People from a coalition of housing justice groups hold signs protesting evictions in Boston. Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP
“A nationwide US eviction moratorium was set to expire on Saturday night after Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress failed to align on a long-shot strategy to stop millions of Americans being forced from their homes during a Covid-19 surge.
More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some in a matter of days, as nearly $47bn in federal housing aid to the states during the pandemic has been slow to make it into the hands of renters and landlords. The moratorium expires at midnight on Saturday.
Tensions mounted late on Friday as it became clear there would be no resolution. Biden called on local governments to ‘take all possible steps’ to disburse the funds. Evictions could begin as soon as Monday.
‘There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic,’ Biden said. ‘Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can.’
The stunning outcome exposed a rare divide between the president and his allies on Capitol Hill, one that could have lasting impact.” Read more at The Guardian
“The Senate overwhelmingly voted to continue to advance a $1 trillion infrastructure package in a rare Friday session, as Senate Democrats race to pass both that bipartisan bill and a party-line $3.5 trillion budget blueprint before leaving for the scheduled August recess.
Lawmakers and aides are still finalizing the text for the bipartisan infrastructure agreement, a 2,540-page draft of which was circulating on Capitol Hill and was obtained by The New York Times, after the Senate agreed Wednesday to take it up.
The infrastructure spending proposal cleared another procedural hurdle with a vote of 66-28. The emerging deal is expected to provide $550 billion in new funding for the nation’s aging roads, bridges, and highways, as well as broadband and resiliency projects.” Read more at Boston Globe
“WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department must turn over six years of former President Donald J. Trump’s tax returns to House investigators, the Justice Department said in a legal opinion issued on Friday that most likely paves the way for their eventual release to Congress and potentially to the public.
Hours later, the Treasury told a federal judge that it planned to move ahead.
The 39-page opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel dealt a sharp legal blow to a yearslong campaign by Mr. Trump to keep his tax information secret, reversing a Trump administration position that had shielded the documents from Congress.
Rejecting that view, the Biden administration opinion said that a request for the tax information first lodged in 2019 by the House Ways and Means Committee was legitimate and that the Treasury Department had no valid grounds to refuse it.
‘The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former president’s tax information,’ the opinion said. ‘Treasury must furnish the information to the committee.’
Democrats on Capitol Hill, who said they aim to examine the I.R.S.’s presidential audit program and Mr. Trump’s conflicts of interest, hailed the decision as a victory for congressional oversight powers and for national security. The House had sued to enforce the request after the Trump Treasury Department objected, and litigation continues.
‘The American people deserve to know the facts of his troubling conflicts of interest and undermining of our security and democracy as president,’ Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a valedictory statement.
Yet even as the decision lowered a key barrier for Congress, it was unlikely to be the final word in the dispute. A highly litigious and determined protector of his financial records, Mr. Trump could seek an injunction in the coming days to try to stop the transfer, setting off a new round of legal wrangling that could take weeks or longer to resolve.” Read more at New York Times
“A batch of early coronavirus data that went missing for a year has emerged from hiding.
In June, an American scientist discovered that more than 200 genetic sequences from Covid-19 patient samples isolated in China early in the pandemic had puzzlingly been removed from an online database. With some digital sleuthing, Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, managed to track down 13 of the sequences on Google Cloud.
When Dr. Bloom shared his experience in a report posted online, he wrote that it “seems likely that the sequences were deleted to obscure their existence.”
But now an odd explanation has emerged, stemming from an editorial oversight by a scientific journal. And the sequences have been uploaded into a different database, overseen by the Chinese government.
The story began in early 2020, when researchers at Wuhan University investigated a new way to test for the deadly coronavirus sweeping the country. They sequenced a short stretch of genetic material from virus samples taken from 34 patients at a Wuhan hospital.” Read more at New York Times
“The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday ‘there will be no nationwide mandate’ for the COVID-19 vaccine, clarifying comments she made about the administration looking into such a mandate.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky clarified remarks she made during an interview on Fox News when she told host Bret Baier that the Biden administration was ‘looking into’ a federal vaccine mandate after being asked if she supported such a step.” Read more at The Hill
“The number of coronavirus cases in Florida has jumped 50 percent over the past week, officials said Friday, as the state that already makes up a large chunk of the nation's total cases sees a surge in new infections.
