to provide financial support for Israelis who lost their livelihoods due to lockdown after more 80,000 people protested his government's economic response to the coronavirus over the weekend. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to voice their frustration with Mr Netanyahu, who won praise for his early response to the outbreak but has come under criticism amid a severe fresh outbreak in cases. Mr Netanyahu did not acknowledge the Tel Aviv protest ahead of his weekly cabinet meeting, but promised that financial help was on the way, starting with cash handouts of up to 7,500 shekels (£1,700) to the self-employed. "This support, this grant, is not dependent on legislation and we have instructed that it be put into effect today. The button will be pressed and the money will reach accounts in the coming days," he said. Unemployment surged to a record 20 per cent in Israel after the economy was shut down to help tackle the coronavirus, while some business owners complained they did not receive enough financial support from the government and as a result could still go bankrupt. According to Israeli media reports, at least six per cent of the Israeli population has caught coronavirus but the true proportion could be much higher. The infection rate currently stands at around 1,000 cases per day, far higher than the previous peak of 700 in March. Israeli officials are said to be considering a second lockdown if the number of daily cases exceeds 2,000 this week. It came as coronavirus infections surged across the Middle East and the economic damage caused by the pandemic began to become clear. Iraq, Lebanon and Iran are also struggling with severe economic crises and record infection rates, with Iran reporting 221 deaths in just 24 hours, marking a new record death roll.
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| Mali opposition rejects President Keïta's concessions amid unrest Posted: 12 Jul 2020 10:39 AM PDT  Opposition leaders reject President Keïta's "nonsense" concessions as political unrest grows.
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| Michael Gove rules out compulsory masks in shops - but Downing Street says policy could still change Posted: 12 Jul 2020 10:39 AM PDT  Face masks should not be made mandatory in shops, Michael Gove has said, despite Downing Street's insistence the policy is still under review and could be introduced. Mr Gove warned against introducing a "binary divide" by making masks obligatory in public, stressing that face masks are "significantly less important outdoors...than indoors". People should be allowed to use their own judgement to decide whether a mask is appropriate in different situations, he said, warning that some people could think they are invincible while wearing a mask. "I think people are intelligent, I think people can understand that this is a novel virus with specific challenges," he told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme. "I think it's quite right to treat people with the respect that their intelligence and judgment deserves." "It mustn't be the case that anyone thinks that wearing a face mask would make you invulnerable." Mr Gove said the masks should be worn out of consideration for others, even if they are not made mandatory. But Downing Street said the option to make masks compulsory was still on the table, suggesting the Prime Minister may think it will soon become necessary to force people to wear them. The risk of transmission of the virus indoors is reduced between people who are wearing face coverings, evidence suggests. "It is something which is under review and if the decision to make it mandatory is taken that will be announced in due course," a No10 source said. Speaking in a Facebook video on Friday, Boris Johnson suggested the Government had plans to increase the proportion of people wearing masks in public. "We are looking at ways of making sure that people really do have face coverings in shops," he said. "The balance of scientific opinion seems to have shifted more in favour of them than it was, and we're very keen to follow that". "We need to be stricter in insisting that people wear face coverings in confined spaces where they are meeting people they don't usually meet." Face coverings have been compulsory in shops in Scotland since July 10. The masks are also compulsory on trains, buses and the London Underground, but the British Transport Police said it preferred to enforce the rules by "engaging with the public and explain the reasons why the protections are necessary and a lawful requirement". Fines have been issued to repeat offenders and some arrests have been made, a spokeswoman said. The Labour Party signalled its support for masks to become compulsory in shops, but not in bars and restaurants, which it said would be impractical. Lucy Powell, a shadow business minister, accused the Government of "showing a bit of leg" by suggesting it would enforce face mask guidelines, but not announcing any change of policy. "We do need to get a lot more confidence back in the system and if the mandatory wearing of face masks in shops will help to do that then we absolutely support it," she said. "We think the Government - instead of just showing a bit of leg occasionally on these things by briefing newspapers or saying things that are not clear guidance in press conferences as the Prime Minister did on Friday - [should] get some clarity. "That's really something that would get confidence back into the system and get people feeling that they can go to the shops, they can go to restaurants and go to bars." On Saturday, Mr Johnson was pictured wearing a mask during a visit to a pub and barber in his constituency. The Prime Minister chose to wear a light blue cloth mask that matched his party's branding. It was the first time Mr Johnson has been photographed wearing a mask, following concern that Government ministers were discouraging mask usage by not wearing them in public. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, was criticised for not wearing one while serving food at Wagamama in a photo opportunity following last week's budget announcement, while Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, did not cover his face while being photographed at a Brewdog pub. Donald Trump, the US President, was pictured in a face mask on an official visit for the first time over the weekend, while Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has been seen wearing a Government-branded face covering.
