July, 2021 | últimas notícias - Part 3

DeSantis will issue executive order to allow parents to choose whether to have children wear masks to school – WPLG Local 10

CAPE CORAL, Fla. – Despite a surge of COVID-19 cases in the state of Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference Friday morning and said he would not be deterred by “a movement to impose more restrictions on the American people.”

“In Florida, there will be no lockdowns, there will be no school closures, there will be no restrictions and no mandates in the state of Florida,” the governor said during his appearance at a restaurant in Cape Coral.

DeSantis said Floridians will be free to choose what is best for them and that the state will protect its residents’ right to work, for businesses to operate and for students to attend school in person.

He also said he will be signing an executive order to issue emergency rules for “protecting the rights of parents,” which will allow them to decide whether their children should wear masks in schools.

WATCH BELOW: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ full press conference in Cape Coral:

His announcement comes after the Broward County Public Schools District said they would once again require students to wear masks at the start of the 2021-22 school year.

“There is no way in good conscious that I could bring anybody back into a school environment on the bus, the cafeteria, and not have a mask mandate. That is a moral decision,” Broward School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood said Wednesday.

Osgood said the decision was made due to the liability and responsibility they have as a school board, but she said they would abide by the law if the governor were to issue an executive order banning mask mandates at schools.

According to the governor, Florida was the only large state in the U.S. to offer full in-person learning last school year and said a study from Brown University found no correlation of case rates and mask mandates at schools.

However, critics of that study say it is now outdated and was centered on smaller communities, where schools reopened earlier in the pandemic.

Regardless, DeSantis said it must be up to parents to decide whether their children should wear masks to school.

He said there has been a lot of push from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to mandate that all students and school staff members be masked, but said he believed “that would be a huge mistake” and that the CDC was showing disregard for the physical and mental wellbeing of children.

CDC officials say they support in-person learning and believe “safely returning” to classrooms in the fall is a priority, but they also maintain that wearing masks will help prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially for children who are not able to get vaccinated.

“Consistent and correct mask use by people who are not fully vaccinated is especially important indoors and in crowded settings, when physical distancing cannot be maintained,” the CDC states on its website.

Source Article from https://www.local10.com/news/florida/2021/07/30/gov-ron-desantis-holds-news-conference-at-cape-coral-restaurant/

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Fact-checking Biden’s claim on mask mandates and vaccination rates – CNN

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN

Updated 9:26 AM ET, Fri July 30, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/30/politics/biden-vaccinated-masks-fact-check/index.html

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Pelosi and Sanders brace for Democratic upheaval over Biden agenda – POLITICO

“You’ve got 50 members of the caucus, all of whom have different views and are from different states with different needs. And my job is going to be to try and work it out,” Sanders said.

The episodes underscore the tensions in the Democratic Party as President Joe Biden’s agenda haltingly moves forward. The party will sink or swim together with Democrats’ two-track plan to spend $550 billion in new money on physical infrastructure and then supplement it with their own colossal party-line spending bill on social programs, which will require all 50 Democratic votes to pass the Senate.

But there’s growing worry the complex proposal could quickly turn into a 10-car pileup.

Sanders’ concern is just one piece of the multifaceted internal conflict in the Democratic Party as it rallies around Biden’s $4 trillion domestic spending plan. Once the Senate passes the bipartisan infrastructure plan, a new conflict will immediately replace it: How long should the House wait for its Democratic-only companion bill to arrive before the pressure becomes too much to withstand?

As progressives praise Pelosi and make public threats to sink the bipartisan bill if she buckles, moderates are already urging the speaker to drop her blockade of the upper chamber’s infrastructure deal. It’s a conflict that will test the strength of Democrats’ House and Senate relations, with slim majorities spread out across a large ideological spectrum. And there’s always the danger that the longer the process drags out, the more likely one or both tracks might collapse.

“Strike while the iron’s hot,” said Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), one of the several dozen House centrists who have been pushing for swift action on the Senate deal across the Capitol. “If you get a deal, and if it’s significant money, don’t let it sit. It does not age well.”

Some of that anxiety surfaced this week as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) angered progressives with her concerns about the $3.5 trillion price tag for Democrats’ bill on social programs, even as the Senate prepares to send a bipartisan infrastructure bill she helped negotiate to the House. She’s one of several moderates in both chambers with outsized ability to shave down the package in the coming weeks. That bill can pass without GOP support in the 50-50 Senate, but it would need lockstep Democratic unity in the upper chamber.

And after all 50 Senate Democrats voted to move forward on the bipartisan package Wednesday, other Democrats are ready for “a little more definition about what level of cohesion we’re going to have as a caucus,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

Big bills always surface tensions between chambers of Congress. But given Democrats’ ideological divides and their slim margins, the coordination of these two packages is an unusually delicate and fraught task.

“All [Sinema] did is ensure that we don’t have enough trust unless they both move together,” said senior progressive Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). “We’ve been very clear and Nancy Pelosi has been very clear on that.”

And though Pelosi insisted again this week the infrastructure bill is going nowhere until she has the complementary $3.5 trillion party-line spending bill in hand, too, centrists are already pressuring the California Democrat to move Biden’s infrastructure deal as quickly as she can.

In addition to moderate Democrats’ hand wringing, Republicans have accused Pelosi of holding the bill as “hostage” to the larger package that will spend trillions and raise taxes on the wealthy.

Meanwhile, senators from the progressive wing of the party are urging their House colleagues to stand firm.

“It would be nice if we didn’t need a backstop, that in the Senate we had our own adherence to our priorities among the Democrats. But she’s there,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). “I say: Good. Thank you Nancy.”

