Kenya extends curfew for a month as COVID-19 cases jump

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta extended a nightly curfew on Monday for 30 days to curb the spread of COVID-19 and banned alcohol sales in restaurants but stopped short of locking down the country again despite a surge in cases. Kenya has so far reported 17,975 cases of infection with the new coronavirus and 285 deaths from the related disease COVID-19. The health ministry said on Sunday it had reported 960 more cases, the biggest daily jump since the first case was confirmed in March.

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Some travelers still take trips abroad during COVID-19 pandemic: 'I feel safer exiting America'

COVID-19 has grounded a lot of activities, mostly international travel. Three people are taking the risk because they feel safer abroad.

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With ‘Room for Rage,’ Peaceful Protesters Sympathize With Aggressive Tactics

By BY KATE CONGER, THOMAS FULLER AND MIKE BAKER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32ZEkMB

MGM delays live entertainment and expects to lay off workers in that division.

By BY GILLIAN FRIEDMAN from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2DaZQmQ

What Will a Post-Trump G.O.P. Look Like?

By BY BRET STEPHENS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3g7eJF4

‘Ellen DeGeneres Show’ Workplace to Be Reviewed by WarnerMedia

By BY NICOLE SPERLING from NYT Business https://ift.tt/32ZAanX

Twilight of the Liberal Right

By BY MICHELLE GOLDBERG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2X0nzNF

Trump Announced, Then Canceled, a Yankees Pitch. Both Came as a Surprise.

By BY KATIE ROGERS AND NOAH WEILAND from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32VtFTc

As Republicans Embrace Cut in Jobless Aid, Divisions Weaken Their Leverage

By BY EMILY COCHRANE AND JIM TANKERSLEY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2X1lBMG

Netanyahu warns Hezbollah against playing with fire after frontier incident

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces thwarted an attempt by Hezbollah to infiltrate across the Lebanon frontier on Monday, which the Iranian-backed Shi'ite group denied. "Hezbollah should know it is playing with fire," Netanyahu said in a televised address from Israel's defense ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. Earlier, a Reuters witness in Lebanon counted dozens of Israeli shells hitting the disputed Shebaa Farms area along the frontier.

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Trump targets Reagan Foundation after issues over ex-president's likeness

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the party has used President Reagan's image for "decades."

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Hundreds jam airport as evacuations from Vietnam's Danang begin

The airport in the central Vietnamese tourism hotspot of Danang was packed on Monday after three residents tested positive for the coronavirus and the evacuation of 80,000 people began. The Southeast Asian country is back on high alert after authorities on Saturday confirmed the first community infections since April, and another three cases on Sunday, all in or around Danang. A further 11 cases linked to a Danang hospital were reported late on Monday.

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India's PM to attend temple groundbreaking at disputed site

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a groundbreaking ceremony next week for a Hindu temple on a disputed site in northern India where a 16th century mosque was torn down by Hindu hard-liners in 1992, according to the trust overseeing the temple construction. The ceremony is set for Aug. 5, a date organizers said was astrologically auspicious for Hindus but that also marks a year since the Indian Parliament revoked the semi-autonomous status of its only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir. The symbolism was impossible to miss for both supporters and opponents of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, whose manifesto had for decades included pledges to strip restive Kashmir’s autonomy and to build a temple to the Hindu god Ram where the Mughal-era mosque once stood, a site in the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state that devotees believe to be Ram's birthplace.

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Even if there's a coronavirus vaccine next year, don't expect to throw away your mask and stop social distancing, a top vaccine developer says

"The moment you get a vaccine doesn't mean you're going to put your mask in the trash," Baylor vaccine researcher Maria Elena Bottazzi told BI.

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Live updates from weekend protests: 'Unlawful assembly' in Richmond; Man shot to death in Austin; 11 protesters arrested in Louisville

A man was shot to death in Austin. Richmond police declared an "unlawful assembly" and Portland police declared "a riot." Latest protest news.

