| US aircraft carriers conduct drills in South China Sea Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Two US aircraft carriers have carried out drills in the South China Sea, a US Navy spokesman said Saturday, after the Pentagon expressed concerns over Chinese military exercises around a disputed archipelago. The USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan conducted dual carrier operations in the waterway to "support a free and open Indo-Pacific," the spokesman said. The drills came as the Pentagon said it was "concerned" about Chinese military exercises in the South China Sea, warning the manoeuvres will "further destabilise" the region.
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| Soaring U.S. coronavirus cases, hospitalizations overshadow July 4 celebrations Posted: 05 Jul 2020 07:30 AM PDT  In the first four days of July alone, 15 states have reported record increases in new cases of COVID-19, which has infected nearly 3 million Americans and killed about 130,000, according to a Reuters tally. Florida's cases have risen by over 10,000 for three out of the last four days, including climbing by 10,059 on Sunday, surpassing the highest daily tally reported by any European country during the height of the coronavirus outbreak there. Cases are also soaring in Arizona, California and Texas and trending upwards in Midwest states that once had infections declining such as Iowa, Ohio and Michigan, according to a Reuters analysis of how much cases rose in the past two weeks compared with the prior two weeks.
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| Florida breaks record with 11,458 new virus cases. Miami-Dade and Broward hit highs, too Posted: 04 Jul 2020 08:33 AM PDT  Saturday's update on new confirmed COVID-19 cases from the Florida Department of Health reflected the state, Miami-Dade and Broward record new single-day highs, rocketing past previous peaks.
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| To send a message to China, President Trump should visit Taiwan Posted: 05 Jul 2020 12:15 AM PDT  With the loss of Hong Kong to China, Trump should visit Taiwan to show that the U.S. is serious about advancing its interests and values in the region.
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| Biden evokes MLK and George Floyd in Fourth of July message Posted: 04 Jul 2020 09:56 AM PDT  Biden's video message came hours after President Trump accused protesters who have pushed for racial justice of engaging in a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history."
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| Stimulus money could pose dilemmas in nursing homes Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:30 AM PDT  Nursing home residents are among the Americans getting $1,200 checks as part of the U.S. government's plan to revive the economy. The situation underscores the vulnerability of many elderly residents and potential confusion about what homes can and can't do with residents' money. One worry is that nursing homes could pressure residents to use the checks to pay outstanding balances.
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| Bellagio error leads to one of biggest sports betting losses in Las Vegas history Posted: 05 Jul 2020 08:47 AM PDT  Almost a quarter of a million dollars in winning wagers reportedly placed at MGM Resorts last Sunday may have been the largest sportsbook loss in the history of Las Vegas.The bets were made after the sporting events had started.
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| Constitutional changes are the 'right thing' for Russia: Putin Posted: 05 Jul 2020 09:51 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday constitutional amendments approved in a nationwide vote created the conditions for Russia's "progressive development" for decades to come. One of the changes approved in the week-long vote that ended on July 1 makes it possible for Putin to seek two more terms as president and, if re-elected, to stay in power until 2036. "They will strengthen our nationhood and create conditions for the progressive development of our country for decades to come," he said.
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| Rockets target US interests despite arrests: Iraq military Posted: 05 Jul 2020 03:15 AM PDT  Two rocket attacks targeted American diplomatic and military installations overnight, Iraq's security forces said Sunday, a little over a week since unprecedented arrests prevented a similar incident. Since October, US diplomats and troops across Iraq have been targeted by around three dozen missile attacks which Washington has blamed on pro-Iranian armed factions. In the first move of its kind, elite Iraqi troops in late June arrested more than a dozen Tehran-backed fighters who were allegedly planning a new attack on Baghdad's Green Zone, home to the US and other foreign embassies.
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| Applebee’s employee dies in parking lot while celebrating July 4, Texas police say Posted: 05 Jul 2020 09:26 AM PDT  Workers had just closed the restaurant for the night, police say.
