MIAMI – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down Tuesday as the state again broke its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations, insisting that the spike will soon abate and that he will not impose any business restrictions or mask mandates.

DeSantis said he expects hospitalizations to drop in the next couple weeks, insisting that the spike is seasonal as Floridians spend more time together indoors to escape the summer heat and humidity. With the much more contagious delta variant now spreading exponentially, Florida hit 11,515 hospitalized patients Tuesday, breaking last year’s record for the third straight day. Hospitalizations have increased 11 times over the 1,000 COVID patients hospitalized in mid-June. About 2,400 patients are now in intensive care.

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DeSantis credited his response to COVID, which has focused on vaccinating seniors and nursing home residents, for the fact that fewer Floridians are dying now than last August. A year ago, Florida was averaging about 180 COVID deaths per day during an early August spike, but last week averaged about 55 per day.

“Even among a lot of positive tests, you are seeing much less mortality that you did year-over-year,” he said at a Miami-area press conference. “Would I rather have 5,000 cases among 20-year-olds or 500 cases among seniors? I would rather have the younger.”

He said “media hysteria” on the record hospitalizations will cause people who might be suffering from a heart attack or stroke to avoid going to an emergency room for fear of being infected, as statistics show happened last year.

“People were having heart attacks at home because either they thought there was not enough room at the hospital or get COVID and die,” he said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signs executive order giving parents final say in masks for students

Hospitals around the state report putting emergency room patients in beds in hallways or outdoor tents and are documenting a noticeable drop in the age of patients. Some hospitals are again banning visitors or postponing elective surgeries.

DeSantis is running for re-election next year while eyeing a 2024 presidential bid and has made his refusal to impose mask mandates in public or at schools or to impose restrictions on businesses a central tenant of his national image among conservatives. He hit that message again Tuesday, saying he will not budge.

“We are not shutting down,” DeSantis said. “We are going to have schools open. We are protecting every Floridian’s job in this state. We are protecting people’s small businesses. These interventions have failed time and time again throughout this pandemic, not just in the United States but abroad. They have not stopped the spread, particularly with delta.”

The spike has come as DeSantis and local officials have fought over how to protect children and staff as the school year begins.

Broward County’s school board voted last week to require facial coverings when in-person learning resumes this month, enforcing the latest recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the board reversed itself after DeSantis signed an executive order preventing mask mandates in schools, and empowering the state to deny funding to any districts that don’t comply.

Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign executive order giving parents final say in masks for students

Broward’s board had responded to the latest science on the virus, which suggests that while vaccinated people are extremely unlikely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19, they can still spread infection among those who haven’t had their shots. This revelation prompted the CDC to recommend “universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.”

“Unfortunately, Dade and Broward County lead the nation in hospitalizations,” Broward County Mayor Steve Geller said Monday. “The numbers are doubling every 10 or 11 days. Geometric progression. This is horrifying.”

The governor said he wants parents to decide whether their children should wear a mask to school.

A law DeSantis signed in May gives him power to invalidate local emergency public health measures, including mask mandates and limitations on business operations. It also bans any business or government entity from requiring proof of vaccination.

The Broward district now says it will encourage, but not require, students age 12 and older, as well as teachers and staff to get vaccinated. It will also encourage the use of facial coverings.

“Safety remains our highest priority,” the district’s statement said.

Source Article from https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/08/03/we-are-not-shutting-down-desantis-doubles-down-as-florida-breaks-covid-19-record/

Two ships off the coast of the United Arab Emirates broadcast warnings Tuesday that they had lost control of their steering under unclear circumstances as authorities reported “an incident” was underway in the area.

It wasn’t immediately clear what was happening off the coast of Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman.

The two vessels — an oil tanker called the Golden Brilliant and an asphalt carrier called the Kamdhenu — reported via their Automatic Identification System trackers that they were “not under command,” according to MarineTraffic.com That typically means a vessel has lost power and can no longer steer.

Two vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates have lost control of their steering, prompting them to send warning signals via their Automatic Identification System trackers
(Google Earth)

NAVY CHARGES SAILOR IN CONNECTION WITH USS BONHOMME RICHARD FIRE THAT DESTROYED WARSHIP

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations only warned ships that “an incident is currently underway.” An Oman Royal Air Force Airbus C-295MPA, a maritime patrol aircraft, was flying over the area where the ships were, according to data from FlightRadar24.com.

The U.S. military’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet and the British Defense Ministry did not immediately return calls for comment. The Emirati government did not immediately acknowledge the incident.

The event comes just days after a drone struck an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire off the coast of Oman, killing two crew members. The West blamed Iran for the attack, which marked the first known assault to have killed civilians in the yearslong shadow war targeting commercial vessels in the region.

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Iran denied playing any role in the incident, though Tehran and its allied militias have used similar “suicide” drones in attacks previously.

Israel, the United States and United Kingdom vowed a “collective response” to the attack, without elaborating.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/world/ships-uae-gulf-of-oman-ships-lost-control

The committees asked the Justice Department to allow former officials to testify after they opened investigations this year into the Trump White House’s efforts to undermine Mr. Biden’s victory, a pressure campaign that occurred in the weeks before Mr. Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol as Congress met to certify the electoral results.

The Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s Office generally deny such requests because they believe deliberative conversations between administration officials should be protected from public scrutiny.

But they ultimately decided to allow the interviews to proceed, saying in letters to the potential witnesses that the scope of the investigation concerned “extraordinary events,” including whether Mr. Trump tried to improperly use the Justice Department to advance his “personal political interests,” and thus constituted “exceptional circumstances.”