The House is set to go on recess for seven weeks starting Friday, though members expect they will need to return for a procedural vote to tee up the Democrat-only spending plan. And Pelosi and her top deputy, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), said little in private meetings this week about a potential schedule for the House to return from recess to move the Senate legislation, only calling the situation “fluid,” according to people in the room.

In the House, there’s been a precarious accord between the Democrats’ two divergent factions as they await details across the Capitol on the bipartisan plan. But as soon as the Senate passes that bipartisan deal, moderates are planning a full-throttle push for a swift vote.

Hours after announcing their bipartisan infrastructure deal, Senate negotiators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) privately briefed their counterparts in the House, a bipartisan group of about four dozen moderates called the Problem Solvers Caucus.

Both factions agreed that the biggest hurdle ahead for plunging $550 billion in new spending into roads, bridges and broadband was the House.

Democrats in the Problem Solvers Caucus are already growing more vocal in their demands for Pelosi to alter her tactics. And privately, some are discussing whether to band together to block a vote on the budget — stalling the Democratic-only spending bill — until they get what they want.

“I think we made it pretty clear. We want to do the bipartisan bill first,” said Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), when asked if moderates would be willing to block a budget vote to pressure Democratic leaders on the Senate deal. “Let’s take something home for the summer that people will be proud of.”

Progressives, however, are certain that Pelosi will not break her pledge. And they say even if she tried, the roughly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus could sink the Senate measure on the floor.

“We currently do not have the votes to move the bipartisan bill, unless the reconciliation is moving simultaneously. And the speaker obviously knows that,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who serves as chief vote-counter for the left-wing caucus.

Pelosi’s headache will only grow later this week when her margin in the House shrinks by one more seat. After the GOP winner in this week’s Texas race is seated, House Democrats will only be able to lose three Democrats on any single floor vote.

Both publicly and privately, Pelosi has not veered from her stance that she will not put the Senate bipartisan deal on the floor until after the Senate has passed the sprawling party-line spending plan.

But there is faint hope in some corners of the caucus that Pelosi might clarify her stance to advance a highly popular Biden priority.

“I don’t know that she has issued an ultimatum about that,” said Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.). “I know she has stated what her preferences are, but I think she has a good sense of the fact that the American people really want to see, at long last, a real infrastructure bill.”

A spokesperson later clarified that Cartwright supports the speaker’s position.

Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/30/biden-reconciliation-package-progressives-501632

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This Mississippi woman’s unvaccinated husband is battling Covid-19 in an ICU: ‘I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go through this’ – CNN

With the rise of Covid-19 cases due to the more contagious Delta variant, evidence continues to mount that vaccination is the key to prevent serious coronavirus illness.

For one Mississippi couple who caught Covid-19, their outcomes provide a growing contrast. The wife, who is vaccinated, recovered after 10 days. But her unvaccinated husband has been in the hospital for 22 days and counting.

“He’s just trying so hard to get better and get home,” Alicia Ball said about her husband, William, whose currently in an intensive care unit battling Covid-19. “We have a lot of people praying for us.

“He means so much to our family. He’s the rock of our family.”

At times holding back tears, she told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday that she is “emotionally and mentally and physically exhausted.”

Ball spoke to CNN from a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, with her husband lying beside her in bed with an oxygen mask on. He is currently not on a ventilator.

“It’s real. It’s devastating. … It’s been really hard,” she said. “I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go through this.”

Ball added she and her husband were vaccine-hesitant, but she eventually got the vaccine under her doctor’s care after fears regarding her asthma condition. She said she fell ill for 10 days when she contracted Covid-19 and had to visit an emergency room.

“But I didn’t get put in here for 22 days and counting,” she said.

Ball said her vaccine skepticism stemmed from not knowing just how badly the virus can affect her.

“We just didn’t know the severity of the disease … especially, this Delta variant. … It just hadn’t hit that close to home, yet,” she said.

Mississippi has one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, with 34.4% of the total population fully vaccinated, state data shows.

The state is also designated as an area with high transmission of Covid-19, according to federal health data. Over the past week, Mississippi saw 336 cases per 100,000 people, which is one of the highest rates in the US.

The Delta variant of Covid-19 has been spreading throughout the country, compounding concerns among health officials. Safety restrictions and mask guidances are making a return as cases rose by at least 10% in nearly every US state in the last week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The variant spreads quicker and more easily than the first coronavirus strain and can infect fully vaccinated people whose symptoms are usually milder.

Ball hopes sharing her Covid-19 experience will encourage her loved ones and others to get vaccinated.

“God, I hope so. I hope it’s helped our family, our church, our friends, anybody that sees this broadcast. I hope it helps. That’s why I’m doing it,” she said.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/30/health/mississippi-covid-unvaccinated-man-icu/index.html

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Hong Kong Protester Is Sentenced to 9 Years in First Security Law Case – The New York Times

In Mr. Tong’s case, the prosecutors made clear that the sentence against him should be determined as much by the message on his banner — a popular slogan the government has deemed a call to independence — as his collision with the police.

He was sentenced to six and a half years for inciting secession and eight years for terrorism, terms that were to run partly concurrently, for a total of nine years.

Without the national security law, a person convicted of driving dangerously could have received a sentence of seven years, and of two years for assaulting a police officer. Clive Grossman, Mr. Tong’s lead defense lawyer, said they would appeal the verdict and the sentence.

The power to interpret the security law rests with Beijing, and some observers say the outcome of Mr. Tong’s trial shows that Hong Kong’s courts have less space to weigh individual rights when considering security-related charges.

“Thus far, the government has run the table on N.S.L. cases, both on key procedural matters and now on guilty verdicts,” said Thomas Kellogg, the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. “This is not a good sign that the courts will be able to mitigate the worst elements of the N.S.L.”

