Canton

'Too many are selfish': US nears 5 million virus cases

Big house parties and weddings, summer camps, concerts, crowded bars and restaurants, shopping trips without masks — Americans' resistance to curbs on everyday life is seen as a key reason the U.S. has racked up more confirmed coronavirus deaths and infections by far than any other country. The nation has recorded more than 155,000 dead in a little more than six months and is fast approaching an almost off-the-charts 5 million COVID-19 infections. Public health experts say such behavior has been compounded by confusing and inconsistent guidance from politicians and a patchwork quilt of approaches to containing the scourge by county, state and federal governments.

Tuesday evening news briefing: Is a second wave sweeping Europe?

If you want to receive twice-daily briefings like this by email, sign up to the Front Page newsletter here. For two-minute audio updates, try The Briefing - on podcasts, smart speakers and WhatsApp. As cases rise, is a second wave sweeping over Europe? It had been hailed as a model for tackling coronavirus. But now Germany is already contending with a second wave of the coronavirus and risks squandering its early success by flouting social distancing rules, the head of the German doctors' union has said. The number of daily confirmed cases has ticked up steadily in recent weeks, with health experts warning lax adherence to hygiene and distancing rules among some of the public is spreading the virus across communities. It follows an uptick in cases in other countries, including Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg. So could the dark days of March and April be about to return across Europe - and could the UK be next? These four charts analyse whether the continent is beginning to see a second wave of coronavirus. Meanwhile, new outbreaks are pushing Australia - once thought to be a virus safe haven - alongside the UK for daily deaths. So where did it go wrong? Giovanni Torre reveals how one of the country's state's virus strategy unravelled with sex scandals and assaults on police. In the UK, the second wave concern is focused on schools, after a Lancet study warning that it could result in a second coronavirus wave more than twice the size of the first. Local government minister Simon Clarke said this morning that schools will reopen "in full" this autumn, adding: "That is not up for debate." Meanwhile, teaching unions have demanded an "alternative strategy" to reopening schools in September as they say they need official guidance on how to proceed if there is a second lockdown. Headteachers said that while they fully support the "ambition" to get all children back into the classroom at the start of next academic year, a "Plan B" is urgently needed in case this is not possible. Tui cancels more holidays but easyJet expands flights Europe's largest tour operator Tui has extended the cancellation of holidays to Portugal until August 17, as the country remains excluded from the Government's "safe" list of countries that does not require holidaymakers to quarantine on their return. Customers with trips booked between August 17 and 30, which are still yet to be scrapped, are also able to cancel and receive a full cash refund, or amend their holiday to a later date free of charge. The company has also cancelled all holidays to Spain until August 9. In contrast, easyJet has expanded its summer flight schedule after passenger demand exceeded expectations following the lifting of lockdown restrictions. To offer some inspiration for those willing to gamble on the ever changing situation, Greg Dickinson ranks the best quarantine-free countries for a last-minute holiday. Royals' public show of unity with Meghan after book The Queen and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have wished the Duchess of Sussex a happy 39th birthday in a public show of unity after their fractured relationships were laid bare in a new biography. Buckingham Palace posted a photograph on Twitter of the Queen, 94, and the Duchess on a visit to Chester in 2018 - their first joint engagement. It wrote, alongside pictures of a birthday cake and a balloon: "Wishing The Duchess of Sussex a very happy birthday!" Barely 20 minutes later, the Cambridges added their own good wishes. Take a look at a gallery of Meghan's best jewellery moments and Anna Tyzack reveals why at 39, the Duchess's tough year may have only just started. At a glance: Latest coronavirus headlines Pizza Express | Chain to close 67 restaurants as pandemic bites Contraceptive pill | 'Why women less likely to develop serious Covid' Towns overwhelmed | Influx of British tourists taking staycation Maskless bus passengers | Unions demand undercover police Covid kills Cupid | French singles say 'non' to sex with strangers Also in the news: Today's other headlines Brexit divorce deal | The European Commission has rejected calls for the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement to be rewritten after senior Tories complained it could leave the UK liable for £160 billion of unpaid loans. Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith claimed the EU "want our money and they want to stop us being a competitor", adding "the Withdrawal Agreement we signed last year sadly helps them". Breaking news | Explosion rocks Lebanese capital Beirut Pc Andrew Harper | Jail terms of killers referred to Attorney General Plane crash | Pilot dies after aircraft comes down in East Sussex Glastonbury 2021 | Festival unlikely to go ahead, founder admits Unearthed in plant pot | Widow reunited with stolen wedding ring Around the world: Trump says death toll 'is what it is' Donald Trump has been criticised after saying the US's coronavirus soaring death toll "is what it is", appearing to downplay the country's crisis. The US president was given the toughest grilling since the Covid-19 outbreak and seemed to flounder when questioned on the rising number of deaths and hospitalisations. Watch him clash with Jonathan Swan from Axios when he is asked about Covid-19 death numbers. Tuesday interview Simon Callow - 'I don't believe in cancellation'

Experts: Obstacles to charging police in Breonna Taylor case

Despite mounting public pressure to file criminal charges nearly five months after Breonna Taylor's death, prosecutors may face significant obstacles to bringing homicide-related charges against police officers who were shot at when sent to her house with a warrant, legal experts said. Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville emergency medical tech studying to become a nurse, was shot multiple times March 13 after being roused from sleep by police at her door. Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the first African American elected to the job in Kentucky, has declined to put a timetable on his decision since taking over the case in May.

Trump signs $3B-a-year plan to boost conservation, parks

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law legislation that will devote nearly $3 billion annually to conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands. “There hasn’t been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect,” Trump said about the 26th president, who created many national parks, forests and monuments to preserve the nation’s natural resources. Supporters say the Great American Outdoors Act is the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century.