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William Barr to testify before House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday

Attorney General William Barr will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and is expected to field questions on everything from his intervention in the prosecutions of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and longtime Republican operative Roger Stone to his role in sending federal agents to cities where protesters are demonstrating against racism and police brutality.Barr last testified in front of Congress in May 2019, and has never appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. The panel has 41 members, and each person will have five minutes to question Barr.Democratic lawmakers believe Barr is doing the bidding of President Trump, and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) told The New York Times she wants to know if Barr is "the A.G. for the country, or are you the A.G. for the president? Do you represent the American people, or is it your job to protect, to cover up, and to facilitate corruption?"Republicans will take a different approach, likely asking for details on U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's probe of Trump and Russia. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told the Times Barr is rightfully using federal law enforcement to protect property, and overall is doing "an outstanding job."More stories from theweek.com Trump only pivoted on coronavirus after reportedly being warned of spikes among 'our people' in red states What Tom Cotton's 'necessary evil' comment says about America The GOP cancels the convention of Trump's dreams

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Anti-mask US senator who called coronavirus a hoax tests positive for Covid-19

An Arkansas senator who shared an article that described the coronavirus pandemic as a “hoax” has contracted Covid-19.Republican senator Jason Rapert, who unsuccessfully introduced a bill to ban gay marriage in the US in 2017, was hospitalised with coronavirus and pneumonia on 24 July.

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Stop partying or we may go back into lockdown, regional chief tells young Catalans

Young Catalans should stop partying to help halt a surge in new coronavirus cases or local authorities may have to reimpose harsh restrictions, the leader of the northeastern Spanish region said on Monday. Catalonia is at the heart of a rebound in coronavirus cases in Spain that started after a nationwide lockdown was lifted last month. "If we continue with the current pace of social life the only thing we will accomplish is to worsen the situation," Catalonia's regional leader Quim Torra said, after youngsters reverted to the tradition of "botellones," where they meet outside in the evening to drink and party.

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The White House is building a massive 'anti-climb' wall following protests. These photos show the evolution of White House fencing over the years

The "anti-climb" component for a new White House perimeter has been in the works since July 2016, but construction of the wall has ramped up recently.

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Palestinians: Settler vandals firebomb West Bank mosque

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What if Trump loses but refuses to leave office? Here's the worst-case scenario