Mr. Tong, 24, was a cook in a Japanese restaurant who helped provide first aid to protesters in 2019. He was the main breadwinner for his family and helped support his sister’s studies abroad, according to his lawyers.

He was arrested on July 1, 2020, after colliding with police officers while driving his motorcycle, which had a flag mounted on it that bore the slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times.” Three officers were injured, though not seriously, according to the court.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/world/asia/hong-kong-protester-security-law.html

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N.J. weather: After 12 tornado warnings, at least 3 likely touched down. More under investigation. – NJ.com

UPDATE: Suspected tornado in Jersey Shore town damaged at least 35 homes, injured 3 people, tossed boats in yards

Storm survey teams from the National Weather Service will be busy after a wild night of weather Thursday that included 12 tornado warnings in New Jersey.

The most significant amount of damage in New Jersey is suspected to have taken place on the north end of Long Beach Island, where the weather service said it received reports of a roof being torn off a house and damage to surrounding structures.

A suspected tornado tore the roof off a house in the High Bar Harbor section of Long Beach Township late Thursday and damaged multiple other homes and boats.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Photos and video show fallen power lines, overturned boats, damage to the roof and siding of homes as well as fences torn out of the ground in the High Bar Harbor section of Barnegat Light after a fierce storm blew through late Thursday.

A suspected tornado tore the roof off a house in the High Bar Harbor section of Long Beach Township late Thursday and damaged multiple other homes and boats.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

“From the damage reports, we strongly suspect it’s a tornado,” said Dean Iovino, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Mouny Holly.

A suspected tornado tore the roof off a house in the High Bar Harbor section of Long Beach Township late Thursday and damaged multiple other homes and boats.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The central part of the state took the brunt of the blow on Thursday with multiple tornado warnings in Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean and Hunterdon counties.

“It’s been quite awhile since we had an evening quite like that,“ Iovino said. “It was unusual — we’ve had some severe weather events over the years but this was among the busier ones.”

The New Jersey record for tornadoes in a single day stands at seven in 1989.

One suspected tornado struck Mercer County Thursday night, leaving power outages, flooding and downed trees, while a second suspected twister touched down in the Lakehurst area of Ocean County, according to the weather service.

Washington Crossing State Park on the Delaware River in Mercer County is closed Friday due to downed trees throughout the park. In addition, the Fireman’s Eddy section of Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park in Hopewell will be closed Friday as crews evaluate the damage, according to the state parks service.

In addition to the Hopewell and Trenton areas of Mercer County, the weather service is interested in surveying damage in the Lakehurst area of Ocean County, the Barnegat Township and Harvey Cedars area in Ocean County, and the Willingboro and Mount Holly region of Burlington County.

There were so many possible tornadoes that the weather service will likely not be able to check all of them.

“I’d say Hopewell is fairly likely and the one on LBI,” Iovino said. “The others we’ll have to investigate further to see if we can get someone out there.”

The good news is that only slightly more than 1,100 homes and businesses in New Jersey are without power as of 7:30 a.m. Friday.

In Bucks County, Pennsylvania — just across the Delaware River from Trenton, a confirmed tornado left a wide path of damage — including ripping the roof off a car dealership.

For all the chaotic weather, just .83 inches of rain fell in Trenton on Thursday with the top wind gust reaching 46 mph, the weather service said. Atlantic City picked up .18 inches of rain and a wind gust of 32 mph was recorded. In Newark, .57 inches of rain fell and the strongest wind gust was 26 mph.

Pleasant weather is ahead Friday and Saturday with sunny skies and highs in the upper 70s and low 80s with low humidity. There’s a chance of thunderstorms on Sunday.

A tranquil day is expected in New Jersey on Friday, July 30, 2021 with sunny conditions and highs in the low 80.National Weather Service

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Noah Cohen, Len Melisurgo and Chris Sheldon contributed to this report.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.

Source Article from https://www.nj.com/weather/2021/07/nj-weather-after-12-tornado-warnings-at-least-2-likely-touched-down-more-under-investigation.html

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Afghan interpreters: First wave of evacuees fly to Virginia – The Washington Post

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/30/afghan-interpreters-evacuations/

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AdventHealth elevates to ‘black’ status after nearly 1,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 – WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando

ORLANDO, Fla. – Officials with Central Florida’s largest hospital system said there are about 1,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday and crews are currently working in a “black” status.

“Black” status means hospital officials will defer non-emergency surgeries at hospitals throughout the Central Florida division. Health officials said outpatient surgery sites will only conduct time-sensitive and urgent procedures.

Time-sensitive pediatric procedures can be conducted with the approval of the chief medical officer.

AdventHealth officials said this is the most amount of COVID-19 hospitalizations the Central Florida system has seen in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Central Florida division includes the following counties:

Hospital officials will share a news update at 1 p.m. on Friday.

“What’s extraordinary is the speed at which we are currently seeing new cases and unfortunately right now, the slope is pretty steep and we haven’t seen the end of it, this is still coming,” executive director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiologist Dr. Vincent Hsu said.

In response to whether there are any signs of a deceleration in the number of cases, Hsu said there isn’t as of now and they are continuing to see a “very significant surge.” He said among the number of hospitalized patients, about 93-95% are unvaccinated patients.

“We have to recognize that the delta variant behaves in ways that … were unlike the other variants and so this is a significant issue that we’re going to have to deal with,” Hsu said.

In response to the surge, AdventHealth updated its visitor policy to allow one visitor per non-COVID patient and patients positive with the virus will be allowed one visitor by appointment only.

“We’re seeing the uptick, we’re seeing folks coming in for more testing, we’re seeing a lot more positive testing,” said Dr. Michael Cacciatore, chief medical officer with AdventHealth.

