Trump tries to overrule his own scientists — again
President Donald Trump’s attack on his own health experts’ guidance for safely reopening schools cracked open for public display a power struggle within the administration that has been building for months. Trump blasted the guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday...
Trump says he expects to wear a mask when he visits military hospital
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump, who has avoided being seen wearing a face covering in public, said on Thursday he expects to wear a mask when he next visits U.S. troops at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington. “I expect...
U.S. sets one-day record with more than 60,500 COVID cases; Americans divided
(Reuters) – More than 60,500 new COVID-19 infections were reported across the United States on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, setting a one-day record as weary Americans were told to take new precautions and the pandemic becomes increasingly politicized.The total represents a slight rise...
FBI director: China is ‘greatest threat’ to US
The director of the FBI has said that acts of espionage and theft by China’s government pose the “greatest long-term threat” to the future of the US. Speaking to the Hudson Institute in Washington, Christopher Wray described a multi-pronged disruption campaign. He said China had...
Israel had the coronavirus under control. What happened?
For months, Israel appeared to be an international model of coronavirus success. With early travel restrictions and sweeping closures, the Startup Nation had largely contained the spread of Covid-19, recording a mortality rate that was far better than many countries in the Western world. As...
Coronavirus lockdown measures extended in Colombia
Colombia’s President Ivan Duque extended lockdown measures until at least August 1, as the country reported a record number of new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. The announcement on Colombian television came as the country registered 149 new coronavirus deaths and 4,213 new coronavirus cases in...
Australian Prime Minister says coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne is serious but not surprising
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the latest coronavirus outbreak in the city of Melbourne is “particularly serious” but added that it is “not surprising and that’s why we need to continue to focus on our effort and work together.” “We will prevail and we...
Latin America and the Caribbean surpass 3 million Covid-19 cases
Latin American and Caribbean countries have recorded more than 3 million Covid-19 cases combined as of Tuesday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. The following 33 countries are included in this region: Brazil; Peru; Chile; Mexico; Ecuador; Colombia; Argentina–Dominican Republic; Panama; Bolivia; Guatemala; Honduras; Haiti;...
Trump leans into old failures in push to reopen schools as virus roars
President Donald Trump’s new push to open schools shows he’s learned nothing from calamities sparked by his demands for premature state openings. The coronavirus pandemic is again rearing out of control, rising in a majority of states as a new warning comes that more than...
Trump has officially begun to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization as pandemic spikes
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has officially begun to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grip the globe and infections spike in many states across the U.S. Congress received formal notification of the decision on...
U.S. tops 3 million known infections as coronavirus surges
HOUSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. coronavirus outbreak crossed a grim milestone of over 3 million confirmed cases on Tuesday as more states reported record numbers of new infections, and Florida faced an impending shortage of intensive care unit hospital beds. Authorities have reported alarming upswings...
Backing anti-racism protests, renowned intellectuals lament intolerance ‘on all sides’
(Reuters) – More than 150 world renowned academics, writers and artists signed a letter published on Tuesday expressing support for global anti-racism protests while lamenting an “intolerant climate that has set in on all sides”. American linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, veteran women’s rights campaigner...
UK PM criticized for saying “too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures” in pandemic
British social care institutions have criticized Boris Johnson’s latest comments on the Covid-19 deaths in the country’s care homes. The UK Prime Minister said Monday that during the coronavirus outbreak, “too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in a way that they could...
India now has more than 700,000 coronavirus cases and 20,000 deaths
India recorded 22,252 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, raising the country’s total to 719,665 confirmed cases and 20,160 deaths, according to the health ministry. This is the fifth consecutive day that the daily new number of infections has increased by more than 20,000 in India....
The US surpasses 130,000 deaths from coronavirus
The United States reported 44,953 new coronavirus cases and 325 new deaths today, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That raises the national total to 2,936,077 cases and 130,285 related deaths. The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US...
