California is largely shutting down again as the state has announced a sweeping plan to halt a recent surge in coronavirus cases. On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered all indoor restaurants, wineries, movie theaters and museums to be closed again. Bars have been ordered to cease all operations. Indoor businesses have been shuttered in many areas. Newsom said the new shutdowns are needed to address the public health crisis.
Gov. Gavin Newsom: “We’re continuing to see hospitalizations rise in the state. We’re continuing to see a modest increase in ICUs and number of beds represented by ICU patients throughout the state of California. And we continue to experience an increase in the rate of positivity here in the state of California.”
The Los Angeles and San Diego school districts have announced that all classes will be conducted online at the start of the school year due to the pandemic. The city of Atlanta announced a similar plan. This comes as President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos threatened to pull federal funding from schools that do not reopen. Meanwhile, in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said schools will be allowed to reopen, but only in regions with low daily infection rates.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo: “We’re not going to use our children as the litmus test. And we’re not going to put our children in a place where their health is endangered. It’s that simple. … We’re not going to use our children as guinea pigs.”
In other education news, 17 states have sued the Trump administration in an effort to block a new rule revoking the visas of foreign students who attend schools where classes are taught entirely online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Nationwide, more than 60,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday. Several states, including Tennessee, Kansas and Washington, all set new single-day records. Florida remains the hardest-hit state. On Monday, the state reported 12,600 additional COVID-19 cases, its second-highest total recorded for a single day. On Monday, a protester disrupted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a news conference in Miami, which is now considered the epicenter of the pandemic.
Gov. Ron DeSantis: “At that point, I don’t even know if Miami-Dade had a case, a positive test — maybe a couple, but it was obviously much different than what we’re” —
Tomas Kennedy: “Shame on you! You are embarrassing!”
Gov. Ron DeSantis: — “than what we’re finding here. So, I think the” —
Tomas Kennedy: “You’re embarrassing! We’re getting record-breaking cases every day, and you are doing nothing!”
Gov. Ron DeSantis: “So, I think” —
Tomas Kennedy: “You’re falsifying information, and you are misleading the public. Over 4,000 people have died. And you are blaming the protesters. You guys have no plan, and you’re doing nothing! Shame on you!”
In Florida, a 51-year-old Mexican man who was held in ICE custody in Florida has died after testing positive for COVID-19. Onoval Perez-Montufa was detained by ICE on June 15. More than 3,000 immigrants detained by ICE have tested positive for COVID-19, as have over 900 contractors working at privately owned immigration prisons.
In other immigration news, a federal judge said he would wait until next week to rule on whether immigrant parents jailed by ICE in family detention centers should be released in order to mitigate their exposure to COVID-19. The decision means ICE could begin to separate more than 300 children and parents starting Friday — the deadline set by a federal judge in California for ICE to release children from its three family detention centers, but not necessarily their parents. We’ll have more on this story after headlines.
An estimated 5.4 million people lost their health insurance between February and May after losing their job due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unemployed workers living in states that have not expanded Medicaid have been particularly hard hit. This includes workers in Texas, Florida and North Carolina.
As the number of new global coronavirus cases reaches record highs, the World Health Organization is warning the coronavirus outbreak will continue to worsen if government’s don’t take basic public health measures.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “If the basics aren’t followed, there is only one way this pandemic is going to go: It’s going to get worse and worse and worse. … I want to be straight with you: There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future.”
In other international news, Reuters reports the number of coronavirus deaths in Latin America has now exceeded the death toll in the United States and Canada. Nearly 145,000 people have died in Latin America.
Amnesty International is estimating 3,000 health workers have died from the pandemic. More than 500 health workers have died in three countries: the United States, Britain and Russia. Meanwhile, in France, health workers have been given a historic raise after seven weeks of negotiations and protests demanding better pay and increased funding for hospitals.
In China, over 2 million people have been displaced, and at least 141 are dead or missing, as weeks of torrential rains have caused some of the worst flooding the country has seen in over two decades. Hundreds of rivers nationwide have risen above warning levels. As many as 33 rivers have risen to their highest levels in history. Some of the worst-affected areas by the massive flooding include regions that were the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States has carried out its first federal execution in 17 years. Daniel Lewis Lee was executed this morning just hours after the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 opinion overturning a lower court ruling blocking the execution.