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| A Nigerian Instagram star conspired to launder millions of dollars while flaunting his 'extravagant lifestyle' on social media, prosecutors allege Posted: 04 Jul 2020 12:26 PM PDT  Alleged scammer, "Ray Hushpuppi," 37, is facing charges related to his role as "key player in a large, transnational conspiracy," prosecutors said.
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| Rare case of brain-destroying amoeba confirmed in Florida Posted: 05 Jul 2020 11:24 AM PDT  Naegleria fowleri is contacted when contaminated water enters through a person's nose and is found in warm freshwater.
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| Letters to the Editor: The Supreme Court futher erodes the wall between church and state Posted: 05 Jul 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Taxpayer money should never subsidize tuition at private religious schools, but the Supreme Court wrongly believes otherwise.
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| An asymptomatic coronavirus carrier infected an apartment neighbor without sharing the same space. A study blames the building's elevator buttons. Posted: 05 Jul 2020 07:29 AM PDT  A woman infected her downstairs neighbor even though the two never came into close contact. Transmission likely occurred in the elevator.
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| Trump sows division at Mount Rushmore speech as U.S. grapples with crises Posted: 04 Jul 2020 08:41 AM PDT  President Trump made a direct appeal to disaffected white voters four months before Election Day.
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| Hong Kong officials disappointed at Canada's move to suspend extradition pact Posted: 03 Jul 2020 10:00 PM PDT  Senior officials in Hong Kong said on Saturday they were "very disappointed" at Canada's decision to suspend its extradition treaty with the Chinese-ruled city and again slammed Washington for "interfering" in its affairs. Beijing imposed a new national security law this week on the former British colony, despite protests from Hong Kong residents and Western nations, setting China's freest city and a major financial hub on a more authoritarian track. "The Canadian government needs to explain to the rule of law, and explain to the world, why it allows fugitives not to bear their legal responsibilities," Hong Kong's security chief, John Lee, told a radio programme on Saturday.
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| The Grand Old Man of India who became Britain's first Asian MP Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:55 PM PDT  Indian-born Dadabhai Naoroji was the first Asian to sit in the House of Commons.
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| Bolton: Trump claim he wasn’t told of Russia bounty report is 'not how system works’ Posted: 05 Jul 2020 11:55 AM PDT  Ex-national security adviser also says any decision to withhold intelligence would 'certainly not' be 'made only by the briefer' * Trump uses Fourth of July to stoke division on virus and raceDonald Trump's claim not to have been briefed about intelligence suggesting Russia paid Taliban-linked militants to kill US soldiers is "just not the way the system works", former national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday.Bolton was appearing on Face the Nation, the Sunday talk show from ViacomCBS, the communications giant which owns Simon & Schuster, the publisher which put out Bolton's Trump White House memoir, The Room Where It Happened, over the president's objection.Elsewhere, former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice said Bolton would have known about the bounties intelligence while he was in the role, which he left in September 2019, and would therefore have briefed Trump himself."I don't buy this story that he was never briefed," Rice told NBC's Meet The Press. "I believe that … when the information first came to light in 2019, my successor, John Bolton, would have walked straight into the Oval Office, as I would have, and informed the president of this intelligence."Bolton's book, a tell-all which sold nearly 800,000 copies in its first week in stores, is named for the Oval Office and contains numerous shocking descriptions of Trump's behaviour. But it does not mention the alleged bounties plot."I'm not going to disclose classified information," Bolton told CBS. "I've got the struggle with the president trying to repress my book on that score already."Bolton submitted his book to a national security review but was scolded by a federal judge for "likely publishing classified materials", "gambling with the national security of the United States" and "exposing … himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability".On Sunday, Bolton said: "I will say this. All intelligence is distributed along the spectrum of uncertainty. And this intelligence in 2020, by the administration's own admission, was deemed credible enough to give to our allies. So the notion that you only give the really completely 100% verified intelligence to the president would mean you give him almost nothing. And that's just not the way the system works."The existence of intelligence about a bounties