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| Maryland governor says GOP needs 'bigger tent' after Trump Posted: 12 Jul 2020 10:26 AM PDT  A Republican governor rumored to be eyeing a run for the White House in 2024 said Sunday that the GOP needs to be a "bigger tent party" after President Donald Trump leaves office. Maryland's Larry Hogan, who has been known to break with Trump, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he doesn't "know what the future holds in November." "But I know that the Republican Party is going to be looking at what happens after President Trump and whether that's in four months or four years," Hogan said.
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| Bavarian governor emerges as the front-runner to succeed Merkel as Chancellor in Germany Posted: 12 Jul 2020 10:03 AM PDT  A German politician until recently seen as a rank outsider to replace Angela Merkel as Chancellor is suddenly the frontrunner, according to a series of opinion polls. Markus Söder, state leader in Bavaria, is seen by the public as the best candidate for the job, with 64 percent of voters saying he is suited to the role, ahead of Social Democrat Olaf Scholz on 48 percent. Meanwhile a separate poll released over the weekend found that in a head-to-head against Mr Scholz or popular Green leader Robert Habeck, Mr Söder would come out on top. The other two leading conservative contenders, Friedrich Merz and Armin Laschet, both members of Ms Merkel's CDU, would lose to left-wing opposition in next year's election, the poll found. Mr Söder, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to the CDU, has been sending out mixed messages for weeks. While sticking to an insistence that his "place is always in Bavaria", he has said that the next Chancellor "needs to have proved himself during the pandemic." Mr Merz has had no official role during the crisis, while Mr Laschet is widely regarded to have botched the pandemic response in his state, North Rhine-Westphalia. The only conservative other than Mr Söder to have come out of the crisis well, Health Minister Jens Spahn, is supporting Mr Laschet's candidacy. Despite Bavaria's prominence as the wealthiest federal state, a Bavarian has never held power in Berlin. Bavarian candidates have only run for the Chancellery twice - in 1980 and 2002 - but on both occasions young CDU leaders gave way in the belief that they faced likely defeat to a sitting Social Democrat Chancellor. In 1980 Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was able to defeat Franz Josef Strauß when Helmut Kohl sat out the race, and in 2002 Gerhard Schröder won against Edmund Stoiber, with a young Ms Merkel choosing not to run. The circumstances in 2021 would be markedly different. The next candidate would take over from a popular Chancellor, with the party on close to 40 percent approval, far ahead of the Greens on 20 percent and the Social Democrats in the doldrums on 16 percent. Reputedly fiercely ambitious, the 53-year-old Mr Söder manoeuvred himself to power in Bavaria in the wake of the refugee crisis by lambasting Berlin for failing to stem the number of refugees crossing the border. While previously a polarising figure with a low national approval rating, his handling of the corona epidemic has seemed decisive. He was the first state leader who announced a comprehensive lockdown, pushing the rest of the country to follow suit. He has also made national headlines by offering a coronavirus test to any Bavarian who wishes to have one, a break from the national policy of targeted testing. With the Chancellery there for the taking, CDU politicians have failed to impress. Mr Merz, a business friendly candidate who left frontline politics at the start of the century, has struggled for attention during the pandemic. Mr Laschet, whose state has faced repeated local outbreaks, is seen as having pushed too aggressively for an end to the lockdown. END
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| Iran's Khamenei urges fight against 'tragic' virus resurgence Posted: 12 Jul 2020 09:24 AM PDT  Iran's supreme leader Sunday called the resurgence of the novel coronavirus in the country "truly tragic" and urged all citizens to help stem what has been the region's deadliest outbreak. "Let everyone play their part in the best way to break the chain of transmission in the short term and save the country," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a video conference with lawmakers, according to his office. Iran has been struggling to contain the outbreak since announcing its first cases in February, and has reported more than 12,800 deaths since then.
