Summary
- More than 150,000 people in the US have died of Covid-19. The American coronavirus death toll is the highest in the world, and more than 4.3 million cases have been recorded in the country.
- Donald Trump spent his day in Texas, to attend a fundraiser and visit an oil rig. During an official, taxpayer-funded event, the president railed against his 2020 opponent Joe Biden, touted his rollback of environmental regulations and signed permits to boost the ailing fossil fuel industry.
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Trump also attempted to stoke racial fears among rich, white voters, tweeting that Americans “living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream” would no longer be “bothered” by low-income housing, after he rescinded Obama-era protections against racial housing discrimination.
- A jobless aid program is set to expire amid a stalemate at the Capitol. Democrats want to extend a $600 benefit for unemployed Americans, as well as a moratorium on evictions – whereas Republicans and the administration have continued to insist that the program will disincentivize workers.
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a requirement that representatives and staff wear masks on the House floor, after Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, one of several Republicans who have resisted masks, tested positive for coronavirus today.
- A federal judge in New York blocked the administration from implementing its “public charge” rule amid the coronavirus pandemic. The rule stipulates that immigrants who use public benefits can be denied a green card.
- Florida will close state-run Covid-19 testing sites for several days, starting tomorrow, due to a looming tropical storm, according to officials. The state is among the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
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During a landmark congressional antitrust hearing with tech executives, lawmakers questioned the heads of Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google parent company Alphabet. “Our founders would not bow before a king,” said the judiciary antitrust subcommittee chairman, David Cicilline. “Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”
- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the oldest supreme court justice, underwent a non-surgical procedure today and is expected to be released from the hospital this week.
Updated
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 'resting' after non-surgical hospital procedure
In a statement, the supreme court said that Ginsburg has undergone a “minimally invasive non-surgical procedure” today and is “resting comfortably”.
This is the justice’s second hospital visit this month. Ginsburg, 87, recently revealed that her cancer had returned and she will remain on the court while undergoing chemotherapy.
Here’s the full press release from the Supreme Court Office of Public Information on Justice Ginsburg’s non-surgical procedure today. pic.twitter.com/j0ZLUokdVX
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) July 29, 2020
Updated
For updates on how the coronavirus pandemic is playing out around the world, follow the Guardian’s live global coverage:
- Brazil confirmed nearly 70,000 coronavirus cases in new daily record. The country recorded 69,074 new confirmed cases and 1,595 related deaths, as the world’s second-worst outbreak accelerates toward the milestone of 100,000 lives cut short.
- Guatemala is burying dozens of unidentified Covid-19 dead. Hospitals say they have had to bury dozens of Covid-19 victims who have never been identified, with one hospital creating archives in hopes that once the pandemic passes relatives will come looking for them.
- France saw its highest daily increase in cases in more than a month. The number of new coronavirus infections in France rose by 1,392 on Wednesday, a figure likely to fuel fears of a second wave despite officials downplaying such a scenario.
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The Catalan government eased lockdown in city of Lleida. 160,000 people had been ordered to stay home following a spike in infections.
- Lebanon reported its highest single-day infection tally. The country reporter 182 new coronavirus cases, ahead of fresh lockdown measures that go into effect at midnight.
Updated
Barack Obama is expected to eulogize John Lewis, the civil rights icon and Georgia congressman, at the funeral in Atlanta tomorrow, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Obama awarded Lewis the presidential medal of freedom in 2011. The former US president first met the venerated civil rights leader when Obama was in law school. “When I was elected President of the United States, I hugged him on the inauguration stand before I was sworn in and told him I was only there because of the sacrifices he made,” Obama said when Lewis died. “And through all those years, he never stopped providing wisdom and encouragement to me and Michelle and our family. We will miss him dearly.”
Updated
A recap of the landmark House antitrust hearing with tech executives
More than five hours after they commenced, the historic Congressional hearing of the biggest tech companies in the world over antitrust concerns have come to an end. Here are some highlights from the long day.
- Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon were represented by their CEOs at the hearing with the House antitrust subcommittee.
- Lawmakers cited “millions” of pages of evidence from years of antitrust investigations into these companies. Throughout the hearing, they brought up information gleaned from internal documents and conversations with anonymous sources in side the tech companies.
