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Title: Cuomo says Trump's COVID-19 response worse than Watergate Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday claimed that President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis was worse than the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon from office. “Trump’s COVID scandal makes Nixon’s Watergate look innocent,” Cuomo said during a news conference in Manhattan. “No one died in the Watergate scandal. Thousands of people are going to die in this COVID scandal and that is all the difference in the world.” Cuomo also alluded to recent events in suggesting that if Trump doesn’t believe Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of his White House coronavirus task force, he should fire him. “The president now says his own health officials are lying about the virus,” Cuomo said. “You know what I would do if I believed my own health commissioner was lying? I would fire him.” On Sunday, the nation’s top coronavirus testing official — Assistant Secretary of Health Adm. Brett Giroir — publicly clashed with Fauci over the issue of reopening states following coronavirus lockdowns. “I respect Dr. Fauci a lot, but Dr. Fauci is not 100 percent right, and he also doesn’t necessarily, he admits that, have the whole national interest in mind,” Giroir told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view.” Trump’s advisers also privately undercut Fauci over the weekend by providing news outlets with details about statements he made early in the pandemic that they said were inaccurate, the New York Times reported. COVID-19 has killed 135,272 people in the US as of early Monday afternoon, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

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Title: Why Texas coronavirus death toll may be higher than officially reported Coronavirus cases are spiking in Texas, but the death toll may be higher than state health officials have reported because the Lone Star State only records confirmed deaths from COVID-19 and omits likely cases, according to the Houston Chronicle. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows Texas is one of 24 states that publicly reports only confirmed COVID-19 deaths, not “probable” ones. With widespread testing shortages in Texas, many patients likely died without being screened for the disease, experts told the paper. In New York, one of the states hardest hit early on in the pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also counts only confirmed COVID-19 deaths, although New York City later started adding presumed coronavirus deaths to its tally. Still, other states that do report suspected cases include some of those hardest hit to date, including Massachusetts, Connecticut and Arizona, while others who are also facing staggering numbers do not, including Florida, California and New Jersey. Overall cases in the US topped 3.2 million Monday while there were at least 134,884 deaths from the pandemic, the CDC said. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also counts only confirmed COVID-19 deaths, although New York City later started adding presumed coronavirus deaths to its tally. On Friday, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott — who had earlier reopened much of the state, including bars and restaurants only to later reverse course when cases rose — warned that the death toll would rise. “The steep rise in cases that started about mid-June in many states will likely be seen in rising deaths very soon,” agreed Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It is hard to see how they won’t come.” Texas, the Chronicle reported, ranks 40th out of 50 states and DC in deaths per 100,000 population on the CDC COVID-19 tracker. But that could be misleading since it compares Texas with 27 states and the capital district that include “probable cases,” such as New York, where nearly 1 in 5 deaths in New York City was reported as “probable.” And doctors on the front lines remained skeptical that all of the deaths were being counted accurately. “The death certificate I signed on June 30 with a confirmed lab test is still not being reported as a COVID death,” said one doctor. “We see the death rate is rising every day. All day we are hearing ‘code blue’ called overhead for a different bed in the intensive care unit,” he said, describing the signal that a patient’s heart has stopped. “We know those are COVID patients fighting for their lives. The numbers being reported are lagging behind what is happening on a daily basis.” And the surge of cases has in Texas and particularly Houston left doctors, nurses and first responders overwhelmed, with scores of patients waiting 12 hours or more for ER care or ICU beds. As of Saturday, there were 255,763 confirmed cases in the state, according to the Chronicle analysis. In the Houston area, the number of confirmed cases reached 62,268 on Saturday, up more than 2,400 from the day before, the analysis showed. Sam Peña, Houston’s fire chief, said told the paper that his department was “overwhelmed.” In the past three weeks the calls for help have risen by 30 percent, and the majority were for respiratory distress. When the state shut down in March, the fire chief said, his department was averaging about 800 calls per day. Now it is 1,100, and once at a hospital, if there is no bed available, the patient waits on a stretcher in a hallway, he said. Despite the grim statistics, some people have been reluctant to accept the fact that the virus is dangerous — and spreading like wildfire. “One of the big things that people who don’t want to implement social distancing say is, ‘Hey, so what if cases and ICU admission are going up, so long as mortality is not going up?’” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine. “Well, No. 1, it will go up. It may not go up as steeply as it did in New York because we’re better prepared to handle it — we know how to provide better ICU care now — but it will go up.”

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Title: Justin Trudeau says he and Trump talked Black Lives Matter Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he and President Trump discussed the Black Lives Matter movement during a Monday phone call. “This morning I spoke with President Trump about the new NAFTA, about aluminum tariffs, about Black Lives Matter, and also about the issue of China and the two detained Canadians,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. The Canadian leader is a cultural progressive, but recently has come under fire for wearing “brownface” three times, including to a costume party in 2001, and for alleged “cultural appropriation” during a trip to India. Trudeau briefed reporters in both English and French. According to a translation of his French remarks, Trudeau said he discussed “systemic racism” with Trump. The White House did not immediately release a readout of the call. Trudeau declined an invitation to visit the White House last week amid the coronavirus pandemic. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador did visit the White House to mark implementation of the new three-country US-Mexico-Canada trade deal. Trudeau repeatedly referred to the new trade deal as “NAFTA” rather than Trump’s preferred acronym, “USMCA.” The prime minister said he implored Trump not to impose new aluminum tariffs to slow Canadian exports. “I highlighted to the president that the pandemic has disrupted usual manufacturing processes and supply chains, and that has caused certain disruption in the aluminum sector that is starting to realign itself,” Trudeau said. “I impressed upon him that it would be a shame to see tariffs come in between our two countries at a time where we’re celebrating NAFTA, at a time where we want our businesses or manufacturers to get going as quickly as possible.” Trudeau said it’s unclear how long the US-Canada border will be closed to non-essential travel due to the coronavirus. “We recognize that the situation continues to be complex in the United States in regards to COVID-19,” Trudeau said. “Every month we have been able to extend the border closures to all but essential goods and services, and those discussions are ongoing with the United States right now as we are a week from the next deadline for closures. We’re going to continue to work hard to keep Canadians safe, and to keep our economies flowing.”

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Title: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms joins Cuomo's COVID-19 briefing Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday promised to help Atlanta conduct testing and contact tracing of people exposed to the deadly coronavirus amid a record surge in cases there. During a coronavirus briefing with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Cuomo, speaking from Manhattan, said he would send a team of experts who were trained with the help of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Johns Hopkins University, where Bloomberg is a major donor. Cuomo also wished Bottoms “100 percent Godspeed” in recovering from her own infection. “You have an open offer: whatever you need,” Cuomo said. “But we are also 100% behind you.” Bottoms said that Atlanta was “headed in the wrong direction” with “numbers that I haven’t seen since April.” “As of yesterday afternoon, we were up over 23 percent,” she said. Bottoms — who last week mandated masks in her city — blamed the surge in the disease there on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and also called for federal intervention. “Unless we have a coordinated approach across this country, we are going to watch people unnecessarily die,” she said. Cuomo noted a cluster of coronavirus cases in upstate Rensselaer County that officials have tied to a trio of residents who recently returned from Georgia. Bottoms said she and her husband tested positive for the coronavirus because “we had an asymptomatic child in our home for eight days before we knew that that child was asymptomatic.” “Thankfully, by the grace of God, we have no underlying conditions,” she added.