Witness Sees Bodies Strewn on the Ground After Huge Beirut Blast

A huge explosion rocked Beiruit, Lebanon, Tuesday afternoon, shattering windows across the city and destroying buildings in the main port. Lebanon’s health minister Hamad Hassan said there were a large number of injuries and widespread damage.Footage of the blast shows a large plume of dark red flames and smoke before a massive explosion throw up a mushroom cloud and powerful shock waves that shattered glass and pulled down balconies. Local media reports indicate that the blast ripped through a fireworks warehouse, though it is not yet clear what started a fire that could be seen in the area. A witness on the ground who works for the United Nations, but who does not speak on their behalf, was near the port when the explosion happened. She told The Daily Beast that bodies were scattered from the blast. “There was dark smoke from a fire and then a massive blast and everyone fell to the ground,” she said. “A lot of people didn’t get up.”CNN’s Ben Wedeman, who is based in Beirut, was in the bureau about a kilometer away before the blast. He reported on CNN that people were tweeting photos of a fire in the port about 15 minutes before a massive blast shook the building, destroying the bureau. He described a large red cloud hanging low over the city. “The city is in a state of panic,” he said on CNN. “The city is in a state of shock.”Windows were blown out of buildings up to 6 miles away.It is not immediately known what caused the blast, which came as the city braces for the verdict in a long-awaited trial over the assassination of former Sunni prime minister Rafik al-Hariri who was killed in a truck bomb 15 years ago. The defendants, from the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, are being tried in absentia. That verdict is expected Friday. Beirut has been under siege by angry protesters demonstrating against economic strife and alleged corruption since the October Revolution kicked off in the fall of 2019. Daily demonstrations and widespread resignations have crippled the government. Before that, the city buckled under the a civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990. Tuesday’s blast was by far the biggest explosion to hit the city since the 2006 war with Israel. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Donald Trump flounders in interview over US Covid-19 death toll

President again says he is doing ‘incredible job’ fighting pandemic and casts doubt on Jeffrey Epstein’s cause of death * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverageDonald Trump visibly floundered in an interview when pressed on a range of issues, including the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US, his claims that mail-in voting is fraudulent, and his inaction over the “Russian bounty” scandal.The US president also repeatedly cast doubt on the cause of death of Jeffrey Epstein, and said of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who has pleaded not guilty to participating in the sex-trafficking of girls by Epstein, that he wished her well.In the interview, broadcast on HBO on Monday and conducted by Axios’s national political correspondent, Jonathan Swan, Trump again asserted that his administration was doing an “incredible job” responding to the coronavirus.Claiming that the pandemic was unique, Trump said: “This has never happened before. Nineteen seventeen, but it was totally different, it was a flu in that case. If you watch the fake news on television, they don’t even talk about it, but there are 188 other countries right now that are suffering. Some, proportionately, far greater than we are.”Trump has repeatedly referred to the 1917 flu pandemic, whereas the outbreak happened in 1918 and into 1919.And when asked about the death toll from coronavirus so far in the US, of almost 155,000 killed, Trump appeared irritated and said: “It is what it is”His opponent in the upcoming presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden, tweeted on Tuesday morning: “Mr President, step up and do your job before even more American families feel the pain of losing a loved one.”Biden also wrote: “On July 1st, Donald Trump predicted the coronavirus was going to ‘just disappear.’ He was wrong – and more than 25,000 Americans died due to the virus last month.”default default Swan pressed the president on which countries were doing worse. Trump brandished several pieces of paper with graphs and charts on them that he referred to as he attempted to suggest the US figures compared well internationally.“Right here, United States is lowest in numerous categories. We’re lower than the world. Lower than Europe.”“In what?” asks Swan. As it becomes apparent that Trump is talking about the number of deaths as a proportion of cases, Swan says said: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the US is really bad. Much worse than Germany, South Korea.”Trump then says: “You can’t do that.”According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, the US has had over 4.7m confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 155,471 deaths. The US accounts for more than a quarter of all global confirmed infections.In another section of the interview, Trump repeats his false assertion that the reason the US has a significantly higher number of cases is because it tests more than anyone else, saying: “You know, there are those that say you can test too much. You do know that.”Asked who says that, Trump replies: “Oh, just read the manuals. Read the books.”Trump also appears, without evidence, to assert that children are receiving positive Covid-19 test results for having a runny nose – which is not generally listed among the symptoms of coronavirus, which include a high temperature and a new continuous cough.“You test, some kid has even just a little runny nose, it’s a case. And then you report many cases,” Trump says.The president attempts to shift blame for the outbreaks of coronavirus on to state governors, saying: “We have done a great job. We’ve got the governors everything they needed. They didn’t do their job – many of them didn’t, some of them did.”The actor and activist Mia Farrow tweeted that: “Every American should watch this, the full, flabbergasting interview.”Trump was also asked about his previous baseless assertion that due to mail-in voting, the forthcoming US election would be “the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history”.In the interview, Trump says: “So we have a new phenomena [sic], it’s called mail-in voting.” Swan then clarifies that mail-in voting has existed since the US civil war.Further attempting to cast doubt on the process, Trump says: “So they’re going to send tens of millions of ballots to California, all over the place. Who’s going to get them? Somebody got a ballot for a dog. Somebody got a ballot for something else. You got millions of ballots going. Nobody even knows where they’re going.”The interview took place last Tuesday, before the president’s tweet that falsely floated the idea that November’s election could be delayed.On Maxwell and Epstein, the president appeared to cast doubt on the official account of the cause of Epstein’s death, which has been a repeated source of conspiracy theories.Of Maxwell, Trump says “Her friend or boyfriend Epstein was either killed or committed suicide in jail. She’s now in jail. Yeah, I wish her well.” Trump goes on twice more to say of Epstein: “Was it suicide or was he killed?”> Trump again wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well pic.twitter.com/whWhZoO4mC> > — Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) August 4, 2020In another part of the interview, he dismissed again as “fake news” intelligence reports that Russia had been offering bounties to the Taliban for attacks on US forces in Afghanistan. Asked specifically by Swan whether he had ever discussed the issue with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Trump confirms he has never mentioned it to him.When Swan asks Trump about Russia supplying weapons to the Taliban, the president asserts: “I have heard that, but it has never reached my desk.”Lily Adams, a spokeswoman and adviser for the so-called war room of the Democratic party’s national committee slammed the president as incoherent and rambling through misinformation.“Trump’s disastrous interview would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high. More than 155,000 Americans have died, over 4.7 million have been infected, and we are in the sharpest economic downturn on record … coronavirus cases are skyrocketing and the economy is spiraling because of his failed response,” Adams said.

