World News

Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany came to her press briefing on Monday prepared to defend President Trump’s assertion that “99 percent” of U.S. coronavirus cases are “totally harmless” with two charts that inadvertently disproved his claim.

Indiana authorities are investigating a report by a Black man who said he was pinned to a tree by a group of white men, an attack he likened to an “attempted lynching.”

California is one of several U.S. states that have reported surging numbers of new COVID-19 infections over the past week, raising questions about how U.S. President Donald Trump has handled the crisis and impeding state plans to lift lockdowns. The 10,201 new cases reported on Tuesday took the total number of cases in California since the start of the pandemic to nearly 284,00. In June, California infections more than doubled with over 117,000 new cases.

Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran on Monday ordered public schools to reopen in August and offer “the full panoply of services” to students and families.

On Tuesday, the Lincoln Project, a conservative political action committee formed in late 2019, released an ad titled “Whispers,” which suggests those in President Trump’s inner circle are secretly mocking him. This is the latest in a series of attack ads produced and distributed by the committee, whose members include George Conway, Steve Schmidt and other prominent Republicans who oppose Trump. Yahoo News has assembled a compilation of some of the Lincoln Project’s most controversial advertisements.

Some people who died from Covid-19 were likely to die later in the year, the Government statistics body claimed as it predicted below that average death rates will continue. More than 55,000 deaths involving coronavirus have been recorded in the UK during the pandemic, with the virus the main reason for deaths increasing above what would normally be expected for the period. The elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions are the most vulnerable to Covid-19 and have been hardest hit by the outbreak. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the virus was likely to have brought forward the deaths of some older and vulnerable people, which could prompt a period of below-average deaths. Its researchers said: "The disease has had a larger impact on those most vulnerable – for example, those who already suffer from a medical condition – and those at older ages. "Some of these deaths would have likely occurred over the duration of the year, but have occurred earlier because of the coronavirus. These deaths occurring earlier than expected could mean we start to see a period of deaths below the five-year average."

In 1989, five Black and Hispanic teens were falsely accused of raping and nearly killing Trisha Meili, a white woman jogging in Central Park. Known collectively as the Central Park Five, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were convicted in two trials despite a lack of eyewitness testimony or DNA evidence and spent between six and 13 years in prison. Exonerated in 2002 after an investigation confirmed that a convicted murderer and rapist had committed the crime, the Central Park Five sued the city and state of New York, settling for millions.

US airlines had their best weekend since March, but numbers remain far below normal, and new coronavirus spikes put the travel recovery at risk.

Congress set aside $659 billion to throw a lifeline to small businesses and organizations side-swiped by the coronavirus pandemic and to help paychecks keep flowing to workers who might otherwise head to the unemployment line. Among the 650,000 companies on the partial list of recipients released Monday by the Treasury Department were fashion designers such as Oscar de la Renta, the clothing retailer Candie's and companies that own hundreds of fast-food restaurants including P.F. Chang’s and TGI Friday’s. While many companies belong to industries hard-hit by state and local government shutdown orders, they also have deep pockets or the backing of private equity firms.

Renowned jihadism expert Hisham al-Hashemi was shot outside his home in Baghdad on Monday and died shortly thereafter at a local hospital, Iraqi officials told AFP. Hashemi was an authoritative voice on Sunni jihadist factions including the Islamic State group, but was also frequently consulted by media and foreign governments on domestic Iraqi politics and Shiite armed groups. The investigator assigned to the killing told AFP that Hashemi, 47, walked out of his home in east Baghdad and was getting into his car when three gunmen on two motorcycles fired at him from metres away.