Cacciatore and Hsu both discussed the number of unvaccinated pregnant women in the ICU. Hsu reiterated the risk of getting COVID-19 and the effects of the virus are far greater than the side effects, “small risks,” of a vaccine. Cacciatore said the risk versus benefit ratio is used in regards to the vaccine in the same way it is used with any medication on a pregnant woman.

“Almost every medication we have has not been tested in pregnancy. Well, it kind of makes sense because it’s kind of something ethical about testing pregnant women and medications,” Cacciatore said. “So we always use the risk versus benefit ratio with the risk of medication and what’s the benefit.”

Hsu reiterated despite the current situation with increasing cases that “we are going to get better.”

“I do want to be optimistic that we are going to see a pot of gold there at the end but right for now, we’re just going to have to keep moving and keep working hard,” he said.

Doctors are encouraging people to wear masks and follow newly updated CDC guidelines to wear masks indoors, regardless of their vaccination status. Cacciatore said students and teachers should also mask up for the new school year.

“Masking is a very reasonable approach to decrease transmission in our school system,” Cacciatore said.

News 6 reached out to Orlando Health for their hospitalization numbers and a spokesperson said as of Thursday, the hospital system has 454 COVID-19 positive patients. Orlando Health said the rise in hospitalizations is “attributed primarily to the large number of individuals who have not been vaccinated.”

Source Article from https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/07/30/adventhealth-elevates-to-black-status-after-nearly-1000-patients-hospitalized-with-covid-19/

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Pentagon calls COVID-19 a threat to national security, weighs making vaccinations a requirement – Fox News

Video

Mask and vaccine mandates sparking outrage across the US

Fox News national correspondent William La Jeunesse joins ‘Special Report’ to discuss the latest COVID-19 pushback in the nation’s biggest cities

The coronavirus pandemic is a national security threat and the Pentagon is considering adding COVID-19 vaccines to “the full list of requirements for military personnel,” according to a statement late Thursday.

The Biden administration has not said it will require COVID-19 vaccines for federal workers and the military but will force those who are unvaccinated to take frequent tests and take additional steps to prevent infection.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ON THE CORONAVIRUS

The vaccines are still being administered under an Emergency Use Authorization, and have not been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, raising potential legal issues for the administration to make the jabs a requirement. But the president—facing slowing vaccination numbers and missing his goal of getting 70% of the country at least partially vaccinated by the Fourth of July—has recently come out more forceful for Americans to take the jab.

The Pentagon said the Department of Defense is working to “meet President Biden’s commitment to defeat COVID-19, and that includes being able to ensure every member of our civilians and military workforce is protected.”

TUCKER CARLSON: COVID-19 HAS BEEN GOOD TO DEMOCRATS, IT GOT THEM INTO THE WH

Military and civilian personnel in the department who don’t take the vaccine will have to “wear masks, physically distance, comply with a regular testing requirement and be subject to official travel restrictions.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will consult health officials and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to “determine how and when to make recommendations to the President with respect to adding the COVID-19 vaccines to the full list of requirements for military personnel,” the statement read.

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ABC News reported earlier this month that about 70% of all military personnel have received at least one dose of the vaccine. The report pointed out that Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tweeted at the time that he was told by members of the military that they would quit if the vaccine ever became mandatory.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-call-covid-19-a-threat-to-national-security-weighs-making-vaccinations-a-requirement

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You Don’t Care About the Infrastructure Bill – Slate

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Source Article from https://slate.com/business/2021/07/infrastructure-bipartisan-deal-boredom-yawn-whoops-fell-asleep.html

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First flight of Afghans who risked lives to help American troops arrive in US – CNN

By Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler and Nicole Gaouette, CNN

Updated 5:49 AM ET, Fri July 30, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/30/politics/afghan-siv-arrival/index.html

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Philippine leader recalls decision to void US security pact – Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines will keep having large-scale combat exercises with the United States after President Rodrigo Duterte retracted his decision to terminate a key defense pact in a move that may antagonize an increasingly belligerent China.

Duterte’s decision was announced Friday by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a joint news conference with visiting U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin in Manila. It was a step back from the Philippine leader’s stunning vow early in his term to distance himself from Washington as he tried to rebuild frayed ties with China over years of territorial rifts in the South China Sea.

“The president decided to recall or retract the termination letter for the VFA,” Lorenzana told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Austin, referring to the Visiting Forces Agreement. “There is no termination letter pending and we are back on track.”

Austin thanked Duterte for the decision, which he said would further bolster the two nations’ 70-year treaty alliance.

“Our countries face a range of challenges, from the climate crises to the pandemic and, as we do, a strong, resilient US-Philippine alliance will remain vital to the security, stability and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific,” Austin said. “A fully restored VFA will help us achieve that goal together.”

Terminating the pact would have been a major blow to America’s oldest alliance in Asia, as Washington squares with Beijing on a range of issues, including trade, human rights and China’s behavior in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.

The U.S. military presence in the region is seen as a counterbalance to China, which has used force to assert claims to vast areas of the disputed South China Sea, including the construction of artificial islands equipped with airstrips and military installations. China has ignored and continues to defy a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated its historic basis.

China, the Philippines, Vietnam and three other governments have been locked in the territorial standoff for decades. The U.S. doesn’t lay any claim to the busy waterway and has sailed Navy warships close to Chinese-claimed islands on so-called freedom of navigation operations in a challenge to Beijing.

Beijing has warned Washington to stay away from what it describes as a purely Asian dispute.