German public 'unconcerned' at US troop withdrawal

Most Germans are unconcerned by US plans to withdraw almost 12,000 troops currently stationed in the country, according to a new survey published on Tuesday. Angela Merkel’s government has expressed dismay at the move, which Donald Trump said was in response to Germany’s failure to pay enough towards the cost of its defence. But a poll by YouGov found 47 per cent of Germans are in favour of reducing the number of American troops based on their soil. Only 32 per cent were opposed to any drop in the US presence, while 21 per cent expressed no opinion on the issue. Most striking of all, a quarter of those surveyed said they would support a complete withdrawal of all US troops from Germany.

Can you get the coronavirus from secondhand smoke?

Secondhand smoke isn’t believed to directly spread the virus, experts say, but infected smokers may blow droplets carrying the virus when they exhale. The respiratory droplets people spray when they talk, cough or sneeze are believed to be the main way the virus spreads. “Not only are they potentially spreading virus by not wearing a mask, they are blowing those droplets to the people around them to potentially get infected,” says Dr. Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association.

Global Industrial Valves Market, By Valve Type, By Material Type, By Application, By Product, By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2025

Global Industrial Valves Market, By Valve Type (Globe Valve, Ball Valve, Butterfly Valve, RSV Gate Valve & Others), By Material Type (Steel, Alloy Based, Cast Iron & Others), By Application (Oil & Gas, Refinery, Power Generation, Chemicals, Water & Others), By Product (Multi-Turn Valve, Quarter-Turn Valve & Others), By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2025 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05949195/?utm_source=PRN Global industrial valves market stood at around $ 66 billion in 2019, and is forecast to surpass $ 84 billion by 2025, on account of extensive use of industrial valves in oil & gas and power industries.Other factors expected to boost demand for industrial valves in the coming years include rising number of government initiatives towards wastewater treatment and providing clean water to the citizens, increasing number of commercial construction projects and replacement of aging water pipelines. Moreover, growing focus on the development of high-performance smart valves is anticipated to drive global industrial valves market through 2025. Technological advancements in the production of crude oil and natural gas from new offshore and onshore fields are being witnessed across the globe. Due to such advancements in the global oil & gas sector and rising investments in the construction of pipelines, demand for industrial valves from the oil & gas sector is expected to grow until 2025. Years Considered for this Report: Historical Years: 2015-2018 Base Year: 2019 Estimated Year: 2020 Forecast Period: 2021–2025 Objective of the Study: • To define, classify and forecast the global industrial valves market on the basis of valve type, material type, product, application and regional distribution. • To analyze and forecast global industrial valves market size. • To scrutinize the detailed market segmentation and forecast the market size, in terms of value and volume, and on the basis of region by segmenting global industrial valves market into five regions, namely, North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa and South America. • To analyze and forecast the market size for global industrial valves market with respect to key applications such as oil & gas, power generation, refinery, water, wastewater effluent, etc. • To identify trends, drivers and challenges in the global industrial valves market. • To strategically profile leading players operating in the global industrial valves market. Some of the major players operating in global industrial valves market include Emerson Electric Co., Flowserve Corporation, Alfa Laval Corporate AB, Crane Co., CIRCOR International, Inc., CURTISS-WRIGHT CORPORATION, IMI plc, MRC Global INC, Metso Corporation, Neway Valve (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., The Weir Group PLC, Velan Inc., ITT Inc., INVINCIBLE VALVES (PTY) LTD, Cameron International, L&T; Valves Limited, A.C. VALVES CC, AINSWORTH ENGINEERING (PTY) LTD, AZ Amaturen Pty Ltd, Cobra Isca Pty Ltd, DUAL VALVES (PTY) LTD, eDart Slurry Valves Pty Ltd, MRC Global INC, Floval Pty Ltd , Ithuba Valves, Paltechnologies Pty Ltd, AVK Holdings SA Pty Ltd, RGR Technologies Pty Ltd, and Valco Group SA Pty Ltd., among others. The analyst performed both primary as well as exhaustive secondary research for this study.Initially, the analyst sourced a list of industrial valves providers across the globe. Subsequently, the analyst conducted primary research surveys with the identified companies.While interviewing, the respondents were also enquired about their competitors. Through this technique, the analyst was able to include industrial valves providers which could not be identified due to limitations of secondary research. The analyst also analyzed the product offerings and regional presence of major industrial valves providers across the globe. The analyst calculated the size for global industrial valves market using a bottom-up approach, wherein data for different product types offered (globe valve, ball valve, butterfly valve, RSV gate valve, wedge gate valve, knife gate valve, check valve and diaphragm valve) was recorded and forecast for future years. The analyst sourced these values from industry experts and company representatives and externally validated the same by analyzing historical data of industrial valves, globally in order to arrive at the overall market size. Various secondary sources such as company websites, annual reports, government websites, press releases, company annual reports, white papers, investor presentations and financial reports were also reviewed by the analyst. Key Target Audience: • Industrial valve manufacturers, suppliers and other stakeholders • Major industrial valve end users • Trade associations, organizations, forums and alliances related to industrial valves • Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers • Market research and consulting firms The study is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for industry stakeholders such as industrial valves providers, customers and policy makers. The study would also help them to target the growing segments over the coming years (next two to five years), thereby aiding the stakeholders in taking investment decisions and facilitating their expansion. Report Scope: In this report, global industrial valves market has been segmented into the following categories in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below: • Market, by Valve Type: o Globe Valve o Ball Valve o Butterfly Valve o RSV Gate Valve o Wedge Gate Valve o Knife Gate Valve o Check Valve o Automatic Control Valve o Pinch Valve o Diaphragm Valve o Float Valve o Air Valve o Others • Market, by Material Type: o Steel o Alloy Based o Cast Iron o Cryogenic o Others • Market, by Application: o Oil & Gas o Power Generation o Refinery o Water o Wastewater Effluent o Chemicals o Agriculture o Mining o Others • Market, by Product: o Multi-Turn Valve o Quarter-Turn Valve o Others • Market, by Region: o North America • United States • Canada • Mexico o Europe • Russia • Germany • Italy • UK • France • Rest of Europe o Asia-Pacific • China • Japan • India • South Korea • Australia • Rest of Asia-Pacific o Middle East & Africa • Saudi Arabia • UAE • Iran • Nigeria • Egypt • Kuwait • Angola • South Africa • Morocco • Rest of Middle East & Africa o South America • Brazil • Argentina • Venezuela • Rest of South America Competitive Landscape Competition Benchmarking: Benchmarking of leading 30 players on the basis of market share. Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the industrial valves market. Available Customizations: With the given market data, we offers customizations according to a company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report: • 5 more players in the global market.Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05949195/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. Contact Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001

