COVID-19 cases jump 10% in week driven by virulent delta variant, CDC says
COVID-19 cases have jumped by 10% in the past week nationwide as the highly transmissible delta variant spreads like wildfire,especially where vaccination rates are low, officials said Thursday.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said areas with low vaccination rates are quickly turning into hot spots even as the overall national picture remains very hopeful.
“Communities where people remain unvaccinated remain communities that are vulnerable,” Walensky said.
The delta variant, which was first identified in India, is now responsible for 25% of all new coronavirus cases in the U.S. Walensky predicted it would become the dominant strain nationally within the next several weeks at the longest.
The overall number of cases remains manageable with the seven-day average of new cases sitting around 13,000.
But that is significantly higher than a week ago as several states experience mini-outbreaks. Among the emerging hot spots are Missouri, Nevada, Arkansas, Utah and Wyoming, mostly states where conservative vaccine resistance runs strong.
—New York Daily News
US budget deficit to reach near-record $3 trillion in 2021, CBO says
The U.S. will see a $3 trillion budget deficit this year, close to the 2020 record, while the economy will expand notably more than previously forecast, the Congressional Budget Office said as it incorporated the impact of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief program.
The deficit is seen narrowing to $1.15 trillion in 2022, the nonpartisan arm of the legislature said in a 10-year economic and budget projections report on Thursday. The deficit for the full 2020 fiscal year was $3.13 trillion, the biggest relative to the size of the economy since World War II.
The totals amount to 13.4% of GDP in 2021 and 4.7% next year, and mark an increase from prior forecasts, as the CBO factored in the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which was passed in March. The deficit was 14.9% of GDP in 2020.
The agency also sees gross domestic product increasing 7.4% this year, double the prior forecast, published in February, of 3.7%. The CBO sees GDP averaging 1.6% in the five years through 2031, similar to its prior forecast.
“The effects of a stronger economy” and “technical changes” partially offset the deficit effects of recently enacted legislation, CBO analysts said in the report.
—Bloomberg News
Court puts third-degree murder back into play for 3 cops in George Floyd killing
MINNEAPOLIS — Third-degree murder is back on the table in the criminal cases against three former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd's death following a recent court ruling.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals issued an order Wednesday reversing a district court judge's previous order denying a request from prosecutors to add third-degree murder against J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao.
The Court of Appeals' ruling sends prosecutors' request back to Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill for reconsideration,and allows him to hear more arguments from both sides before deciding whether to add the count in the three cases.
Kueng, Lane and Thao are scheduled to stand trial in March 2022. They are each charged with one count of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
Adding third-degree murder to the cases would likely increase the probability of a conviction against some of the former officers,said Joseph Daly, an emeritus professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
"It's going to be hard to convince a jury to convict any of these other three officers on second-degree," Daly said, "but third-degree, there's a likelihood that some of them could be convicted on that."
Daly said adding the count would also likely give the defendants more motivation to entertain plea deals.
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
As Communist Party turns 100, China's Xi rallies his compatriots and warns his critics
BEIJING – He pumped a fist into the air, standing in a Mao suit at a lectern stamped with a hammer and sickle, as 70,000 spectators in Tiananmen Square clapped and cheered.
"Long live the great, glorious, correct Chinese Communist Party!" cried Xi Jinping, China's president and general secretary of the party, as he closed an hourlong speech Thursday making the party's 100th anniversary.
"Long live the great, glorious, heroic Chinese people!" Xi said, pumping a fist again. The crowds rose to their feet, waving bright red party flags. Ten thousand doves burst into the air, soaring over the square as a military band began to play.
It was a grey, drizzly morning of choreographed joy, preceded by a months-long nationwide campaign to propagate an official history that had been airbrushed to erase the tens of millions of deaths caused by Communist Party rule.
The mass display of triumphant nationalism was meant to bolster public faith in the party while underscoring the path that Xi has laid out for China's future: greater party control over every aspect of life, resistance to "foreign oppression and bullying," denial of China's own bullying behavior and total erasure of the party's past, current or future mistakes.
As the sun rose in a humid sky, 70,000 attendees, including delegates in ethnic minority costumes, vaccinated journalists and children's choirs in red scarves, filed into Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of power in China. They serenaded the party with songs like "Without the Communist party, There Is No New China" — a tune that detainees in jails and reeducation camps have said they are forced to sing.
Military jets flew overhead, some dangling party flags and banners with party slogans, others forming the shape of "100."Soldiers marched in goose step under a red arch emblazoned with the hammer and sickle as cannons fired 100 rounds.
—Los Angeles Times