- Democratic lawmakers remained largely focused on antitrust issues, including market share and anti-competitive business practices while Republican lawmakers often zeroed in on perceived biases against conservatives on big tech platforms.
- Facebook faced most intensive criticism over its acquisition of Instagram.
- Apple faced most intensive criticism over its App store and whether it blocks competitors from using it.
- Google faced most intensive criticism over its advertising policies and its treatment of competitors.
- Amazon faced most intensive criticism over how it treats third-party brands on its site and whether it collects information from them and uses it to develop competing products (a practice that was reported on in April by the Wall Street Journal).
- Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat of Rhode Island, closed the hearing with a dramatic statement that seemed to suggest legislative action would be coming for the companies who participated today. “These companies as they exist today have monopoly power,” he said. “Some need to be broken up, all need to be properly regulated and held accountable.”
Updated
Federal judge blocks administration's "public charge" rule for immigrants
A federal judge in New York has stopped the Trump administration from implmenting its “public charge” rule, which stipulates that immigrants who use public benefits could be denied green cards.
Judge George Daniels said the police discourages immigrants from seeking coronavirus testing and could threaten efforts to contain and suppress the pandemic. He blocked the administration from implementing the policy during the health crisis.
“Any policy that deters residents from seeking testing and treatment for COVID-19 increases the risk of infection for such residents and the public. Adverse government action that targets immigrants, however, is particularly dangerous during a pandemic,” Daniels wrote in his ruling.
The case could now go to the Supreme Cout, which previously denied requests from states to block the policy while legal challenges played out in lower courts.
Several months ago, I reported that the rule has had a “chilling effect” - discouraging immigrants from seeking healthcare and other essential benefits out of fear that it will affect their ability to remain in the US:
California state lawmakers are considering a plan to continue a $600 weekly unemployment benefit for state residents if Congress does not extend the emergency funding this month.
“We have millions of Californians that are on a financial cliff,” said Phil Ting, a Democratic state lawmaker from San Francisco. “They really need that money to pay rent, to buy food, to pay for everyday living expenses.”
Cuts in federal emergency assistance would probably put more California residents in danger of losing their housing, and could make California’s homelessness crisis even worse, Ting said.
“The number one way you prevent the spread of Covid is you keep people in their homes,” he said.
Nancy Pelosi has announced that Congressmembers and their staff will be required to wear face masks while on House floor.
The requirement comes after Louie Gohmert of Texas, one of several Republican lawmakers who resisted wearing masks in recent weeks, tested positive for Covid-19.
.@SpeakerPelosi announced that members and staff will be required to wear masks at the whole time while in the Hall of the House. Failure to do so is a "serious breach of decorum."
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) July 29, 2020
The House is in recess for a period of less than 15 minutes.
Florida is closing coronavirus test centers, with a tropical stoorm looming
All the state-run testing sites will close on Thursday evening and won’t reopen until at least Tuesday, according to officials. The National Hurricane Center is predicting that a looming tropical weather system will develop into a storm, and the state’s emergency management division is closing sites as a precaution, officials said in an email sent to testing site managers, per local station WCTV.
Florida is currently a major coronavirus hotspot, with more than 451,000 cases.
Jobless aid is set to lapse
The administration and Republicans have yet to reach a deal with Congressional Democrats for an economic relief package. “We are still very far apart on a lot of issues,” treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at the capitol. “We’re far from an agreement.”
The administration floated a short-term extension for a $600-a-week unemployment benefit for tens of millions of Americans, which is set to expire on Friday. Democrats want to extend that $600 per week benefit, which Congress first approved in March as part of the CARES Act, and a provision halting eviction through the end of the year. Republicans have opposed the aid, which they say disincentivizes workers.
After the president announced that he will recall federal officers from Portland, Mijente, a Latinx & Chicanx advocacy group, denounced the Department of Homeland security:
“The federal agents who descended on the city, uninvited and unwelcome, in unmarked vehicles, disappearing people with little to no regard for civil liberties, come from the Department of Homeland Security. This agency is bloated, overfunded, and it operates with impunity,” co-founder Marisa Franco wrote in a statement shared with The Guardian.