The risk of an electoral meltdown is ordinarily rather small, but this November promises a combination of stressors that could lead to epic failure and chaosWhile working on a book about the peaceful succession of power, I came to realize that built into our system of presidential elections is a Chernobyl-like defect: placed under the right conditions of stress, the system is vulnerable to catastrophic breakdown. The risk of such an electoral meltdown ordinarily is rather small, but this November promises – in a manner last seen in 1876 – to present a combination of stressors that could lead to epic failure.The problem begins – but does not end – with Donald Trump, who, in his recent interview with Chris Wallace, once again reminded the nation that losing is not an option. He will reject any election that results in his loss, claiming it to be rigged. Alarming as this may be, Trump alone cannot crash the system. Instead, an unusual constellation of forces – the need to rely heavily on mail-in ballots because of the Covid-19 pandemic; the political divisions in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania; and a hyper-polarized Congress – all work together to turn Trump’s defiance into a crisis of historic proportions.> Should Trump lose decisively – not only in the popular vote, but in electoral college, too – his capacity to engage in constitutional brinkmanship will be limitedConsider the following scenario: it’s 3 November 2020, election day. By midnight, it’s clear that former vice-president Biden enjoys a substantial lead in the national popular vote but the electoral college vote remains tight. With the races in 47 states and the District of Columbia called, Biden leads Trump in the electoral college vote 252 to 240, but neither candidate has secured the 270 votes necessary for victory. All eyes remain on Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and their 46 electoral college votes.In each of these three states, Trump enjoys a slim lead, but the election-day returns do not include a huge number of mail-in ballots. Some states, such as Colorado, have been counting their mail-in votes from the day they arrived, but not Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. These states do not allow elections officials to begin the task of counting the mail-ins until election day itself. It will take days, even weeks, for the key swing states to finish their count. The election hangs in the balance.Only not for Trump. Based on his 3 November leads, Trump has already declared himself re-elected. His reliable megaphones in the rightwing media repeat and amplify his declaration, and urge Biden to concede. Biden says he will do no such thing. Biden knows that the bulk of the mail-in ballots have been cast in heavily populated urban areas, where voters were unwilling to expose themselves to the health risks of in-person voting. And he is keenly aware that urban voters vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Indeed, this phenomenon, in which mail-in and provisional ballots typically break Democratic, has been dubbed “blue shift” by election law experts.The count of the mail-in ballots in the three swing states is plagued by delays. Overworked election officials, slowed by the need to maintain social distance, struggle to process the huge volume of votes. Trump’s lawyers, aided by the Department of Justice, bring multiple suits insisting that tens of thousands of votes must be tossed out for having failed to arrive by the date specified by statute. All the same, as the count creeps forward, a clear pattern emerges. Trump’s lead is shrinking – and then vanishes altogether. By the time the three states complete their canvass of votes nearly a month after the election, the nation faces an astonishing result. Biden now leads in all three. It appears he has been elected our next president.Only Trump tweets bloody murder. All his most dire predictions have come to pass. The mail-in ballots are infected with fraud. The radical Democrats are trying to steal his victory. The election has been rigged, he says.Now things take an ominous turn. Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania all share the same political profile: all three states are controlled by Republican legislatures faithful to Trump. And so Republican lawmakers in Lansing, Madison and Harrisburg take up the fight to declare Trump victorious in their state. Citing irregularities and unconscionable delays in the counting of the mail-in ballots, state Republicans award Trump their states’ electoral college votes.Yet all three of our crucial swing states also have Democratic governors. Outraged by the actions of Republican lawmakers, the Democratic governors of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania announce that they will recognize Biden as having carried their state. They certify Biden as the winner, and send the certificate cast by his electors on to Congress.It is now 6 January 2021, the day on which the joint session of Congress opens the states’ electoral certificates and officially tallies the votes. Normally this is a ceremonial function, but not today. Suddenly Congress is confronted with the astonishing reality that Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have each submitted conflicting electoral certificates – one awarding its electoral college votes to Trump; the other, to Biden. The election hangs in the balance.Seems far-fetched? And yet the nation faced a nearly identical crisis in the notorious Hayes-Tilden election of 1876, when three separate states submitted conflicting electoral certificates. With neither Hayes nor Tilden enjoying an electoral college majority, a divided Congress – a Democratic House and a Republican Senate – fought bitterly over which certificates to recognize. Congress tried to resolve things by handing the problem to a one-off special electoral commission, but partisan rancor plagued the work of that body, too. Inauguration day neared and the nation had no president-elect –or rather, it had two rivals both claiming victory. President Ulysses S Grant weighed declaring martial law.Catastrophe was avoided only by a last second disastrous compromise between the parties: Republicans agreed to remove federal troops from the south, paving the way to Jim Crow, and in return, Samuel Tilden, the Democrats’ candidate, agreed to concede. Chastened by that experience, Congress passed a law –the Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) –meant to guide Congress should a state ever again submit more than one electoral certificate. Since its passage, the provisions of the ECA have been triggered only once – that was back in 1969, and the issue was trivial, with no bearing on Nixon’s victory.In January 2021, however, the nation finds itself in a true electoral crisis and lawmakers quickly realize that the 1887 law is glaringly deficient, failing to anticipate the most destabilizing contingencies.And so Congress descends into acrimonious debate, with each side charging the other with attempting to steal the election. The chambers vote on which certificates to accept, the outcome foreordained. The Senate, which after the 2020 vote remains in Republican control, rejects the governors’ certificate and accepts the legislatures’; the Democratically controlled House votes in precisely the opposite fashion.Stalemate. Both parties appeal to the US supreme court, but the court – in sharp contrast to its intervention in 2000 in Bush v Gore – proves unable to solve the crisis. Experts insist that the court has no role to play in resolving an election dispute once it reaches Congress, a view that finds support in the ECA itself. With lawmakers in both party declaring that they would not abide by an unfavorable holding, the court chooses not to intervene.Congress remains deadlocked, with neither party prepared to concede. As protests roil the country, Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, deploying the military to protect his “victory”. The nation finds itself in a full-blown crisis of succession from which there is no clear, peaceful exit.Electoral Armageddon can be avoided. Should Trump lose decisively – not only in the popular vote, but in the electoral college, too –his capacity to engage in constitutional brinkmanship will be limited. This is not to say that he won’t claim the election was rigged, only that his claim will probably not trigger a larger constitutional crisis. But should Trump’s defeat turn on the count of mail-in ballots in our crucial swing states, prepare for chaos. Our nation could witness dark times. * Lawrence Douglas is the James J Grosfeld professor of law, jurisprudence and social thought, at Amherst College, Massachusetts. He is the author of Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020. He is also a contributing opinion writer for the Guardian US

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COVID-19 is a disaster for people with disabilities. Without 30-year-old law, it would be worse

Without the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed 30 years ago, the pandemic would be worse for people with disabilities. It's still very hard.

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Couple wearing swastika face masks insist they aren't Nazis as Walmart bans them

A couple in Minnesota wore swastika masks while shopping at a Walmart, but claimed they were not Nazis and that – despite wearing the symbol of the Nazis on their faces – it was their political enemies who were the fascists.According to The Washington Post, the incident was captured on video by Raphaela Mueller, a 24-year-old woman who was born and raised in Germany.

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