Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order that would prevent states from counting undocumented immigrants in their census, according to a Politico report confirmed by The Independent. The order could potentially undercounting significant parts of the US and depriving federal spending and congressional seats from those areas. It's likely to be challenged in court.
Unidentified federal border control officers have been deployed to Portland, Oregon in recent days to indiscriminately arrest protesters and forced them into unmarked vehicles, as Department of Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf condemned protesters "violent anarchists" while releasing a list of crimes that mainly amounted to graffiti.
Portland's mayor has demanded the president withdraw the troops, and Washington officials are outraged, liking the show of federal force to an "authoritarian" measure, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley said.
The president – who has falsely and repeatedly accused his Democratic rival of endorsing efforts to "defund" police in a campaign bid to pin recent unrest on Democrats – snapped at Fox News host Chris Wallace in an interview to air on Sunday after the president has pressed to prove his claims.
Pentagon officials meanwhile have banned Confederate battle flags completely from US military installations despite the president's defence of the symbol as "free speech" amid growing calls to remove the icons from public spaces.
Coronavirus infections continue to surge across the US, with daily cases Thursday reaching at least 77,255. That figure is nearly triple the daily cases discovered three weeks ago. In a White House document obtained by Centre for Public Integrity, 18 states are in the coronavirus "red zone".
Florida has seen its fourth consecutive day with more than 100 deaths, as daily cases there top 11,000. The World Health Organisation also recorded a record-high number of daily cases, as global infections near 14 million. Nearly 139,000 people in the US have died from Covid-19-related illness, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The Trump administration has blocked the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention from appearing at a House committee discussing school reopening plans, as the White House pushes states to reopen within weeks despite a raging public health crisis and no clear guidance for managing outbreaks, as teachers and school staff brace for spikes in infections.
This week, the administration directed hospital systems to send crucial coronavirus reporting data to a central Washington database under the Department of Health and Human Services – not the CDC. Researchers and health officials fear that White House-controlled data will not reflect the growing crisis but become a political cudgel.
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A book by Mary Trump - Donald Trump’s niece - sold almost a million copies on its first day and is now at the top of the bestseller list after a New York Supreme Court judge ruled on Monday that Ms Trump was free to release and talk about the president's private life.
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man - focuses on Mr Trump’s childhood, and in particular his relationship with his father.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has attacked Donald Trump over his administration’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
“At this point, it is clear that the trajectory in the US is significantly worse than many other countries and that our government and this administration have been considerably less effective in handling this,” Mr Zuckerberg said during a live-streamed chat with Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s leading infectious disease expert.
Mr Zuckerberg also said he thought US testing levels were inadequate and said the resurgence of the virus this month could have been avoided.
“It’s really disappointing that we still don’t have adequate testing, that the credibility of our top scientists like yourself and the CDC are being undermined and until recently parts of the administration were calling into question whether people should even follow basic best practices like wearing a mask,” he said.
Russia's death toll from coronavirus passed 12,000 on Friday, as the country reported 186 new deaths in the past 24 hours.
The country's coronavirus crisis response centre registered 6,406 new cases, bringing its nationwide tally of infections to 759,203, the world's fourth highest caseload.
The death toll now stands at 12,123. Russia says 539,373 people have recovered.
The Japanese government is facing potentially damaging blowback after excluding Tokyo residents from a multibillion dollar campaign aimed at reviving domestic tourism, even as the capital on Friday reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's $16 billion "Go To" tourism campaign was intended to promote travel across the country, but officials agreed on Thursday to exclude Tokyo because of the resurgence in infections there.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike reported 293 new cases on Friday, a fresh daily record after the city recorded 286 cases a day earlier.
Across Japan 623 new cases have been recorded in the past day, the health ministry announced on Friday - the highest daily jump in new coronavirus cases since April 10.
In Arizona, high summer temperatures are causing additional medical issues for those people queueing to be tested for Covid-19.
"There are people who are waiting in-line to get tested and are fainting, literally, while waiting to get a test. And they're coming to the ER, because ironically, they were waiting for a test and fainted," said Dr Murtaza Akhter, an emergency physician with Valleywise Health Medical Centre in Phoenix, according to CNN.
Indian company Zydus Cadila plans to complete late-stage trials for its coronavirus vaccine by February or March and could produce up to 100 million doses a year initially if it is successful, the company chairman said on Friday.
Cadila's vaccine candidate, known as ZyCov-D, is one of dozens being developed around the world to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
"We are looking at about seven or a little more than seven months for the vaccine, provided the data is encouraging and the vaccine is proven to be effective during the trials," Chairman Pankaj Patel told Reuters in an interview.
"We are also open to discussing partnerships with pharma companies in various geographies, but it is a bit premature right now, and we will be doing so at the end of Phase 1 and 2 trials," he said.
Early-stage Phase 1 and 2 human trials are likely to be concluded in the next three months, he said.
Hong Kong authorities reported 50 locally transmitted coronavirus cases on Friday, stoking further concern about an escalating third wave of infections in the global financial hub.
Including imported cases, the number of new cases in the past 24 hours was 58, taking the tally since late-January to 1,714 patients, 10 of whom have died.
Hong Kong on Thursday posted 63 locally transmitted cases, the highest on record for a single day.
Trump considering travel ban for Chinese Communist Party
The Trump administration is considering banning travel to the United States by all members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families, according to reports.
Senior officials discussing the matter had begun circulating a draft of a possible presidential order, but deliberations were at an early stage and the issue had not yet been brought to president Donald Trump, the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The discussions, first reported by the New York Times, centre on whether to deny visas to more than 90 million Chinese in what would be one of Washington's toughest actions yet in a widening feud with Beijing that some have likened to a new Cold War.