Virus ravages poor California county along Mexican border

Dr. Tien Vo's last stop of the night is the home of a 35-year-old woman who has diabetes, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and, now, the coronavirus. Tilted back in a reclining chair at her bedside using an oxygen device, Cynthia Reyes tells the doctor she can no longer stand up herself. Until recently, it had the state's highest coronavirus infection rate and its two hospitals were overwhelmed.

Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa vows to 'flush out' opponents

Emmerson Mnangagwa accuses the opposition of trying to destabilise the country.

Court OKs extradition of man linked to Venezuela's Maduro

A court in the West African nation of Cape Verde has approved the extradition to the United States of a Colombian businessman wanted on suspicion of money laundering on behalf of Venezuela's socialist government, his lawyers said Tuesday. The court made the decision to extradite Alex Saab on Friday, but his legal team said in a statement it was informed about the decision only on Monday. Saab was arrested in June when his private jet stopped to refuel in the former Portuguese colony on the way to Iran.

Biden tells Trump to 'do your job' as coronavirus fails to 'just disappear'

* President repeated a month ago that Covid-19 would go away * Democrat says virus has killed 25,000 Americans sinceThe presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Joe Biden, told Donald Trump “to step up and do your job” on Tuesday, highlighting that it had been a month since Trump most recently predicted the coronavirus would “just disappear”.“He was wrong – and more than 25,000 Americans died due to the virus last month,” Biden tweeted on Tuesday morning. “Mr President, step up and do your job before even more American families feel the pain of losing a loved one.”More than 4.7 million people in the US have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and at least 155,471 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. While the US is home to 4% of the world’s population, the country accounts for more than a quarter of global confirmed infections.More than 30 million Americans are unemployed because of the business closures to stop the spread of coronavirus. The White House and Congress are negotiating a new economic relief package, but two key relief measures ended last week, leaving millions of families with a sudden drop in income and fewer protections from evictions.Amid these colliding crises, Trump on Monday floundered in an interview with the Axios news site, where he repeatedly insisted the US was doing better than other countries, brandishing several pieces of paper with charts to make his point.Axios’s national political correspondent, Jonathan Swan, then realized Trump was talking about how many deaths the US has had in relation to identified cases. Swan then explained the deaths as a proportion of the population was where the US was doing badly in comparison with the rest of the world. Trump responded: “You can’t do that.”Covid-19 deaths rose for a fourth week in a row to more than 8,500 people in the seven-day period that ended Sunday, according to a Reuters analysis.A surge in cases has been identified in midwestern states for the first time while fewer cases and hospitalizations were recorded in some of the country’s most populated states: Arizona, Florida, Texas and California.California has had more cases identified than anywhere in the country, but Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday the weekly average of cases was down 21% from the previous week. He also cautioned it was too early to celebrate.“This virus is not going away,” Newsom said. “It’s not going to take Labor Day weekend off or Halloween off or the holidays off. Until we have a vaccine, we are going to be living with this virus.”The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, on Monday praised the state of Connecticut, which has one of the lowest infection rates in the country, because of its slow, staggered reopening process. “You are in a situation that you now, in many respects, have the upper hand, because you have such a low rate that when you do get new cases, you have the capability of containment as opposed to mitigation,” Fauci said.New York, which has also been slow to reopen compared with much of the rest of the country, also had a case positivity rate lower than 1% this past weekend. But the densely populated state and its neighbor New Jersey have seen an increase in cases in recent days.The disparate situations across the country prompted teachers from dozens of school districts, including Chicago, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, to lead protests from their cars on Monday asking for instruction to be online in the fall.Health experts have warned the decision to return to in-person instruction must first prioritize the safety of school staff and students. The Trump administration has been aggressive in its push to force all the country’s schools to open for instruction in the fall, however.“OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning.About 260 employees of a school district in Gwinnett county, Georgia, have either tested positive for Covid-19 or are quarantining because of possible exposure after returning to work last week to prepare for the start of the school year. Hundreds of the school district’s teachers had asked to be able to work from home for the fall. The school district said the cases were mostly from community spread.The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, on Tuesday said at least 40 million children were missing out on education and urged schools to reopen once local transmission of coronavirus was under control.Guterres warned the world faced “a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities”.Deaths in the US have disproportionately affected black, Latino and Native communities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The resulting economic crisis has also affected women more than men, for the first time in the history of a US economic crisis.When employment figures rebounded slightly in May, they did so for every population except black women, one in six of whom were unemployed that month, according to an analysis by the National Women’s Law Center.To address the financial crisis, the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, are due to meet again with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate respectively, on Tuesday. It is unclear if the parties will be able to reach a deal before the Senate is scheduled to take a month-long recess at the end of the week.