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| UN: Libyan coast guard intercepts 83 Europe-bound migrants Posted: 12 Jul 2020 09:23 AM PDT |
| In Commuting Stone's Sentence, Trump Goes Where Nixon Was Not Willing Posted: 12 Jul 2020 08:31 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump has said he learned lessons from President Richard Nixon's fall from grace, but in using the power of his office to keep his friend and adviser Roger Stone out of prison he has now crossed a line that even Nixon in the depths of Watergate dared not cross.For months, senior advisers warned Trump that it would be politically self-destructive if not ethically inappropriate to grant clemency to Stone, who was convicted of lying to protect the president. Even Attorney General William Barr, who had already overruled career prosecutors to reduce Stone's sentence, argued against commutation in recent weeks, officials said.But in casting aside their counsel on Friday, Trump indulged his own sense of grievance over precedent to reward an ally who kept silent. Once again, he challenged convention by intervening in the justice system undermining investigators looking into him and his associates, just days after the Supreme Court ruled that he went too far in claiming "absolute immunity" in two other inquiries.Democrats condemned the commutation of Stone's 40-month prison term and vowed to investigate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling the move an act of "staggering corruption," said she would pursue legislation to prevent the president from using his power to protect those convicted of a cover-up on his own behalf, although that would face serious constitutional hurdles and never be signed into law by Trump.Still, Trump's action was too much even for some Republican critics of the president, who called it an abuse of power intended to subvert justice. "Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president," Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah wrote on Twitter.Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania objected too, noting that Stone was "duly convicted" of obstructing a Republican-led congressional inquiry. "While I understand the frustration with the badly flawed Russia-collusion investigation, in my view, commuting Roger Stone's sentence is a mistake," he said. Any objections to his prosecution, he added, "should be resolved through the appeals process."Trump defended his decision after a day at his golf club Saturday. "Roger Stone was treated horribly," he told reporters. "Roger Stone was treated very unfairly." He would not say if he would pardon other campaign advisers, but said the investigators should be prosecuted. "Those are the people that should be in trouble."Trump had long publicly floated the possibility of clemency for allies targeted by prosecutors, including Stone, his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. That by itself was interpreted by critics as witness tampering, in effect promising intervention to allies if they refused to cooperate with investigators against him.By contrast, one associate who did cooperate, Michael Cohen, his former lawyer who arranged hush money for women claiming extramarital affairs with Trump, was locked up again on Thursday after federal authorities demanded that he agree not to publish a tell-all book in September, deeming it a violation of the terms of his early release.While Trump has granted clemency to political allies and others with ties to his White House, he had until now deferred to advisers urging him not to use it for Stone or others caught up in investigations of the president's campaign ties to Russia.Barr, who has assailed the Russia investigation and moved to drop the case against Flynn even though he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, nonetheless objected privately to a commutation for Stone, officials said. In an interview with ABC News this past week, Barr said clemency was "the president's prerogative" but called Stone's prosecution "righteous" and the final sentence "fair." Trump, who lately has styled himself as a "law and order" president, cut the Justice Department out of his decision, officials said.While Republican leaders kept quiet, some of the president's staunch supporters cheered him on, saying Trump was properly countering the excesses of overzealous prosecutors."In my view it would be justified if President @realDonaldTrump decided to commute Roger Stone's prison sentence," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter. "Mr. Stone is in his 70s and this was a nonviolent, first-time offense." (Stone is actually 67.)Under the Constitution, the president's pardon power is expansive, explicitly limited only in that it applies to federal crimes, not to state prosecutions or impeachments. As far back as the 19th century, the Supreme Court ruled that "Congress can neither limit the effect of his pardon nor exclude from its exercise any class of offenders" and as recently as 1974 said the president had "unfettered executive discretion" in granting clemency.While House Democrats vowed to investigate Trump's decision, some lawyers said Congress had no authority to. "I understand the implications for the justice