In his letter, which was reported earlier by Politico, Mr. Collins also said Mr. Trump continued to believe that the information sought by the committees “is and should be protected from disclosure by executive privilege.”

Mr. Collins said that no president had the power to unilaterally waive that privilege, and that the Biden administration had “not sought or considered” Mr. Trump’s views in deciding not to invoke it.

“Such consideration is the minimum that should be required before a president waives the executive privilege protecting the communications of a predecessor,” Mr. Collins wrote.

The committees have also received a slew of emails, handwritten notes and other documents from the department that show how Mr. Trump, Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, and others pushed the department to look into voter fraud allegations not supported by evidence, to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the election results and to publicly cast doubt on the outcome.

Congress has asked six former officials to testify in addition to Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donoghue. That list includes Patrick Hovakimian, Mr. Rosen’s former chief of staff; Byung J. Pak, the former U.S. attorney in Atlanta; Bobby L. Christine, the former U.S. attorney in Savannah, Ga.; and Jeffrey Clark, the former acting head of the Civil Division.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/us/politics/trump-justice-dept-officials-testimony.html

Earlier Tuesday, James and investigators detailed conclusions of the report, which immediately reignited calls for Cuomo to resign.

The report said Cuomo had harassed women who worked in and out of state government, including a state trooper who was assigned to his personal security detail.

James is also a Democrat and has been mentioned as a possible candidate for governor, whether or not Cuomo resigns or seeks re-election next year.

Cuomo opened his response Tuesday by saying, “It has been a hard and painful period for me and my family.”

The governor said that in response to accusations against him, “I’ve brought in an expert to design new sexual harassment policy and procedures.”

He took no questions from reporters after responding to the report in a statement that was livestreamed by his office.

The report Tuesday noted that Cuomo had “made specific denials of conduct that the complainants recalled clearly.”

“We found his denials to lack credibility and to be inconsistent with the weight of the evidence obtained during our investigation,” the report concluded.

“We also found the Governor’s denials and explanations around specific allegations to be contrived.”

Mariann Wang, a lawyer for two of Cuomo’s accusers, in a statement called the governor’s response to James’ report “laughable.”

“He is being manipulative, as he always has been,” Wang said. “He is not being accused of being a kindly but gentlemanly boss. And the women who experience his unwanted sexual touching are not fools, as he apparently thinks they are.”

“He is found by independent investigators to have touched women in their intimate body parts and routinely demeaned the women who work with him by treating them as sexual objects,” Wang said.

“He touched a woman’s breast, another woman’s stomach and the back of her neck and spine, he grabbed multiple women’s backsides or buttocks. These are not charming expressions of affection. They were sexual. He knew that when he did it, and the women experienced this as unwanted sexual touching. He’s been found to have been doing this for years.”

— CNBC’s Christina Wilkie and Thomas Franck contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/03/new-york-gov-andrew-cuomo-response-to-sexual-harassment-report.html

New York on Tuesday became the first big city in the US to announce it will require proof of Covid-19 vaccinations not only for all those employed by the city but also for all members of the public who want to dine indoors at a restaurant, see an indoor performance or go to the gym.

City mayor Bill de Blasio noted that the city’s existing policies, including a vaccine mandate for city workers and $100 incentive payments, have already contributed to a rise in vaccinations, but it was time to go further.

“If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said at a press conference on Tuesday morning. “So it’s time, and this is going to send that message clearly.”

Around 5 million New Yorkers have had at least one dose of vaccine and about 66% of adults in the city are fully vaccinated, according to official data.

Tourism has been returning to the city and the announcement will have serious implications for visitors.

On Monday, the US nationally reached Joe Biden’s goal of getting at least one Covid-19 shot into 70% of American adults – a month late and amid a surge by the Delta variant that is overwhelming some hospitals and prompting renewed pandemic regulations in many parts of the country.

But significant parts of some states have vaccination rates below 30%, predominantly majority-Republican states and counties, including parts of Louisiana, northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas and South Carolina.

More than 50,000 people were hospitalized with Covid across the US as of Monday, according to the US department of health and human services, the first time that number has been surpassed since late February.

It is significantly fewer people than during the peak in cases, deaths and hospitalizations in January, but similar to the high rates last summer when coronavirus vaccines were still in development.

The federal agency the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that 99.99% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have not had an infection that resulted in hospitalization or death.

Most new cases of coronavirus are occurring in southern states, especially Florida and Texas, but infections are rising across the country, including in New York, and officials have warned that a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” is unfolding.

De Blasio’s new requirements for the public will be phased in over several weeks starting in mid-August, and inspections and enforcement will begin in September, he said.

The mayor earlier in the week recommended that people go back to wearing masks in indoor public spaces, but stopped short of a city mask mandate.

But Tuesday’s announcement was the most aggressive step the city has taken yet to curb a surge in cases caused by the Delta variant.

De Blasio praised Broadway theatres and some restaurant and gym companies who have already said they would require patrons to prove they are vaccinated.

“The only way to patronize these establishments indoors will be if you’re vaccinated,” de Blasio, a Democrat, said. “The goal here is to convince everyone that this is the time. If we’re going to stop the Delta variant, the time is now. And that means getting vaccinated right now.”

The mayor announced last week that city employees would be required to get vaccinated by mid-September or face weekly testing, and he has offered a $100 incentive for city residents who get inoculated.

The city plans to create a so-called health pass called the “key to NYC pass” to provide proof of vaccination required for workers and customers at indoor dining, gyms, entertainment and performances.

