The coronavirus is spreading too fast and across too many places in the United States to bring it under control, a top expert says as some states set records for new cases every day. “We have way too much virus across the country for that right now, so it’s very discouraging,” Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. State officials have also halted alcohol consumption at bars because of what DeSantis calls “widespread noncompliance.”       The governors of Texas and California have also closed many bars. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said, “COVID-19 has taken a very swift and very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks.” The disease is caused by the coronavirus.A patient returns his testing sample at a self-collection COVID-19 testing site, Monday, June 29, 2020, in Houston. COVID-19 cases continue to surge across Texas.The city of Jacksonville, Florida, where the Republican Party will hold its convention in August, said Monday it will require masks for all public locations. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that indoor dining will not resume as planned this week because of the threat of the virus. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom closed bars in seven counties that had reopened and urged those in eight others to follow suit.     Elsewhere, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has suspended the fourth phase of his state’s reopening plans. The northwestern U.S. state reported 3,180 new cases in the last week, a figure approaching what the state saw during the height of the outbreak in March.     In an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Schuchat calls the surge in new cases just “the beginning.” “I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that, hey it’s summer. Everything’s going to be fine. We’re over this and we are not even beginning to be over this. There are a lot of worrisome factors about the last week or so.” She says new cases are not being rapidly identified and isolated and all the contacts traced and quarantined. Dr. Schuchat said no one can count ion the summer heat to affect the virus. She appealed to people to wear masks, practice social distancing and not to expect any kind of relief until there’s a vaccine.President Donald Trump, with members of the president’s coronavirus task force, listens as Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC at the White House, Feb. 26, 2020She says COVID-19 is “stealthier than we were expecting.” The Trump administration has said only 4% of U.S. counties has seen jump in new coronavirus cases.  It sounds like a relatively small number. But according to the Associated Press, more than 20% of the U.S. population lives in those counties.  Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas are among the states which have seen the biggest spike in new cases. The United States is expected to be on European Union’s list of countries whose citizens are barred from traveling there because of COVID-19. Along with the U.S., diplomats say Brazil, Inia, and Russia are also expected to be on the list because of the high number of cases. “This is not an exercise to be nice or unfriendly to other countries, this is an exercise of self-responsibility,” Spain’s foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya tells Spanish radio.  EU diplomats say the list will be revised every 14 days. President Donald Trump suspended most European travelers from entering the U.S. in March.  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the worst of the coronavirus outbreak is over in Canada but urges citizens to stay alert. “After a very challenging spring things are continuing to move in the right direction,” Trudeau said Monday. “What the situation we’re seeing in the United States and elsewhere highlights for us is that even as our economy is reopening, we need to make sure we are continuing to remain vigilant.”  Non-essential border crossings between the U.S. and Canada are set to expire on July 21. But it is unclear how Canada will react of the surge in cases in the U.S. continues. Canadian-based Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group filed for bankruptcy protection Monday after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to cancel shows and lay off about 95% of its performers and staff.  In the U.S., Broadway will remain dark for the rest of the year.  Theaters have been closed since March, temporarily closing 31 plays and musicals, and putting as many as 100,000 actors, musicians, dancers, stagehands, and other heater professionals out of work.  Officials say they don’t expect the lights on The Great White Way to be switched on again until January 2, 2021. 