In a speech in Singapore on Tuesday, Austin said that Beijing’s claim to the South China Sea “has no basis in international law” and “treads on the sovereignty of states in the region.” He said the U.S. supports the region’s coastal states in upholding their rights under international law, and is committed to its defense treaty obligations with Japan and the Philippines.

Duterte notified the U.S. government in February last year that the Philippines intended to abrogate the 1998 agreement, which allows large numbers of American forces to join combat training with Philippine troops and sets legal terms for their temporary stay.

The pact’s termination would have taken effect after 180 days, but Duterte has repeatedly delayed the decision. While it was pending, the U.S. and Philippine militaries proceeded with plans for combat and disaster-response exercises but canceled larger drills last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. and Philippine forces engage in about 300 activities each year, including the Balikatan, or shoulder-to-shoulder, exercises, which involve thousands of troops in land, sea and air drills that often included live fire. They’ve sparked Chinese protests when they were held on the periphery of the sea Beijing claims as its own.

The Balikatan exercises resumed last April but were considerably scaled down due to continuing COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns.

A Philippine military official told The Associated Press that the U.S. continued to provide intelligence and satellite and aircraft surveillance photos of Chinese activities in the South China Sea despite Duterte’s earlier threat to abrogate the VFA. The U.S. images have helped the Philippines to become aware of encroachments and lodge diplomatic protests, said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to speak publicly.

Lorenzana said he was unaware of the reason behind Duterte’s change of heart. The brash-talking president, who has been under intense pressure to contain one of Southeast Asia’s worst outbreaks, warned in December that he would proceed to abrogate the VFA if the U.S. did not provide at least 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

“No vaccine, no stay here,” Duterte said then in blunt remarks that one Filipino senator said “may have given the impression that the Philippines is a nation of extortionists.”

The Philippines recently received at least 3.2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine from the U.S. through the COVAX global vaccine-sharing program, and has been assured of more American aid. President Joe Biden has said America’s vaccines were being donated to poorer countries to save lives and “don’t include pressure for favors or potential concessions.”

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/philippines-8b619ba37df6817c75ad6e41e262d369

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As new school year looms, debates over mask mandates stir anger and confusion – The Washington Post

In Iowa City, parents asked the school district to educate masked and unmasked students separately, since the state barred it from passing a mask mandate. “The parents, rightly so, are trying to find clever ways to work around the laws and still keep their kids safe,” said Shawn Eyestone, president of the school board. “But the problem is, logistically, it’s almost impossible.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/07/29/school-masks-coronavirus/

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(npr) – Former Sen. Carl Levin Dies At 87 – NPR

Then-chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, D-Mich., questions a witness at a 2013 hearing on sexual assaults in the military. Levin’s family says he died Thursday.

Susan Walsh/AP

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Susan Walsh/AP

Then-chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, D-Mich., questions a witness at a 2013 hearing on sexual assaults in the military. Levin’s family says he died Thursday.

Susan Walsh/AP

DETROIT — Famous for gazing over eyeglasses worn on the end of his nose, Carl Levin seemed at ease wherever he went, whether attending a college football game back home in Michigan or taking on a multibillion-dollar corporation before cameras on Capitol Hill.

Michigan’s longest-serving U.S. senator had a slightly rumpled, down-to-earth demeanor that helped him win over voters throughout his 36-year career, as did his staunch support for the hometown auto industry. But the Harvard-educated attorney also was a respected voice on military issues, spending years leading the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.

Despite his record tenure and status, he kept his role in perspective. At his direction, the portraits of all 38 senators who had served before or with him since Michigan’s statehood in 1837 were hung in his office conference room. Two empty spaces were reserved for future senators.

“I’m part of a long trail of people who have represented Michigan,” Levin said in 2008. “I’m just part of that history. The people coming after me … can pick up where I leave off, whoever they might be.”

Former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, (left) stands with his brother, former Rep. Sander Levin before an unveiling of the USS Carl M. Levin in Detroit. Levin, a powerful voice for the military during his career as Michigan’s longest-serving U.S. senator, has died.

Carlos Osorio/AP

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Carlos Osorio/AP

Former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, (left) stands with his brother, former Rep. Sander Levin before an unveiling of the USS Carl M. Levin in Detroit. Levin, a powerful voice for the military during his career as Michigan’s longest-serving U.S. senator, has died.

Carlos Osorio/AP

The former taxi driver and auto-line worker, who for decades kept his faded 1953 union card in his wallet, died Thursday at 87. His family and the Levin Center at Wayne State University’s law school did not release a cause of death in an evening statement. He had been living with lung cancer since age 83.

“We are all devastated by his loss. But we are filled with gratitude for all of the support that Carl received throughout his extraordinary life and career, enabling him to touch so many people and accomplish so much good,” the statement said.

First elected to the Senate in 1978, Levin represented Michigan longer than any other senator, targeting tax shelters, supporting manufacturing jobs and pushing for military funding. His tenure was a testament to voters’ approval of the slightly rumpled, down-to-earth Detroit native whom Time magazine ranked among the nation’s 10 best senators in 2006.

“He’s just a very decent person,” Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a fellow Senate Armed Services Committee member, said in 2008. “He’s unpretentious, unassuming. He never forgets that what we’re doing is enmeshed with the lives of the people he represents.”

A Washington insider and former prosecutor known for his professorial bearing, Levin took a civil but straightforward approach that allowed him to work effectively with Republicans and fellow Democrats. He was especially astute on defense matters thanks to his years as the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

And he didn’t fear speaking his mind.

He was in the minority — even among his Democratic Senate colleagues — when he voted against sending U.S. troops to Iraq in 2002, and two years later he said President George W. Bush’s administration had “written the book on how to mismanage a war.” He gave a cautious endorsement to President Barack Obama’s 2009 buildup of troops in Afghanistan, but later warned of “the beginnings of fraying” of Democratic support.