De Blasio described the pass as a “first-in-the-nation approach” that will help build upon the significant progress New York has already made in vaccinations.

Some states have vaccination rates below 30%, predominantly majority-Republican states, as the issue has become heavily politicized.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/03/new-york-vaccination-covid-coronavirus-indoor-dining-concerts-gyms

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK, Fla. — Florida is not shutting down and COVID-19 “hospital admissions have slowed,” Gov. Ron DeSantis emphatically declared on Tuesday, despite yet another day of record coronavirus hospitalizations in the Sunshine State.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 11,515 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida on Monday, including 2,400 in ICU beds.

RELATED: Florida hits record with 11,515 COVID-19 hospitalizations

In the face of that staggering number, DeSantis on Tuesday argued that statewide lockdowns have “failed time and time again throughout this pandemic” and “they have not stopped the spread.”

“In terms of shutting down, we’re not shutting down,” DeSantis said during a news conference at Everglades National Park. “We’re gonna have schools open. We’re protecting every Floridian’s job in this state. We’re protecting people’s small businesses.”

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For the second time in just three days, Florida has recorded a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

On Sunday, HHS reported that 10,593 people were hospitalized with confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Now on Tuesday, that number has climbed by 922 patients.

While DeSantis admitted that emergency room visits for COVID-like illness (CLI) went up “sharply” in July, he seemed to dismiss the record spike in hospitalizations, instead claiming they’re now “plateauing.”

“We are watching the CLI. That is plateauing. The hospital admissions have slowed. I don’t think we’ve reached the peak yet. But I think we’re gonna settle in hopefully this week or next week,” DeSantis said.

Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried — who’s running against DeSantis in the 2022 election — quickly took to Twitter on Tuesday, saying the governor’s claim that COVID-19 hospitalizations have slowed is simply “not true.”

The governor on Tuesday said hospitals in Florida are seeing a lower median age of COVID-19 patients because more older residents are vaccinated against the virus.

According to the Florida Department of Health, 85% of Floridians ages 65 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of July 29.

Between 12-to-39-year-olds, the highest percentage of those vaccinated is just 49%.

COVID-19 vaccination rates in Florida on July 29, 2021.

During Tuesday’s news conference, DeSantis touted his administration’s “Seniors First” vaccination strategy — which started in late December and early January — as a major factor in reducing COVID-19 mortality rates in Florida by 70% to 75% from this same time last year.

While the governor said almost 25,000 fully vaccinated Floridians have tested positive for COVID-19, he said their symptoms have been less severe.

“Yes, there are positive tests among vaccinated. At the same time, the mortality and all that data is very, very clear,” DeSantis said. “We think that even amidst a lot of positive tests, you still see much less mortality than we did year-over-year. That’s important.”

RELATED: Palm Beach County health director compares current COVID-19 surge to worst of 2020

With DeSantis vehemently opposed to any type of coronavirus-related restrictions in the Sunshine State, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday urged the governor to do more to encourage people to get vaccinated and wear face masks, including allowing school districts to mandate facial coverings for students, which Psaki said is “not the current state of play in Florida.”

“At a certain point, leaders are gonna have to choose whether they’re gonna follow public health guidelines or they’re going to follow politics,” Psaki said. “And we certainly encourage all governors to follow the public health guidelines.”

Psaki added that 20% of new COVID-19 cases nationwide are in Florida.

Source Article from https://www.wptv.com/coronavirus/despite-record-covid-19-hospitalizations-floridas-governor-says-admissions-have-slowed

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The British navy warned Tuesday of a “potential hijack” of a ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman, without elaborating.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers and as commercial shipping in the region has found itself caught in the crosshairs. Most recently, the U.S., the U.K. and Israel have blamed Iran for a drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman that killed two people. Iran has denied involvement.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations initially warned ships Tuesday that “an incident is currently underway” off the coast of Fujairah. Hours later, they said the incident was a “potential hijack,” but provided no further details.

Shipping authority Lloyd’s List and maritime intelligence firm Dryad Global both identified the vessel involved as Panama-flagged asphalt tanker Asphalt Princess. The vessel’s owner, listed as Emirati free zone-based Glory International, could not immediately be reached for comment late Tuesday.

The U.S. military’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet and the British Defense Ministry did not immediately return calls for comment. The Emirati government did not immediately acknowledge the incident.

Earlier, six oil tankers announced around the same time via their Automatic Identification System trackers that they were “not under command,” according to MarineTraffic.com. That typically means a vessel has lost power and can no longer steer.

“At the same time, if they are in the same vicinity and in the same place, then very rarely that happens,” said Ranjith Raja, an oil and shipping expert with data firm Refintiv. “Not all the vessels would lose their engines or their capability to steer at the same time.”

One of the vessels later began moving.

An Oman Royal Air Force Airbus C-295MPA, a maritime patrol aircraft, flew in circles for hours over the waters, according to data from FlightRadar24.com.

Apparently responding to the incident, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh called the recent maritime attacks in the Persian Gulf “completely suspicious.” He denied that Iran was involved.

“Iran’s naval forces are ready for help and rescue in the region,” Khatibzadeh said.

The event comes just days after a drone struck an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire off the coast of Oman, killing two crew members. The West blamed Iran for the attack, which marked the first known assault to have killed civilians in the yearslong shadow war targeting commercial vessels in the region.

Iran denied playing any role in the incident, though Tehran and its allied militias have used similar “suicide” drones in past attacks.

Israel, the United States and United Kingdom vowed a “collective response” to the attack, without elaborating.

The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes. Fujairah, on the UAE’s eastern coast, is a main port in the region for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.