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Title: 9-year-old honor roll student shot as he filmed TikTok videos A 9-year-old boy was filming TikTok videos outside when he was shot four times during a drive-by shooting in Atlanta, police and his mother said. Javonni Carson, a fourth-grade honor roll student, was struck four times in his left leg Wednesday when gunfire broke out in an East Atlanta parking lot. The boy later underwent surgery and is expected to survive, his mother told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Javonni was recording TikTok videos with his two siblings when a gunman in a car started shooting into a crowd of people outside, Keyona Carson told the newspaper. “My other two kids were there too, and they saw everything,” she said. “Someone just drove by and started shooting.” Police said two other people were also shot — men who were hit in the hand and buttocks, respectively. A total of 42 spent shell casings were recovered from the scene and at least five nearby cars were hit with gunfire. Surveillance footage showed a dark vehicle driving through the parking lot just before a man pulled out a gun and opened fire, police said. “My 11-year-old said he was trying to crawl over to [Javonni], but there were already so many people on the ground,” Carson told the newspaper. “I didn’t know anything until I got to the hospital. I just knew he’d been shot.” No arrests have been made as of early Monday, Atlanta police said. Javonni, meanwhile, has undergone surgery to repair his shattered femur and was recovering at a hospital, his mother said Saturday. An online fundraiser has been set up help offset medical costs for the boy, who is an honors student at Deerwood Academy elementary school in Atlanta. He’s also an aspiring football player and rapper, according to the campaign. “I have 2 more children that was affected by this senseless violence against our kind!!!!” the website reads. “They were there also, they saw all those guns, blood and see the fire of those bullets as people fell in front of them and hid and run and screamed for help.” Carson’s post continued: “This world is out of control.”

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Title: Baltimore sergeant allegedly kidnapped contractor in patio dispute A Baltimore police sergeant kidnapped a home contractor — then threatened to take the man “in the woods” — in a dispute over his botched patio, police said. James Lloyd, 45, was arrested Thursday on kidnapping and extortion charges after the victim told Baltimore County detectives he was forced to go to a bank and refund the 21-year department veteran for the project, Baltimore County police said. “During the dispute, the suspect identified himself as a police officer,” police said in a statement. “The victim stated he was in fear of being arrested and complied with Lloyd’s demands.” The sergeant was unhappy with the patio after some stones had come apart and Lloyd’s significant other wanted it to be much larger, prompting the contractor to ask for another $1,400, according to charging documents obtained by the Baltimore Sun. “You are going to give me my money back, and I’m going to give you freedom,” Lloyd told the contractor. Lloyd, who has been suspended without pay, went to the contractor’s home on June 25 and demanded the refund while saying he could arrest the man because his driver’s license was suspended, police said. Lloyd made the contractor get into his car and go to a bank to get a certified check for $3,500 — half of the original quote for a patio at the officer’s home, charging documents allege. The contractor told Lloyd he didn’t want any problems over the dispute, prompting the officer to allegedly respond, “Problem would be if I take you in the woods,” police said. Three other homicide unit detectives were also involved in the alleged confrontation, including one who is accused of joining Lloyd as he made his demand. Two others then entered the victim’s back yard with their badges and handguns displayed, charging documents allege. Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young said in a statement he was “utterly sickened and appalled” by the allegations facing the four cops. “These three detectives have had their police powers suspended and are assigned to administrative duties, pending an internal investigation,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said Thursday. “The department has opened an internal investigation into their potential misconduct.” Department officials said a preliminary review indicates that Lloyd and three detectives — identified in court docs as Juan Diaz, Manuel Larbi and Troy Taylor — were all on duty at the time, the Baltimore Sun reported. An attorney for Lloyd, who has been ordered held without bail, downplayed the allegations outside court Friday. “This was a contractual dispute that involved absolutely no criminality on behalf of my client,” attorney Matthew Fraling told CBS Baltimore. If convicted, Lloyd reportedly faces up to 30 years in prison.

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Title: COVID-19 immunity could disappear in months, study says COVID-19 antibodies could disappear within months — leaving survivors potentially vulnerable to reinfection, according to a new study. Researchers at King’s College London found that virus antibodies to protect again reinfection peaked about three weeks after symptoms first appeared but then levels quickly declined, according to a report on pre-publication server MedRix. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, tested 96 patients and health care workers for antibodies over the course of three months. While 60% of participants showed a “potent” antibody response while they were battling the virus, only 17% maintained the same level of potency at the end of the three months, researchers said. For others, the antibody levels fell as much as 23-fold or their presence became undetectable, the study said. “People are producing a reasonable antibody response to the virus, but it’s waning over a short period of time and depending on how high your peak is, that determines how long the antibodies are staying around,” lead author Katie Doores told the Guardian. Professor Jonathan Heeney, a virologist at the University of Cambridge, said the study “puts another nail in the coffin of the dangerous concept of herd immunity.” “Some of the public, especially the youth, have become somewhat cavalier about getting infected, thinking that they would contribute to herd immunity,” he told the Guardian. “Not only will they place themselves at risk, and others, by getting infected, and losing immunity, they may even put themselves at greater risk of more severe lung disease if they get infected again in the years to come.”

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Title: Democrats to take up immigration first if successful in 2020 Democrats have multiple issues on their agenda for 2020, but it appears immigration will be up first should they win in November. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have publicly pledged to make immigration reform Democrats’ first order of business. After the Supreme Court blocked the White House from ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last month, Biden committed to sending a bill to Congress “on day one” of his administration making the program permanent. “The Supreme Court’s ruling today is a victory made possible by the courage and resilience of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients who bravely stood up and refused to be ignored. As President, I will immediately work to make it permanent by sending a bill to Congress on day one of my Administration,” the former vice president said in a statement at the time. Schumer, who led the 2013 bipartisan immigration reform effort in the Senate with Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), made an emotional prediction while reacting to the high court’s decision. “I cried tears of joy a few minutes ago when I heard the decision of the Supreme Court on DACA. These wonderful DACA kids and their families have a huge burden lifted off of their shoulders. They don’t have to worry about being deported. They can do their jobs, and I believe … someday soon they will be American citizens,” he said. DACA is a program that covers individuals who have been in the United States since they were children because they were brought into the country illegally by their parents. Asked by The Hill just before the July 4 Senate recess if immigration would be top-of-mind for Democrats if they won in November, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) referred to Biden and Schumer’s promises. “They’ve all said it’s first up,” the Illinois Democrat said. “It’s definitely on the agenda,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) told the outlet, adding that immigration reform would have economic benefits. “Billions more for the economy, Social Security, the wages of all Americans rose. On an economic basis alone, it was a compelling issue,” he said. Menendez was a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight with Schumer that negotiated the 2013 Senate immigration bill, which passed with 68 votes. The New Jersey senator believes that bill could be used as a template for new legislation, given the bipartisan support it had. “Not too many issues here of such controversy gets [68] votes. A lot in there should be revisited,” he told the outlet.

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Title: Thailand tightens borders over fears of second wave of coronavirus BANGKOK – Thailand ordered security stepped up at its land borders on Monday after concerns surged over a possible second wave of coronavirus infections, following the arrests of thousands of illegal migrants in the past month. Since the start of June, authorities have arrested 3,000 migrant workers for overland entry attempts, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for Thailand’s task force on the disease. Taweesin also raised concern about weak regulation for foreign arrivals by air, after two such visitors tested positive, with one breaking quarantine rules. The government identified a 43-year-old crewman of an Egyptian military plane and a nine-year-old girl in the family of a Sudanese diplomat as the new cases that could potentially trigger a second wave. “This exposes a weakness, but there is no damage yet if we can control and correct this weakness and issue more thorough regulation,” said Taweesin. With no locally transmitted case reported for more than six weeks, Thailand’s virus tally since January stands at 3,220 infections and 58 deaths. Air crew and the families of foreign diplomats are among the few groups of foreigners allowed into the country since March, on condition of spending 14 days in quarantine. The Egyptian arrived on Wednesday and spent time in the eastern province of Rayong before leaving on Saturday. After a virus test came back positive on Sunday, authorities found he had left the hotel where he was supposed to stay in isolation. The Sudanese girl was hospitalized on arrival in Thailand, but her family was allowed to self-quarantine in its Bangkok condominium with no official supervision. There were no reports that the family had left the residence. Although Thailand has partly lifted its entry ban on foreigners, including permanent residents, business travelers and medical tourists, it still bars ordinary tourists and migrant workers.