U.N. Chief Calls for Students to Go Back to School Once Safe

The United Nations' chief says the world must take steps now to combat a learning crisis amid school closures. "Now we face a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced a policy brief Tuesday called "Save our Future."

U.N. Chief Warning Of 'Generational Catastrophe' Amid School Closures

The United Nations' chief says the world must take steps now to combat a learning crisis amid school closures. "Now we face a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced a policy brief Tuesday called "Save our Future."

County pledges probe into health worker's coronavirus death

Officials in a Maryland county say they “will spare no time or expense” investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a veteran public health worker who died of COVID-19 after relatives and coworkers believe she contracted the virus on the job. The probe follows a story by Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press two weeks ago focusing on the worker, Chantee Mack, a 44-year-old disease intervention specialist at the Prince George’s County Health Department who union officials said was among at least 20 department employees infected by the coronavirus. The outbreak underscores the stark dangers facing the nation’s front-line public health army, the subject of an ongoing series by KHN and the AP, “Underfunded and Under Threat.”

Pantheon Hires Christy Marble as Chief Marketing Officer to Drive Expansion of WebOps Category

The addition of a new CMO signals the momentum at Pantheon in marketing digital experiences with best-in-class remote collaboration Christy Marble Pantheon hires Christy Marble as Chief Marketing Officer to Drive Expansion of WebOps CategorySAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Pantheon, the leader in WebOps (website operations), names Christy Marble as Chief Marketing Officer, the company's first C-suite hire since transitioning to an all-remote workforce in March. As the world adapts to a new normal, the ability to have remote marketing and web teams working in sync to build the next generation of web experiences has become increasingly essential to the global enterprise. This collaboration is at the core of Pantheon's offering, and Christy's experience leading digital growth strategies will be extremely valuable. Companies rely on Pantheon to enhance their web performance and improve developer experience, agility and productivity. That support is essential during COVID, as enterprise companies pivot to remote collaboration and strive to meet changing customer needs with a digital-only commerce strategy. Onboarding a C-suite executive during this global shift embodies Pantheon's ability to facilitate collaboration using WebOps, a framework that enables web teams to iterate quickly and focus on results — no matter where they're located. This is another step forward for Pantheon in their proactive and progressive approach to growing the WebOps category.Prior Chief Marketing officer of SAP Concur and Visier, Christy has led the transformational growth of muti-national brands. Christy led B2B marketing and drove global market expansion of T&E leader, SAP Concur to more than $1 billion in demand growth. Her consumer marketing leadership includes the successful launch of Sallie Mae’s consumer lending brands, and digital marketing programs for clients such as Gerber, Reckit Benkiser and Purina while at E-centives.“As a software marketing executive, web experience has always been one of my core pillars for success," says Marble. "Now that most workforces are remote, websites — digital experiences — are the vital link between most organizations and their customers. This means internal collaboration between IT, development, and marketing has become critical to brand experience and business results."“We are very excited and proud to bring Christy into the fold,” says Pantheon CEO Zack Rosen. “We're inspired by Christy's experience pioneering marketing growth initiatives and leading highly successful teams, and we can’t wait to see her grow Pantheon's marketing program.”Pantheon is dedicated to improving the productivity of digital teams and driving results with the open web. Since the onset of COVID-19, Pantheon has helped municipality site sf.gov, local news network Patch.com, and nonprofits like the American Civil Liberties Union and Share Our Strength scale website operations to meet heightened public demand. A long-standing champion of the open web, Pantheon's commitment to helping organizations publish quickly and collaborate in real time is more important now than ever.“What excites me most about Pantheon is the open web values that fuel a vision to enable organizations of all types and sizes to make a positive impact on the world,” says Marble. “I see in Pantheon that authentic combination of purpose, values and innovation that inspires people to do the best work of their careers, and I am thrilled to join the team.”About Pantheon Pantheon's WebOps platform powers the open web, running more than 300,000 sites in the cloud for customers including Google, MGM, Stitch Fix, and DocuSign. Every day, thousands of developers and marketers create, iterate, and scale Drupal and WordPress sites to reach billions of people globally. Pantheon’s multitenant, container-based platform enables organizations to manage all of their websites from a single dashboard. Organizations including Clorox, and the United Nations drive results through accelerated development and real-time publishing using Pantheon's collaborative workflows. Learn more at Pantheon.io.Contacts Rick Medeiros 209-330-3129 press@pantheon.ioA photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1508b613-6753-434c-aaaa-4a00db7784fb.