For the past two years, the waters off Fujairah have seen a series of explosions and hijackings. The U.S. Navy blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers.

In July 2019, Iran seized the British-flagged Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz as it was headed from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Dubai. The raid came after authorities in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, seized an Iranian supertanker carrying $130 million in crude oil on suspicion it was breaking European Union sanctions by taking the oil to Syria. Both vessels were later released.

Last year, an oil tanker sought by the U.S. over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked off the Emirati coast in July, following months of tensions between Iran and the U.S. The vessel and its crew ended up in Iran, though Tehran never acknowledged the incident.

And in January, armed Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops stormed a South Korean tanker and forced the ship to change course and travel to Iran. While Iran insisted it stopped the ship for polluting, it came as Tehran sought to increase its leverage over Seoul ahead of negotiations over billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks.

___

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Isabel DeBre and Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/isabeldebre and www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/europe-middle-east-business-persian-gulf-tensions-gulf-of-oman-08e86af0cd35761ef8c25686a7ac6282

This undated photo shows Vitaly Shishov, leader of the Kyiv-based Belarusian House in Ukraine. Shishov helped Belarusians fleeing persecution. He was found hanged in a park not far from his home, police said Tuesday.

Human Rights Center Viasna via AP


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Human Rights Center Viasna via AP

This undated photo shows Vitaly Shishov, leader of the Kyiv-based Belarusian House in Ukraine. Shishov helped Belarusians fleeing persecution. He was found hanged in a park not far from his home, police said Tuesday.

Human Rights Center Viasna via AP

KYIV, Ukraine — A Belarusian activist who ran a group in Ukraine helping Belarusians fleeing persecution was found dead in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, local police said Tuesday.

Vitaly Shishov, leader of the Kyiv-based Belarusian House in Ukraine, was found hanged in one of the city’s parks not far from his home, police said in a statement.

A probe has been launched, with police investigating whether it was a suicide or a murder made to look like suicide, head of Ukraine’s National Police Igor Klymenko told reporters on Tuesday.

The Belarusian House in Ukraine reported Monday that Shishov had gone missing during a morning run. The Belarusian human rights center Viasna cited Shishov’s friends as saying that he has recently been followed by strangers during his runs.

The Belarusian House in Ukraine helps Belarusians fleeing persecution with their legal status in Ukraine, accommodation and employment.

There have been protests against the authoritarian leader of Belarus since last year

In Belarus in recent weeks, authorities have ramped up the pressure against non-governmental organizations and independent media, conducting more than 200 raids of offices and apartments of activists and journalists in July alone, and detaining dozens of people.

Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to continue what he called a “mopping-up operation” against civil society activists whom he has denounced as “bandits and foreign agents.”

Lukashenko faced months of protests triggered by his being awarded a sixth term in an August 2020 vote that the opposition and the West saw as rigged. He responded to demonstrations with a massive crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.

Belarus’ authoritarian government has at times gone to extremes in its crackdown on dissent, including recently diverting a plane to the capital of Minsk and arresting a dissident aboard.

Shishov’s group says he was under surveillance in Ukraine

The Belarusian House in Ukraine said in a statement Tuesday that Shishov was forced to move to Ukraine in the fall of 2020, when antigovernment protests and crackdown on demonstrators in Belarus were in full swing.

In Ukraine, he was under surveillance, and “both local sources and our people in Belarus” have alerted the group to the possibility of “various provocations, including kidnapping and liquidation.”

“There is no doubt that this was a planned operation by security operatives to liquidate a Belarusian, dangerous for the regime. We will continue to fight for the truth about Vitaly’s death,” the group said.

Yury Shchuchko from the Belarusian House in Ukraine told The Associated Press that Shishov was found with marks of beating on his face. “Nothing was stolen, he was in regular clothes people put on to work out, and he only had his phone with him,” Shchuchko said.

He also said that Shishov has previously noticed surveillance during his runs and that strangers would approach him and try to start a conversation.

“We have been warned to be more careful, because a network of Belarus KGB agents is operating here and everything is possible,” Shchuchko said. “Vitaly asked me to take care of his loved ones, he had a weird feeling.”

Klymenko of the National Police told reporters on Tuesday that there were indeed injuries discovered on Shishov’s body — scratched skin on his nose, a cut on his lip and an injury on his left knee. He wouldn’t say, however, whether these resulted from violence. Klymenko added that police haven’t received any complaints about surveillance from Shishov.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s main challenger in the August 2020 election who left for Lithuania under pressure from the authorities, expressed condolences to Shishov’s family on Tuesday.

“Belarusians can’t be safe even abroad, as long as there are those who are trying to inflict revenge on them,” Tsikhnaouskaya said in an online statement.

“Vitaly Shishov was helping Belarusians and was found hanged … It happened on another country’s soil. Just like the hostage-taking took place on another country’s plane. Just like the attempt to forcefully bring a disloyal athlete back to Belarus from another country’s territory,” she said.

The political troubles have also emerged at the Tokyo Olympics

Earlier this week, Belarus Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya accused the country’s officials of hustling her to the airport and trying to put her on a plane back to Belarus after she publicly criticized the management of her team at the Tokyo Games. Tsimanouskaya refused to board the plane and instead will seek refuge in Europe.

In an interview Tuesday, she told the AP she feared she wouldn’t be safe in Belarus.

European officials on Tuesday urged Ukraine to conduct a thorough investigation into the death of the activist.

“We are deeply shocked by the news of the death of the Belarusian activist Vitaly Shishov,” Austria’s Foreign Ministry said on Twitter. “Our thoughts are with his loved ones. Austria calls for a thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances leading to his death.”