He was also critical of President Ronald Reagan’s buildup of nuclear weapons, saying it came at the expense of conventional weapons needed to maintain military readiness.

But, colleagues said, he almost always engendered a feeling of respect.

“We’ve always had a very trusting and respectful relationship,” the late-Republican Sen. John Warner, who worked closely for years with Levin on the Armed Services Committee, once said. “We do not try to pull surprises on each other. The security of the nation and the welfare of the armed services come first.”

Famous for wearing his eyeglasses down on his nose, Levin seemed to be the same candid, hardworking guy wherever he went, whether he was in front of cameras on Capitol Hill, on an overseas fact-finding mission or lost in the crowd of a college football stadium on game day.

“No one would accuse Carl Levin of looking like Hollywood’s version of a U.S. Senator. He’s pudgy, balding and occasionally rumpled, and he constantly wears his glasses at the very tip of his nose,” Time magazine said in its 2006 article ranking the senator among the country’s best. “Still, the Michigan Democrat has gained respect from both parties for his attention to detail and deep knowledge of policy, especially in his role as a vigilant monitor of businesses and federal agencies.”

A foe of fraud and waste, Levin led an investigation in 2002 into Enron Corp., which had declared bankruptcy the previous year amid financial scandals. The probe contributed to a new federal law that requires executives to sign off on financial statements so they could be criminally liable for posting phony numbers.

Levin pushed legislation designed to crack down on offshore tax havens, which he said cost the U.S. government at least $100 billion a year in lost taxes. He also was an advocate for stem cell research and gun control.

Closer to home, Levin promoted policies benefiting the auto industry and supported giving $25 billion in loan guarantees to General Motors and Chrysler. He argued that a vibrant domestic auto industry was crucial to rebuilding the economy after the Great Recession. He also was a member of a task force supporting efforts to fight pollution and other environmental problems affecting the Great Lakes.

“If you’ve ever worn the uniform, worked a shift on an assembly line, or sacrificed to make ends meet, then you’ve had a voice and a vote in Sen. Carl Levin,” Obama said in 2013. “No one has worked harder to bring manufacturing jobs back to our shores, close unfair tax loopholes and ensure that everyone plays by the same set of rules.”

Carl Milton Levin was born in Detroit on June 28, 1934, and he stayed in the Motor City for most of his life. After high school, he spent time as a taxi driver and worked on auto assembly plant lines to help put himself through school.

Always proud of having helped build the DeSoto and Ford trucks at a plant in Highland Park, he held onto his United Auto Workers union membership card for decades. That ended when his wallet was stolen.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Swarthmore College in 1956, and a law degree from Harvard in 1959. He married his wife, Barbara, two years later, and together they raised three daughters.

Levin fell in line with his family’s strong sense of civic duty in 1964, when he was named an assistant state attorney general and the first general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. His older brother, former longtime U.S. Rep. Sander “Sandy” Levin, had a liberal voting record on many social issues, while their father served on the Michigan Corrections Commission, a citizens’ group that oversaw prison operations, and their mother volunteered for a Jewish organization.

Carl Levin once said that public service was in his DNA, and politics often was discussed at the dinner table when he was a boy.

He dove into public office when Detroit voters elected him to the City Council in 1969, and he served as its president before ousting a Republican to win the 1978 Senate race. He won the seat five more times but decided against running for a seventh term in 2014.

After his retirement, the Levin Center at Wayne Law was established to promote fact-based, bipartisan oversight by Congress and state legislatures and to encourage civil dialogue on public policy issues. He chaired the center and co-taught law courses. He also was a partner and distinguished counsel at the Honigman law firm in Detroit.

His memoir, “Getting to the Heart of the Matter: My 36 Years in the Senate,” was published in March. The Navy named a destroyer for him to honor his years of public service.

His nephew, Andy Levin, was reelected in 2020 to his father’s 9th Congressional District seat that represents parts of suburban Detroit.

“Carl Levin personified integrity and the notion of putting the public good above self-interest,” Andy Levin said, calling him “the very picture of sober purpose and rectitude. In truth, he wasn’t unfun. In fact, he often pierced tense situations with self-deprecating humor, and he privately shared incisive observations about others with staff and colleagues.”

Carl Levin is survived by his wife, their three adult daughters, Kate, Laura and Erica, and several grandchildren. There will be a private funeral. Information about a public memorial will be forthcoming.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/07/29/1022576824/former-sen-carl-levin-dies-at-87

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All Employees Accounted For After Possible Tornado Hits Bensalem Car Dealership, Official Says – CBS Philly

BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) — All employees at the Faulkner Buick GMC Dealership have been accounted for after a suspected tornado hit the building Thursday, according to officials.

Bill Rollin, the director for emergency alerts for Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware Counties tells CBS3 a mass casualty incident was “declared by Bucks County, crews from across Bensalem Township are currently on scene.”

(Credit: Xavier Crisden)

According to Rollin, a mass casualty incident is defined as “any incident where 3 or more people are injured.” The county gave the incident a number 3, which means there could be between three and 20 people impacted.

Officials say four people from the business were injured.

(Credit: Xavier Crisden)

According to Rollin, all the dealership employees have been accounted for. Adrian Ramos wasn’t in the building at the time of the storm, but he was supposed to be

“I’m a lot attendant here. My buddy had to switch shifts with me,” he tells CBS3. “He had a game or something that came up, so I had to switch with him.”

Ramos went to the site in order to check on his coworkers.

The dealership is near Trevose, where the fire company tweeted pictures of the scene.