75 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vatican is providing moral guidance on nuclear weapons

Ahead of the 75th anniversary year of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Pope Francis visited both cities.At a solemn event at the Hiroshima Peace Park in November 2019, Francis declared the use of atomic energy for war to be “a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home.” “How,” he asked, “can we speak of peace even as we build terrifying new weapons of war?”His comments came nearly 40 years after John Paul II became the first pope to visit the site of the atomic bomb attacks, which pulverized the two cities on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945 and killed in excess of 200,000 in the process. Deterrence to abolitionDuring his visit, Francis reiterated what he previously told assembled Nobel Peace Prize laureates, diplomats and civil society representatives at a Vatican symposium in 2017, that nuclear weapons, along with chemical weapons and landmines, were impermissible. “The threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned,” he said.We were at that 2017 symposium – Fr. Christiansen was a participant – and we later co-edited a book of testimonies from that landmark event, titled “A World Free from Nuclear Weapons: The Vatican Conference on Disarmament.”As scholars who study how the Vatican’s position on nuclear arms has evolved, we see an ongoing role for the Catholic Church in providing moral guidance on the issue. A year after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, during which the U.S. and the Soviet Union came perilously close to nuclear conflict, Pope John XXIII published the encyclical “Pacem in terris” – translated as Peace on Earth – in which he argued for balanced reduction of nuclear weapons leading ultimately to abolition. In 1965, bishops at Vatican II, while contemplating nuclear war, urged in the pastoral constitution document “Gaudium et spes” – translated as Joy and Hope – that, “Whatever may be the case with deterrence…the arms race…[will not] preserve a sure and authentic peace.” Pope John Paul II conditionally accepted deterrence in a 1982 address to the U.N. General Assembly. He wanted abolition and disarmament, but was constrained by the politics and technology of the day. The Cold War was still raging, and the Vatican accepted, albeit reluctantly, nuclear deterrence – the concept of keeping weapons to stop others from using them – rather than outright abolition at that time. Some 30 years later, in a changed global reality, the Vatican foreign minister told the U.N. that deterrence was the chief obstacle to disarmament, setting up the position of the Vatican today.In 2017, the Holy See became one of the first signers of the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Article 1 prohibits signers to “develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons…” This was the backdrop for Pope Francis’ historic condemnation of deterrence and call for disarmament later that fall.One hundred and twenty-two nations voted for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. For its labors on behalf of the treaty, ICAN, the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons, an umbrella group of civil society opponents of nuclear weapons, won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Beyond the hierarchyBut the guidance provided by the Catholic Church is not simply through official statements and positions from the top. Across the church, various groups have long campaigned for abolition of nuclear weapons. Catholic nuns have often been at the forefront of this work. In Japan, several activist hibakusha – survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – are sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and the Society of the Helper of Holy Souls, among other congregations.In the U.S., Sister Jennifer Kane was a nuclear engineer before realizing, in the words of her congregation in 2019, “that God was calling her to a more spiritual combat” as an antinuclear activist. And Dominicans, Religious of the Sacred Heart, and Society of the Holy Child Jesus have participated in the grassroots anti-nuclear direct-action movement Plowshares, at times resulting in prison time for activist nuns.This willingness to speak out against nuclear violence is consistent with Pope Francis’ example. He offers a style of moral deliberation that calls for discernment, not blind obedience. Francis has urged those who work in the nuclear field to educate themselves, preferably accompanied by a spiritual adviser, and explore alternatives in line with their conscience.This creative exercise in moral responsibility is for anyone, religious or not. It is reflected in the work of the Project on Revitalizing Catholic Engagement on Nuclear Disarmament – a body co-sponsored by, among others, The University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University, The Catholic University of America, and the Catholic Peacebuilding Network. Courage of conscienceChurch teaching demands that conscientious officials and nuclear workers resist orders they deem to be immoral.The Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s taught that obeying orders is no excuse for participating in atrocities, and urged anyone, whether top military leader or rank-and-file citizen, to display “the courage of those who openly and fearlessly resist.”[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]Indeed, in 2018 two chiefs of the U.S. Strategic Air Command testified in a Senate hearing that they would not comply with illegal orders to deploy nuclear weapons, and that they would offer civilian authorities alternative courses of action to pursue.There may be more than one right answer for those of us who are called to respond to the moral challenge of nuclear weapons.But 75 years on from the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vatican gives us clear moral guidance that disarmament is possible, and for all of us, religious or secular, its time has long since come.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Bikini islanders still deal with fallout of US nuclear tests, more than 70 years later * The moral – and political – force of Pope Francis on climateRev. Drew Christiansen, S. J. is affiliated with various offices of the Holy See (Vatican) on international security matters, including nuclear disarmament. Those affiliations include the Holy See Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations/NY.Carole Sargent does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Lebanese try to storm Energy Ministry amid power cuts

Dozens of Lebanese protesters tried to storm the Ministry of Energy on Tuesday, angered by prolonged power cuts as the country grapples with a crippling economic crisis. Security forces pushed back against the angry protesters, chasing away some who breached the ministry perimeter. Lebanon's economic and financial crisis poses the most significant threat to the country since a devastating 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Parents unhappy with school options assemble learning 'pods'

On the 4-acre farm at the edge of the Everglades where Timea Hunter runs a horse academy, she has hosted plenty of parties, picnics and workshops. While her son and daughter will participate in distance learning at their school, she plans to hire a teacher together with the families of four to six other children who could provide supplemental, in-person instruction on the farm shaded by royal poinciana trees. As the coronavirus pandemic has clouded hopes of reopening schools nationwide, parents who want more than remote instruction have been scrambling to hire tutors and private teachers for small groups of children.

Iran records highest COVID-19 cases in over month

Iran confirmed Tuesday over 2,700 new COVID-19 infections, its highest single-day count in more than a month, as the health ministry called for those without masks to be fined. Deaths and infections from the novel coronavirus have been on a rising trajectory in the Islamic republic since hitting a months-long low in May. This has prompted Iran to make wearing masks mandatory in enclosed spaces and reimpose restrictions lifted gradually since April to reopen the economy.