Marta Hurtado, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office, told reporters in Geneva that the office hoped the authorities in Ukraine would conduct “a thorough, impartial and effective investigation on what happened and see if it was just a suicide, if it was a regular criminal murder, or if there is a relation with his activism.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/08/03/1024199180/belarus-activist-dead-ukraine

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women and then retaliated against a former employee who complained publicly about his conduct, according to a bombshell report released Tuesday by state Attorney General Letitia James.

The monthslong probe concluded that Cuomo “sexually harassed multiple women, and in doing so violated federal and state law,” James said at a press conference. Her office noted, however, that there were no specific penalties tied to the report.

The 165-page report, which comprises interviews with 179 witnesses and a review of tens of thousands of documents, also said that Cuomo’s office was riddled with fear and intimidation, and was a hostile work environment for many staffers.

Cuomo harassed members of his own staff, members of the public and other state employees, one of whom was a state trooper, the report alleges.

The findings reveal “a deeply disturbing, yet clear, picture,” James said, describing Cuomo’s office as “a toxic workplace.”

Cuomo’s office did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the attorney general’s report.

The announcement came about two weeks after Cuomo was interviewed by investigators retained by James’ office for the probe. Cuomo was reportedly questioned for 11 hours.

The probe into numerous women’s allegations of sexual harassment by Cuomo began in March, after the state’s executive chamber granted James’ request to investigate.

Later that same month, dozens of Democratic state lawmakers — including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, with whom Cuomo has long had a fraught relationship — urged the governor to resign.

New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, also a Democrat, in mid-March authorized a panel to launch an impeachment investigation into the harassment claims and other allegations of wrongdoing by Cuomo, including whether his staff tried to hide or alter data on coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes.

Cuomo has defended himself against all the allegations and has repeatedly rebuffed calls for his resignation, though he has apologized for making some women feel uncomfortable.

“I never harassed anyone, I never assaulted anyone, I never abused anyone,” Cuomo said in March. “I’m not going to resign.”

President Joe Biden has previously said that Cuomo should resign if the allegations against him are confirmed the investigation. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cuomo still had the backing of multiple New York business leaders going into the release of the report. His reelection campaign raised over $2 million on the backs of the executives, including big donations from real estate executive Stephen Ross and Laurance Rockefeller Jr., a member of the ultrawealthy Rockefeller family.

It’s unclear if those executives will still support him going forward.

Cuomo has previously suggested that the probe was not being conducted in an independent manner, and his staff have noted that James could be a potential future gubernatorial candidate in New York. James at the presser said she was offended by the efforts to undercut and discredit the investigation.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/03/ny-gov-andrew-cuomo-sexual-harassment-report.html

The restrictions in France prompted millions of people to book vaccine appointments and also sparked a series of protests among people who said it infringed on their personal liberties.

The city will be issuing a health commissioner’s order and a mayoral executive order to implement the vaccine mandate. The six weeks before enforcement begins on Sept. 13 will be spent educating businesses and doing outreach about the new requirement, he said.

Mr. de Blasio has said that he wants to encourage New Yorkers to get vaccinated if they want to enjoy city life.

“If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” he said Tuesday. “It’s time.”

State Senator James Sanders Jr. represents Southeast Queens, a part of the city that had one of the highest rates of death from Covid-19 in the first wave of the virus, and that now has one of the highest proportions of unvaccinated people in the city. He praised the mayor for stepping up.

“There is a madness afoot here, sir, and only government can make a difference,” Mr. Sanders said. “Give me a better way, or support the mayor.”

New Yorkers will be able to continue to dine outdoors without showing proof of vaccination. To enter indoor venues, they must use the city’s new digital app, the state’s Excelsior app or a paper card to show proof of vaccination.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/nyregion/nyc-vaccine-mandate.html

Shoppers turn out heavily Monday at a supermarket in Wuhan, China, after nearby residential blocks went into lockdown as part of COVID-19 prevention measures.

Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images


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Shoppers turn out heavily Monday at a supermarket in Wuhan, China, after nearby residential blocks went into lockdown as part of COVID-19 prevention measures.

Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

In a dramatic move reminiscent of the first days of the coronavirus in China some 19 months ago, flights and trains in and out of Wuhan have been halted amid a rise in COVID-19 cases linked to the highly infectious delta variant of the virus.

Authorities have also ordered mass testing in the city of 11 million, where the virus was first detected before it spread around the world. Panic-buying by worried residents followed new lockdowns there.

China’s latest outbreak, which began last month, is attributed to the highly infectious delta variant of the virus that has also been rapidly spreading across the U.S., causing the return of mask mandates and new urgency around the push for vaccination. Cases over the past two weeks have climbed nearly 150% in the United States.

In total, China has confirmed 328 new locally transmitted cases since an outbreak that began last month, the state-controlled People’s Daily reported. The new infections have popped up in more than 35 cities in half of the country’s provinces and regions, according to The Associated Press.

At a news conference Tuesday, a Wuhan city official, Li Tao, portrayed the mass testing as a precautionary measure.

Although officially, the latest outbreak appears relatively small, health authorities have reacted aggressively in an effort to keep the virus from regaining a foothold in the country. Since Wuhan first became the epicenter of the pandemic in 2019 and early 2020, China has moved to quash outbreaks whenever and wherever they occur, quickly implementing lockdowns and mass testing.

“Viral genome sequencing found all the strains to be the highly infectious Delta variant and cities hit by the recent resurgence have promptly taken action to curb the spread of the coronavirus,” People’s Daily reported.