plot, which Russia has denied, was first reported by the New York Times then confirmed by other outlets. Trump attacked the Times on Twitter this weekend.Amid inconsistent White House explanations for Trump's supposed ignorance on the matter, current national security adviser Robert O'Brien said information was withheld by a CIA official, even though it was included in the president's daily brief."The president's career CIA briefer decided not to brief him because it was unverified intelligence," O'Brien told Fox News, adding: "She made that call and, you know what, I think she made the right call, so I'm not going to criticize her. And knowing the facts that I know now, I stand behind that call."O'Brien was widely criticised. Ned Price, a former CIA analyst, told the Guardian: "This is the same scapegoating play that the White House ran in the coronavirus context – blaming Trump's intelligence briefer for something that is chiefly and fundamentally a failing of the White House staff."Bolton said any decision to withhold intelligence would "certainly not" be "made only by the briefer who briefs the president twice a week. That's a decision that at least when I was there, would have been made by the director of national intelligence, the director of the CIA, myself and the briefer together."Though his book is a brutal and extensive anatomisation of Trump's personality and fitness or otherwise for office, Bolton sidestepped a chance to criticise O'Brien, saying: "I don't want to make this a matter of personalities."Nor would he say if he had known of the bounties intelligence or not."What was made public in 2018," he said, "was Russian assistance to the Taliban, and that's been known for some time. That alone is troubling."What is particularly troubling, if true, is this latest information that they were … providing compensation for killing Americans. And that is the kind of thing that you go to the president on and say, 'Look … we may not know everything on this, but a nuclear power is reportedly providing bounties to kill Americans.'"That's the kind of thing you need to have in the president's view so that he can think about it as he develops – well, at least as normal presidents develop strategy to handle Russia, to handle Afghanistan."
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| A white man, woman vandalized a Black Lives Matter mural on July 4, called racism 'a leftist lie,' California police say Posted: 05 Jul 2020 03:59 PM PDT  Police are looking for two white people who vandalized a Black Lives Matter mural in downtown Martinez, California, on the Fourth of July.
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| This Aircraft Carrier Was Built for Waging War During World War II. It Made History a Different Way. Posted: 05 Jul 2020 10:30 AM PDT  Today the supercarrier isn't really such a novel concept, but in the early Cold War, this wasn't so readily apparent. This carrier changed that.
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| Third highest single-day total, 10,059, pushes Florida past 200,000 COVID-19 cases Posted: 05 Jul 2020 09:28 AM PDT  It took three months, from early March to June 22, for Florida to cross 100,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases.
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| Ghislaine Maxwell may 'never' speak about Prince Andrew and his ties to her and Epstein, her friend told the BBC Posted: 04 Jul 2020 12:31 PM PDT  A friend of Maxwell told the BBC on Saturday that the socialite saw the prince as a friend and "she was never, ever, going to say anything about him."
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| Aggressive anti-mask customers are forcing some restaurants to shut dining rooms to protect employees from abuse Posted: 05 Jul 2020 07:30 AM PDT  Some restaurants are shutting down or closing dining rooms back up, after employees faced harassment and violence from anti-mask customers.
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| COVID-19 treatments enter new testing phase as cases surge in U.S. Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Research on therapeutics is accelerating as cases of COVID-19 surge across the United States.
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| Berlin metro to complete change of derogatory station name by year-end Posted: 04 Jul 2020 08:32 AM PDT  Berlin's public transport company BVG said on Saturday that completing the renaming of a city centre metro station with a name based on a derogatory word for Black people will take until the end of the year. "Mohrenstrasse" metro station literally means Moor Street, using the medieval term for people from North Africa. BVG said on Friday it would change the station name, amid a worldwide reckoning with buried legacies of racism and colonial crimes underpinning many western societies, sparked by the death in the United States of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a police officer.
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| Katsina: The motorcycle bandits terrorising northern Nigeria Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:31 PM PDT  Insecurity has worsened in the north-west as kidnapping for ransom becomes a lucrative trade.