The Florida Department of Health said there were more than 110,000 new cases recorded this week, a jump from the more than 73,000 reported last week. Case numbers have returned to the level seen in January, before widespread distribution of the vaccine.
Just over 50 percent of Florida's population is fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University, though vaccinations have increased recently.” Read more at The Hill
“They were unmoved by the urgings of President Biden to get vaccinated. They’ve spurned calls from the nation’s leading doctors, as well as from sports heroes and movie stars. But one thing is finally grabbing the attention of millions of unvaccinated Americans — the invasion of the hyper-contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.
‘My friend works at the hospital, and she told me there’s 18-year-olds on ventilators. That scared me,’ said Tyler Sprenkle, a recent high school graduate in Goodman, Mo., who got a shot this month.
In nearby Bella Vista, Ark., 25-year-old Chelsah Skaggs said she had been avoiding the shots, citing false reports that they might cause infertility.
But as the delta variant hit her area, she did her own research and became convinced she should get vaccinated. ‘Skepticism is a good thing,’ she said. ‘But to be ignorant is a different issue. My only regret is not doing it sooner.’
More than 4.7 million newly vaccinatedAmericans have made similar calculations in the past two weeks, as misgivings about the shots based on ideology, apathy or fear have taken a back seat to the desire to protect themselves and their loved ones.
More than 856,000 doses were administered Friday, the highest daily figure since July 3, according to The Washington Post’s vaccine tracker. This was the third week that states with the highest numbers of coronavirus cases also had the highest vaccination numbers, deputy White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing Friday.” Read more at Washington Post
“U.K.’s Delta Rollercoaster Flips Between Virus Horror and Hope
Two weeks ago, the delta variant was ripping through the U.K., stoking fears of a record wave of Covid-19 clobbering one of the world’s most highly vaccinated countries. Then, almost overnight, daily cases plummeted, Tim Loh reports.” Read more at Bloomberg“President Donald Trump pressed senior Justice Department officials in late 2020 to ‘just say the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me’ and Republican lawmakers, according to stunning handwritten notes that illustrate how far the president was willing to go to prevent Joe Biden from taking office.
The notes, taken by Justice Department official Richard Donoghue, were released to Congress this week and made public Friday — further evidence of the personal pressure campaign Trump waged as he sought to stay in the White House.
In one Dec. 27 conversation, according to the written account, acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen told Trump that the Justice Department ‘can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election.’
The president replied that he understood but wanted the agency to ‘just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,’ according to the notes written by Donoghue, a participant in the discussion.” Read more at Washington Post
“ASHEVILLE - U.S. House member Madison Cawthorn had his gun taken by airport police and will likely face a federal fine and loss of a special security status, local and federal officials said.
The Republican congressman representing Western North Carolina's 11th District was attempting to board a plane Feb. 13 when Transportation Security Administration workers found an unloaded gun in his carry-on bag, along with a loaded magazine, according to Asheville Regional Airport officials.
The weapon was described in a redacted incident report and police radio traffic recordings as a ‘Glock 9mm handgun.’
Cawthorn, whose spokesman responded to questions July 30 saying he brought the gun by mistake, was not charged with any crime, according to reports and other information on the incident obtained this month through a public records request. That is a normal outcome, said spokeswoman Tina Kinsey.” Read more at USA Today
Simone Biles competes on the uneven bars during the team qualifying in Tokyo.
“TOKYO — U.S. gymnastics star Simone Biles will not compete in the individual apparatus finals for vault and uneven bars at the Tokyo Olympics, USA Gymnastics announced Saturday. Biles, who entered these Games projected to earn up to five gold medals, withdrew from the team competition and the all-around final, citing the need to prioritize her mental health.
Biles had qualified for the finals on each apparatus, and she has not decided whether she will compete in Monday’s floor exercise or Tuesday’s balance beam finals.” Read more at Washington Post
“A federal judge in D.C. erupted in anger at a Jan. 6 riot defendant and his lawyer Friday afternoon for refusing to cooperate with court officials on covid-19 safety requirements.