“If this is what they do to mostly white US citizens in front of the media, imagine what they are doing to people in their custody, to people who are seeking refuge in isolated parts of the border,” she said. “Trump must be defeated in November. Trumpism must be defeated as well. That means dismantling agencies like DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol.”
Updated
Alexandra Villarreal reports from Hidalgo county, Texas:
The coronavirus pandemic haunts almost everything in this part of the Rio Grande valley, where more than 92% of the almost 900,000 strong population identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
Hand-sanitizing machines and big bins with masks and gloves surround shoppers at the regional grocery store. Outside of Nomad Shrine Club, a rundown event space turned drive-thru pop-up, residents join a long line of people in cars in search of a Covid-19 test with rapid results. Even Tex Mex, a gentlemen’s club, has a somber message for patrons: “Clothed Again.”
“The Rio Grande Valley has become the hotspot of a hotspot of a hotspot,” said Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo county’s health authority and a practicing clinician. “We’re at the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States.”
Melendez recalled recently encountering a critically ill patient with an alarmingly low pulse. He tried to warn someone, but nurses informed him that a different doctor had already decided not to intervene because they “didn’t expect for [the patient] to survive”.
In the United States, where the prevailing mantra for physicians is “do no harm”, that kind of ruthless calculation strikes deep, especially when so many of the lives at stake are medically vulnerable and easily exploited.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy made a Freudian slip, it seems.
Kevin McCarthy accidentally calls Louie Gohmert "Congressman COVID" pic.twitter.com/UcQcvHtEU9
— The Recount (@therecount) July 29, 2020
Donald Trump, in Texas, has signed several permits for the energy industry, including one allowing the export of oil from Texas to Mexico.
The oil industry has been ailing, and the pandemic has made things worse. Today, Trump has been touting his rollback of environmental regulations and deriding Democrats’ plans to combat climate change.
He called Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s environmental plan the “Green New Deal Disaster.” “I added the fourth word,” the president helpfully told reporters.
As a candidate bearing gifts, Pres Trump signed 4 permits for the energy industry in must-win Texas, including two to allow the export of Texas crude oil to Mexico. "You've been after that one for many years," he told workers at Double Eagle Energy Co. in Midland. pic.twitter.com/SjOl7XRdiJ
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) July 29, 2020
Barack Obama on Wednesday spoke out in continued support of the Black Lives Matter protests and expressed hope that they will inspire greater community cooperation in America while warning things could go either way.
Speaking on the debut podcast of his wife, Michelle Obama, in a dialogue between the two, the 44th president did not talk explicitly about Donald Trump but agreed that some voters are discouraged from exercising their rights when they see a government in dysfunction.
Michelle Obama said: “The thing that I worry is that I hear, I think, too many young people who question whether voting, whether politics is worth it.”
Barack Obama pointed out that “the only time they know about what government is doing is when...” with his wife interjecting “…is when it doesn’t work, right?”
The former president agreed, saying: “So we’re getting a good lesson in that right now.”
He spoke of his hope that the kind of societal efforts that led to greater prosperity in the fifties, sixties and seventies come around again, but with greater advocacy for all.
“This time let’s do it in a way that genuinely includes everybody,” he said. “If you take the blinders of racism, sexism, homophobia... All those things off. And say really our tribe is everybody.”
But he warned of the forces of division.
“It could still go both ways in this country just like it’s teetering one way or the other in countries all around the world,” he said.
Today so far...
- Johns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 tracking project reported 150,034 people in America have died of Covid-19 at about 4pm ET Wednesday.
- America’s terrible milestone comes as 21 states reach the “red zone” for potential Covid-19 outbreaks.
- The news came as Donald Trump traveled to Texas today, not to visit hospitals, doctors or patients, but to attend a fundraiser and visit an oil rig.
- He also spent time tweeting about the “Suburban Lifestyle Dream,” which he said would be free of low-income housing projects, because his administration rolled back protections on racial housing discrimination. The tweet has been condemned as racist and classist.
- Segregated housing is a major driver of health disparities that have placed black, Latino and Native American people at disproportionate risk for Covid-19 infection and death.
- US Republican Representative Louie Gohmert tested positive for coronavirus today, as did a Texas Republican running for office who was meant to greet the president. Gohmert has refused to wear a mask. Aides in Gohmert’s office said they were goaded when they wore masks.