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| Trump and Barr are making false claims about mail-in ballots to scare us out of voting Posted: 04 Jul 2020 01:45 PM PDT  The one thing most likely to undercut public confidence in the integrity of the ballot is the false narrative Trump and Barr are peddling.
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| Immigrant workers at Michigan greenhouse: We were cheated, tricked into deportation Posted: 05 Jul 2020 12:25 PM PDT  Migrants from Mexico came to Michigan to work at a greenhouse, but were cheated of pay and tricked into being detained, according to a lawsuit.
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| Predominantly Black armed protesters march through Confederate memorial park in Georgia Posted: 05 Jul 2020 08:35 AM PDT  A predominantly Black group of heavily armed protesters marched through Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta on Saturday, calling for removal of the giant Confederate rock carving at the site that civil rights activists consider a monument to racism.
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| Protesters mourn the killing of a Black transgender woman in Pompano Beach Posted: 05 Jul 2020 12:47 PM PDT  Following the shooting death of a Black transgender woman in South Florida on Friday, about 25 people gathered Sunday afternoon in Pompano Beach to mourn her death.
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| 'We call them land yachts': The wealthy are spending millions to travel in luxury RVs this summer, and it's reshaping the entire look of high-end travel Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:05 AM PDT  With coronavirus travel restrictions still in place, interest in luxury RVs is surging, and elite travelers are willing to pay top dollar for them.
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| Fourth of July: fears of the coronavirus second wave did not prevent revelers in the US and UK hitting the beaches and the bars Posted: 05 Jul 2020 02:52 AM PDT  US Independence Day and England's end of lockdown "Super Saturday" meant social distancing was abandoned amid the celebrations.
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| Keeping COVID-19 outside of camps is a near impossible challenge Posted: 05 Jul 2020 05:25 AM PDT  Campers and staff promise to isolate before they arrive at camp but in several cases the pandemic has arrived with them.
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| India coronavirus: Questions over death of man 'turned away by 18 hospitals' Posted: 03 Jul 2020 08:57 PM PDT  Bhawarlal Sujani breathed his last at the doorstep of a hospital that had refused to admit him.
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| ‘We all need to come together’: Ernst distances herself from Trump’s weekend rhetoric Posted: 05 Jul 2020 09:44 AM PDT  The Iowa senator said many of the nation's protesters are peaceful.
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| Taj Mahal remains shut as India reports record daily virus cases Posted: 05 Jul 2020 05:08 PM PDT  India's top tourist attraction the Taj Mahal will remain shut, officials said Sunday, as the vast nation registered a record daily number of coronavirus cases and opened a sprawling treatment centre in the capital to fight the pandemic. The health ministry reported just under 25,000 cases and 613 deaths in 24 hours -- the biggest daily spike since the first case was detected in late January. The surge took India's total tally to more than 673,000 cases and 19,268 deaths, pulling the country closer to surpassing badly-hit Russia, the world's third-most infected nation.
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| World's largest temporary COVID-19 hospital opens Posted: 05 Jul 2020 09:04 AM PDT 
With a capacity of 10,000 beds, the world's largest temporary COVID-19 hospital opened in India on Sunday (July 5) as the country battles with accelerating cases of the respiratory disease. The hospital was inaugurated in New Delhi on the same day that the health ministry reported a record single-day spike of 24,850 new cases and more than 600 deaths. India is the fourth worst affected country globally with more than 673,000 cases and is facing another challenge with predicted heavy rains. In Mumbai, monsoon rains have caused waterlogging in many parts of the city which could scuttle containment efforts by causing a further rise in infections, according to experts. India has imposed one of the toughest lockdowns in the world but is now gradually easing restrictions that have left tens of thousands of people without work. On Monday (July 7), the Taj Mahal and other monuments will be reopened though visitors to the mausoleum will have to wear masks at all times, keep their distance and are banned from touching the glistening marble surfaces.
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| How America Captured a Russian MiG-15 Fighter (Thanks, North Korea) Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:30 AM PDT  This was Operation Moolah.