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Title: Planned Parenthood launches ad campaign backing Joe Biden Planned Parenthood’s political arm will launch five-figure digital ad campaigns across nine battleground states backing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The ad campaign by Planned Parenthood Votes, which operates the national reproductive rights group’s political efforts, is the group’s biggest effort yet this election, Axios reported, and is part of a larger $45 million investment ahead of November’s election. The ads will run in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the website reported. The ad campaign follows the Supreme Court’s 7-2 ruling siding with the administration over the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate in the Little Sisters of the Poor decision. Now, employers with a religious or moral objection to birth control don’t have to cover no-cost contraception in their employees’ health care plans. The 10- and 15-second ads boost Democrats’ efforts to keep reproductive health in focus between now and the election. Planned Parenthood endorsed Biden last month and is doing targeted voter outreach across 12 swing states on the former veep’s behalf.

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Title: Ex-DHS secretary Elaine Duke weakened legal case for ending DACA President Trump’s former acting Homeland Security secretary purposely decided not to include policy reasons in her memo to end the “Dreamers” program because she didn’t believe Trump administration officials’ grounds to end it, according to a report. The absence of those reasons became the crux of the Supreme Court’s ruling last month blocking the White House’s efforts to end the Obama-era program. Elaine Duke said she was “ambushed” by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump adviser Stephen Miller during a White House meeting in August 2017, telling the New York Times that “the room was stacked.” She said she didn’t list policy reasons because she did not agree with Sessions and Miller that allowing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals would lead to more illegal immigration and resulted in an unjustified amnesty. “What was missing for me is really that process of discussing it,” she said. “It is a grave decision not only from a legal standpoint but from the effect it will have on not just 700,000 people but 700,000 people plus their families.” The New York Times reported that Duke hoped her omissions would punt the issue to Congress. “She said she still agreed that DACA ‘isn’t a legal program,’ but hoped that Republicans and Democrats in Congress would eventually find a way to allow the undocumented immigrants covered by the program to live and work permanently in the United States,” the Times wrote. Chief Justice John Roberts, in his majority opinion, said the Trump administration failed to give adequate justification for ending the program that shields nearly 700,000 from deportation. “We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote. “The wisdom of those decisions is none of our concern. Here we address only whether the Administration complied with the procedural requirements in the law that insist on ‘a reasoned explanation for its action.'” Asked about Duke’s comments, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Trump has “kept his promise to the American people to reduce illegal immigration, secure the border, lower the crime rate and maintain law and order.” “He has never wavered in his highest obligation to the American people: their safety and security,” Deere said.

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Title: Judge delays Daniel Lewis Lee execution hours before he was set to die A judge has ordered a delay in the execution of convicted killer Daniel Lewis Lee — just hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, according to a report. Lee — who was sentenced to death for killing a family of three — was set to be executed at 4 p.m. Monday at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, in the first federal execution since 2003, the Indianapolis Star reported. He was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 slayings of William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell. But the victims’ family has long opposed his death sentence, filing a lawsuit to delay his execution due to the coronavirus pandemic. The family was granted an injunction on his execution but a federal appeals court lifted the order. They then vowed to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, arguing they shouldn’t have to travel for the execution amid the pandemic. “For us it is a matter of being there and saying, `This is not being done in our name; we do not want this,’” relative Monica Veillette told the Associated Press. With Post wires

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Title: Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly under investigation in US Virgin Islands Ghislaine Maxwell is under investigation in the Virgin Islands — where her ex-lover Jeffrey Epstein allegedly sexually abused young women, according to a report. The US territory’s Department of Justice revealed it’s probing “Maxwell’s participation in Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking and sexual abuse conduct” in a filing Friday as part of her lawsuit against Epstein’s estate, Bloomberg reported Monday. Prosecutors there are also using the case to subpoena Maxwell, which they say she’s dodged since March. Maxwell, 58, is seeking reimbursement from Epstein’s estate for legal fees, claiming the late pedophile repeatedly promised to take care of her financially. She and Epstein have been named as defendants in multiple lawsuits brought by their alleged victims. “The government’s need to intervene is further fueled by Maxwell’s inappropriate use of the Virgin Islands courts to seek payment and reimbursement from the Epstein criminal enterprise, while she circumvents the service of process of government subpoenas related to her involvement in that criminal enterprise,” the filing said. Epstein owned two islands — named Little St. James and Great St. James — where he’s accused of molesting his young victims. He committed suicide in August while locked up on sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell, his former girlfriend and alleged madam, was arrested earlier this month on sex abuse charges in a case out of Manhattan federal court. Her arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday. Legal experts told The Post it’s possible she could be released on bail. Lawyers representing Maxwell in her New York case didn’t immediately return an email.

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Title: South Africa returns to ban on alcohol sales as virus surges JOHANNESBURG — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country will immediately return to a ban on the sale of alcohol to reduce the volume of trauma patients so that hospitals have more beds open to treat COVID-19 patients. Confronted by surging hospitalizations due to the coronavirus, South Africa is also reinstating a night curfew to reduce traffic accidents and made it mandatory for all residents to wear face masks when in public. Ramaphosa said, in a nationally televised address Sunday night, that top health officials warn of impending shortages of hospital beds and medical oxygen as South Africa reaches a peak of COVID-19 cases, expected between the end of July and September. He said some hospitals have had to turn away patients because all their beds are full. South Africa’s rapid increase in reported cases has made it one of the world’s centers for COVID-19, as it is ranked as the 9th country most affected by the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country has reported increases of more than 10,000 confirmed cases for several days and the latest daily increase was nearly 13,500. South Africa accounts for 40 percent of all the confirmed cases in Africa, with 276,242, an increase of 12,058 in one day. South Africa has recorded 4,079 deaths, 25 percent of which have been in the past week, said Ramaphosa. “While the surge of infections has been expected, the force and the speed with which it has progressed has, quite understandably, caused great concern,” said Ramaphosa. “Many of us are fearful of the danger this presents for ourselves and for our families.” Ramaphosa said that since the sale of alcohol was re-introduced on in June, hospitals have experienced a spike in admissions in their trauma and emergency wards. The countrywide curfew mandates that people must not be on the roads between 9 pm and 4 am effective Monday. Masks have also been declared mandatory, with all transport operators, employers and owners of businesses and buildings now legally obliged to ensure everyone entering their businesses or premises are wearing masks. Ramaphosa lambasted citizens who have continued to have social gatherings, including parties and overcrowded funerals, saying they had contributed significantly to the rapid spread of the virus. “In the midst of our national effort to fight against this virus there are a number of people who have taken to organizing parties, who have drinking sprees and some who walk around in crowded spaces without masks,” he said. South Africa imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in April and May, including closing virtually all mines, factories and businesses and a ban on sales of liquor and cigarettes. The measures slowed the spread of the coronavirus but South Africa’s economy, already in recession, contracted dramatically, increasing unemployment above 30 percent and hunger. In June the country began relaxing restrictions to allow millions of South Africans to return to work. The easing of restrictions allowed the sales of alcohol on four days a week. However, within a few weeks the country’s numbers of confirmed cases and hospitalizations increased dramatically, bringing Ramaphosa to reimpose the ban on alcohol sales and other restrictions. More than 30 percent of South Africa’s cases are in the economic hub of Gauteng province, which includes the largest city, Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria. The tourist center of Cape Town also has a high number of cases. Johannesburg’s densely populated Soweto township has a high concentration of cases, according to officials. “We knew that with the easing of restrictions, the number of cases would go up. But what is surprising is the speed with which the case numbers have grown,” said Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, who is on the national coronavirus committee that is advising Ramaphosa. “We can expect to see the numbers of cases and hospitalizations to increase for a number of weeks … this will continue for the next six to eight weeks. By October we may be seeing a decline.” South Africa has carried out 2.1 million tests, on its population of 58 million. Because of an international shortage of testing materials, South Africa in June experienced a long delay in the time to get test results, at one point reaching 12 days in government clinics. The situation has improved and the average time to get test results is five days in by public laboratories and two days in private labs, according to the latest figures issued by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Africa’s 54 countries have reported 577,904 cases, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The continent’s confirmed cases are concentrated in four countries — South Africa, Egypt with 81,158 cases, Nigeria with 31,987 cases and Algeria with 18,712 cases – which together make up more than 65 percent of the continent’s cases. The number of actual cases in Africa is believed to be much higher, as the testing rate is very low in many countries.