system, but just as a matter of constitutional law, I don't see how they get into this," said Stanley Brand, a former House counsel under a Democratic speaker.Still, Brand and other lawyers said Stone's commutation could theoretically be interpreted as an impeachable offense if granted out of corrupt self-interest, although it seemed unlikely that the House would impeach Trump a second time."The president's pardon power does not extend to nullifying the rule of law for his own cronies to shield from public scrutiny his own obstruction of justice," said Harold Hongju Koh, a Yale Law School professor and lawyer in President Barack Obama's administration.The history of presidential clemency is replete with disputes over the propriety of relief from the nation's highest office.Just days before the 1992 election, Lawrence E. Walsh, the independent counsel investigating the Iran-Contra affair, filed a new indictment against former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger revealing notes contradicting President George H.W. Bush's account of his involvement. Bush considered that a dirty trick by Walsh to influence the election and indeed he was defeated days later.Bush responded the next month to what he considered an illegitimate prosecution by pardoning Weinberger and five others, prompting Walsh to complain that "the Iran-Contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed."President Bill Clinton issued a raft of more than 175 pardons or commutations on his last day in office in 2001, including for his own half brother Roger Clinton and several former administration officials. Also pardoned was Susan McDougal, a former business partner from Arkansas who spent 21 months behind bars for refusing to cooperate with the independent counsel Ken Starr's investigation of the Whitewater land venture.Unlike the case with Stone, Clinton acted only after McDougal had already served her sentence and been released. With the Whitewater investigation wrapped up, Clinton faced no legal risk at that point.The bigger furor arose over his pardon of financier Marc Rich, who had fled the country to avoid charges of evading $48 million in taxes and obtained clemency after his ex-wife, Denise Rich, a Democratic donor, contributed money to Clinton's presidential library. Democrats joined Republicans in condemning the pardon and Clinton later expressed regret because of "the terrible politics."Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor and Justice Department official under President George W. Bush, said those cases could be seen as parallels to Stone's commutation but pointed to the larger pattern under Trump. In 31 of his 36 pardons or commutations, he noted, Trump advanced his political goals or benefited someone with a personal connection, whose case had been brought to his attention by television or was someone he admired for their celebrity."This has happened before in a way," Goldsmith said. "But there has been nothing like Trump from a systematic perspective."John Q. Barrett, a former Iran-Contra prosecutor, said Trump's action was more objectionable than Bush's. "This is much, much more brazen and almost transactionally criminal," he said in an email. "Deferred payment for toughing it out/silence."One president who dared not use his pardon power in such a way was Nixon, although he considered it. Nixon's associates paid hush money and dangled the prospect of clemency to the Watergate burglars to buy their silence but that was off the table once the Watergate story broke open.Likewise, Nixon secretly promised to pardon three lieutenants, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell, the day after Senate hearings opened in 1973."I don't give a shit what comes out on you or John, even that poor, damn, dumb John Mitchell," he told Haldeman in a conversation captured on his taping system. "There is going to be a total pardon."Haldeman sensed danger. "Don't even say that," he warned."Forget you ever heard it," Nixon replied.He never followed through. Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell were indicted in 1974 and accused of making "offers of leniency, executive clemency, and other benefits" to obstruct justice. All three went to prison.Nixon resigned that August without using his pardon pen. But he received one himself a month later from President Gerald Ford, who wanted to spare the country the spectacle of a former president on trial, only to trigger a backlash that helped cost him the 1976 election."I think Nixon understood the power of the public and did his crimes in private, not in public, to avoid political consequences," said Jill Wine-Banks, a Watergate prosecutor. "He was right then. Look what happened to Ford. But Trump sees no consequences."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Florida reports largest, single-day increase in COVID cases Posted: 12 Jul 2020 08:31 AM PDT  Florida shattered the national record Sunday for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases as its daily average death toll continued to also rise. According to state Department of Health statistics, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded. California had the previous record of daily positive cases — 11,694, set on Wednesday.