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| Two French ex-spies on trial accused of espionage for China Posted: 05 Jul 2020 08:29 AM PDT  In a case that could be from a spy thriller, two former French intelligence agents go on trial on Monday accused of having passed on secrets to a foreign power. While French officials have been at pains to avoid releasing details of the affair, the pair are accused of working for China, according to several media reports. Pierre-Marie H. and Henri M. will appear in a special court accused of "delivering information to a foreign power" and "damaging the fundamental interests of the nation". Both men worked for France's foreign intelligence service, the DGSE. They face 15 years in prison if convicted. Both men, now retired, were charged and detained in December 2017, although Pierre-Marie H. has since been released on bail. His wife, Laurence H., also faces trial, accused of "concealment of property derived from intelligence with a foreign power likely to harm the fundamental interests of the nation". The court that tries them will be made up exclusively of professional magistrates, and given the sensitive nature of the case, will probably be tried behind closed doors. When the story was finally revealed in May 2018, French officials described it as an "extremely serious" case. The then armed forces minister Florence Parly said that the two were suspected of having committed what could be described as "treasonous" acts that could have jeopardised national defence secrets. It was the DGSE itself that detected the leak and presented its findings to prosecutors, said the defence ministry. Officials have said little about the details of the case or even for which country they were allegedly working. According to several media reports however, the two men, colleagues at the DGSE in the 1990s, were working for China. In 1997, Henri M. was appointed as the DGSE's man in Beijing, where he was the second secretary at the embassy. He was recalled early in 1998 after having had an affair with the ambassador's Chinese interpreter. He retired a few years later and returned to China in 2003, where he married the former interpreter, setting up home on Hainan island in southern China. Pierre-Marie H., who had never been posted abroad, was arrested at Zurich airport carrying cash after having met a Chinese contact on an Indian Ocean island, according to media reports. Apart from the China connection, AFP has obtained no independent information linking the two men. While there have been a number of different theories put forward, both men appear to have been under surveillance for several months before being arrested. Journalist Franck Renaud covered the Henri M. affair in his book on the French diplomatic service, "Les Diplomates". During the 1990s, when Henri M. served in Beijing, tensions were running high between China and France, in the wake of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and the 1991 sale of French frigates to Taiwan, he said. "It's an affair that has caused more than a few problems to the DGSE," which had to repatriate operatives in China at the time, Renaud told AFP. The verdict is due to be handed down on July 10.
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| China braces for more storms; 121 dead or missing this year Posted: 04 Jul 2020 10:45 PM PDT  A wide swath of southern China braced Sunday for more seasonal rains and flooding that state media said has already left more than 120 people dead or missing this year. The National Meteorological Center raised the weather alert to yellow Sunday morning, the third highest of four levels, for more than half a dozen provinces and the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing. Heavy to torrential rains were forecast into Monday night.
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| Strip club employees, customers hit with coronavirus outbreak, Michigan officials say Posted: 05 Jul 2020 02:12 PM PDT  The outbreak comes as more than 150 cases of coronavirus have been linked to a bar in a Michigan college town.
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| Fact check: Common cold does not produce positive coronavirus test Posted: 05 Jul 2020 10:45 AM PDT  People are misinterpreting COVID-19 viral testing for antibodies testing, falsely claiming colds are responsible for positive coronavirus tests.
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| You have no idea they're sick. But contracting the virus could be especially lethal for them. Posted: 04 Jul 2020 09:11 AM PDT  "When I look at people going out into the public now, what I see is the prolonged time that I'm not going to get to be with my dad while he is losing his memory."
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| Trump wants a park for statues of 'American heroes.' Just how might that work? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:58 PM PDT  Against a backdrop of tensions over Confederate monuments, Trump's executive order hits at a main theme of his reelection campaign.
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| Coronavirus: Mexico's death toll passes 30,000 Posted: 05 Jul 2020 12:19 AM PDT  The country now has the world's fifth-highest number of Covid-19 deaths, more than France.
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| City in China's Inner Mongolia warns after suspected bubonic plague case Posted: 05 Jul 2020 07:20 AM PDT |