The eastern city of Yangzhou in Jiangsu province has had the highest daily count of new infections in China, with 40 newly confirmed cases there and in the neighboring city of Nanjing on Monday, according to the South China Morning Post.

With just over a dozen local cases officially confirmed, residents and tourists in Zhangjiajie in Hunan province were ordered not to leave the city and cooperate with epidemic control measures as infections also spread there, state-run Global Times reported.

A government notice said that civil servants and public school teachers in Zhangjiajie were ordered to join local epidemic control teams, the newspaper said. “[T]heir performances will be part of their career reviews,” Global Times reported.

Authorities said they have administered more than 1.6 billion doses of a China-made vaccine.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/08/03/1024152774/panic-buying-and-transport-lockdowns-in-wuhan-it-feels-like-early-pandemic-again

KYIV, Ukraine — A prominent activist who helped his fellow Belarusians seek refuge in Ukraine has been found dead in a Kyiv park near his home, Ukrainian police said Tuesday, leaving others who are self-exiled fearful that even countries considered havens are no longer safe from Belarus’s strongman, Alexander Lukashenko.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/shishov-belarus-ukraine-lukashenko/2021/08/03/4f9985fc-f426-11eb-a636-18cac59a98dc_story.html

Florida’s second-largest school district said it will withdraw its mask mandate after the governor threatened to withhold funding from districts that require face coverings.

South Florida’s Broward County Public Schools had announced last week that the district would require everyone in their buildings to wear masks to guard against Covid-19. That came after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance recommending everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask regardless of vaccination status.

But Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order preventing mask mandates in schools. The order threatens to withhold state funding from schools that implement one.

“Broward County Public Schools intends to comply with the governor’s latest executive order,” the school district said in an online statement released this week.

“Safety remains our highest priority. The district will advocate for all eligible students and staff to receive vaccines and strongly encourage masks to be worn by everyone in schools,” the statement reads. “The district will also work to adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, including frequent cleaning and disinfecting of our schools, physical distancing, hand washing, and staying home when sick.”

Broward County, situated just north of Miami-Dade County, includes Fort Lauderdale.

What does the order mean?

A news release from DeSantis’ office said executive order 21-175 was issued “in response to several Florida school boards considering or implementing mask mandates in their schools after the Biden Administration issued unscientific and inconsistent recommendations that school-aged children wear masks.”

It adds that this was done “to protect parents’ freedom to choose whether their children wear masks.”

The order states that if the State Board of Education finds a school district board unwilling or unable to comply, it is able to withhold the transfer of state funds, discretionary grant funds or discretionary lottery funds.

The board can also declare a school ineligible for competitive grants if the district doesn’t comply.

On Tuesday, DeSantis re-emphasized his opposition to mask mandates and economic shutdowns as measures to mitigate Covid-19.

The state, he said, will not be “shutting down; we’re going to have schools open.”

He said Covid-19 mitigation efforts and “interventions have failed time and time again throughout this pandemic” to prevent virus spread, “not just in the United States but abroad.”

The CDC’s latest masking guidance was issued amid rising cases of the Delta coronavirus variant in parts of the country with low vaccination rates.

Besides issuing guidance for schools, the CDC recommended last week that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors if they’re in areas with “substantial” or “high” transmission of Covid-19.

In Florida, cases of Covid-19 have risen steadily in recent weeks, with the number of new cases per week jumping by 50% last week from the previous week, according to a weekly situation report released by the Florida Department of Health.

More than 110,400 cases were reported over the seven-day period ending July 29, with the week prior reporting 73,000 and the two previous weeks tallying 45,000 cases and 23,000 cases, respectively.

CNN’s Rosa Flores and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/03/us/florida-schools-mask-executive-order-broward-county/index.html

As for the broader tensions, Jayapal warned Biden not to take the party’s liberals for granted. “I think that, you know, every relationship needs tending,” she said, adding, “The president has also told me a couple months ago that he was looking forward to meeting with the Progressive Caucus, and we’re still waiting for that to happen.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/liberal-democrats-biden-anger/2021/08/02/d048fefa-f39d-11eb-a49b-d96f2dac0942_story.html

A Washington, DC police officer who responded to the deadly riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 took his own life last month, making him the fourth law enforcement officer who took part in the events of that day to die by his own hand.

Officer Kyle DeFreytag helped enforce the curfew put in place after hundreds of supporters of then-President Donald Trump breached the Capitol building in an effort to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results, The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) told WUSA.

DeFreytag died on July 10. He was described as a Pennsylvania native and a five-year veteran of the DC force.

The officer’s obituary said that a memorial service was held in the nation’s capital over the weekend. His family has not said his death was caused by the riot.

Earlier Monday, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that Officer Gunther Hashida, part of an Emergency Response Team within the department’s Special Operations Division, was found dead in his home last week. A GoFundMe page set up by a relative describes Hashida as “a devoted and loving husband and father” who “worked to serve and protect the public.” The page had raised more than $71,000 as of Monday night.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) described Hashida in a statement as “a hero, who risked his life to save our Capitol, the Congressional community and our very Democracy.

Protesters seen all over Capitol building where pro-Trump supporters rioted on January 6, 2021.
ZUMAPRESS.com

“All Americans are indebted to him for his great valor and patriotism on January 6th and throughout his selfless service,” Pelosi added. “May Officer Hashida’s life be an inspiration to all to protect our Country and Democracy. And may it be a comfort to Officer Hashida’s family that so many mourn their loss and pray for them at this sad time.”