Family tells AP: Iran abducted California man while in Dubai

A California-based member of an Iranian militant opposition group in exile was abducted by Iran while staying in Dubai, his family said Tuesday. The suspected cross-border abduction of Jamshid Sharmahd appears corroborated by mobile phone location data, shared by his family with The Associated Press, that suggests he was taken to neighboring Oman before heading to Iran. Iran hasn't said how it detained Sharmahd, though the announcement came against the backdrop of covert actions conducted by Iran amid heightened tensions with the U.S. over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.

China, WHO in talks on plans to trace coronavirus origin

China and the World Health Organization are discussing plans to trace the origin of the coronavirus outbreak following a visit to the country by two experts from the U.N. agency, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters the experts conducted “preparatory consultations on scientific research cooperation on virus tracing” during their two-week stay, which ended Sunday.

Tropical Storm Isaias drives wild weather up Interstate 95

Tropical Storm Isaias spawned tornadoes and dumped rain along the U.S. East Coast on Tuesday after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina, where it smashed boats together and caused floods and fires that displaced dozens of people. More than 12 hours after coming ashore, Isaias was still sustaining top winds of 70 mph (110 kph), near hurricane strength, Tuesday and its forward march accelerated to 35 mph (56 kph). Two people died and about 20 were injured after a tornado “totally demolished” several mobile homes in Windsor, North Carolina, said Juan Vaughan II, county manager for Bertie County.

Ex-teacher hopes to free Belarus from president's iron fist

A 37-year-old former English teacher without political experience seems an unlikely challenger to the authoritarian president of Belarus who has been the ex-Soviet nation's only leader for more than a quarter-century. Tsikhanouskaya says the crowds - the biggest demonstrations Belarus has seen since becoming independent in 1991 - reflect a desperate longing for transformation after President Alexander Lukashenko's 26-year rule.

Trump Is Under Increasing Pressure to Blow Up His China Deal Before Election Day

President Donald Trump bet the house that getting a sweetheart trade deal with the Chinese government would boost the American economy and his electoral odds before the election. Now, with that election less than 100 days away, some members of his inner circle are pushing him to make a new bet: that he’ll win if he blows it all up.Four people with knowledge of the situation tell The Daily Beast that in the past three weeks, an internal campaign has intensified within the Trump administration to convince the president to nuke the China trade deal—an international agreement that Trump has considered a crowning, legacy-defining process of his first term in office.These efforts in the administration have been spearheaded by a variety of political aides, economic and policy advisers, and President Trump’s perennial China hawks, including White House trade adviser Peter Navarro. Some of these officials have taken to showing Trump printed data, pictures, and charts that they claim demonstrate how China still is not buying American goods at a level high enough to satisfy the president’s aims.Trump ‘Couldn’t Give a Shit’ About China Rounding Up Millions of MuslimsBut as part of their pitch, these senior officials have also increasingly insisted to Trump that he and the United States are still being “ripped off” by the Chinese government on trade—much in the same way, they argue, that Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, were taken advantage of. The reference to the two prior presidents is strategic, as Trump regularly rips both men as “weak” and “stupid” on China matters. The thinking goes that he will recoil at being compared to them. Currently, trade talks between the Chinese and U.S. governments have hit a perilous patch, in large part due to the global coronavirus pandemic. The “Phase Two” stage of negotiations, meant to build off of the initial deal, have stalled, with Trump telling CBS News last month that he was “not interested right now in talking to China [about Phase Two].”In the recent past, the president had been so enthusiastic about getting a deal jammed through before the 2020 election that he was willing to overlook—and by some accounts, actually encourage—some of Beijing’s grossest abuses of human rights. And it wasn’t long ago that President Trump and his team were actively campaigning for re-election in part on his policies, trade war, and phased deal with the Chinese, and attempting to make China the biggest policy liability for Team Biden. But according to the four sources, the advisers have also recently told Trump that—given the trade realities, the coronavirus pandemic, and other political disputes and diplomatic tensions with Beijing—it would be bold and necessary for the president to call things off with the Chinese government, even if it threatens to throttle stock markets. Appearing tough against a major adversary may have political upside. But it would also risk the self-inflicted detonation of one of Trump’s biggest policy initiatives, one that has consumed nearly four years of the president’s political capital, and one that grew out of a trade war that’s taken its toll on American farmers and businesses.Trump’s China Confusion: Are They Trade Partners or Murderers, Mr. President?So far, according to three of the knowledgeable sources, the president has seemed receptive to the idea of playing hardball and walking away, and has told confidants that he’s strongly considering it. One of these individuals said Trump privately mentioned last month that it could “teach [the Chinese] a lesson,” if he were to go through with deep-sixing negotiations. However, the sources noted that the president did not tip his hand to them on which way he’d end up going, between now and the November election, and that he was still hearing a lot from pro-deal forces in his administration.“There was so much increasing hostility toward China right now in the White House and around the country; I do believe there should be a reconsideration because they haven’t held up their end of the bargain,” said Stephen Moore, a longtime conservative economist who informally counsels Trump and other top officials. “I’m not sure what the best path forward is. I would certainly say that now is a time for isolating China… Whether or not it’s time to rethink the China trade deal, I don’t know. I think there’s arguments on both sides… I can see the arguments of being punitive toward China…[And] I was very pleased with the trade deal with China. But the coronavirus has been a game changer… They still haven’t really acknowledged any wrongdoing.”Two individuals, both of whom have informally advised the administration on the deal in the past, said they had, for months, pushed senior officials to implement stricter enforcement mechanisms into the phase one pact before its signing. Since then, those individuals and a cohort of other traditionally hawkish China policy experts have privately called out the White House’s inability not only to get Beijing to live up to its purchasing commitments but also to leverage the deal to stop the country from engaging in malign practices such as intellectual property theft.Others in the China think-tank world have called out the Trump administration for the crumbling deal.“The phase one trade deal is the only part of the U.S.-China relationship that hasn’t come under pressure the last six months. The deal was supposed to force China to buy more goods and to compete fairly. But the purchases don’t seem to have matched the promises,” said Zach Cooper, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-of-center think tank in Washington. “FBI Director Wray and Attorney General Barr have said that Chinese theft has increased. How long can the phase one deal survive if it hasn’t delivered the fair economic relationship that the Trump administration sought”?With increasing frustration over the belief that Beijing has failed to uphold its commitments, several Republican China hawks have held informal talks with the Biden campaign about the candidate’s plans for addressing the trade gap between the two countries. The Daily Beast previously reported that Team Biden has recently launched a new effort to attack Trump on the trade deal he made with Chinese President Xi Jinping and connect with those Republicans who, until recently, were in Trump’s greater orbit. China experts say they are expecting the release of a new set of trade numbers, including export and sale data, in the coming days that could determine if Trump decides to move to pull out of the deal.In the upper ranks of Trumpworld the president is hardly alone in venting his frustrations about China and the current deal. Some do so at scripted, high-profile speaking engagements, or while on live television.In a speech delivered late last month at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo charged that the regime in China interprets their trade agreements as mere recommendations. “We imagined engagement with China would produce a future with bright promises of comity and cooperation,” said Pompeo. “But today we’re all still wearing masks and watching the pandemic’s body count rise because the [Chinese Communist Party] failed in its promises to the world.”In late June, Navarro even went on Fox News and said that the U.S.-China trade deal was “over.” This one comment on cable news resulted in a brief nosedive in the markets, causing the White House to quickly spring into damage control and clean-up mode. On that day in June, when asked if what Navarro had said on-air was true, Trump’s top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow—who has at times found himself at odds with Navarro in heated, and sometimes loud and profane, policy squabbles within the Trump administration—messaged The Daily Beast close to midnight a simple, emphatic, one-word comment:“No!”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