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Title: Search for missing Amish teen Linda Stoltzfoos continues A Pennsylvania man is charged with kidnapping an 18-year-old Amish woman who investigators believe was “harmed” after being abducted last month, police said. Justo Smoker, 34, of Paradise, was arrested Friday on felony kidnapping and misdemeanor false imprisonment charges in the disappearance of Linda Stoltzfoos, who has been missing since June 21, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office announced Saturday. Stoltzfoos’ whereabouts are unclear and an active search for her remains ongoing, but investigators “have reason to believe she was harmed” after being abducted. She was last seen walking home from church in Bird-in-Hand on Father’s Day while wearing a tan dress, white apron and a white cape, East Lampeter Township police have said. Surveillance video obtained by cops that was enhanced by FBI technicians “depicts the abduction” of Stoltzfoos in a red sedan as she walked along her normal route home, prosecutors said. “That video shows a red Kia Rio involved in the abduction,” prosecutors said. Investigators searched a rural area late Friday in Ronks, where they suspect Stoltzfoos may have been taken after she was kidnapped and where a red Kia Rio sedan owned by Smoker was parked on June 23, prosecutors said. Cops found clothing believed to belong to Stoltzfoos buried nearby in a wooded area and several witnesses have reported seeing an Amish woman in the passenger seat of a vehicle allegedly driven by Smoker, prosecutors said. Stoltzfoos’ father reported the woman missing after she failed to return from a youth group she planned to attend on June 21, authorities said. “Investigators confirmed she did not make it that social gathering,” prosecutors said in a statement. “Police found nothing indicating Stoltzfoos was unhappy and wanted to leave her community.” A message seeking comment from East Lampeter police on the search for Stoltzfoos was not immediately returned early Monday. FBI officials, meanwhile, had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Stoltzfoos’ recovery and the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for her disappearance. Hundreds of volunteers took part in searches for the woman over the weekend, WGAL reported. “Linda, where are you?” read a post Sunday on a Facebook page dedicated to finding the Amish teen. “May the truth be revealed.” Anyone who may have seen Smoker or his red sedan around the time of Stoltzfoos’ abduction is asked to call East Lampeter Township police at (717) 291-4676.

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Title: Daniel Lewis Lee: 1st federal execution in 17 years set to happen today The first execution of a federal inmate in nearly two decades will be carried out Monday in Indiana — despite objections from the family members of his victims. Daniel Lewis Lee, a one-time white supremacist and convicted killer, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 4 p.m. Monday at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, in the first federal execution since 2003. Lee was sentenced in Arkansas for the 1996 slayings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell. Their family has long argued that Lee shouldn’t be executed — and should be given a life sentence instead. But a federal appeals court lifted an injunction Sunday that had been put in place last week after the victims’ family asked for a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. The family has vowed to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, saying they shouldn’t have to travel amid the pandemic to witness the execution. “For us it is a matter of being there and saying, `This is not being done in our name; we do not want this,’” relative Monica Veillette told the Associated Press. The family would need to trek thousands of miles to witness the execution in a small room where socially distancing would be impossible, they have argued. “The federal government has put this family in the untenable position of choosing between their right to witness Danny Lee’s execution and their own health and safety,” the family’s attorney, Baker Kurrus, said Sunday. With Post wires

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Title: White House fires back after Mueller rips Roger Stone in op-ed The White House is denouncing former special counsel Robert Mueller’s newly published op-ed defending the prosecution and conviction of Roger Stone. In a statement released one day after Mueller’s op-ed, deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere slammed the former special counsel and his probe. “Robert Mueller and his corrupt investigation failed to hold anyone in the Obama-Biden Administration accountable for their negligence toward Russian interference or for spying on the Trump Campaign based on a Democrat-funded dossier full of lies, and instead wasted taxpayer dollars trying to undo an election,” Deere’s statement on Sunday read. “Mr. Mueller should keep his promise to the American people and let the report, which fully exonerated the President, stand instead of pontificating in the editorial pages with more spin.” On Saturday, Mueller defended his investigation in a Washington Post op-ed, specifically with regard to his office’s handling of Stone’s actions. “I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office. The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so,” the former special counsel wrote. Mueller’s two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election found no collusion by the Trump campaign, something the former FBI director noted in the piece. “We now have a detailed picture of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel’s office identified two principal operations directed at our election: hacking and dumping Clinton campaign emails, and an online social media campaign to disparage the Democratic candidate. We also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel — Stone among them. “We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its activities. The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts,” he continued. Mueller wrote the op-ed in response to President Trump’s decision to commute his longtime ally’s prison sentence, which the commander-in-chief announced on Friday. Trump at the time called Stone a victim of a “Russian hoax” and said he would have been put at serious medical risk if placed behind bars. Trump on Friday signed an executive grant of clemency just four days before Stone was due to report to prison Tuesday to serve a 40-month sentence after he was found guilty on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress. Stone had appealed the ruling and long maintained his innocence. Attorney General William Barr has slammed the “Russian collusion” investigation as “without any basis.” “I think the president has every right to be frustrated because I think what happened to him was one of the greatest travesties in American history,” Barr said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham in April. “Even more concerning, actually, is what happened after the campaign, a whole pattern of events while he was president,” Barr said. “To sabotage the presidency, and I think that — or at least have the effect of sabotaging the presidency.” An inspector general’s report on the Russia probe detailed 17 errors and omissions in FISA applications throughout the FBI’s investigation, including failing to tell the court when questions were raised about the reliability of some of the information the bureau had presented to receive the warrants. Barr said at the time that he believed they were more than just mistakes. “My own view is that the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness,” he said. “There is something far more troubling here, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

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Title: Trump blasts Democrat-run cities for disrespecting police President Trump on Monday blasted “Radical Left politicians” in American cities for allowing crime to run rampant and for failing to stand up for their police officers. “Never in history have Police been treated so badly as they are in Democrat run cities – and these cities are a mess,” the president said in a Twitter post. “Police must take a stronger stand with the Radical Left politicians that are treating them so badly, and so disrespectfully!!!” Trump has declared himself the “law and order president” after protests broke out across the country over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis that were for a period of time punctuated with looting and attacks on police. The tweet is a continuation of the theme he pressed earlier this month during a speech at Mount Rushmore, in which he decried the “left-wing cultural revolution” for allowing “violent mayhem” to occur on American streets. “They want to silence us. But we will not be silenced,” Trump said as the crowd cheered, “USA! USA!” “We will not be intimidated by bad, evil people. It will not happen!” he said. Trump’s tweet comes following a weekend of violence in New York, where 15 people were shot since midday Saturday, including a 1-year-old who was fatally shot Sunday night in Brooklyn.