Please avoid the area by Faulkner Trevose. Our thoughts are with those affected. pic.twitter.com/fFfOi0trRU

— Trevose Fire Company (@TFC484) July 30, 2021

The building contains between four and five different dealerships. Rollin says the service center was the hardest hit.

“Thank God everyone is safe and everyone made it out,” Ramos says.

MORE NEWS: Man Shot In Leg After Leading Philadelphia Police On Chase Through Hunting Park

The damage comes after severe weather pummeled the region Thursday evening. The National Weather Service will confirm the tornado and other information after surveying the site.

Source Article from https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2021/07/29/possible-tornado-bensalem-dealership-bucks-county/

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Biden snaps at Fox News reporter Peter Doocy following vaccination announcement – New York Post

President Biden and Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy had a heated exchange Thursday at the end of a speech in which Biden announced a vax-or-test-mask-and-distance requirement for millions of federal workers.

As Biden left the podium in the East Room of the White House, Doocy reminded the president that he had said, “if you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.”

“No I didn’t say that,” Biden responded. “I said if you’re fully vaccinated in an area where you do not have – well, let me clarify that –“

Doocy interrupted to clarify his question: “In May, you made it sound like a vaccine was the ticket to losing the masks forever.”

“That was true at the time!” a visibly agitated president shot back. “Because I thought there were people who were going to understand that getting vaccinated made a gigantic difference. What happened was, a new variant came along, they didn’t get vaccinated, it was spread more rapidly, and more people were getting sick. That’s the difference.”

Doocy vs. Biden 🔥

Doocy: You said if you were fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.
Biden: I didn’t say that.
Doocy: You did.

(….)

Doocy: In May, you made it sound like the vaccine was the ticket to lose the mask forever.
Biden: That was true at the time. pic.twitter.com/0ITF0GZZqM

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 29, 2021

Biden then turned on his heels and made his way out of the room, without donning a mask.

The president’s announcement came two days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the re-imposition of indoor mask mandates in jurisdictions where the spread of the coronavirus is “substantial” or “high.” As of Thursday, nearly 70 percent of all US counties were experiencing “substantial” or “high” transmission, defined by the CDC as having recorded at least 50 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days.

The CDC recommendations were a reversal of their own guidance from eleven weeks earlier, which stated that fully vaccinated Americans were free to ditch masks in most settings. On May 13, Biden’s official Twitter account posted a four-second video of the president delivering a four-word message from the Oval Office: “It’s vaxxed or masked.”

Six months into Biden’s term of office, Doocy has established himself as a consistently adversarial correspondent, as when he questioned press secretary Jen Psaki in February about where workers on the just-canceled Keystone XL Pipeline could go to obtain “green jobs.”

Meanwhile, the president has consistently lashed out at reporters for asking questions he doesn’t like. In May, Biden was criticized for telling a reporter he couldn’t ask a question about the Middle East during a visit to a Michigan car plant “unless you get in front of the car as I step on it.”

President Joe Biden answers questions from reporters after speaking about the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations, July 29, 2021.

REUTERS

Last month, Biden yelled at CNN’s Kaitlin Collins after she asked why he was so “confident” Russian President Vladimir Putin would change his behavior following a summit meeting between the two leaders in Geneva, Switzerland.

“I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior! What the hell? What do you do all of the time? When did I say I was confident?” asked Biden, who returned to the microphone to harangue the reporter. “What I said was — let’s get this straight — I said what will change their [Russia’s] behavior is if the rest of the world reacted to them and they diminished their standing in the world. I’m not confident of anything, I’m just stating the facts.”

The president later apologized to Collins for “having been short” with her.

On Monday, Biden called veteran NBC News reporter Kelly O’Donnell a “pain in the neck” after she ignored his request to only ask questions about the US ending its combat mission in Iraq to inquire about the Department of Veterans Affairs requiring staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

“You are such a pain in the neck,” Biden told O’Donnell. “But I’m going to answer your question because we’ve known each other for so long.”

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/07/29/biden-snaps-at-fox-news-reporter-following-vaccine-announcement/

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‘I am furious with myself’: Unvaccinated Covid patient describes the exhausting illness – CNN

Sitting in her hospital room in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Aimee Matzen struggled to breathe as she described how exhausting it is to have Covid-19.

“The fact that I am here now, I am furious with myself,” she told CNN between deep, deliberate breaths. “Because I was not vaccinated.”

Matzen, 44, finds herself in the Covid-19 intensive care unit at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge. She is receiving oxygen treatments and hopes she stays well enough to avoid getting hooked up to a ventilator.

With Covid-19 surging in states across the country, Louisiana stands among those hardest hit by the most recent rise in cases, driven in large part by the Delta variant.

The state has the highest 7-day average of new cases per-capita in the country, at 77 cases reported per 100,000 residents each day over the past week, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

“It is a kick in the gut to feel like we effectively have lost six or seven months of progress,” Louisiana State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kanter told CNN’s John King on Wednesday.

Kanter attributed the surge to a “perfect storm” of factors, including the Delta variant, which is believed to be more transmissible, and “unacceptably low vaccination coverage.”

Louisiana’s vaccination rate is among the lowest in the country, with just 37% of residents fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the fifth lowest in the country, and Louisiana is one of six states that has less than 38% of residents fully vaccinated.

The state’s largest healthcare system, Ochsner, has seen a 700% increase in Covid-19 patients over the last month and a 75% increase in the last week, officials said during a news conference on Wednesday.

And the vast majority of those patients – 88%, according to Ochsner Health CEO Warner Thomas – are unvaccinated.

“This is absolutely disproportionately hitting folks that are unvaccinated,” Thomas said. “Those are the folks that in a very high majority we’re seeing coming to the hospital.”

