Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times
“The Delta variant is proving to be a stubborn hurdle in the fight against the coronavirus.
As the U.S. heads into its second pandemic summer, President Biden warned that those who fail to get vaccinated against Covid-19 risk becoming infected by ‘a variant that is more easily transmissible, potentially deadlier and particularly dangerous for young people.’ Vice President Kamala Harris visited a vaccination center in Atlanta on Friday, above.
In Russia, the Delta variant is now the most prevalent version in Moscow, where case numbers have tripled over the past two weeks and city officials have added 5,000 beds to coronavirus wards. The outbreak has led to some vaccine mandates.
And in England, ‘freedom day,’ when the last remaining coronavirus restrictions had been scheduled to end, was delayed until July 19 after a spike in Delta cases. Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed confidence that the curbs would be lifted next month but added that ‘at a certain stage, we are going to have to learn to live with the virus and to manage it as best we can.’” Read more at New York Times
“One person was killed and another was seriously injured after a pickup truck slammed into the crowd at the start of a Pride parade in South Florida on Saturday night, officials said.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who was at the Stonewall Pride Parade event, along with U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Ted Deutch, confirmed the incident on Twitter and said the driver was in custody.
‘I’m lucky to be safe,’ Fried tweeted. ‘All of us here all praying for them and their families.’
One victim was hospitalized while the other died of injuries, authorities said, according to the Associated Press.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. It wasn't immediately known if the driver acted intentionally.” Read more at USA Today
“Republicans are asserting more control over the voting process. Local Democratic election officials have been the first to go.
Across Georgia, members of at least 10 county election boards are being replaced, several of them Black Democrats. In Arkansas, election control has been stripped from county authorities. And in Kansas, Republicans overrode a veto from the Democratic governor to enact laws stripping the governor of the power to modify election law.
Democrats worry that proponents of Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election will soon have much greater control over the election system.
Also out of Georgia: The college football legend Herschel Walker may be considering a bid to challenge Senator Raphael Warnock next year. Should he run, it could test Trump’s power as a kingmaker.” Read more at New York Times
Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
“Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, was elected president. That may actually give President Biden an opportunity to restore the 2015 nuclear deal.
Many Iranians sat out the election, seeing it as rigged in Raisi’s favor. Raisi, 60, was favored by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has a record of grave human rights abuses and is currently under U.S. sanctions.
But U.S. negotiators say the next six weeks before Raisi is inaugurated may be a unique window to strike a deal with Iran on reviving the nuclear agreement, which Donald Trump ripped up three years ago. The theory in Washington and Tehran is that Ayatollah Khamenei has been stage-managing not only the election but the nuclear negotiations — and does not want to give up his best hope of lifting the crushing sanctions that have kept Iranian oil largely off the market.” Read more at New York Times
“The Department of Veterans Affairs is moving to provide gender-confirmation surgery through its health-care coverage, reversing a 2013 ban, VA Secretary Denis McDonough announced Saturday.
McDonough pledged to overcome a ‘dark history’ of discrimination and take steps to expand access to care for transgender veterans at a Pride Month event in Orlando, which this month marked the fifth anniversary of a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub, that left 49 people dead. The VA plans to begin the two-year process this summer, a VA spokesman confirmed.” Read more at Washington Post
“Nearly two-thirds Iowa voters think Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) should not run for reelection, according to a new poll released Saturday.
According to the poll, conducted by Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa, 64 percent of respondents say they think it's time for someone new to hold Grassley's Senate seat.
Just 27 percent of respondents said that they would vote to reelect Grassley, 87, who has served in the Senate for over 40 years.” Read more at The Hill
Alexander Drago/Reuters
“The divergence of the conservative American Catholic church from Pope Francis has come into sharp focus.
On Friday, U.S. Catholic bishops decided to draft new guidance on communion that would deny President Biden the sacrament because of his support for abortion rights. The vote flouted a warning from the Vatican and was squarely aimed at Biden, above on Saturday, perhaps the most religiously observant president since Jimmy Carter. The bishops are expected to vote on a text in November.
But on Saturday, Pope Francis said nothing, church officials and experts said, because he remains confident that the American conservatives would never have enough votes to pass a doctrinal declaration on banning communion. Nonetheless, the pope’s allies worry that the rite of communion will be turned into a political weapon.” Read more at New York Times
“Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground.
Federal judges ordered the release of the videos after media organizations, including The Associated Press, went to court to request that the Department of Justice provide access. The videos are being presented as evidence in prosecutors’ cases against three men charged with assaulting police.
The new videos show a Marine Corps veteran and former New York City police officer wielding a flagpole as he attacks police, as well as rioters crushing another officer into a door as he screams in pain. Still another video shows a New Jersey man punching an officer in the head.” Read more at Boston Globe
“A driver in a pickup truck plowed into bicyclists during a community road race in Arizona on Saturday morning, critically injuring at least six people before he was chased by police and shot outside a nearby hardware store, authorities said.
At approximately 7:25 a.m., a 35-year-old mandrove a Ford F-150 into multiple cyclists during the town's ‘Bike the Bluff’ event, according to Kristine Sleighter, a spokeswoman for the Show Low Police Department.