Reproductive rights advocates celebrated Monday after federal judges blocked laws in Tennessee and Georgia that essentially banned abortion at six weeks of pregnancy. Both states had passed legislation barring abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected — something that typically happens just six weeks into a pregnancy and before many people realize they’re pregnant. The Tennessee law was blocked within an hour of Republican Governor Bill Lee signing it into law.
In Portland, Oregon, a federal agent deployed to protect a U.S. courthouse shot and seriously injured a 26-year-old protester on Saturday. Donavan La Bella was holding a stereo speaker above his head when he was hit in the head with a so-called less lethal round. La Bella remains hospitalized in serious condition with a fractured skull and broken bones in his face. City and state authorities have criticized the Trump administration for deploying federal officers in Portland. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said on Twitter, “Trump & Homeland Security must now answer why [federal] officers are acting like an occupying army.” Oregon Governor Kate Brown said she wants the federal agents to leave Portland.
Protests are continuing in Allentown, Pennsylvania, after a police officer was filmed kneeling on a man’s head and neck outside the emergency room entrance to a hospital. The video was filmed by two bystanders who drove by the incident.
Bystander 1: “We don’t matter. Look! Look at it! That’s the [inaudible].”
Bystander 2: “Oh, on his neck. On his neck. Bro, get off his neck, bro.”
Bystander 1: “He can’t breathe!”
On Monday, hundreds of protesters marched to the Allentown police headquarters demanding the firing of the officer and the defunding of the police.
In Washington state, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has proposed cutting $76 million from the Police Department’s budget in 2021. Durkan’s roughly 20% proposed budget cut would mostly come from transferring the city’s 911 call and dispatch center, parking enforcement officers and other functions outside the police department, as well as halting the expansion of Seattle’s police force next year. The Seattle Times reports the cuts would likely not result in any savings that could be redirected to other needs as demanded by protesters, who for weeks have urged police funds to be transferred to community services. Mayor Durkan and the Seattle police chief have also reportedly slammed deeper cuts to the police budget which Seattle’s City Council has vowed to push for.
In Arkansas, a police officer who had threatened to shoot protesters through his front door if they ever came to his house has been charged with manslaughter after fatally shooting a fellow police officer who knocked on his front door in early June. Calvin Salyers has claimed the shooting was accidental. Authorities accuse him of shooting his Glock multiple times through his door, hitting Scott Hutton, a U.S. Army veteran who served on the Alexander, Arkansas, police force with him. Hutton had come to the house to pick up a patrol car.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has announced he is taking what he described as a “long-planned vacation.” This comes just days after Carlson’s chief writer, Blake Neff, resigned following revelations that he had attacked Asian Americans, African Americans and women for years in highly offensive racist language in anonymous online messages. On Monday night, Carlson claimed Neff’s online activity had nothing to do with his show, even though Neff was his chief writer. Carlson also attacked his critics, describing them as “ghouls.” We’ll have more on the story later in the broadcast.
In news from Oklahoma, archaeologists and forensic anthropologists have begun digging up part of a Tulsa cemetery looking for mass graves nearly a century after one of the worst massacres of African Americans in U.S. history. In June 1921, a white mob burned to the ground Tulsa’s affluent African American neighborhood of Greenwood, known as Black Wall Street, killing at least 300 residents.
A New York judge has ruled that President Trump’s niece, the psychologist Mary Trump, can publish and promote her new book titled “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” The book will be officially released today.
It’s Primary Day in Alabama, Maine and Texas. Democrats will be picking candidates to challenge Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and John Cornyn of Texas in November. Meanwhile, in Alabama, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is running against former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, who has been backed by Trump in the Republican Senate primary.
The prominent Egyptian journalist Mohamed Monir has died of COVID-19 after being jailed on charges that he spread fake news. Monir was arrested in June after appearing on Al Jazeera, which is banned in Egypt. He was then held in pretrial detention at Cairo’s notoriously crowded Tora prison complex, where he contracted the virus.
In South Africa, the diplomat and poet Zindzi Mandela has died at the age of 59. She was the youngest daughter of Nelson and Winnie Mandela.
Zindzi Mandela: “I think, as my father often used to say, it’s a story about how the human spirit has the ability to triumph over adversity. That’s the message, that irrespective of your circumstances, you can turn any negative experience into a positive, and you can be a major contributor to society.”
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