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Title: Arkansas cop charged with manslaughter in shooting fellow officer An Arkansas police officer who allegedly threatened to shoot protesters if they came to his home has been charged with gunning down a fellow cop, authorities said. Calvin Salyers, a 33-year-old officer in Alexander, surrendered Wednesday on a manslaughter charge in the June 3 shooting that killed Officer Scott Hutton, 36, state police said. Hutton, who went to his colleague’s home to pick a patrol car, knocked on the officer’s door and an armed Salyers looked through a peephole to find a dark figure with a firearm, state police Special Agent Ryan Jacks wrote in court documents obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Salyers told investigators his firearm then accidentally went off as he transferred the weapon from one hand to the other as he reached for the door handle, Jacks said. Hutton, who was shot in the chest, later died at a Little Rock hospital, state police said in June. “All I seen was a gun, it was an accidental discharge,” Salyers said during a 911 call, according to an affidavit. Investigators found contact residue around the bullet hole in Salyers’ door, suggesting his weapon was pressed against it as he fired, according to Jacks’ account. The fatal shooting occurred just days after Salyers told investigators he would “shoot through the door” if any protesters showed up at his home in the aftermath of George Floyd’s police-custody death on May 25 in Minneapolis, Jacks wrote. A training sergeant reprimanded Salyers for the comment, warning that such conduct would be “reckless and negligent” since officers need to identify a person as a threat first before shooting, an Alexander police spokeswoman told the Democrat-Gazette. Any officer can get additional firearm training if needed, spokeswoman Sgt. Jessica Burnett told the newspaper. “Pretty much any extra training that the officers want, they’re able to go to,” Burnett said. “We don’t turn down for any training.” Salyers, a cop in Alexander since 2017, was released from jail Wednesday after posting $15,000 bond. With Post wires

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Title: New Yorkers fear another coronavirus outbreak headed to NYC Most New Yorkers think the worst of the coronavirus is yet to come even though the numbers of COVID-19 cases and reported deaths have dropped dramatically in the Empire State after a brutal spring, according to a new poll released Monday. The Siena College survey found that 62 percent of state voters think the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is still to come while only 27 percent think the worst is over. While COVID cases have raged in other Southern and Western states as New York has stabilized, residents worry the killer virus will return here with a vengeance. A larger majority — 82 percent — of respondents think it is either very (39 percent) or somewhat (43 percent) likely New York will face another outbreak of the coronavirus in the fall. Only 17 percent said such an outbreak was unlikely. Meanwhile, 78 percent of residents said they are very or somewhat concerned that they or a member of their family will get infected with COVID-19. New Yorkers made it clear what when it comes to COVID-19, they prefer to err on the side of public health over jump-starting the economy. The poll found that 70 percent of residents prefer that the government’s priority be containing the spread of the coronavirus — even if it hurts the economy. Only 22 percent back restarting the economy, even it means increasing the risk to public health. “Majorities of every demographic, except Republicans, think that we haven’t seen the worst of the pandemic, and majorities of every demographic want the government to concentrate on containing the virus even if the economy suffers,” said Siena College polling director Don Levy. “Nearly 80 percent are concerned that they, or another member of their household, will get sick with COVID-19.” A majority of respondents — 56 percent — said they would not resume family gatherings without social distancing while 44 percent said they likely would. Nearly two-thirds of respondents — 64 percent — said they’re comfortable with engaging in outdoor dining, compared to 35 percent who aren’t. But the script was flipped when it comes to eating in the indoor areas of a restaurant — with 65 percent saying they are uncomfortable doing that right now compared with 35 percent who are comfortable. The phasing in of indoor dining was postponed in New York City because of concerns about spreading COVID-19 after seeing an increase in other states that fully opened their restaurants. A strong majority of New Yorkers would feel comfortable partaking in some recreational activities: 64 percent of respondents said they would enjoy playing tennis or golf, 61 percent would go to a park or playground, 60 percent would go to a barbershop or salon, and 56 percent would visit a beach or lakeshore. Looking to the future of education, 64 percent of New Yorkers think it’s likely their neighborhood schools will reopen in September. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the schools would reopen, though students would alternate between taking classes in person and online to adhere to social distancing. The survey also asked about race relations in New York: 81 percent think systemic racism is either a very or somewhat serious problem in the state. One-third of all voters and 71 percent of blacks across the state said they often witness or hear about people in New York being discriminated against because of their race or ethnicity. Only 29 percent of residents say they seldom or never hear of racial or ethnic discrimination. Many New Yorkers said they actively oppose discrimination or are racially tolerant — 53 percent described themselves as “anti-racist” and 36 percent said they were “not racist.” “New Yorkers agree, systemic racism is a problem. Dramatic majorities of every demographic by party, age, race and region think systemic racism is at least a somewhat serious if not a very serious problem,” Levy said. The Siena poll queried more than 400 New Yorkers from June 28 to July 8 and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

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Title: China sanctions Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio over criticism China has sanctioned GOP Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz after the US accused Beijing of committing human rights abuses in its treatment of a Muslim group, its foreign ministry announced Monday. Rubio of Florida and Cruz of Texas, two staunch China critics, were listed alongside Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Sam Brownback, President Trump’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying in her announcement of the sanctions. Hua said the sanctions would go into effect on Monday, though she did not go into detail about what they would entail. All four will be banned from traveling to the Communist country. The spokeswoman said the sanctions are in retaliation for actions taken against the Communist Party by the US as punishment for its treatment of Uighur Muslims, a minority ethnic group being forcibly detained in concentration camps in China. Hua argued that efforts by the US and those four actors “seriously damaged China-U.S. relations.” Rubio, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, responded on Twitter. “The Communist Party of #China has banned me from entering the country,” he said. “I guess they don’t like me?” In a statement, Cruz said “the Chinese Communist Party is terrified and lashing out.” “They forced over one million Uighurs into concentration camps and engaged in ethnic cleansing, including horrific forced abortions and sterilizations. These are egregious human rights atrocities that cannot be tolerated,” her said in the statement. “Unfortunately for CCP leaders, I don’t have plans to travel to the authoritarian regime that covered up the coronavirus pandemic and endangered millions of lives worldwide.” The Trump administration last week slapped sanctions on three Chinese Communist Party officials. Under the sanctions, the three are prohibited from traveling to the US. Relations between Beijing and Washington have eroded because of the coronavirus pandemic, trade issues and China’s strict national security law that cracks down on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The Uighurs have been confined in camps with no access to due process and are forced to denounce their religion and pledge allegiance to the Communist Party and President Xi Jinping. With Post wires

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Title: Will Ghislaine Maxwell get bail at her arraignment tomorrow? Ghislaine Maxwell will learn whether she’ll have to stay in jail pending her trial on sex-trafficking charges when she’s arraigned Tuesday — with former prosecutors saying her release is not completely out of the question. The coronavirus outbreak in the federal prison system — and the fact Maxwell didn’t flee the country after ex-lover Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide — may save her from languishing in a federal jail cell, former federal prosecutor Jaimie Nawaday told The Post. “I think this one is a close case. Epstein had no chance at all at bail. She’s in a very different position,” Nawaday said. In a detention memo filed after Maxwell’s arrest, prosecutors argued for remand, saying she’s an “extreme” flight risk given her vast sums of money, three passports and ties to European countries such as England and France. Under normal circumstances, that might have been enough to keep her in jail — but the coronavirus outbreak has upended typical bail agreements, Nawaday added. “All bail arguments look a little bit different now given COVID. That’s definitely in her favor,” Nawaday said. “More and more there is a push toward home confinement, especially holding people pretrial, when you still have the presumption of innocence.” Nawaday, who used to work in the Southern District of New York office that is prosecuting Maxwell, added that she would guess that Manhattan federal Judge Alison Nathan would release Maxwell to home confinement. Another former prosecutor who worked in the SDNY, Jennifer Rodgers, disagreed, saying Maxwell would likely be remanded into custody. “Maxwell has wealth, multiple passports, strong connections outside of the US, and a strong incentive to flee given the serious penalties she faces. The argument that she is a flight risk is strong,” Rodgers said. She added that even though the coronavirus adds an unknown factor, Maxwell may not have a very strong case to be released because of the pandemic. “Unless there are underlying health issues that haven’t been reported, Maxwell is healthy and not old enough at 58 to fall in a high-risk group, so I don’t think the COVID crisis will work in her favor,” Rodgers said. Maxwell faces 35 years in prison for allegedly procuring underage girls in the US and in England for Epstein to sexually abuse. Prosecutors also say she lied about her alleged crimes under oath during a deposition. Maxwell’s attorneys argued in a memo filed last week that she should be released on $5 million bond if she agrees to turn over her travel documents and remain in the New York area until her trial or plea agreement. They argued that although Maxwell vanished after Epstein’s suicide last year, she hid in the United States and did not flee to Europe. Nawaday agreed this will weigh in her favor at Tuesday’s bail hearing. “She obviously could have left the country, she didn’t. She was keeping a low profile here. I don’t think that shows a risk of flight,” she said.

