Police cars are overturned in the street in Havana, Cuba, on Sunday during protests against President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Photograph: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images
“The biggest mass demonstrations for three decades have rippled through Cuba, as thousands took to the streets in cities throughout the island, demonstrating against food shortages, high prices and communist rule.
The protests began in the morning, in the town of San Antonio de los Baños in the west of the island, and in the city of Palma Soriano in the east. In both cases protesters numbered in the hundreds.
With millions of Cubans now with mobile internet on their phones, news of the protests quickly swept to Havana. By early afternoon, thousands marched through central Havana, chanting ‘homeland and life’ and ‘freedom.’
‘I’m here because of hunger, because there’s no medicine, because of power cuts – because there’s a lack of everything,’ said a man in his 40s who didn’t want to give his name for fear of reprisals.
‘I want a total change: a change of government, multiparty elections, and the end of communism.’
The protesters were met by uniformed and plainclothes police officers, who bundled hundreds of demonstrators – many of them violent – into police cars. Youths tore up paving slabs and hurled them at police; police used pepper spray and beat protesters with truncheons.
One policeman, hit on the head with a cobblestone, was sped away in a car that nearly ran over a protester.
At 3pm local time all television channels were interrupted with a broadcast from President Miguel Díaz-Canel who said that ‘destabilisation in our country’ would be met with a ‘revolutionary response’.
‘We call upon all the revolutionaries of the country, all the communists, to take to the streets.’
A game of cat and mouse ensued, where young anti-government protesters tried to occupy iconic parts of the capital, only to be blocked off by older government supporters, state security and the army.
Aylin Guerrero, 52, was one of thousands who came out to support the government, in central Havana. ‘We are the people and we have come out to support our conquests’, she said, surrounded by thousands of government supporters some bearing wooden clubs. ‘Even if we’re not communists, we’re patriots.’
Government supporters accused anti-government protesters of being mercenaries paid by the United States, which spend approximately 20 million dollars a year on “democracy promotion” on the island.
As evening fell, state forces and supporters had reclaimed the streets.
The protests were concentrated in Havana’s more impoverished municipalities. The underlying grievance of those interviewed was longstanding scarcity and privation.
Cubans are living through the gravest economic crisis the country has known for 30 years. The Trump administration hammered the island with more than 200 new sanctions aimed at sabotaging the island’s’ economy and stirring discontent, measures that have so far been left untouched by the Biden administration.
Since the pandemic, which has gutted tourism revenue, Cubans have become accustomed to waiting in line for hours to buy basic goods like chicken and detergent. Pharmacy shelves are barren.
The protests were the biggest since 1994, when tens of thousands demonstrated at Havana’s Malecón promenade amid an acute economic crisis brought on by the fall of the Soviet Union.
An official in the Biden administration tweeted support for Sunday’s demonstrations. Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary for state for western hemisphere affairs, tweeted: ‘Peaceful protests are growing in Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising Covid cases/deaths & medicine shortages. We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need.’” Read more at The Guardian
“The US averaged about 19,455 coronavirus cases over the last seven days, a 47% increase over the previous week. According to a CNN medical analyst, a third of those are coming from five hot spots: Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Nevada. In these states, ICUs are packed and ventilators are sometimes hard to come by -- a chilling echo of the darkest pandemic months. Experts say vaccine hesitancy is one reason for these regional spikes. Pfizer will virtually brief US government officials today about the potential need for booster shots of its Covid-19 vaccine, but Dr. Anthony Fauci says Americans don’t need to worry about an additional dose just yet.” Read more at CNN
“Haitian authorities have arrested a man they say helped orchestrate last week’s assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Police did not say what the 63-year-old’s motives may have been but said he arrived in the country in June with ‘political intentions’ and was in touch with a Florida-based Venezuelan security firm to recruit 26 Colombian mercenaries and two Haitian-Americans. Police previously said a group of at least 28 people are suspected in the killing. At least 20 of those suspects have been detained, including two Americans. Agents from the US and other nations have joined the criminal inquiry into Moise’s death. With some Haitians and local politicians not ready to trust the government’s version of Wednesday’s events, international cooperation in the investigation could boost public confidence.” Read more at CNN
“KABUL, Afghanistan — The top American general in Afghanistan stepped down on Monday, a symbolic moment as the United States nears the end of its 20-year-old war and Taliban fighters sweep across the country.