- US Representative Francis Rooney became the first Republican to vote by proxy today, despite Republican leadership’s attempts to end the practice brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here is one image from just outside McAllen, Texas, where nurses treated a patient in one of several Covid-19 wards this month.
The coronavirus is spreading rapidly through the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where people of all ages are getting infecting at family gatherings. Photograph: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Updated
Guardian voting rights reporter Sam Levine gives us this dispatch on franchise:
Kentucky’s mail-in voting ballots appear to have a “major design flaw,” according to an analysis of state data obtained by the Guardian. Kentucky officials rejected 32,349 mail-in ballots during the state’s June primary election, more than one-quarter of which were rejected because of a missing perforated flap.
Even though the number is a fraction of the more than 1 million votes cast in Kentucky’s on June 23, they illuminate a problem for the general election in November. The state has a closely-watched US Senate race between Democrat Amy McGrath and Republican Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader and one of the most powerful men in Washington.
Among those rejected, a significant chunk were because of a problem with an inner envelope on the absentee ballot, according to an analysis of the data by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald. Kentucky requires voters to fill out and sign both an inner envelope – which they put their actual ballot in – and then an outer envelope, which they put the inner envelope in.
The inner envelope contains a perforated flap voters have to sign, but 3,932 ballots were rejected because the flap was unattached when it was returned. Another 3,332 ballots were rejected because the inner envelope was unsealed and 1,484 more ballots went uncounted because they didn’t have a signature on the inner envelope. In total, 27% of rejected ballots in Kentucky were because of an inner envelope problem.
“Over a quarter of the ballots that are being rejected [are] for some issue that seems to be a major design flaw with this inner envelope,” McDonald said. “We’re already at 9,000 ballots that are being rejected now. We could be looking at close to 20,000 if that US senate race is close, that could be determinative of the election outcome.”
McDonald noted the inner envelope issue could have caused even more ballots to be rejected. Another 11,670 ballots were rejected because of a signature issue, but local election officials did not include whether the signature defect was on the inner or outer envelope.
A handful of other states use inner envelopes to ensure the secrecy of a voter’s ballot, but McDonald said in most other states the voter did not have to do anything with the inner envelope and just had to sign the outer one.
“There is no clear purpose for signing the inner envelope other than to trip up voters and provide an excuse to reject their absentee ballots,” he wrote in his analysis. “Election officials should provide voters with an inner envelope where the flap does not detach. Kentucky should not require a second signature, which is unnecessary to establish a voter’s identity.”
The rejections underscore a worry that many voters could have their ballots rejected this fall for technical reasons, even though they are eligible voters. States can disqualify ballots for a number of reasons, including problems with a signature, or if a voter forgets to include information.
Mail-in ballot rejections typically don’t get a lot of attention, but as more people vote by mail for the first time because of the Covid-19 pandemic, more people will have their ballots thrown out. Research has shown that first time voters, young people, and minorities are more likely to have their mail-in ballots rejected.
Updated
More than 150,000 Americans killed by Covid-19
The United States has surpassed another tragic threshold, as Johns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 tracking system reported 150,034 Americans died of Covid-19. The threshold was passed at about 4pm ET Wednesday.
Since the first case of Covid-19 in January, the United States has emerged as an outlier, representing one-sixth of the 662,000 worldwide deaths from Covid-19 and so far failing to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The center of the pandemic has moved from the American northeast, where widespread shutdowns began in New York City in March, to the sun belt region stretching from Florida to Southern California this summer, and as 21 more states are declared red zones for Covid-19 outbreaks.
It also comes just one day after Trump praised a doctor who spread misinformation online and who believes alien DNA is used in medical treatments, and weeks before schools were set to reopen, a milestone many thought would be safe and achievable this spring.
Today, Trump is in Texas, one of the worst-hit states in the nation, but not to visit hospitals, doctors or patients.
Instead, he is attending a fundraiser and visiting an oil rig.
Updated
Representative Francis Rooney from Florida becomes the first Republican Congressman to vote by proxy, saying the Capitol is not safe.
Texas Representative Louie Gohmert tested positive for Covid-19 today.