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Title: Zindzi Mandela, daughter of Nelson and Winnie, dead at 59 JOHANNESBURG — Zindzi Mandela, the daughter of South African anti-apartheid leaders Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has died aged 59. State television South African Broadcasting Corporation has reported that Mandela died at a Johannesburg hospital early Monday morning. The cause of her death has not been announced. She had been South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark since 2015. The Mandelas’ daughter came to international prominence in 1985, when the white minority government offered to release Nelson Mandela from prison if he denounced violence perpetrated by his movement, the Africa National Congress, against apartheid, the brutal system of racial discrimination enforced in South Africa at that time. Zindzi Mandela read his letter rejecting the offer at a packed public meeting that was broadcast around the world. Last year Mandela stirred controversy by calling for the return of the white-owned land to South Africa’s dispossessed Black majority. “Dear Apartheid Apologists, your time is over. You will not rule again. We do not fear you. Finally #TheLandIsOurs,” she tweeted in June last year. South Africa’s foreign affairs minister Naledi Pandor has expressed shock at Mandela’s death, describing her as a heroine. “Zindzi will not only be remembered as a daughter of our struggle heroes, Tata Nelson and Mama Winnie Mandela, but as a struggle heroine in her own right. She served South Africa well,” said Pandor. She is survived by her husband and four children.

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Title: Pennsylvania police probing video of cop kneeling on man's neck Police in Allentown, Pennsylvania, are investigating video footage that appears to show an officer from the department kneeling on a man’s neck during an arrest on Saturday night. The footage, shot by a passerby and shared on Facebook by the group Black Lives Matter to Lehigh Valley, shows three officers restraining the man outside of Sacred Heart Campus of St. Luke’s Hospital. An officer in the 26-second clip is shown using his elbow to restrain the man before placing his knee on his neck, a maneuver reminiscent of the one that killed George Floyd in Minneapolis. In a statement announcing the investigation, Allentown police said the man in the video was spotted by cops staggering and vomiting outside the hospital’s emergency room. The officers, who had been at the hospital for an unrelated matter, tried to interact with the man, but he yelled and spit at them, police said. The statement released by cops said the man was “non-compliant, which required officers to restrain” him. It’s unclear how long the police officer had his knee on the man’s neck. The department recently released its use of force policy in response to the police-involved killing of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 8 minutes. The Allentown Police Department policy prohibits neck restraints and chokeholds and says that officers should only use the amount of force necessary to control the situation. The incident sparked a rally outside of the Allentown police station later Saturday night, which was organized by the group that posted the video to Facebook. Police said the man was treated at the hospital and released after the incident. With Post wires

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Title: Ghislaine Maxwell moved at least 36 times during her year in hiding Ghislaine Maxwell moved at least 36 times across the US in the year before her arrest — and coronavirus mask-wearing may have helped her stay undetected, a report said Sunday. The British socialite took off from the West Coast and crisscrossed the country — making stops in Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado — before ultimately ending up in New Hampshire, where she was busted 10 days ago, The Sun reported. “Ghislaine has been ­constantly on the move throughout the last year,” a source told the outlet. “She would stay in properties for a few days or a week.” Her life on the lam appears to have begun after her pedophile ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, killed himself last August in a Manhattan lockup while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, according to the paper. The Sun’s source claimed that between then and her July 2 arrest, Maxwell hopped from home to home, moving at least three times each month. While on the run, the accused madam mostly spent her days working out and reading — including a book on Epstein’s accusers by victims lawyer Bradley Edwards, in which she featured prominently, Vanity Fair previously reported. The Sun’s source added: “She did go out, but not often.” “Obviously, with the coronavirus, people were wearing masks — it made things easier for her.” Officials have said they were tracking Maxwell’s movements — and had recently learned that she moved to a luxury home on a 156-acre estate in Bradford, NH, that she bought in an all-cash deal in December. In an initial memo seeking Maxwell’s detention, prosecutors said she was “hiding out” in various locations in New England and had made efforts to go undetected, including switching her main phone number, which was registered under the name “G Max.” But The Sun’s source said Maxwell moved around to outrun reporters — not federal authorities — echoing an argument made by her defense attorneys last week for why she was not a flight risk and should be granted bond. “She was never running from the feds,” the source said. “She was ­running from journalists and crazy people who wanted to kill her.” “It was a serious problem. Her location was on a need-to-know basis.” Maxwell reportedly even hired a professional security firm to keep her safe amid an influx of death threats. She’s now being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and is expected to be arraigned Tuesday on sex-trafficking charges.

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Title: Daughter of Texas cop killed in ambush slammed for tweeting #bluelivesmatter The daughter of one of two cops killed in a weekend ambush in McAllen, Texas, got slammed on Twitter — for posting the hashtag #bluelivesmatter in a moving tribute to her late dad, according to a report Sunday. Savannah Chavez, the daughter of slain Officer Ismael Chavez, 39, tweeted in a since-deleted post Saturday — the same day her father and fellow McAllen cop Edelmiro Garza, 45, were gunned down responding to a domestic disturbance — “Words cannot describe the pain I’m in, but I’m glad my dad is at peace,” Heavy.com said. “You were an amazing man and anyone who ever came across you knew that,” the daughter added. “I’m going to miss you so much. you died doing what you loved most, you died a hero. i love you daddy, see you soon. #bluelivesmatter 💙.” The posting was up long enough to garner heartfelt sympathy and tributes — and hatred, too. “Being a cop is a choice. Lmao and last time I checked, blue people don’t exist. Maybe educate yourself?” one person tweeted. Another wrote, “Blue lives matter was literally created in response to and to undermine black lives matter. There’s no other connotation unfortunately.” A third person, who identified herself as a high school student, added, “I am so sorry for your loss but you didn’t have to use a racist hashtag.”

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Title: Florida strip clubs shuttered for lack of social distancing Two Florida strip joints have been shut down — for lack of social distancing. The state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation yanked the licenses of the clubs — Le Palace Otown in Orlando and Show N Tail The Legend in Panama City Beach — on Friday night, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. The strip clubs failed to properly adhere to social-distancing guidelines amid the state’s surge in the coronavirus, officials said. In the case of Le Palace Otown, “Customers failed to observe social distancing guidelines and were in close proximity to each other and with adult performers,” the order said.

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Title: United Kingdom launches first social-distancing festival site Advertisement This concert festival site goes the distance. The United Kingdom opened the first socially distanced outdoor festival site over the weekend — with safety measures such as spaced-out lounge chairs to protect guests from spreading coronavirus. Festival-goers book their own individual outdoor seating area, each about six feet apart and large enough for six people, at the Gisburne Park Pop-Up in the Lancashire countryside, the Evening Standard reported. Arrivals and departures to the festival will be staggered so there’s no crowding at the entrance, and food and drinks are delivered directly to guests to prevent lines from forming at the venue, organizers said. The festival, which will run for eight weeks, has an entertainment calendar with a mix of live DJs, film screenings, opera and family sing-alongs.