The riot led to the deaths of five people, including US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Three days after the riot, another Capitol Police officer, Howard Liebengood, committed suicide. Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith fatally shot himself on Jan. 15, one day after he was ordered back to work.

Smith’s widow, Erin, told The Washington Post in February that one of the rioters hit Smith on the head with a pole during the chaos, causing him constant pain before his death.

More than 500 arrests have been made in connection with the attack, and the FBI has said it is looking for hundreds of additional suspects.

If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255).

Gunther Paul Hashida, a DC police involved in the Jan 6 riot who recently commit suicide.
GoFundMe
Officer Howard Liebengood committed suicide days after the capitol riot.
CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/08/02/capitol-police-officer-kyle-defreytag-dead-of-suicide/

Containers of Moderna vaccines donated by the U.S. arrived in Bogota, Colombia, on July 25.

Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images


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Containers of Moderna vaccines donated by the U.S. arrived in Bogota, Colombia, on July 25.

Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. is on track to deliver 110 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to more than 50 countries from Afghanistan to Zambia, two officials told NPR — a milestone that President Biden is expected to formally announce at the White House Tuesday.

But these initial U.S. donated doses are just a first step for the projected 11 billion vaccines needed to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population and bring the pandemic under control, according to the World Health Organization.

And providing doses to other countries is a quasi-Herculean task. “Sharing vaccine doses isn’t quite as easy as just putting them on a plane and calling somebody at the other end and telling them when they’ll arrive,” says Gayle Smith, the global COVID response coordinator at the State Department.

There have been some delays. Biden first announced that the U.S. would distribute 80 million doses to countries in need by the end of June, only to later say the goal had simply been to “allocate” them by the end of June.

Legal and regulatory hurdles loom for such sophisticated medical goods, Smith explains — both for the U.S. to export them and for countries to receive them. And it’s an urgent matter: Doses must be distributed before their expiration date, with cold chains set up to keep them from spoiling. Solutions have to be devised country by country, sometimes with elaborate legal agreements.

On this global stage, the Biden administration can’t call all the shots. “In some countries it’s actually required … to take new laws to their parliaments so they can accept these vaccines, so it’s a complicated logistical exercise, but I think we’ve shown it’s entirely doable,” Smith said in an interview with NPR.

These first 100 million deliveries reflect Biden’s effort to establish the U.S. as “the world’s arsenal of vaccines” and are essentially a warm-up for the hundreds of millions of shots that the U.S. has pledged to deliver later this year and next year.

The number of doses delivered so far puts the U.S. ahead of every other country making donations, but the pace of the shipments is much slower than it should be, says Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.

“When the world needs 10 billion doses to get to where we need to go, it puts that in context,” he said. “We’re a hundred times off where we need to be.”

And certain parts of the world are severely lacking in vaccines. The breakdown of distribution at this point illustrates how far many countries are from any meaningful level of protection. Worldwide, fewer than 1% of vaccines have gone to people in low-income countries, while more than 80% have been given to people in high- and upper middle-income countries.

More shots, more money

As the highly contagious delta variant surges, global health experts are calling for a bigger investment in the pandemic response.

“Right now it doesn’t seem like the effort is matching the level of crisis that some parts of the world are seeing,” says Jenny Ottenhoff, senior policy director for global health at the ONE Campaign.

The speed with which those doses arrive could determine the trajectory of the pandemic — and how many more people will die.

The numbers are daunting. At least 800,000 COVID fatalities are projected in the next two months, according to new estimates from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

In an open letter released on Tuesday, a group of prominent global health experts write that the Biden administration and its G-7 allies have “taken important but modest steps to close the global vaccine gap,” which still “fall far short of the true scale and urgency required.”

The letter urges the White House to quickly ramp up U.S. donations by at least 1 billion doses by mid-2022, strengthen global coordination of vaccine supply chains and pour resources into ensuring that “doses are translated into vaccinations.”

A man walks past donated Johnson & Johnson vaccines after their arrival at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia on July 30 — the first batch of 1 million shots.

Heng Sinith/AP


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A man walks past donated Johnson & Johnson vaccines after their arrival at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia on July 30 — the first batch of 1 million shots.

Heng Sinith/AP

Logistics challenges loom

As the Biden administration prepares to move hundreds of millions of more doses, the challenges in delivering these first 100 million doses should serve as a wake-up call, says Prashant Yadav, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development who studies health care supply chains.

“Just having surplus doses and a plan on how to allocate them is not sufficient. It requires a lot of other things to fall in place,” says Yadav. “Similar types of logistical challenges will remain in place for that massive quantity. And so the bigger question is, are we now planning based on what we’ve learned?”

In July, the White House released a “framework” for the global pandemic response, but the Biden administration still seems to lack the kind of “superstructure” needed to manage the complex demands of the global vaccination campaign, says Stephen Morrison at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who also signed the letter.

“It’s been somewhat ad hoc,” he says. “We need to be staffed up at a higher level with a command type approach similar to what we’ve taken domestically, and we don’t have that yet.”

The U.S. has the opportunity to take on a “more engaged” role with the global vaccination rollout, says Yadav. But that would require a much larger investment in the federal agencies currently orchestrating the vaccine sharing programs, he said.

A health worker vaccines a woman in Thimpu, Bhutan on July 26.

Upasana Dahal/AFP via Getty Images


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A health worker vaccines a woman in Thimpu, Bhutan on July 26.

Upasana Dahal/AFP via Getty Images

White House plans to “accelerate, accelerate, accelerate”

Biden is expected to talk about coming plans to boost shipments. The U.S. announced earlier this year that it secured 500 million Pfizer doses to distribute to poorer countries. That distribution is beginning in earnest this month. Smith says the aim is to “accelerate, accelerate, accelerate” to get more vaccines to more people faster.