At a muted ceremony at U.S. and NATO military headquarters in Kabul, Gen. Austin S. Miller ended his nearly three-year term as commander. His duties will be filled by two officials. Rear Adm. Peter G. Vasely, a former member of SEAL Team 6, will take charge of the security mission at the United States Embassy in Kabul. He will report to Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of the military’s Central Command, who will take over the broader military mission in Afghanistan.” Read more at New York Times
“A large swath of the West baked during the weekend in triple-digit temperatures that were expected to continue into the start of the work week. The California Independent System Operator that manages the state’s power grid issued a five-hour ‘flex alert’ starting at 4 p.m. Monday and asked consumers to ‘conserve as much electricity as possible’ to avoid any outages. An excessive heat warning remains in place for Death Valley – where temperatures of 125 to 130 degrees are expected until 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Accuweather.com said. The area's daily record high is 129. The world record high is 134 degrees.” Read more at USA Today
“Multiple fires continue to burn in the West , with more than 300,000 acres blazing across six states as of late Sunday. The largest of the blazes, the Bootleg Fire, burned across 143,607 acres in Oregon. The Beckwourth Complex Fire measured 134 square miles, raging near California's border with Nevada and was 20% contained. In Arizona, two firefighters died after a plane responding to a wildfire crashed on Saturday, according to the federal Bureau of Land Management. California and other parts of the West are sinking deeper into drought and that has sent fire danger sky high in many areas.” Read more at USA Today
“Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's ruling Prosperity Party won the country’s general elections in a landslide, ensuring another term for the controversial leader. Ahmed received the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, but his administration has drawn criticism during the past year for delaying elections twice and taking military action in the Tigray region, where thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed. Opposition movements say the process, which marked Ethiopia’s first multiparty elections in 16 years, was fraudulent. Beforehand, both the US and the European Union expressed concern about the conditions under which the elections were held.” Read more at CNN
Italy beat England to win soccer’s European Championship. After 90 minutes of regulation and 30 more of extra time ended with the score at 1-1, Italy held their nerve in a penalty shootout to become European Champions for the first time since 1968. And England had its signature heartbreak.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“LONDON (AP) — Three Black players who missed penalty kicks for England in the decisive European Championship shootout against Italy on Sunday night were subjected to racist abuse online, prompting the English Football Association to issue a statement condemning the language used against the players.
Bukayo Saka, at 19 one of the youngest players on the England squad, missed the penalty that gave the title to Italy and denied England its first international trophy since the 1966 World Cup.
It was England’s third straight failure from the penalty spot in the shootout, with Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho also missing.
The FA said in a statement it was ‘appalled’ by the abuse of the three players. The team had taken a knee before games at the Euros to signal its support for an end to racial inequality, and the young, multi-ethnic squad won the hearts of the soccer-mad country before the shootout failure brought out all-too-familiar messages of hate.” Read more at AP News
“‘Black Widow,’ the latest entry in Disney's blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe, drew an estimated $80 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend. That's a humble hit overall, ranking 19th out of all 24 MCU opening weekends. But it's $10 million more than the previous post-pandemic record, set two weeks ago by ‘F9: The Fast Saga,’ and Disney says the film also generated more than $60 million through its streaming service Disney+. The strong performance raises hopes that fans are ready to return to movie theaters and bring the box office back to pre-pandemic levels.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Donald Trump overwhelmingly won the 2024 presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference, showing his continued dominance over the Republican Party.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Three years ago, Florida lawyer Eric Glazer offered a dire warning: The state's condo buildings faced an ‘absolutely avoidable’ maintenance crisis stemming from years of willfully neglected maintenance combined with lax government oversight.” Read more at USA Today
“State Republican lawmakers around the country are pushing bills to give unvaccinated people the same protections as those surrounding race, gender and religion, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.