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Title: Teachers in same Arizona classroom all get coronavirus, 1 dies Advertisement Three Arizona summer-school teachers who followed the recommended safety protocols for the coronavirus while in the same classroom contracted the contagion — and one of them died, reports say. “It just feels like a bad dream that I can’t wake up from,” Jesse Byrd, the husband  of beloved late first-grade instructor Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd, 61, told the Arizona Republic. His wife had previously retired, only to miss the classroom so much that she eventually returned to the job as a first-grade teacher in the Hayden-Winkelman Unified School District in Gila County. In June, Kimberley and two other teachers — Angela Skillings and Jena Martinez-Inzunza — got together in one classroom to conduct classes for a group of kindergartners and first- and second-graders, who watched the educators online as they performed fun nature-inspired experiments such as using Cheetos to demonstrate bee pollination. The women said they wore masks and gloves, socially distanced and used hand sanitizer to keep themselves safe, CNN reported. “We were very careful,” Skillings told the Republic. Kimberley — who suffered from diabetes, lupus and asthma — was the first to test positive for the virus, and by June 26, less than two weeks after she became a confirmed case, she was dead. The two other teachers tested positive soon after Kimberley did and said they are still suffering from complications. Arizona is among a slew of US states suffering from a recent surge in the virus. The state reported 2,537 new cases of the contagion Sunday, for a current total of 122,467 — more than a third of which occurred just so far this month, according to statistics from Arizona’s Health Department. There were another 86 deaths reported Sunday in Arizona, too, for a total of 2,237 fatalities. There were 69 deaths reported Saturday and 44 the day before. The highest daily death toll for the state was 177 fatalities Tuesday. Most schools in the state had a reopening date of early August, until Gov. Doug Ducey said last month that they would be delayed until at least Aug. 17. Last week, Ducey only added that in-school learning would start up again “when it is safe,” the Republic reported. State schools chief Kathy Hoffman wrote on Facebook on July 9, “Today, over 2,000 Arizonans have died from #COVID19. Among those is tragically Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd, a first-grade teacher in the Hayden-Winkelman Unified School District. “Teachers’ dedication to serving students should not come at high risk. Arizona must do more to slow the spread of COVID19 and ensure a safe re-entry into our classrooms.” District Superintendent Jeff Gregorich cited Kimberley’s death in arguing against the reopening of local schools in the traditional sense. “I think [that] really the message or the concern that our staff has is, we can’t even keep our staff safe by themselves. … How are we going to keep 20 kids in a classroom safe?” he told CNN. “I just don’t see how that’s possible to do that.”

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Title: Five Guys: Employees who refused to serve cops fired, suspended Burger chain Five Guys has fired or suspended several employees from an Alabama location after three police officers said they were were denied service. The incident occurred on Tuesday when three police officers entered the burger joint’s location in Daphne and were informed that they were required to wear masks, news station WALA reported. The cops said they went to retrieve face coverings, but when they returned, multiple employees turned their backs to them and refused to serve them, the outlet reported. One of the employees was allegedly overheard saying, “I’m not serving them,” the report said. The chain said in a statement Friday that all employees involved faced repercussions for the incident. “Five Guys and the Daphne, AL franchise want to thank the Daphne Police Department for their support in working together toward a resolution,” Five Guys said in a statement Friday. “The actions the Daphne, AL franchise have taken include termination and suspension of the employees involved.” The Daphne store also said it was temporarily shuttering the location “for further education and customer service training with a representative from the Daphne Police Department.”

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Title: Ohio man pays homage to President Trump with huge lawn sign An Air Force vet in Ohio has painted over his entire 19,000-square-foot lawn to honor President Trump — who tweeted praise Sunday for his big fan. “TRUMP -2020- KEEP AMERICA…GREAT!” reads the massive white lettering against a  backdrop of blue lawn inside a red-outlined square on the property of Bay Township resident J.R. Majewski. “You see and hear a lot from the president on his support of the military. New weapons, new equipment, new technology — all of those things matter,” Majewski  told the Columbus Dispatch. “I think as a veteran, it’s highly appreciated.” The vet said he has received “a lot of positive feedback” over the massive lawn message — and Trump even weighed in himself. “Thank you to J.R. Majewski, a great Air Force Veteran and Trump Supporter who did a beautiful job of turning his lawn into a giant Trump Sign. Thanks also to your fantastic Ohio neighbors. We are making record progress on JOBS, etc. Big Silent Majority!!!” the president tweeted. Majewski said he used about 120 gallons of biodegradable chalk-based paint to create the homage to the president. A GoFundMe page was started Saturday by a man identifying himself as the veteran, who served in Afghanistan. It is asking for a total of $45,000 in donations to keep the lawn tribute going through the fall. “I would like to maintain the TRUMP Flag through November but the costs are be too substantial for me as an individual,” the page says. “Donated funding would be used to purchase of environmentally friendly, non-VOC, organic field paint, application of the paint, and lawn maintenance of the flag. “I understand this price tag might seem steep. “However, please bare in mind that the paint is special bulk order and expensive.”

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Title: Don Jr. blasts media for backing off Biden, criticism of Trump Donald Trump Jr. on Sunday slammed the media for not digging deeper into Joe Biden’s past, while going hard after his dad. “I think when you have the media onslaught where media has just totally abdicated their position to objectively look at both sides,” Trump Jr. said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” when asked about his dad’s poll numbers. “They’re not looking into any of Biden’s past. They’re not looking into any of his history.” “They want to do whatever they can to keep the American people from actually seeing Biden. He hasn’t been defined. And the media is trying to make sure that no one gets to define Joe Biden, because once he is, you’ll see how terrible this notion could be for America.” A RealClearPolitics average of polls show Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, leading with a 9 percent margin and ahead in a number of key battleground states, including Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Donald Jr. also blasted Biden’s recently unveiled “Build Back Better” plan that calls for spending $700 billion on US products to give the US economy a boost amid the coronavirus pandemic. “You know that Joe Biden can sell this notion of ‘now we’re going to buy American after 50 years of legislation that sent our jobs, that sent our American Dream to China,’” he said. “It’s asinine.”

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Title: Fire damages Navy ship USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego Advertisement An explosion and fire on board a Navy ship in San Diego Sunday sent more than 20 people to the hospital, officials said. Plumes of thick, grey and white smoke billowed from the USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego as firefighters battled the three-alarm blaze. As the inferno raged, a loud blast was heard coming from the 840-foot-long amphibious assault ship, KNSD-TV reported. The Naval Surface Forces said 17 sailors and four civilians were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at local hospitals. Officials said at least one person was treated for smoke inhalation. The ship could burn for days, “down to the water line,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Colin Stowell told CNN. The fire was reported shortly before 9 a.m., but smoke continued to fill and darken the sky for hours afterward. At least 150 firefighters were assigned to beat back the flames, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue Department officials. All other vessels docked at the port were directed to assist in firefighting efforts, said Mike Raney, a Navy spokesman. The Bonhomme Richard, whose home port is Naval Base San Diego, had been undergoing routine maintenance there when the fire broke out, according to Krishna Jackson, the base’s public information officer. About 160 sailors and officers were on board at the time. During active duty, the vessel typically carries more than 1,000 sailors. All sailors aboard the ship Sunday were evacuated and accounted for. The explosion occurred just as personnel were leaving the ship, said Stowell. Two guided-missile destroyers — the USS Fitzgerald and the USS Russell — had been moored near the Bonhomme Richard when the fire broke out but had been moved away from the burning vessel by early afternoon, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. It wasn’t immediately clear where on the ship the fire or explosion was sparked. The cause of the blaze was under investigation, and the extent of the damage was not known as of Sunday evening. The vessel has the capacity to deploy and land helicopters, smaller boats and amphibious vehicles. With Post Wires