‘You may not believe in this virus even though 600,000 people have died,’ said U.S. DistrictJudge Reggie B. Walton. ‘I’m not going to be a part of spreading this virus because of what you don’t believe.’
But he did not immediately incarcerate Daniel Goodwyn, a San Francisco webpage designer accused of taking part in the assault on the Capitol. The judge said he would give Goodwyn one more chance to comply, even as the defendant insisted he would not.” Read more at Washington Post
“Your feel-good Olympic roundup
It would be impossible to cover every single incredible Olympic win so far, but here are some of our favorite stories of victory that highlight the human side of the Games:Anastasija Zolotic, above, who became the first American woman to win gold in taekwondo -- at only 17 years old! Her incredible celebration will get you PUMPED.
Hidilyn Diaz, a weightlifter who won the first gold medal EVER for the Philippines. Filipinos around the world showered love and congratulations on their new national heroine.
Uta Abe and Hifumi Abe, Japanese judokas who became the first sister-brother duo to ever win gold in the same Olympics — and on the same day! Can you imagine how proud their family is?!
Suni Lee, who brought home US gold in the gymnastics all-around. She is the first Hmong American to compete in the Games, and she overcame injuries and family tragedy to emerge victorious.
Tom Daley, who won the men's synchronized 10-meter diving competition with his partner Matty Lee, securing his first gold medal in four Games. Not only is he an LGBT icon, Daly is a FIBER ARTIST. He knits and crochets and even knitted himself a little medal cozy! Yes, I'm crying.
And be sure to check out plenty of incredible photos from Tokyo, curated by our friends on the CNN photo desk.” Read more at CNN
“ISLAMABAD — Noor Mukadam’s last hours were terror-filled. Beaten repeatedly, the 27-year-old jumped from a window but was dragged back, beaten again, and finally beheaded. A childhood friend has been charged with her killing.
The gruesome death last week in an upscale neighborhood of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, is the latest in a series of attacks on women in Pakistan, where rights activists say such gender-based assaults are on the rise as the country barrels toward greater religious extremism.
Mukadam was the daughter of a diplomat, and her status as a member of the country’s elite has shone a spotlight on the relentless and growing violence against women in Pakistan, said prominent rights activist Tahira Abdullah. But the majority of women who are victims of such violence are among the country’s poor and middle classes, and their deaths are often not reported or, when they are, often ignored.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The remains of Esther Dingley, a British woman who went missing while hiking alone in the Pyrenees mountains eight months ago, have been found, according to an international support group for missing person cases.
The organization, LBT Global, announced the discovery in a statement on Friday, adding that Ms. Dingley’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing after a single bone had been found close to her last known location.
An investigation remains ongoing, the group said, although it did not specify which authorities were involved. The organization said that there was still no sign of equipment or clothing in the immediate area where the bone was found, and that search and rescue teams would continue to scour the area by land and air.
PGHM Luchon, the French mountain authority in the region, could not immediately be reached for comment.” Read more at New York Times
“Investors Lose $1 Trillion in China’s Wild Week of Market Shocks
It began with a record crash in Chinese stocks on Wall Street and only got crazier from there. The nearly $1 trillion selloff ignited by Beijing’s shock ban on profits at tutoring companies has triggered a new round of soul searching about the investment case for Chinese assets in the Xi era.” Read more at Bloomberg“Billionaires Back Her, But Tanzanian President Spooks Opposition
Tanzania’s new president, Samia Hassan, won accolades from Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, and fellow billionaire Mohammed Dewji for her business-friendly noises, Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala and Matthew Hill report. But her government’s crackdown on opposition leaders is raising concern.” Read more at Bloomberg“The Chip-Crunch Recovery Will Be Rocky, as Apple Can Attest
The great computer-chip shortage of 2021, a cloud hanging over companies ranging from Tesla to McDonald’s, is showing signs of easing. But not for everyone, Ian King reports.” Read more at Bloomberg“Socialite Art Collector Jailed in U.K. For Kusama Pumpkin Fraud
A German art collector was jailed in London after admitting to an art fraud involving the fake sale of a $1.3 million yellow pumpkin sculpture by Yayoi Kusama, Jonathan Browning reports.” Read more at Bloomberg