UN chief says 1 billion students affected by virus closures

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday the coronavirus pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting over 1 billion students. In addition, the U.N. chief said at least 40 million children worldwide have missed out on education “in their critical preschool year.” As a result, Guterres warned that the world faces “a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities.”

3 men rescued from Pacific island after writing SOS in sand

Three men have been rescued from a tiny Pacific island after writing a giant SOS sign in the sand that was spotted from above, authorities say. The men had been missing in the Micronesia archipelago for nearly three days when their distress signal was spotted Sunday on uninhabited Pikelot Island by searchers on Australian and U.S. aircraft, the Australian defense department said Monday.

Australia: British-Australian woman in Iran prison 'is well'

Australia's ambassador to Iran has visited a British-Australian academic who was convicted of espionage before being moved recently to a notorious Iranian prison, and found that she “is well,” Australia’s government said Tuesday. Kylie Moore-Gilbert was a Melbourne University lecturer on Middle Eastern studies when she was sent to Tehran’s Evin Prison in September 2018 and sentenced to 10 years. Australia sought urgent consular access and its ambassador to Iran, Lyndall Sachs, visited Moore-Gilbert in Qarchak Prison on Sunday, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or DFAT, said in a statement.

Lobbying for Russian pipeline spikes in Washington

As U.S. lawmakers plot to stop one of Moscow's most important projects in Europe, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, lobbyists supporting it are busier than ever but disclosing few details of their work, according to government filings and current and former U.S. officials. The pipeline linking Russian gas fields to Western Europe has become a lightning rod of contention in U.S.-Russia relations, with the Trump administration concerned it would dangerously expand the region’s energy dependence on Moscow but backers, including in Europe, saying the gas is needed. U.S. President Donald Trump has already signed a sanctions bill that delayed construction on the $11 billion project, wholly-owned by Russia's state-run Gazprom and headed by Alexei Miller, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Urgency to bear witness grows for last Hiroshima victims

For nearly 70 years, until he turned 85, Lee Jong-keun hid his past as an atomic bomb survivor, fearful of the widespread discrimination against blast victims that has long persisted in Japan. The knowledge of their dwindling time — the average age of the survivors is more than 83 and many suffer from the long-lasting effects of radiation — is coupled with deep frustration over stalled progress in global efforts to ban nuclear weapons. According to a recent Asahi newspaper survey of 768 survivors, nearly two-thirds said their wish for a nuclear-free world is not widely shared by the rest of humanity, and more than 70% called on a reluctant Japanese government to ratify a nuclear weapons ban treaty.

India’s residency law in Kashmir amplifies demographic fears

For almost a century, no outsider was allowed to buy land and property in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Since then, India has brought in a slew of changes through new laws. Under a new law, authorities have begun issuing “domicile certificates” to Indians and non-residents, entitling them to residency rights and government jobs.

Irksome in Iceland, brusque in Britain? US envoys draw ire

In Iceland, a nation so safe its president runs errands on a bicycle, U.S. Ambassador Jeffery Ross Gunter has left locals aghast with his request to hire armed bodyguards. Gunter has also enraged lawmakers by casually and groundlessly hitching Iceland to President Donald Trump's controversial "China virus” label for the coronavirus. Well, Gunter is hardly a diplomat by training.

Smile more? Some critics see sexism in debate over Biden VP

The debate over Joe Biden's running mate has recently ticked through a familiar list of stereotypes about women in politics as the Democratic presidential candidate and his allies stumble through a search they had hoped would stand out for its inclusion and diversity. Instead, the vice presidential vetting has resurfaced internal party divisions between the old-guard establishment and a younger generation that's more attuned to gender and racial biases and willing to speak out. “The fact is that although we’ve come really far in the last 100 years, we haven’t come far enough for women candidates to be treated with the same level of decency as the male candidates are," said Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chair.