The man fled the scene as officers pursued the vehicle. Officers engaged with him behind an Ace Hardware store and shot him, Sleighter said.
Helmets, shoes and crumpled and broken bicycles were strewn across the street after the crash, and a tire was wedged into the grill of the truck, which had damage to its top and sides and a bullet hole in a window.
‘We don’t know the motivation,’ city spokeswoman Grace Payne said.” Read more at USA Today
“COLUMBUS, Ohio — After a year of protests over police brutality, some Republican-controlled states have ignored or blocked police-reform proposals, moving instead in the other direction by granting greater powers to officers, making it harder to discipline them and expanding their authority to crack down on demonstrations.
The sponsors of the GOP measures acted in the wake of the nationwide protests that followed George Floyd’s death, and they cited the disturbances and destruction that spread last summer through major U.S. cities, including Portland, New York and Minneapolis, where Floyd died at the hands of officers.” Read more at Boston Globe
The first lady, Jill Biden, with Champ outside the White House. He died on Saturday at 13.Credit...Adam Schultz/The White House
“Champ, a German shepherd who helped restore the time-honored presidential tradition of having a pet at the White House, died on Saturday.
Champ was 13, and ‘died peacefully at home,’ President Biden and Jill Biden, the first lady, said on Twitter.
‘In our most joyful moments and in our most grief-stricken days, he was there with us, sensitive to our every unspoken feeling and emotion,’ they said. ‘We love our sweet, good boy and will miss him always.’
The Biden family’s other German shepherd, Major, began roaming the White House in January, after a four-year hiatus of pets in the executive residence during the presidency of Donald J. Trump.” Read more at New York Times
Mackenzie Hughes and the gallery watched his shot from the edge of the 14th fairway. He was three under par in the third round.Credit...Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock
“SAN DIEGO — There were plenty of intriguing story lines, but little sizzle, in the opening half of the 2021 United States Open. Richard Bland of England, who qualified for the championship by winning his first European Tour event after 477 failed attempts, was tied for the lead with Russell Henley, a PGA Tour veteran whose last tournament victory was four years ago.
The spotlight of America’s national golf championship was desperately looking for a familiar face.
In the third round on Saturday at Torrey Pines Golf Course, the sport’s headliners finally stepped to the edge of the stage, an experienced, decorated crew that may forecast a star-powered and suspenseful finish to Sunday’s final round.
Henley finished the round at five under par overall and remained atop the leaderboard and was tied by another lesser-known player, Mackenzie Hughes of Canada. But with a thrilling 52-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole, Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion from South Africa, also vaulted into a tie for first. Moreover, Rory McIlroy, the four-time major champion, and Bryson DeChambeau, the defending U.S. Open champion, mustered charges that left them two strokes off the lead at three under.
Jon Rahm, a prominent pretournament favorite because of his stellar play in the last month, was at two under, as was the resurgent Matthew Wolff, last year’s runner-up in the event, and Scottie Scheffler, another promising young player with several recent top finishes. Not to be overlooked at just four strokes off the lead were last year’s Masters champion Dustin Johnson, who shot a 68 on Saturday, and Collin Morikawa, the winner of the 2020 P.G.A. Championship.” Read more at New York Times
“The blazing-hot job market is in part being fueled by two words: I quit.
According to the Labor Department, nearly four million people quit their jobs in April, the most on record. The dynamic has placed more power firmly in workers’ hands: With employers offering higher wages and incentives, like those offered by Waste Management, above, to combat the labor shortage, many workers — especially in low-wage positions in restaurants and hotels — are leaving their jobs and jumping to ones that pay even slightly more.
The pandemic has driven workers to quit for other reasons as well. People were able to save money and pay down their debts, giving them a cushion to leave jobs that left them dissatisfied. Other workers, disinclined to give up remote work, are abandoning jobs that are less flexible.” Read more at New York Times
“Secrecy has long been part of the art market. So have money laundering and other abuses.
Billions of dollars’ worth of art changes hands every year with little or no public scrutiny. Buyers typically have no idea where the work they are purchasing is coming from, and sellers are similarly in the dark. Some drug dealers have used this opacity to move money. Now the federal government is considering using a law designed to combat money laundering at financial institutions to further regulate the art market.” Read more at New York Times
“‘I am a woman and a lesbian, a minority of minorities,’ Madeline Davis told the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. ‘Now we are coming out of our closets and onto the convention floor.’
That speech was heard by few outside the Miami Beach Convention Center, delivered just after 5 a.m. on July 12, and the party platform plank that she and other gay and lesbian delegates were supporting — a proposal to enact anti-discrimination statutes to protect gay and lesbian Americans — did not pass.
But it was still a watershed day for lesbian and gay rights. In taking the dais, Ms. Davis, who died on April 28 at 80, stood as the first openly lesbian delegate to a national political convention in the United States. Along with Jim Foster, a gay delegate from San Francisco, she spoke to an increasingly progressive-leaning party that would nominate George S. McGovern, the liberal senator from South Dakota, for president.” Read more at New York Times