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| Sudan scraps apostasy law and alcohol ban for non-Muslims Posted: 12 Jul 2020 08:04 AM PDT  The ban on alcohol is lifted for non-Muslims, while the apostasy law and public flogging are scrapped.
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| City mulls razing site where 1st Alaska flag flew Posted: 12 Jul 2020 07:48 AM PDT  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.
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| Trump rips private Texas border wall built by his supporters Posted: 12 Jul 2020 07:40 AM PDT  President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized a privately built border wall in South Texas that's showing signs of erosion months after going up, saying it was "only done to make me look bad," even though the wall was built after a months-long campaign by his supporters. The group that raised money online for the wall promoted itself as supporting Trump during a government shutdown that started in December 2018 because Congress wouldn't fund Trump's demands for a border wall. Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon joined the group's board and Trump ally Kris Kobach became its general counsel.
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| As virus rages in US, New York guards against another rise Posted: 12 Jul 2020 07:39 AM PDT  As coronavirus rages out of control in other parts of the U.S., New York is offering an example after taming the nation's deadliest outbreak this spring — while also trying to prepare in case another surge comes. New York's early experience is a ready-made blueprint for states now finding themselves swamped by the disease. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has offered advice, ventilators, masks, gowns and medicine to states dealing with spikes in cases and hospitalizations and, in some places, rising deaths.
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| Virus spread, not politics should guide schools, doctors say Posted: 12 Jul 2020 07:07 AM PDT  "There's nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous," she told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." Do students live with aged grandparents? Do infected children easily spread COVID-19 to each other and to adults?
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| 'Moving target': Schools deal with new plans, Trump demands Posted: 12 Jul 2020 05:52 AM PDT  Last week, President Donald Trump and his administration demanded schools fully reopen right away, calling for new guidance from federal health officials and slamming schools that want to bring students back for only a few days a week. Here is a look at what several school districts are planning and discussing. Like many schools, the Forth Worth Independent School District in Texas will give parents a choice between in-person and remote learning.
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| It's Trump's call on what the GOP convention will look like Posted: 12 Jul 2020 05:04 AM PDT  After months of insisting that the Republican National Convention go off as scheduled despite the pandemic, President Donald Trump is slowly coming to accept that the late August event will not be the four-night infomercial for his reelection that he had anticipated. After a venue change, spiking coronavirus cases and a sharp recession, Trump aides and allies are increasingly questioning whether it's worth the trouble, and some are advocating that the convention be scrapped altogether. Already the 2020 event has seen a venue change –- to more Trump-friendly territory in Jacksonville, Florida, from Charlotte, North Carolina -- and it has been drastically reduced in scope.
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| As US grapples with virus, Florida hits record case increase Posted: 12 Jul 2020 04:51 AM PDT  With the United States grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, Florida hit a grim milestone Sunday, shattering the national record for a state's largest single-day increase in positive cases. Deaths from the virus have also been rising in the U.S., especially in the South and West, though still well below the heights hit in April, according to a recent Associated Press analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
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| Lebanese Christian cleric seen to criticise Hezbollah, allies over crisis Posted: 12 Jul 2020 04:43 AM PDT |
| Trump, Biden try to outdo each other on tough talk on China Posted: 12 Jul 2020 04:42 AM PDT  China has fast become a top election issue as President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden engage in a verbal brawl over who's better at playing the tough guy against Beijing. The Trump campaign put out ads showing Biden toasting China's Xi Jinping, even though Trump did just that with Xi in Asia and hosted the Chinese leader at his Florida club. Spots from the Biden campaign feature Trump playing down the coronavirus and praising Xi for being transparent about the pandemic, even though it's clear China hid details of the outbreak from the world.