Retiring Rep. Francis Rooney, who told me a few weeks ago he planned to do so, just voted by proxy in the House — the first Republican to do so.
— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) July 29, 2020
R leadership is suing to try to strike down the proxy arrangement, but Rooney says it is not safe to be in the Capitol.
Here’s more perspective on Trump’s move to pull troops out of Germany from Guardian reporter Julian Borger:
Trump wrongly claimed, as he has many times in the past, that Germany was not paying its “Nato fees”. In fact, the friction between the US and Germany, as well as other European allies, is about national defence spending. The allies agreed in 2014 to spend 2% of their GDP on defence by 2024. Germany is currently on just under 1.4%, but Belgium, where the US will move some of its European Command (Eucom) headquarters, spends less than 1%, and Italy, to where the US will move an F-16 fighter squadron and two army battalions from Germany, spends 1.2%.
Diplomats and former US officials have described Trump as fixated on Germany and its chancellor, Angela Merkel.
“He’s obsessed with the idea that Germany is taking advantage of the US, over defence, but on trade, selling too many cars to the US for example. He has always been particularly rude to Merkel,” a former White House official said.
A second Texas Republican who was supposed to greet Trump in Midland, Texas has tested positive for coronavirus. Conservative Republican House candidate Wesley Hunt tested positive for Covid-19 while he was driving to Midland to greet the president. Hunt said in a tweet he was asymptomatic.
US Representative Louie Gohmert, who refused to wear a mask and today tested positive for Covid-19, apparently forced his entire staff to come into the Capitol every day to work as an example of “how to open up safely”.
PLAYBOOK PM: After we reported that @replouiegohmert was positive, we got an email from a Gohmert aide. pic.twitter.com/x31CSOdkLf
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 29, 2020
Also, Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has extended the state’s mandatory statewide mask mandate through August 31, including for children aged second grade (about 7-years-old) and up.
More on Trump’s decision to pull 11,900 American troops out of Germany, the president said because he does not believe Germany pays enough toward the NATO alliance. The process is likely to take years and cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.
German ambassador to Washington https://t.co/FtauBK6qo4
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) July 29, 2020
Updated
Donald Trump tweeted today about the anti-discrimination housing law his administration rescinded, but it’s not the first time the president’s family has been accused of racist housing policies.
In the 1970s, the Trumps were also accused of working to prevent black tenants from moving into the middle class buildings that made his father, Fred Trump, rich. Here’s more from a New York Times investigation, describing Maxine Brown, a black New York nurse who appeared to be a perfect tenant:
Stanley Leibowitz, the rental agent, talked to his boss, Fred C. Trump.
“I asked him what to do and he says, ‘Take the application and put it in a drawer and leave it there,’” Mr. Leibowitz, now 88, recalled in an interview.
Revered American folk singer Woody Guthrie, who was Fred Trump’s tenant, also wrote about Donald Trump’s father in a song titled Old Man Trump. Here are the lyrics, which address racial discrimination in housing:
I suppose
Old Man Trump knows
Just how much
Racial Hate
he stirred up
In the bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed
That color line
Here at his
Eighteen hundred family project
Will Kaufman, a professor of American literature and culture at the University of Central Lancashire in Britain told the New York Times that Guthrie, “thought that Fred Trump was one who stirs up racial hate, and implicitly profits from it.” Kaufman discovered the song while working on a book.
Updated
In a move that will take years and cost billions of dollars, Donald Trump wants to pull 11,900 troops out of Germany and reposition them in Poland and other European countries.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters the move did relate to Trump’s demands that Germany give more money to the NATO alliance, a claim Trump contradicted almost immediately after Esper asserted it.
Literally minutes after Esper insisted that the withdrawal of troops from Germany has nothing to do with German defence spending, Trump told reporters: "Germany's delinquent. They haven't paid their Nato fees." (which is not true. The argument is over defence spending as %GDP)
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) July 29, 2020
Here’s more from AFP:
The move, which will cost the US government several billion dollars, will cut the presence of US military personnel in Germany to around 24,000, Esper said.
He stressed that the action is part of his broader plan to reposition US military forces around the world to better address key threats and enhance flexibility, including with the NATO alliance, which is focused on deterring a possible Russian threat to Europe.