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Nigeria’s slave descendants hope race protests help end discrimination”>When Barack Obama was elected the first Black U.S. president in 2008, Anthony Uzoije noticed less contempt towards descendants of slaves like him in his south-eastern Nigeria community.Uzoije, from Ogbaru in Anambra state, now hopes Black Lives Matter protests globally will inspire similar change for him and the Igbo people, one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa and principal group enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.It is estimated that between 10 and 20% of Igbos – amounting to many millions of people – are descendants of slaves and still face significant discrimination, which has sparked unrest and violence in recent years in some areas.Slave descendants are banned by traditional law and custom from traditional leadership positions and belonging to prestigious local groups. So-called “freeborn” people are forbidden from marrying them, according to the culture in many communities.”People began to see that if the white man can allow Obama to be president, why can’t you allow your fellow black to occupy whatever position. People began to realize that what they were doing is nonsense,” said Uzoije, 67, who is the chairman of the Ogbaru People’s Convention, an association of slave descendants.”When people here see that there is more equality between the black and the white people in America, it will affect the way they treat their fellow black brother,” Uzoije told the Thomson Reuters Foundation via phone from his home in Onitsha.The British colonial administration officially abolished slavery in Nigeria in the early 20th century and finally eradicated it in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but the descendants of slaves retained the stigma of their ancestors.The discrimination continues and not just against descendants of slaves in south-eastern Nigeria, with similar reports from countries across Africa, including Ghana, Senegal, and Benin Republic.For while no data exists on the number of slave descendants in Nigeria or in Africa, communities know about every family’s history and lineage so it is impossible to hide.Laws against such discrimination exist in the Nigerian constitution and, in 1956, legislators in what was then the Eastern Nigeria house of assembly, voted overwhelmingly for a law banning the discrimination against slave descendants.But these laws are difficult to enforce, especially at the grassroots level where people pay more attention to traditional beliefs than to the country’s constitution, and where there are social implications of violating local laws.For the past three years, 44-year-old Oge Maduagwu has been traveling to different communities in south-eastern Nigeria to advocate for equal rights for descendants of slaves.With the recent BLM protests, she hopes those responsible for the ongoing discrimination in Nigeria and across Africa will re-examine their attitudes, and that more Africans globally join the fight against the inequality in their own homelands.”They should realize what the black people in America are going through is exactly what the slave descendants here are going through,” said Maduagwu, founder of the Initiative for the Eradication of Traditional and Cultural Stigmatisation in our Society (IFETACSIOUS).”(They must) find a way to abolish it here before they raise their voices against what the whites are doing over there.Maduagwu’s activism was inspired by the widespread opposition to marriage with slave descendants.She is not a slave descendant herself but witnessed the discrimination while growing up in Oguta in Imo State of south-eastern Nigeria.She finally decided to do something to bring it to an end after a close friend was prevented from marrying someone she loved because he was descended from a slave.”She was devastated and moved in with me for two weeks and we inconsolably cried together,” Maduagwu said from her home in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.”Her pain became my pain. The humanity and activism in me came alive.”Maduagwu founded the charity IFETACSIOUS in 2017 to facilitate dialog between traditional leaders and descendants of slaves, providing a forum where they can address the laws and customs that promote discrimination.Her work has taken her to about five of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo.She has achieved some success, with a handful of traditional leaders openly declaring an end to all discrimination against slave descendants.For Maduagwu it is vital this is a peaceful process. She is concerned that the agitation for equality has turned violent in the past, as has been the case in some parts of the United States.”Healing will not come through fighting,” she said.While there are hundreds of slave descendants in Uzoije’s community, the Ogbaru People’s Convention has 40 registered members whose activism has prompted some changes.For example by pressuring religious leaders to intervene in cases where romance with slave descendants was opposed by families, some of their children have gone on to marry so-called “freeborn” citizens.”When a young man sees a lady he wants to marry, they should allow them. That is the important thing,” Uzoije said.He noted, however, that the change in attitudes following Obama’s election was not necessarily accompanied by a change in laws. Descendants of slaves in Ogbaru are still not allowed to run for local leadership positions.”Change is gradual. It’s not automatic,” he said. 
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A Parisian court Monday found former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon guilty of using public money to pay his wife more than $1 million for work she never performed.Fillon was sentenced to five years in prison — three years suspended — and fined more than $423,000. He is also barred from running for public office for 10 years. His wife, Penelope, was convicted as an accomplice. She was given a three-year suspended sentence and was also fined more than $423,000. Both are free pending appeal, which their lawyers say they will do.  ”Naturally, this decision, which is not fair, is going to be appealed. … The ludicrous conditions under which this investigation was triggered, the scandalous conditions in which the discovery was opened, the surprising conditions in which the investigation was then run,” Fillion’s attorney Antonin Levy said. Penelope Fillion’s attorney, Pierre Cornut-Gentille, says prosecutors failed to determine whether her activities were simply traditional help and support a politician’s wife gives her husband.  She said her duties included writing reports about local issues, reading mail, preparing speeches and meeting with voters — work she said allowed her to have a flexible schedule and still raise her children.  Prosecutors argued that there was little evidence that Penelope Fillion ever worked and said her salary was excessive.  Fillion’s lawyers argued that the state cannot interfere with how a politician sets up his office.  The scandal broke shortly before the 2017 French presidential election where Fillon went from being the front-runner to finishing in third place.
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Abortion opponents vented their disappointment and fury on Monday after the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision to strike down a Louisiana law that would have curbed abortion access. The ruling delivered a defeat to anti-abortion activists but could intensify interest in the November election among religious conservatives who are a key part of Trump’s base. Some top religious conservative backers of President Donald Trump noted pointedly that both justices he named to the high court dissented from Monday’s decision, portraying it as an argument to ensure Trump has another term in office to potentially tap more conservative nominees.  The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life and a member of Trump’s Catholic voter outreach effort, said the president’s “two appointees voted the right way” in supporting Louisiana’s ability to require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.  “Once again this ruling underscores the importance of elections,” Pavone said in a statement. “We need a solid pro-life majority on the Supreme Court to uphold the rights of women and the unborn.”  Johnnie Moore, an evangelical adviser to the Trump administration, said the decision could help motivate anti-abortion activists to vote to reelect the president to give him a third chance to put a nominee on the Supreme Court. “Conservatives know they are on the 1-yard line,” Moore tweeted. “Enthusiasm is already unprecedented, evangelical turnout will be too.” FILE – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts listens as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address, January 30, 2018. Roberts sided with the majority in Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion but did not sign onto their opinion.The Trump campaign also invoked the decision to appeal to voters in a statement from deputy communications director Ali Pardo. “This case underscores the importance of re-electing President Trump, who has a record of appointing conservative judges, rather than Joe Biden, who will appoint radical, activist judges who will legislate from the courts,” Pardo said. Some right-leaning abortion foes — including at least three congressional Republicans — responded to the decision by criticizing Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush. Roberts concurred with the court’s four more liberal justices while not signing onto their opinion in the case. “Chief Justice Roberts is at it again with his political gamesmanship,” Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted. “This time he has sided with abortion extremists who care more about providing abortion on demand than protecting women’s health.” “Americans hoping for justice for women and unborn babies were let down again today by John Roberts,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement. “What’s next, Chief Justice Roberts? Our Second Amendment rights?” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, tweeted. But Roberts’ move to stand apart from his more liberal colleagues, contextualizing his vote as one to protect the court’s past precedent, left other religious conservatives vowing to rededicate themselves to their fight to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established abortion rights. Anti-abortion protesters wait outside the Supreme Court for a decision, June 29, 2020. in Washington.”This case was about whether the state has the right to ensure that abortionists who take women’s money also provide for their safety,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a prominent pro-Trump evangelical ally, said in a statement, adding that “I do look forward to the day when the Supreme Court will correct the gross injustice of the Roe v. Wade decision that has led to the killing of tens of millions of unborn babies.” Russell Moore, president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, defended Louisiana’s abortion law as “placing the most minimal restrictions possible on an abortion industry that insists on laissez-faire for itself and its profits.”  “Nonetheless, we will continue to seek an America where vulnerable persons, including unborn children and their mothers, are seen as precious, not disposable,” said Moore, who leads the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, said in a statement that Catholics would “grieve this decision” but would “continue to pray and fight for justice for mothers and children.” O. Carter Snead, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, said in a statement that Roberts’ positioning in the decision was “cold comfort” on an otherwise “sad day.” Support for rescinding Roe remains strong among evangelical Protestants. Sixty-one percent of them said they wanted to see the court fully overturn the decision in a survey conducted last year by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. That survey found support for overturning Roe at 28% among Catholics and 42% among Protestants generally. The court’s abortion ruling on Monday follows its 6-3 decision earlier this month that found a central provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 shields LGBT people from employment discrimination. Religious conservatives also openly lamented that decision, while noting that potential faith-based exemptions could be carved out.  
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: The PCR (polymerise chain reaction) test for COVID-19 also detects common cold viruses.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: 
With little data on what works and what doesn’t, doctors trade tips and argue about risks
— Scientific American, June 29
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The World Health Organization (WHO) director general says the coronavirus pandemic is “not even close to being over” and that the outbreak is accelerating globally.
 
At his usual press briefing from Geneva Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Tuesday marks six months since the U.N. health agency was first informed of a cluster of unusual pneumonia cases in China – the first indications of the coronavirus’ emergence.
 
“Six months ago, none of us could have imagined how our world and our lives would be thrown into turmoil by this new virus,” he said, noting WHO has since recorded more than 10 million cases and 500,000 deaths globally.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a videoconference, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, May 22, 2020, in this image provided by the World Health Organization in Geneva.Tedros said most countries must ask how they plan to live with the coronavirus, calling it the “new normal.”  
 
He said that while many countries have been successful in slowing the spread of the virus, they have not completely stopped it. He said that some countries have seen surges in the virus as they have attempted to reopen their societies and economies.
 
Tedros said that shows people are still susceptible, and the virus still has “room to move. The hard reality is this is not even close to being over…we’re all in this for the long haul.”
 
Tedros said WHO will be convening a meeting this week to assess the progress made in coronavirus research and reevaluate priorities moving forward as the pandemic continues.
 
Dozens of vaccine candidates are currently in early stages of testing and some may move into late stage testing this summer.
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A Paris court has found French former prime minister Francois Fillon guilty of having used public funds to pay his wife and children for work they never performed.  
His wife, Penelope Fillon, has also been found guilty as an accomplice.  
The court has not detailed the sentence yet.  
The work had brought the family more than 1 million euros ($1.08 million) since 1998.
The scandal broke in the French media just three months before the country’s 2017 presidential election, as Fillon was the front-runner in the race. It cost him his reputation. Fillon sank to third place in the election, which was won by Emmanuel Macron.  
Fillon, who was France’s prime minister from 2007 to 2012, and his wife have denied any wrongdoing and can appeal the decision.
Penelope Fillon’s role alongside her husband drew all the attention during the February-March trial, which focused on determining whether her activities were in the traditional role of an elected official’s partner — or involved actual paid work.
Prosecutors denounced “fraudulent, systematic practices” and requested five years in prison, including a three-year suspended sentence, and a 375,000 euro (more than $415,000) fine against Francois Fillon, and a three-year suspended sentence and the same fine against his wife.
Fillon was accused of misuse of public funds, receiving money from the misuse of public funds and the misappropriation of company assets. His wife was charged mostly as an accomplice.  
During the trial, Penelope Fillon explained how she decided to support her husband’s career when he was first elected as a French lawmaker in 1981 in the small town of Sable-sur-Sarthe, in rural western France.  
Over the years, she was offered different types of contracts as a parliamentary assistant, depending on her husband’s political career.
She described her work as mostly doing reports about local issues, opening the mail, meeting with residents and helping to prepare speeches for local events. She said working that way allowed her to have a flexible schedule and raise their five children in the Fillons’ countryside manor. She said her husband was the one who decided the details of her contracts.
Prosecutors pointed at the lack of actual evidence of her work, including the absence of declarations for any paid vacations or maternity leave, as her wages reached up to nine times France’s minimum salary.
Prosecutor Aurelien Letocart argued that “meeting with voters, getting the children from school, going shopping or reading mail isn’t intended to be paid work.”  
Letocart said Fillon “had a deep feeling of impunity, the certainty that his status would dissuade anyone from suing him … This gets cynical when that attitude comes from a man who made probity his trademark.”
Francois Fillon insisted his wife’s job was real and said that, according to the separation of powers, the justice system can’t interfere with how a lawmaker organizes work at his office.  
In addition, charges also cover a contract that allowed Penelope Fillon to earn 135.000 euros in 2012-2013 as a consultant for a literary magazine owned by a friend of her husband — also an alleged fake job. The magazine owner, Marc de Lacharriere, already pleaded guilty and was given a suspended eight-month prison sentence and fined 375,000 euros in 2018.
The National Assembly, which joined the proceedings as a civil plaintiff, has requested a total penalty of 1.081 million euros that correspond to the salaries and payroll charges that were paid.
Fillon, once the youngest lawmaker at the National Assembly at the age of 27, served as prime minister under President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012. He was also a minister under two previous presidents, Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac.
He left French politics in 2017 and now works for an asset management company.
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The Italian Coast Guard has released video of a team of divers who successfully freed a ten-meter long sperm whale that had become trapped in an illegal fishing net in the Mediterranean Sea, off Italy’s southwestern coast. The coast guard says four biologists working in the area alerted them about the whale after they spotted it struggling in the water about nine kilometers from Salina island.The whale got trapped in large fishing net, which was preventing its tail fin from moving.Coast guard sailors first tried to free the whale from onboard their rescue boat, but the fin was so tangled, several divers had to enter the water to cut the whale loose.Once it was freed the sperm whale slowly started swimming and reached three other whales who were apparently waiting for him not far away.The coast guard said the fishing net was not legal and has been confiscated.The deep-diving sperm whales were once prized by whalers around the world and were hunted to near extinction. After being designated as an endangered species, the whales are making a comeback around the world. 
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