“I don’t want to understate in any way how proud all of us are that we not only hit the 80 million but we are at 110,” says Smith. “But I think none of us thinks that we can check the box now. There’s still a massive amount to do. This last quarter of 2021 is critical. So we’ve got to keep going, and we’ve got to do more in any possible way we can do it.”

As long as the virus is moving faster than the drive to vaccinate the world, it is winning, she says.

And that puts more pressure on the Biden administration. “Without U.S. leadership, I don’t see another plausible pathway where we’re going to turn the corner on this pandemic any time in the next six, 12 or 18 months,” says Udayakumar.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/08/03/1023822839/biden-is-sending-110-million-vaccines-to-nations-in-need-thats-just-a-first-step


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the American Legislative Exchange Council Wednesday, July 28, 2021, in Salt Lake City. | Rick Bowmer/AP Photo

TALLAHASSEE — The head of Florida’s largest hospital association warned that the skyrocketing number of Covid hospitalizations is unlike anything the state has seen before — even as Gov. Ron DeSantis downplays the spike.

The Florida Hospital Association on Monday reported 10,389 Covid-19 hospitalizations, the most statewide during any point in the pandemic. This follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting over the weekend that the state had more than 21,000 new coronavirus infections on Friday. It was the highest one-day total for Florida, which now makes up roughly one and five new cases nationally.

About 95 percent of those hospitalized are unvaccinated, and Mary Mayhew, the president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, said the Delta variant that is sweeping through Florida is infecting young and unvaccinated people and is much different than the previous strain.

“We have to convince 25-year-olds, 30-year-olds that this is now life threatening for them,” Mayhew said during an interview on Morning Joe. “That is not what they saw and what we experienced last year.”

As Florida’s coronavirus infections continue to soar, public health officials and local elected leaders have pressed the DeSantis administration to take more drastic steps to get the virus under control. DeSantis, however, has maintained a strict “no-mandate” approach to the virus, including touting an executive order last week that prohibits school districts from requiring masks in K-12 facilities. He also vowed to fight any cities or municipalities that try to institute Covid restrictions, including mask mandates or lockdowns.

DeSantis’ administration points to the Covid cases in the younger population as evidence of the governor’s successful push to get the elderly in the state vaccinated. More than 85 percent of those older than 65 in Florida have been fully vaccinated. Overall, about 52 percent of Florida’s population is fully vaccinated.

“We recognize that cases and hospitalizations have shifted to a younger demographic because we have been so successful with vaccinating seniors,” said DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw, who added that the vaccinated made up 6 percent of new infections last month. “Again, we must continue this stride to expand vaccination rates across eligible age groups.”

Yet on Sunday night, Pushaw sparred with reporters on Twitter over the increase in Covid hospitalizations at Tallahassee’s largest hospital, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. At one point, Pushaw noted the city is Democratic-leaning and questioned why more people did not get vaccinated even though a reporter tweeted a story quoting Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare chief communications officer Stephanie Derzypolski saying “this is the most we’ve ever had.”

Pushaw has since deleted the tweets.

In a statement issued through Pushaw on Monday, the Florida agency responsible for the state’s Medicaid program and licensing health care facilities tried to counter Mayhew’s statements that the state’s hospitals are overflowing with patients.

Tiffany Vause, deputy chief of staff for the Agency for Health Care Administration, said that hospitals across the state report that 82 percent of inpatient beds are in use, and only 18 percent of those are related to Covid-19. At the peak of Covid-19 hospitalizations in July 2020, 79 percent of inpatient beds were in use, with 27 percent of those beds being occupied by Covid-19 patients.

DeSantis has urged all Floridians to get vaccinated, and Florida has fully vaccinated 10 million people, state records show. An additional 98,696 got fully vaccinated last week, while another 235,368 received their first doses, continuing an uptick in recent weeks. The 334,064 doses administered last week is up 40 percent from the first week of July.

Yet the state is trending in the wrong direction in almost every other measurable Covid-19 category. Last week, Florida reported 110,477 new cases, which is a nearly 600 percent increase from the 15,998 new cases reported just four weeks earlier. Over the past month, the statewide positivity rate has jumped from 5.3 to 18.1 percent.

The Covid-19 resurgence has put Florida and DeSantis back in the national spotlight. His 2022 challengers have spent the past month attacking DeSantis over what they say is a failed response.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democrat running against DeSantis for the governorship, has started holding daily Covid-19 briefings as DeSantis has moved away from that practice. On Monday, she reiterated that the governor should be doing daily briefings as well as more to promote pop-up vaccine sites. She also urged DeSantis to offer incentives for people to get the shot, which is something DeSantis has said he opposes. In the absence of such a campaign, Orange County Public Schools will begin offering $200 for any staffers who can show proof of vaccination.

“He’s doing just the opposite — not talking about it,” said Fried, who said her office has needed to fill the daily “void.”

She also hammered DeSantis’ recent push to block schools from imposing mask mandates, including the signing of last week’s executive order.

“To say it’s not as bad as it was in the height of the pandemic last year is inaccurate, dishonest and dangerous,” she said. “Things are the worst they have ever been in the state throughout this pandemic with Florida now leading the nation per capita in hospitalizations.”

Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, a former Republican Florida governor who is also challenging DeSantis, last week said DeSantis has “blood on his hands.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/08/02/florida-covid-hospitalizations-shatter-record-as-desantis-downplays-threat-1389356