But at the White House Trump told reporters that Germany has not paid its fair share for the defense of Europe.
“They are there to protect Europe, they are there to protect Germany, and Germany is supposed to pay for it,” Trump said of the troops, and move nearly 5,600 to other NATO countries, including Italy and Belgium.
Rice slams Trump, confirms she is in contention for the Biden ticket
Former US National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who is widely seen as being on Joe Biden’s short list as running mate, earlier today criticized comments by Donald Trump that he would not accept the results of November’s presidential election - and urged voters to decisively defeat him at the polls.
“It has to be a resounding defeat of Donald Trump,” Rice said in an interview on ABC’s “The View” chat show.
Biden, who will face Trump in the November 3 election, is in the final stages of choosing his vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic ticket, and a decision is expected next week. He has said he will pick a woman and has been increasingly expected to pick a woman of color, especially as the Black Lives Matter movement continues to lead protests across the nation against police brutality and systemic racism across all layers of American society, from healthcare to housing to pay.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News earlier in July that he would not commit to accepting the results of the November vote, although representatives of his campaign have said he would respect the results.
Rice, 55, has never run for public office and if tapped by Biden, would be an untested presence on the campaign trail. But she had a solid working relationship with Biden when he served as Barack Obama’s vice president and she as Obama’s top foreign-policy aide.
Speaking to “The View,” Rice, who is Black, confirmed she was under consideration by the Biden campaign for the job, but did not say whether she had been interviewed.
Rice conceded that should she be chosen, her role in the aftermath of the 2012 terror attack on the US mission on Benghazi, Libya would likely become a campaign issue.
At the time, Reuters writes, Rice, as US ambassador to the United Nations, was accused by Republicans of misleading the public about the nature of the attack. Congressional investigations, however, found no wrongdoing on her part, and Rice on Wednesday defended her actions, calling Republican charges “dishonest.”
“I don’t doubt that the Republicans will use this and they’ll attack whoever is Joe Biden’s choice to be his vice president,” she said.
While scientists work day and night to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, leaders at the National Institutes of Health are already preparing for the blowback.
Top priority for covid-19 vaccine is being considered for health-care + essential workers + high-risk groups. Process “is going to be controversial and not everybody’s going to like the answer,” says NIH Director Francis Collins. @bylenasun https://t.co/VPrl9UgA3r
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) July 29, 2020
Donald Trump is on a very aggressive Twitter streak this afternoon, having just touched down in Texas.
Following his post about suburban homeowners, which is being roundly called out as stunningly racist and classist, he is now claiming Portland would have been obliterated if he hadn’t sent federal law enforcement agents in.
The governor of Oregon, Kate Brown, announced a little earlier that the immigration and border agents, under Homeland Security umbrella, will start pulling out tomorrow, having been regarded as an “occupying force” that exacerbated unrest in the city.
...do not stop the Crime and Violence from the Anarchists and Agitators immediately, the Federal Government will go in and do the job that local law enforcement was supposed to do!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020
Trump: suburban homeowners won't be 'bothered' by low-income housing
In what observers see as a play for white voters, Trump has tweeted people living their “Suburban Lifestyle Dream” won’t be “bothered” by a fair housing rule meant to combat racial housing discrimination.
Racial segregation in housing is a key driver of the health disparities and chronic health conditions which have made black and minority Americans more susceptible to Covid-19. Housing discrimination has been illegal for decades, but has persisted as a structural legacy of racism and inequality.
...Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020
The Trump administration repealed the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing last Thursday, according to an announcement by the US Housing and Urban Development agency.
The law required cities and towns to identify areas of racial segregation and make corrective plans, but has been tied up in courts since the end of the Obama administration.
Updated
Meanwhile, progressive Democrat US Representative Jan Schakowsky has introduced a bill to repeal an abortion restriction called the Helms Amendment, which has ripple effects the world over.
The Helms Amendment bans US funding for abortion services internationally, much like the Hyde Amendment bans federal funding of abortion services nationally.