Some state lawmakers are trying to make it illegal for employers, governments or private businesses to treat unvaccinated people any differently than vaccinated people, using the same language found in federal civil rights law.
Why it matters: This is how deeply COVID vaccine resistance has burrowed in the political psyche. Vax status is now a marker of identity.
Well-known GOP figures have recently escalated their rhetoric about the vaccination effort, comparing it to Nazi Germany and apartheid.
At the state level, there's more bite to the bark. Many Republican-led states have enacted some kind of restriction on vaccine mandates or vaccine ‘passports.’
‘When we think about the normal discrimination statutes … we have protected classes based on something that is sort of inherent to you, with religion maybe being the one that is a choice,’ said Lowell Pearson, a managing partner at Husch Blackwell, which has been tracking the bills. ‘But vaccination status you certainly can control.’
Between the lines: The states with restrictions on vaccine requirements tend to have lower vaccination rates than those without such laws.
Most of the measures are full of loopholes or have limited application.
Vaccine requirements aren't very popular among employers. But they're common among private businesses to have different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated employees or customers.
Zoom in: Montana has made it illegal to ‘discriminate’ on the basis of vaccine status, with some exceptions within the health care sector.
The law prohibits businesses, governmental entities and places of ‘public accommodation’ — like grocery stores, hotels or restaurants — from refusing to serve or withholding goods from anyone based on their vaccination status or whether they have an ‘immunity passport.’
Other state laws are generally more limited:
Alabama law prevents schools and universities from requiring coronavirus vaccines, prohibits vaccination as a condition of receiving government services, and bans businesses from refusing to serve someone based on their vaccine status.
What's next: Legislation similar to Montana's has been introduced all over the country.” Read more at Axios
“A state of emergency for Tokyo, Japan, takes effect Monday until Aug. 22 as the city experiences an uptick in COVID-19 infections ahead of the Olympics. While a state of emergency sounds dire, it does not mean Tokyo is under lockdown — bars and restaurants, as well as schools and businesses, will still remain open. Along with the emergency declaration, there will be no fans at the Olympics: Tokyo organizers and the International Olympic Committee also barred the public from Tokyo-area stadiums and arenas.” Read more at USA Today
“AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Republicans moved legislation to overhaul the state’s voting system closer to passage on Sunday, brushing aside fierce opposition from Democrats to gain approval from key committees in the House and the Senate after marathon weekend hearings.
The committee votes, coming just days into a 30-day special session, adhere to Gov. Greg Abbott’s timetable for swift action on the legislation, which he has called a priority for his administration. The full 31-member State Senate is expected to vote on its bill as early as Tuesday. The 150-member House is also likely to take up its own version of the measure this week.
Democrats on both committees united in opposition to the bills and prepared for further combat on the floors of the Senate and the House. Beverly Powell, a state senator from the Fort Worth suburbs who voted against the bill in committee, said Senate Democrats were planning ‘many’ amendments during the floor debate and might try to introduce an alternative bill.