Face masks are now mandatory in Iran, as coronavirus cases continue to rise
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered the mandatory wearing of face masks in public after coronavirus cases continued to rise in recent weeks. Rouhani announced the new measure on Saturday, which came into effect on Sunday, according to the Iranian state news agency, IRNA. He...
Mexico records nearly 5,000 new cases in 24 hours
Mexico’s health ministry reported 480 more Covid-19 deaths on Monday, bringing the country’s death toll to 31,119. The ministry also recorded 4,902 newly confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 261,750 cases. On Saturday, Mexico surpassed France’s death toll from...
Brazil president attended party with US ambassador without masks or social distancing
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attended a July 4th celebration event with Todd Chapman, the US Ambassador to Brazil, shortly before getting tested for coronavirus. The event took place on Saturday, according to a photo posted that day to the President’s official Facebook page. In the...
Fauci warns: “We are still knee-deep in the first wave of this”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US expert on infectious disease and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, warned on Monday that the country was facing a “serious situation” in part due to reopening too quickly. “We were averaging about 20,000 new cases a...
In Brazil, 620 people died of coronavirus in one day, as bars and restaurants reopen
On Monday, Brazil reported 620 new deaths from coronavirus, raising the country’s death toll to 65,487. Brazil’s health ministry also recorded 20,229 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total to 1,623,284 cases. The new figures come as cities around the country...
Coronavirus in Australia: Melbourne returns to lockdown as cases surge
Five million residents of the Australian city of Melbourne have been told to stay at home for six weeks, amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews announced the lockdown after the state saw 191 new infections, its highest daily number since...
Peru surpasses 300,000 coronavirus cases
Peru’s Ministry of Health reported 3,635 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 302,718. More than half of Peru’s cases have been reported in the capital Lima, with 165,307 coronavirus cases to date. The Ministry of Health also confirmed 11,302 hospitalizations and 10,589 deaths across the country. Over the past week, Peru has...
The Taj Mahal will stay shut while monuments across India reopen
India’s iconic Taj Mahal will remain closed, even as other monuments reopen around the country, due to the high risk of coronavirus, announced the Agra city district magistrate on Sunday. All centrally protected monuments are reopening today, with new rules to prioritize “sanitation, social distancing...
India now has the third highest number of coronavirus cases in the world
On Monday, India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced 24,248 new coronavirus cases recorded in the past 24 hours, raising the national total to 697,413 cases. With the new figures, India surged past Russia’s 680,000 total cases to become the third worst-hit nation globally....
Brazil tops 1.6 million coronavirus cases, nears 65,000 deaths
Brazil’s health ministry recorded 26,051 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 1,603,055 confirmed cases. Brazil also reported 602 new related deaths, bringing the death toll to 64,867. The new figures come as Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, prepares to reopen bars,...
Coronavirus: Louvre reopens with masks and one-way system
The Louvre museum has reopened in Paris after its closure nearly four months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic. Masks are compulsory, a one-way system is in place and numbers of visitors will be controlled. There will also be a spaced queue to view Leonardo...
Coronavirus: Australia to close Victoria-New South Wales border
The border between Australia’s two most populous states, Victoria and New South Wales (NSW), is to close after a spike in Covid-19 cases in Melbourne. The outbreak in Victoria’s capital has seen hundreds of cases in the past two weeks – more than 95% of...
Coronavirus: India overtakes Russia in Covid-19 cases
India has recorded more than 24,000 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking its total above that of Russia. The country now has the third-largest number of confirmed cases in the world, 697,413. There have been 19,693 deaths. The latest surge in...
Europe is distancing itself from the US
London (CNN)For more than 70 years, the transatlantic alliance has served as the unshakable foundation of European stability and underpinned the values of the US-led Western order. In 2020, it appears that relationship is being rethought on both sides of the Atlantic. Earlier this week,...
Trump Fundraiser Kimberly Guilfoyle Tests Positive For COVID-19
Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top Trump campaign official and the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, according to reports by CNN and The New York Times. Though Guilfoyle was reportedly not experiencing symptoms, she underwent a test in South Dakota as...