Today, I am so proud to introduce the Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act, the first-ever bill to #RepealHelms Amendment and ensure that human being—including people in low-to-middle income countries—has a right to comprehensive health care, including safe abortion services pic.twitter.com/OxapdHmP9p
— Jan Schakowsky (@janschakowsky) July 29, 2020
There is almost no chance of the bill passing. Even if the bill got a vote in the Democrat-led House, it would die in the Republican-controlled Senate, and Trump would not sign it.
However, the bill could be the opening salvo in a progressive push to expand reproductive rights – a sea change from the tepid support centrist Democrats have expressed in recent decades.
One more thing – if the US did repeal the Helms Amendment, the Guttmacher Institute reports it could cost just $10 per person per year to provide sexual and reproductive health services to people the world over.
That’s just $4.80 more than the US currently spends.
With less than 100 days to the November presidential election, Trump has seen flagging numbers with one group in particular: college-educated white women. Guardian reporter Adam Gabbatt explains:
In 2016, Trump still lost this group, but narrowly. Exit polls showed him just seven points behind Clinton among college-educated white women. In June this year, a New York Times poll found Trump trailing Biden by 39%.
Female voters speaking to the Guardian cited everything from healthcare costs to the push to reopen schools during the coronavirus pandemic as reasons they no longer support Trump. And many felt flat-out guilt.
I just want to apologize to the world,” said Julie, a fraud manager from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who asked that the Guardian not use her real name.
“I feel so guilty for having a part in voting this moron in.”
Big tech defends itself itself in historic anti-trust hearing
The chiefs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are set to appear on Capitol Hill today, with a hearing just getting started now. If you want to follow along with the Guardian’s coverage of the anti-trust hearing, check out our liveblog.
All four will address accusations their respective companies constitute monopolies in the areas of online retail sales (Amazon), software (Apple), social media (Facebook) and online search (Google).
A bit of perspective from Guardian reporter Julia Carrie-Wong:
When the US House judiciary committee gavels into order its upcoming antitrust hearing the four star witnesses will represent more than $275bn in combined personal net worth – and more than $4.8tn in market value.
Here’s a passage from a commentary article in scientific journal the Lancet, published in April, which seems notable right now:
People often wear masks to protect themselves, but we suggest a stronger public health rationale is source control to protect others from respiratory droplets.”
Just 15 days ago, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield pleaded with Americans to wear masks, saying, “We are not defenseless against Covid-19.” He continued:
Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus.”
US Attorney General William Barr to be tested for coronavirus
Reuters reports Barr will be tested after he came into close contact with US Representative Louie Gohmert, a conservative Republican from Texas who has refused to wear a face mask on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Gohmert, who was without a mask, stood outside the men’s bathroom where Barr went before he walked into the “hearing” room.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) July 29, 2020
Once out, Gohmert approached the AG and exchanged a comment or two.
Would say from memory, they were within arms length. https://t.co/eAhHXT07Kz
US Representative tests positive for coronavirus
US Representative from Texas Louie Gohmert has tested positive for coronavirus. Gohmert is among the most conservative members of Congress and has refused to wear a mask on Capitol Hill.
Although masks have become a potent political symbol in the United States and the subject of conspiracy theories, they are safe and one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
NEWS … Texas Rep. LOUIE GOHMERT (@replouiegohmert) has tested positive for the coronavirus.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 29, 2020
He has not been wearing a mask on Capitol Hill.
Gohmert was scheduled to go to Texas with @realDonaldTrump this morning.
Story up on POLITICO shortly….
Updated
Donald Trump is still “thinking about” banning TikTok, the popular video-sharing social media network. As well, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he would make a recommendation to the administration about whether the app poses a national security threat this week.
Trump has suggested for nearly a month he might ban the app, which is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance. TikTok has argued it is apolitical and said Wednesday politicians should focus on “fair and open” competition.
The chiefs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are scheduled to come before Congress today to testify in a historic anti-trust hearing.
The White House press reports President Trump has boarded Air Force One for a visit to Midland, Texas, where he will visit the Double Eagle Energy Oil Rig and attend a fundraiser.
Directly in front of the president’s plane was an Air Force jet carrying the body of former Democratic Representative John Lewis to memorial services in Georgia. The president, who did pay his respects to Lewis while his body laid in state in the US Capitol Rotunda, did not appear to acknowledge Lewis’s plane.