The Senate State Affairs Committee took about 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon to approve the bill, known as S.B.1, on a 6-to-3 party-line vote after slightly modifying the bill with nine Republican amendments. ‘We feel good about the bill,’ said Bryan Hughes, the Republican committee chairman.” Read more at New York Times
“Athan Theoharis, a pre-eminent historian of the F.B.I. whose indefatigable research into the agency’s formerly unobtainable files produced revelations about decades of civil liberties abuses under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, died on July 3 at his home in Syracuse, N.Y. He was 84.” Read more at New York Times
“Drake Bell, the former star of the popular Nickelodeon show ‘Drake & Josh,’ faces sentencing Monday after pleading guilty to attempted child endangerment and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. The charges against Bell relate to a girl who met him online and attended one of his concerts in Cleveland in 2017, when she was 15. Tyler Sinclair, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, said the attempted endangering children charge relates to the concert, where Bell ‘violated his duty of care.’ The disseminating harmful material charge concerns Bell having sent the girl ‘inappropriate social media messages.’” Read more at USA Today
“After a year off due to the pandemic, Major League Baseball's Home Run Derby returns at Coors Field in Denver on Monday as part of baseball's All-Star festivities. Players and fans alike are excited to see how far homers will go in the famously hitter-friendly ballpark. The Mets' Pete Alonso won the 2019 event in Cleveland and will return to defend his crown against a field of baseball's top sluggers. Shohei Ohtani, leading the majors in home runs at the break, is the No. 1 overall seed in the bracket and will face 22-year-old Nationals star Juan Soto in the first round. Alonso is the only player in the group who has participated in the event before.” Read more at USA Today
“Novak Djokovic defeated Matteo Berrettini in the Wimbledon men's singles final to win his 20th Grand Slam and third consecutive Wimbledon title Sunday, tying the record held by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the most career Grand Slam singles titles in men's tennis history.” Read more at USA Today
“The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns in Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals.” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: Henry Parham hoisted balloons designed to destroy low-flying German planes as a member of the only Black combat unit in the D-Day invasion. Parham died last week at 99.” Read more at New York Times
“In Louisiana, a state notorious for colorful politicians, Edwin Edwards blazed for half a century, a near-perpetual neon rainbow.
The former Louisiana governor and U.S. congressman, 93, who died July 12 of respiratory problems, was a brazen practitioner of the corrupt-politics-as-theatrics style mastered by the legendary Depression-era demagogue Huey Long.
Mr. Edwards served three full terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, four terms as governor and, starting in 2000, eight years in federal prison for racketeering, extortion and related crimes. He staged an unsuccessful political comeback in 2014, running once again for a House seat, and was quick-witted and resilient even at the lowest points of his career.” Read more at Washington Post
Photo: Virgin Galactic via Reuters
“Billionaire Richard Branson, 70, who floated in zero gravity (above) yesterday as he made a live-streamed trip to the edge of space, said aboard his Virgin Galactic winged rocket ship:
To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now, I’m an adult in a spaceship, with lots of other wonderful adults, looking down to our beautiful, beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers, if we can do this, just imagine what you can do.
At a news conference afterward, he had this advice for budding entrepreneurs:
Every time we start a new company, I will immerse myself and experience it. I will have a notebook, and this is something you kids should think about. ... I've written down 30 or 40 little things that will make the next experience for the next person who goes to space with us that much better.” [Axios]
“DALLAS (AP) — An unopened copy of Nintendo’s Super Mario 64 has sold at auction for $1.56 million.
Heritage Auctions in Dallas said that the 1996 game sold Sunday, breaking its previous record price for the sale of a single video game.
A spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about who purchased the game.
Super Mario 64 was the best-selling game on the Nintendo 64 and the first to feature the Mario character in 3D, the auction house said in a statement.
The sale follows an unopened copy of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda selling at auction Friday for $870,000. Valarie McLeckie, Heritage’s video game specialist, said the auction house was shocked to see a game sell for more than a $1 million two days after the Zelda game broke its past record.
In April, the auction house sold an unopened copy of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. that was bought in 1986 and forgotten about in a desk drawer for $660,000.” Read more at AP News
“Paris is set to introduce a maximum speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour (19 miles per hour) on almost all its streets by the end of August in a bid to reduce noise, traffic accidents, and carbon emissions. Roughly 60 percent of Paris streets currently adhere to the limit but after August’s expansion only the Paris ring road and major boulevards will allow higher speeds. The move is part of Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s drive to reduce car dependency and make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Hidalgo plans to remove almost half of the city’s 140,000 street-level parking spaces and introducing metered parking for motorcycles and scooters which currently park for free.” Read more at Foreign Policy