Matzen told CNN she was not opposed to getting vaccinated – she just hadn’t gotten around to it. Every time she planned to get inoculated, “something would come up,” she said.

“I have this feeling … if I was vaccinated, I wouldn’t be hospitalized,” Matzen said.

Some Covid-19 patients deny the virus is real

Louisiana is one of two states, along with Arkansas, where every county – or parish, as the jurisdictions are known in Louisiana – has “high” levels of community transmission of Covid-19, per CDC data.

That means each parish has either 100 or more cases per 100,000 people, or a test positivity rate of 10% or higher.

Hospitalizations in Louisiana are also skyrocketing, with 1,524 people hospitalized with Covid-19 across the state, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. On July 1 there were 259 hospitalized Covid-19 patients.

The surge is again forcing hospitals to prioritize the treatment of Covid-19 patients over others.

Harkening back to the early days of the pandemic, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on Monday halted the scheduling of non-urgent surgical procedures that would require an inpatient bed.

The hospital’s problem isn’t a lack of room, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Catherine O’Neal said. Our Lady of Lake is the largest regional medical center in the state, she said. But it doesn’t have the staff to treat everyone.

Patients are coming in waves, O’Neal told CNN, forcing the hospital to call in reserve workers and shut down other wards.

“The load is becoming overwhelming,” she said.

There were 140 Covid-19 patients at Our Lady of the Lake as of Thursday, 30 of whom had been admitted over the previous 24 hours – the most since the pandemic began, according to a hospital spokesperson.

Almost 50% of the patients are under age 50. Fifty patients are in the ICU, and 11 of them are children.

Morgan Babin, a registered nurse who has worked in the hospital’s Covid-19 ICU since March 2020, told CNN the ICU’s population has been rising rapidly with patients who are younger and sicker.

“They were my age, my coworkers’ age – 30s, 40s,” she said. “It made me scared for my own health as well as my community.”

Still, some remain in denial that Covid-19 is real, falling prey to rampant misinformation. And Babin has patients who insist their Covid-positive diagnosis is a lie.

“I have patients that denied they have Covid all the way up until intubation,” she said. “They think that they have a cold, and they think that we’re lying to them.”

Nowhere is safe, doctor says

O’Neal said the hospital assumes all cases now consist of the Delta variant, and the only place people are safe from the virus is in their homes, she said. Even outside, “there is no more safe,” she said.

“If you’re interacting in this community, you should be vaccinated and you should have a mask on, because we’re inundated with Covid,” she said.

Another patient at Our Lady of the Lake, Carsyn Baker, said she believed she got the virus when she visited her friend’s house for her birthday, sitting on a screened porch.

“I’d close my eyes and I’d feel like I couldn’t breathe,” Baker, 21, said. “Something in my body would tell me, like, ‘hey, you need to breathe, like, wake up.’”

Baker has a kidney condition, she said, and her doctor has advised against her getting vaccinated for now.

“It kind of sucks because people like myself with an auto-immune disease, you can’t really go anywhere now, because everybody’s getting sick and it just don’t matter what you do,” Baker said.

Ronnie Smith, another patient, was considering getting a vaccine. But he got Covid-19 instead. Smith, 47, believes he got the virus from a friend at an outdoors cookout.

“Two days after the event, I went down on the floor and I couldn’t get up,” he said.

In a statement this week, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards pleaded for eligible people to get a vaccine, saying all three were “safe and effective” and the best tools available to end the pandemic.

“For anyone asking the question when will this end, the answer is simple: when we decide to do what it takes to end it,” the governor said.

Asked what she would tell people who remain on the fence about the vaccine, Matzen said, “Jump off. Run. Bring your family with you, get to the clinics. There is no excuse anymore. This is real.”

“I just don’t want anyone else winding up like me,” Matzen said, “especially when the vaccine is so easy to get now.”

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/health/louisiana-covid-19-hotspot/index.html

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Los Angeles schools to require COVID-19 testing for all students and faculty, regardless of vaccination status – Fox News

Video

Biden wants to use leftover COVID relief money to pay Americans to get the COVID vaccine

White House correspondent Peter Doocy has the latest on the president’s vaccine incentives and mask guidance on ‘Special Report’

Los Angeles Unified School District said Thursday it is requiring all students and faculty to be tested for COVID-19 – regardless of their vaccination status – before returning to in-person learning for the new school year.

LAUSD Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly said the district’s policy was to comply with the most recent guidance from the Los Angeles County of Public Health.

An elementary school student
(FOX 11)

“All students and employees, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, returning to in-person instruction must participate in baseline and ongoing weekly COVID testing,” Reilly said in a statement provided to Fox News.

FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: NEW CDC MASK GUIDANCE WILL LIKELY HAVE ‘NEGLIGIBLE IMPACT’ ON CURBING DELTA VARIANT

The new requirements marked a shift in LAUSD’s previous policy to require testing only for those who are unvaccinated. It comes as the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19 is sweeping much of the nation, accounting for more than 80% of infections. The surge has prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to recommend people who are fully vaccinated should resume wearing masks indoors if they live in areas where the virus is surging.

An elementary school classroom.
(FOX 11)

Los Angeles County, which has emerged as a hotspot of the delta variant in recent weeks, announced earlier this month it would again require masking up in public indoor spaces, regardless of vaccination status.

Reilly said LAUSD is closely monitoring evolving health conditions and adapting its response in preparation for the district’s full return to in-person learning on August 16.

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“Ultimately, the greatest protection against COVID and the delta variant is vaccination,” Reilly said. “We encourage everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/la-schools-require-covid-testing-students-faculty-regardless-vaccination-status

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Former Sen. Carl Levin Dies At 87 – NPR