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| Churches amid the pandemic: Some outbreaks, many challenges Posted: 12 Jul 2020 04:03 AM PDT  Meat packing plants, prisons and nursing homes are known hot spots. The vast majority of these churches have cooperated with health authorities and successfully protected their congregations. "If we wanted to have zero risks, the safest thing would be to never open our doors," said prominent Dallas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress.
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| Iran blames bad communication, alignment for jet shootdown Posted: 12 Jul 2020 03:34 AM PDT  A misaligned missile battery, miscommunication between troops and their commanders and a decision to fire without authorization all led to Iran's Revolutionary Guard shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner in January, killing all 176 people on board, a new report says. The report released late Saturday by Iran's Civil Aviation Organization comes months after the Jan. 8 crash near Tehran. Authorities had initially denied responsibility, only changing course days later after Western nations presented extensive evidence that Iran had shot down the plane.
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| Iran says misaligned radar led to Ukrainian jet downing Posted: 12 Jul 2020 03:08 AM PDT  Iran said that the misalignment of an air defence unit's radar system was the key "human error" that led to the accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January. "A failure occurred due to a human error in following the procedure" for aligning the radar, causing a "107-degree error" in the system, the Iranian Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) said in a report late Saturday. This error "initiated a hazard chain" that saw further errors committed in the minutes before the plane was shot down, said the CAO document, presented as a "factual report" and not as the final report on the accident investigation.
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| Libyan forces set conditions for lifting oil blockade Posted: 12 Jul 2020 01:40 AM PDT |
| Nearly 600,000 vote in Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries Posted: 12 Jul 2020 12:13 AM PDT  Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents turned up over the weekend to vote in an unofficial primary election held by the city's pro-democracy camp as it gears up to field candidates for an upcoming legislative poll. The primaries were held two weeks after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the semi-autonomous territory in a move widely seen as chipping away at the "one country, two systems" framework under which Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997. It was passed in response to last year's massive protests calling for greater democracy and more police accountability.
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| Exit poll show Poland's Duda leading in presidential runoff Posted: 11 Jul 2020 10:40 PM PDT  A late exit poll in Poland's presidential runoff Sunday showed the conservative, populist incumbent, Andrzej Duda, leading against the liberal, pro-Europe mayor of Warsaw, but with the race still too close to call. It appeared to be the closest election in Poland's history, reflecting the deep divisions in this European Union nation. The late exit poll by the Ipsos institute showed Duda with 50.8% of the vote and challenger Rafal Trzaskowski with 49.2%.
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| As beach towns open, businesses are short foreign workers Posted: 11 Jul 2020 10:02 PM PDT  At this time of the year, The Friendly Fisherman on Cape Cod is usually bustling with foreign students clearing tables and helping prepare orders of clam strips or fish and chips. "It's really disturbing because we are really busy," said Demetri. The Trump administration announced last month that it was extending a ban on green cards and adding many temporary visas to the freeze, including J-1 cultural exchange visas and H-2B visas.
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| Dengue prevention efforts stifled by coronavirus pandemic Posted: 11 Jul 2020 09:54 PM PDT  To slow the spread of the coronavirus, governments issued lockdowns to keep people at home. In Brazil, where there are over 1.6 million COVID-19 infections, at least 1.1 million cases of dengue have been reported, with nearly 400 deaths, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Dengue cases are likely to rise soon with the start of seasonal rains in Latin American countries like Cuba, Chile and Costa Rica, as well as the South Asian countries of India and Pakistan.
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| US Navy welcomes 1st Black female Tactical Aircraft pilot Posted: 11 Jul 2020 06:44 PM PDT |
| 2 officers, suspect killed in Texas border town shooting Posted: 11 Jul 2020 05:32 PM PDT  Two police officers were shot and killed Saturday by a suspect who later fatally shot himself in a South Texas border town after responding to a domestic disturbance call, authorities said. McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez identified the slain officers as Edelmiro Garza, 45, and Ismael Chavez, 39. Garza was an officer with the police department for more than eight years while Chavez had over two years of experience.
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