Such a ban, if implemented, could hit the ruling Communist Party from the highest levels down to its rank-and-file and would be certain to draw retaliation against Americans who travel to China. This could include not only diplomats but also business executives, potentially harming U.S. interests in China.
Asked about the reports on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that such ban, should it materialise, would be "absurd" and would amount to the the United States choosing to stand against 1.4 billion people.
"This is against the trend of the 21st century, and it is very absurd," she said, noting that no US official had clarified whether the reports of the possible ban were correct.
US breaks its own daily record for coronavirus cases
The US has hit a new high in its daily count of new coronavirus cases, with several states breaking their own records on a daily basis while debates over masks and reopening schools still rage.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the total cases recorded nationally on Thursday was 77,255 – demolishing the previous high of 67,791, which was reached just two days ago.
Andrew Naughtie has the full story:
Government plans third execution this week after 17-year hiatus
A week that marked the return of capital punishment by the US government after a 17-year hiatus is due to end with a third planned execution of a federal prisoner today.
If Donald Trump's administration faces no legal obstacle in putting Dustin Lee Honken, a convicted murderer, to death by lethal injection at 4pm EDT (9pm BST), it will have completed as many executions in a few days as happened in the preceding 57 years.
Lawyers for the condemned men have amassed legal challenges, which include arguments that the US Department of Justice's new one-drug lethal-injection protocol breaches a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments.
These arguments have been rejected twice this week in overnight rulings by a 5-4 majority in the Supreme Court.
Dustin Honken was a dealer in illegal methamphetamine when he and his girlfriend murdered five people in Iowa in 1993, including two girls aged 10 and 6. He was convicted in 2004.
He is one of several inmates on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, who have said the new one-drug protocol, which replaces a three-drug protocol the government last used in 2003, would cause an unnecessarily painful death.
The litigation will continue in the US District Court in Washington with the surviving inmates. Since last year, Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the cases, has ordered injunctions on three occasions delaying the scheduled executions to allow the legal challenges to play out. All three were overruled by the Supreme Court.
Two other men convicted of murdering children were executed in Terre Haute earlier this week: Daniel Lee on Tuesday, and Wesley Purkey on Thursday.
China vows to 'fight back against malicious slander and attacks by US'
China has said it is not seeking to confront or replace the US as the world's top technological power but will fight back against "malicious slander" and attacks from Washington.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying responded today to a series of recent accusations from the Trump administration.
She said China's chief concern was improving the livelihoods of its citizens and maintaining global peace and stability, despite what critics say is an increasingly aggressive foreign policy.
"As an independent sovereign state, China has the right to safeguard its own sovereignty, security and development interests, to defend the achievements made by the Chinese people with hard work, to refuse any bullying and injustice against China and to fight back against malicious slander and attacks by the US against China," Hua told reporters at a daily briefing.
Her comments came in response to a speech yesterday by US attorney general William Barr in which he cautioned American business leaders against promoting policies favourable to Beijing.
He claimed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic China not only dominated the market on protective equipment, exposing American dependence on Beijing, but also hoarded supplies and blocked producers from exporting them to countries in need.
Barr also accused hackers linked to the Chinese Government of targeting American universities and businesses to steal research related to coronavirus vaccine development.
George Governor Brian Kemp decided to hold a press conference on Friday regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
This conference comes after he sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over the mask policy she enacted in her city, which required for residents to wear a face shield when out in public.
The reasoning behind Mr Kemp's lawsuit has not been revealed. But it comes on the heels of Donald Trump's Atlanta visit where he opted to not wear a mask. Following the visit, Ms Bottoms said the president broke the law by not wearing a mask.
"Mayor Bottoms mask mandate can not be enforced," Mr Kemp. "...We will fight to stop reckless actions and put people over politics."
United States Attorney General William Barr has said that Apple, Google, and Microsoft are collaborating too much with the Chinese government.
"Corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple have shown themselves all too willing to collaborate with the [Chinese Communist party]," Barr said.
"The Chinese Communist Party thinks in terms of decades and centuries, while we tend to focus on the next quarterly earnings report," the Attorney General said in a speech at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan.
Adam Smith with the report:
Apple, Google, and Microsoft are collaborating too much with China, says US Attorney General
The Independent'America’s big tech companies have also allowed themselves to become pawns of Chinese influence', William Barr saidThe state of Florida has overtaken Arizona by now having the recording the most coronavirus cases per capita.
Florida is averaging 55 cases per 100,000 residents, according to data obtained by Johns Hopkins University.
In comparison, Louisiana is averaging 44.3 cases per 100,00 residents and Arizona is averaging 43.06 cases per 100,000 residents.
Arizona led the United States in cases per capita, but Florida and Louisiana have since passed the state with their own rise in coronavirus cases.
The president's niece Mary Trump said late Thursday she has heard him use the n-word and anti-Semitic slurs over the years - as new figures show fewer than 30 per cent of Americans trust her uncle to handle race relations.
Ms Trump, who is making the media rounds pushing a new book that argues her uncle is the "most dangerous man in the world," made the explosive claims during an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. She made similar charges in the book.
Ms Maddow asked if Ms Trump heard the now-president use the n-word "specifically."
"Of course I did," Mr Trump's niece responded.
John T Bennett reports:
Mary Trump says she heard president use n-word and antisemitic slurs
'This is a book of falsehoods, plain and simple. The president doesn't use those words,' White House spokeswoman saysPatrick Cockburn with his take:
Patrick Cockburn: The UK and US are starting a new Cold War with Russia and China – so what are these governments trying to hide?
It is just possible to forget amid the threats and counter-threats – and the intention is certainly that we should forget – that the world is failing to contain a pandemic that has killed half a million peopleMarie Garofolo says she was an ardent supporter of the president – until she sat down for some frank discussions with her family.
Chris Riota with the latest from his Polarized column:
