U.S. President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted by a U.S. Secret Service agent out of a White House coronavirus briefing Monday because of a shooting outside the building.  Trump returned minutes later and said, “There was an actual shooting and somebody’s been taken to the hospital.” He said the shots were fired by law enforcement and said he believed the person who was shot was armed. The president said the situation “seems to be very well under control.” Reporters and photographers remain in the briefing room. U.S. Secret Service Police stand outside the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, in Washington, as a news conference by President Donald Trump was paused, Aug. 10, 2020.“I do want to thank the Secret Service. They are fantastic,” Trump said in response to reports that the suspect was allegedly armed.  “It (the shooting) might not have had to do anything with me,” Trump added. The Secret Service confirmed a shooting had taken place near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. The Secret Service can confirm there has been an officer involved shooting at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. Law enforcement officials are on the scene. More information to follow.— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) August 10, 2020White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this article.
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A rare storm packing 100 mph winds and with power similar to an inland hurricane swept across the Midwest on Monday, blowing over trees, flipping vehicles, causing widespread property damage and leaving hundreds of thousands without power as it turned toward Chicago. The storm known as a derecho lasted several hours as it tore across eastern Nebraska, Iowa and parts of Wisconsin, had the wind speed of a major hurricane, and likely caused more widespread damage than a normal tornado, said Patrick Marsh, science support chief at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. It’s not quite a hurricane. It has no eye and its winds come across in a line. But the damage it is likely to spread over such a large area is more like an inland hurricane than a quick more powerful tornado, Marsh said. He compared it to a devastating super derecho of 2009, which was one of the strongest on record and traveled more than 1,000 miles in 24 hours, causing $500 million in damage and widespread power outages and killing a handful of people. “This is our version of a hurricane,” Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini said in an interview from his home about 15 minutes before the storm was about to hit. Minutes later he headed to his basement for safety as the storm took aim at Chicago, starting with its suburbs. Gensini said this derecho will go down as one of the strongest in recent history and be one of the nation’s worst weather events of 2020. “It ramped up pretty quick” around 7 a.m. Central time in Eastern Nebraska. “I don’t think anybody expected widespread winds approaching 100, 110 mph,” Marsh said. ‘Life-saving mode’Several people were injured and widespread property damage was reported in Marshall County in central Iowa after 100 mph winds swept through the area, said its homeland security coordinator Kim Elder. She said the winds blew over trees, ripped road signs out of the ground and tore roofs off of buildings. “We had quite a few people trapped in buildings and cars,” she said. She said the extent of injuries is unknown and that no fatalities have been reported. Elder said some people reported their cars flipping over from the wind, having power lines fall on them and being injured when hit by flying debris. Dozens of cars at one factory had their windshields blown out. Buildings have also caught on fire, she said. “We’re in life-saving mode right now,” Elder said. Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer declared a civil emergency, telling residents to stay home and off the streets so that first responders can respond to calls. MidAmerican Energy said nearly 101,000 customers in the Des Moines area were without power after the storm moved through the area. Reports from spotters filed with the National Weather Service in Des Moines had winds in excess of 70 mph. Roof damage to homes and buildings were reported in several Iowa cities, including the roof of a hockey arena in Des Moines. Across the state, large trees fell on cars and houses. Some semi-trailers flipped over or were blown off highways. Farmers reported that some grain bins were destroyed and fields were flattened, but the extent of damage to Iowa’s agriculture industry wasn’t immediately clear. MidAmerican spokeswoman Tina Hoffman said downed trees are making it difficult in some locations for workers to get to the power lines. In some cases power line poles were snapped off. “It’s a lot of tree damage. Very high winds. It will be a significant effort to get through it all and get everybody back on,” she said. “It was a big front that went all the way through the state.” Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has “both significant and widespread damage throughout the city,” said public safety spokesman Greg Buelow. “We have damage to homes and businesses, including siding and roofs damaged,” he said. “Trees and power lines are down throughout the entire city.” Buelow said residents should stay home so crews can respond to “potentially life-threatening calls.” Tens of thousands of people in the metro area were without power. Dangers of derechoWhat makes a derecho worse than a tornado is how long it can hover one place and how large an area the high winds hit, Marsh said. He said winds of 80 mph or even 100 mph can stretch for “20, 30, 40 or God forbid 100 miles.” “Right now, it’s making a beeline for Chicago,” Marsh said Monday mid-afternoon. “Whether or not it will hold its intensity as it reaches Chicago remains to be seen.” But the environmental conditions between the storm and Chicago are the type that won’t likely diminish the storm, Marsh said. It will likely dissipate over central or eastern Indiana, he said. What happened is unstable super moist air has parked over the northern plains for days on end and it finally ramped up Monday morning into a derecho. “They are basically self-sustaining amoebas of thunderstorms,” Gensini said. “Once they get going like they did across Iowa, it’s really hard to stop these suckers.” Derechoes, with winds of at least 58 mph, occur about once a year in the Midwest. Rarer than tornadoes but with weaker winds, derechoes produce damage over a much wider area. The storms raced over parts of eastern Nebraska before 9 a.m. Monday, dropping heavy rains and high winds. Strong straight-line winds pushed south into areas that include Lincoln and Omaha, National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Barjenbruch said. “Once that rain-cooled air hit the ground, it surged over 100 miles, sending incredibly strong winds over the area,” Barjenbruch said.  Omaha Public Power District reported more than 55,500 customers without power in Omaha and surrounding communities.  The weather service’s Marsh said there’s a huge concern about power outages that will be widespread across several states and long lasting. Add high heat, people with medical conditions that require power and the pandemic, “it becomes dire pretty quickly.” 
 
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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 current rate of positive COVID-19 tests in the U.S. indicates that “herd immunity has been reached.”Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Reuters Social Media DisinfoScreenshotCirculating on social media: Claim that children vaccinated against the flu are at a significantly higher risk of contracting other respiratory infections, including coronaviruses.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Agence France-Presse​
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Rival protests took place in Bangkok Monday, with dozens of students continuing weekslong calls to change the constitution.They were met by roughly 30 pro-government demonstrators outside the Parliament house in Thailand’s capital.But thousands joined a protest at Thammasat University on the outskirts of the city — one of the largest seen in Bangkok since protests against the government, largely led by students — began, Reuters reported.Protesters are demanding amendments to the constitution, a new election and a halt to the harassment and abuse of rights activists.The initial demonstrations began early this year, shortly after Thailand’s Constitutional Court dissolved the Future Forward Party in Feb. 21 and banned its leader, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, from politics for 10 years.The party, which came in third place in the 2019 election, was favored by young voters.However, the protests were temporarily halted when the COVID-19 outbreak created a countrywide lockdown, including a restriction on public gatherings.
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На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку 10 серпня триває зміцнення гривні, яке розпочалося ще минулого тижня. За даними Finance.ua, станом на 12:45 котирування становлять 27 гривень 59–61 копійка за долар (торги відкрилися на копійку вище).

«Дефіцит гривні змусить продавців-експортерів бути більш поступливими за курсом і продавати свою валютну виручку за рівнем котирувань, що складається на ринку, без особливих спроб зіграти «на підвищення», – прогнозували на початку торгів експерти сайту «Мінфін».

Національний банк України встановив опівдні довідкове значення курсу 27 гривень 66 копійок за долар, це на копійку більше за офіційний курс на 10 серпня.

У широкому коридорі 26,5–27 гривень за долар національна валюта перебувала понад два місяці – від кінця квітня до початку липня. Зроблена 1 липня заява ексголови НБУ Якова Смолія про відставку через політичний тиск на нього спричинила зростання котирувань до 27 гривень 20 копійок за долар і навіть вище.

Після призначення головою НБУ Кирила Шевченка девальвація національної валюти прискорилася. Нижній параметр нового коридору міжбанківський ринок знаходить переважно без активної участі Нацбанку.
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Greece on Monday accused Turkey of “threatening peace” in the eastern Mediterranean and called a military meeting after Ankara resumed oil and gas exploration near a Greek island.  
 
The Greek foreign ministry said that Turkey’s decision to deploy seismic research ship Oruc Reis constituted a “new serious escalation” and “exposed” Turkey’s “destabilizing role”.  
 
Energy exploration in the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean is a frequent source of tension between Turkey and a bloc of neighbors including Greece, Cyprus, and Israel.  
 
The Greek ministry said Athens “will not accept any blackmail” and “will defend its sovereignty and its sovereign rights.”.  
 
The announcement came after Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis conferred with military chiefs and his foreign minister.  
 
Mitsotakis’ office said the prime minister had spoken to EU Council President Charles Michel on the issue, and would later speak to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.  
 
A senior Greek minister added that navy ships were monitoring the Turkish seismic research ship.  
 
“We are in complete political and operational readiness,” Minister of State George Gerapetritis said on state TV ERT.  
 
“Most of the fleet is ready to be deployed wherever necessary,” he said.  
 
Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez had earlier tweeted that the Oruc Reis had “reached the destination where work would be undertaken”, near the island of Kastellorizo.  
 
Turkey sent out a message on NAVTEX, the international maritime navigational telex system, announcing the vessel would be carrying out activities off the island of Kastellorizo between August 10 and 23.  
 
The move came just days after the NATO allies seemed close to talks over disputed maritime zones in the Aegean.  
 
Turkey had called off an earlier search by the Oruc Reis last month to hold negotiations with Greece and Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency.   
 
But the mood soured last week after Greece and Egypt signed an agreement to set up an exclusive economic zone in the region.  
 
The Turkish foreign ministry said the “so-called maritime deal” was “null and void”.  
 
Egypt, Cyprus and Greece have likewise denounced a contentious deal, including a security agreement, signed last year between Ankara and UN-recognized government in Libya.  
 
Greece, Cyprus and Israel in January signed an agreement for a huge pipeline project to transport gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe despite Turkey’s hostility to the deal.  
 
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Children want to see characters who look like them, said Hudda Ibrahim.Last year, her niece Fatima asked why books don’t have characters like her.”I said, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll fix it,'” Ibrahim said.In April her children’s book came out under the title, “What Color is My Hijab?”The cover of the book “What Color is My hijab” by Hudda Ibrahim.Ibrahim’s book features Muslim women in various professions — pilot, businesswoman, politician — doing their work while wearing a hijab, a traditional head scarf.Because of COVID-19, Ibrahim didn’t hold a typical book launch. She may do so next year and hold Facebook events in the meantime.The book had support before it was published, and Ibrahim crowdfunded it through Kickstarter. A Spanish version of the story is in the works now, she said.Ibrahim is excited about her first children’s book with colorful art by California-based illustrator Meenal Patel. She talked about it with the St. Cloud Times at Lake George in late June.”I’m so excited to have this opportunity to produce such a work so that kids who look like me and kids who don’t look like me will read this book and learn something from it,” she said.”This book helps both those kids who want to see themselves represented in the literature and those who are wondering why these kids dress different or look different.”Ibrahim sees herself as a bridge builder and cultural broker.She does that work as president and founder of Filsan Talent Partners, which helps companies diversify their workforces. And she does that work in classrooms at St. Cloud Technical and Community College, where she teaches diversity and social justice.”What Color is My Hijab?” is significant because it features the hijab and because it features diversity among Muslim women, said Megan Kalk, who works with Ibrahim at Filsan Talent. The women in the book are different races. They wear different types of clothing. They have different abilities.Kalk likes that the book shows Muslim women with various skills, including athletics and professional skills. Her 9-year-old daughter wears a hijab.”She’s got all these opportunities open to her,” Kalk said. “It’s empowering for girls to see women in a lot of different careers.”Ibrahim told Kalk about the book idea before she wrote it. The next day, it was finshed, Kalk said.”She works all the time with about a million ideas on the table at once,” Kalk said.Ibrahim’s book about the Somali refugee experience, “From Somalia to Snow,” was published in 2017.Ibrahim didn’t attend kindergarten as many of her young readers do, she said. Her family was fleeing civil war when she was kindergarten age.Ibrahim grew up in Africa and her younger sister Lula Ibrahim grew up in the U.S.”At some point in childhood you start to realize that none of those characters relate to you, other than being a kid,” said Lula Ibrahim. “If I would have come across a book like this (as a child), it would have made me happy.”Lula and Hudda’s nieces love “What Color is My Hijab?” and want Hudda to write more books, Lula said.Ibrahim has suggested that Fatima, the now 8-year-old who inspired the book, become her illustrator, because she’s an artist.”Little kids are encouraging this which shows how much this is needed,” Lula said. “I would like to encourage more authors of color and of different faiths and different kinds of people to know that there are children waiting to see things like this.”Ibrahim wrote the book for girls like Fatima. And she wrote it for other children who don’t wear a hijab, so they can better understand the kids who do.Her students at the technical and community college ask her why she wears a hijab. Others have asked her if she wears it because her husband or father insist, Ibrabim said. But it’s her decision. She wears a hijab to show modesty and to show pride in her heritage, culture and values, she said.”We — I’m talking about the refugees and immigrants who are coming to this country — we are educating ourselves every single day about our new country and culture and its values,” Ibrahim said. She hopes her book will educate kids and parents about their Muslim neighbors.”This book is really telling the story of diversity and inclusion and inspiring young girls to be proud of who they are.” 
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