Lewis was a Civil Rights icon who campaigned for racial justice and equality, sometimes called the “conscience of the Congress”. He died at 80 this month.
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Additionally, new polling is coming out about the effect the coronavirus is having on the US presidential election, just as the US is expected to reach a grim milestone: 150,000 Covid-19 deaths.
A CNBC and Change Research Poll found “Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by three points (48% to 45%) among likely voters in the six major battleground states.”
The poll found the distance between the candidates narrowed, even as Biden continues to lead in each state, with large majorities worried “things are getting worse” in the coronavirus pandemic.
Concern remained highest in one of the worst-hit states: Florida. There, 76% of likely voters sampled said they had “serious concerns” about the pandemic.
A doctor who spread false health information about coronavirus, and who Trump praised as “spectacular” despite her misinformation, has had some of her beliefs captured in a CNN chyron.
quite the chyron pic.twitter.com/Lb1IVprr2g
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 29, 2020
Here’s more about the doctor from Guardian reporter David Smith:
Donald Trump has praised as “spectacular” a doctor who wrongly dismissed the use of face masks to combat the coronavirus as well as reportedly claiming that alien DNA is used in medical treatments and some gynecological problems are caused by people dreaming about having sex with demons.
A group of lab coat-wearing doctors posted an online video on Monday to make a string of inaccurate assertions about the coronavirus that contradicted official government guidelines. Among them was a woman who identified herself as Dr Stella Immanuel and said: “You don’t need masks. There is a cure.”
The US president tweeted a version of the video, which rapidly gained tens of thousands of views on Facebook and YouTube before both companies took it down for containing false public health information. The president’s son Donald Trump Jr had his Twitter account restricted by the company for 12 hours after calling the video a “must watch”.
At a White House press conference on Tuesday, Trump expressed puzzlement over why the so-called “America’s Frontline Doctors” video had been removed, noting that Immanuel claimed to be treating hundreds of Covid-19 patients with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which he has long championed despite federal public health advice that it is ineffective against coronavirus.
“I don’t know why,” he told reporters. “I think they’re very respected doctors. There was a woman who was spectacular in her statements about it and she’s had tremendous success with it.”
The flag-draped coffin of former Democratic Representative John Lewis, the Civil Rights icon, is scheduled to be transported from the Capitol in Washington DC to Atlanta, Georgia this morning. Here’s more from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
It will pass several notable spots in Atlanta, including the Rainbow Crosswalk at 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue, Chabad Intown Synagogue, will travel down John Lewis Freedom Parkway, the Martin Luther King Jr Historic District, the John Lewis “HERO” mural and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headquarters.
As was done in the nation’s capital and three Alabama cities, members of the public will be allowed to file past Lewis’ casket from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, and again from 8 to 10 p.m.
📸 A rainbow appears over the U.S. Capitol building on Tuesday night, the last evening that late civil rights icon John Lewis will lie in state there. https://t.co/bui2UX9830 pic.twitter.com/fOK1PwBRuj
— ABC News (@ABC) July 29, 2020
US sees deadliest day of summer in coronavirus outbreak
Good morning, US live blog readers, it’s going to be a lively day in American political news. We will have a separate live blog for you on all the drama on Capitol Hill as the chiefs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are grilled (via video conference) in a historic anti-trust hearing, which begins at 12pm ET.
In this regular live blog, here’s what’s afoot, stay tuned.
- More than 1,300 lives were lost from coronavirus nationwide in the US yesterday, making it the biggest one-day increase since May and the deadliest day of the summer so far.
- The US death toll from Covid-19 is approaching 150,000, while confirmed US cases are now above 4.3m.
- A total of 21 states are now considered to be in what the federal government considered a “red zone” for concerning rates of infection.
- The Trump administration has started talks with the Oregon governor’s office and indicated that it would begin to draw down the presence of federal agents sent to quell two months of chaotic protests in Portland if the state stepped up its own enforcement, a senior White House official has said.
- Donald Trump said he never questioned Russian leader Vladimir Putin about US intelligence reports that Moscow paid the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, casting doubt on the reports in an interview with Axios on its HBO show. “I have never discussed it with him,” Trump said last night. The full interview airs next week.
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