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Title: Disney World reopening video mocked by social media users Social media apparently wants people to “stay home.” Disney World reopened on Saturday after closing down towards the end of March. To celebrate the occasion, the company released a video to social media of its employees welcoming guests back to the park. Unfortunately, social media users had a different take on the footage. The video was uploaded to the Disney Parks Jobs Instagram account and shows various employees, all wearing masks, saying “Welcome home.” It was captioned, “Cast members are ready to welcome guests back to Walt Disney World Resort.” Unfortunately, since the workers were all wearing masks over their mouths, it was apparently easy enough for social media users to re-edit the footage. One user posted on Twitter that they had “fixed” the video and uploaded an edited version of the video. This time, the audio had been replaced to make it look like the cast members were saying “Stay home.” Other users added horror movie music to the footage. One user wrote, “Reopening in the midst of all the spikes is sketchy. Having people who have covid but are asymptomatic would bring The Thing levels of distrust.” This post contained a version of the video with the score from the 1982 horror movie “The Thing” added. Another user added the opening scene from the beginning of “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” to the footage, making it appear as if an apocalyptic event had occurred. These edits appear to reflect growing concerns that some people have amidst an apparent spike in coronavirus cases in Florida. Many of these users of social media appeared to disagree that this was the right time to reopen the park. On Sunday, Florida set a new national record for the largest daily increase in coronavirus cases in the United States. The state added at least 15,299 positive COVID-19 cases, for a total of 269,811, and recorded 45 more deaths, according to state Department of Health statistics.

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Title: Schumer wants federal government to boost funding for schools to reopen Sen. Chuck Schumer on Sunday said if the Trump administration wants schools to reopen safely in New York and across the country this fall, the federal government will have to boost funding to help with some of the costs. “Everyone wants our schools to reopen, but the federal government must lead the way by funding the safety measures that would open the doors of New York and the nation’s schools in a way that helps ensure the coronavirus does not needlessly spread or infect teachers, kids or staff,” the New York Democrat said during a briefing. Schumer wants the feds to fork over $175 billion for the effort. Without the funds to help cover the costs of Personal Protection Equipment and cleaning supplies, local governments could be hit with sky-high expenses that would devastate their budgets, he argued. In that case, “local taxes could rise and some schools might simply stay closed — and we do not want that. That’s why we need to take action in ‘COVID-4’ and commit $175 billion to the goal of safely reopening K-12 schools for all,” Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said. Schumer, along with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), proposed a legislative package — called the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act — that he says would “substantially” cover the costs of reopening K-12 schools. It would also provide help for child care, tuition relief, efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect, and implement public health measures. “The bottom line here is that the coronavirus brought with it unprecedented health and economic challenges for students, families, educators, and learning institutions across the country — challenges disproportionately felt by students of color, students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and more,” Schumer said. “So action is needed now to save teaching jobs, preserve millions of child care slots, and ensure every student has access to a safe, quality education,” he said.

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Title: Florida sets single-day COVID-19 record with over 15,000 cases Florida has recorded the most new coronavirus cases of any state in a single day — more than 15,000 — shattering New York’s previous highest amount of 12,847 set at the height of the pandemic in April. Nearly 143,000 people were tested for the deadly contagion in the Sunshine State on Saturday, or the most in a day in Florida since the end of June, the state’s Health Department said. Still, while there were 15,299 confirmed Florida cases Saturday, or a positive rate of 11.25 percent, that percentage is below the state’s record Thursday of 18.39 percent and the lowest in days, a key fact to note, officials say. There also were 45 deaths recorded Saturday in Florida from the virus, compared to 95 the day before. The figures come as Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has resisted calls for a statewide face-mask mandate — and said just last week that if Walmart is open, then local schools should reopen this fall, too. The Republican National Convention is still on track to be held in Jacksonville next month.

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Title: Florida woman takes dishwashing job to see husband amid pandemic Advertisement A Florida woman took a dishwashing job at her husband’s nursing home after the facility barred visitors due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mary Daniel, 57, said she reached out to the staff at Rosecastle at Deerwood, an assisted living facility in Jacksonville, to see if she could volunteer or get a job there so she could see her spouse, Steve, TODAY reported. “They said, ‘Let’s wait to see what happens,'” Daniel told the outlet. “Then, out of the blue two weeks ago, they called and said, ‘Do you want a job?’ When I found out it was as a dishwasher, I thought, ‘Well, okay! I guess I’m a dishwasher now.'” Daniel said she was required to take several coronavirus tests and undergo intense training before starting her part-time job. “I had to have a background check, a drug test, a COVID test, 20 hours of video training on everything, including infectious diseases. It was 100 percent legit,” she said.   After 114 days apart, she was able to finally reunited with her 66-year-old husband, who has Alzheimer’s. “I walked into his room and he said my name, he said Mary, which was also a relief,” Daniel told CNN. “So when he said, Mary, and gave me the biggest hug, I mean, we both cried.” She said isolation had taken a toll on her husband — who was used to her coming in every night to get him ready for bed — but that he seemed to be more at ease now, even giving her a hug during a recent shift. “He came up from behind me and put his arms around the front of me … which is an incredible feeling,” she told CNN. “So, he knows who I am. There’s no question, he knows who I am even in a mask.”

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Title: Betsy DeVos vows students will return to classes this fall Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said she intends to have students back in classrooms this fall. “Parents are expecting that this fall their kids are going to have a full-time experience with their learning, and we need to follow through on that promise,” DeVos told told “Fox News Sunday,” adding that “kids cannot afford to not continue learning.” She said it’s “not a matter of if” but a “matter of how.” DeVos said students have already been harmed by not being in school during the spring amid the coronavirus pandemic, and some who have been staying home could be suffering from mental, emotional and social issues. “They’ve fallen behind this spring, we need to ensure they’re back in a classroom situation wherever possible and whenever possible, and fully functioning, fully learning,” she said. Fox News’ Chris Wallace pointed out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not say schools had to close and released guidelines last month for how they could reopen safely. DeVos acknowledged that exceptions could be made in areas that are seeing a spike in cases. “Where there are hot spots in the future, in the fall, of course that has to be dealt with differently,” she said. DeVos also doubled down on threats to withhold federal funding from schools that don’t reopen. “American investment in education is a promise to students and their families,” she said. “If schools aren’t going to reopen and not fulfill that promise, they shouldn’t get the funds.” But Wallace noted that she and President Trump don’t have that power and to cut funds, and that they’d have to work with Congress. DeVos said the administration is “looking at all the options.” “Because it’s a promise of the American people, to students and their families, and we want to make sure that promise is followed through on,” she said. The US has reported more than 3 million coronavirus cases, and nearly 135,000 Americans have died of the disease.

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Title: Fauci 'not 100 percent right' about COVID-19 spike, top official says The country’s top testing official said Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has suggested states should pause reopening where coronavirus cases are spiking, is “not 100 percent right.” “I respect Dr. Fauci a lot, but Dr. Fauci is not 100 percent right, and he also doesn’t necessarily, he admits that, have the whole national interest in mind,” Adm. Brett Giroir said Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view.” Host Chuck Todd asked Giroir, the testing coordinator at the Department of Health and Human Services, about a Washington Post report that said Fauci has argued that states with spikes should shut down again. Giroir said he doesn’t “think we need to shut down” again — “at least in most places around the country” — but suggested Americans should “avoid bars” and “wear a mask in public.” President +Trump last week said Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, has “made a lot of mistakes.” “Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “A lot of them said don’t wear a mask, don’t wear a mask. Now they are saying wear a mask. A lot of mistakes were made, a lot of mistakes.” Giroir also said the White House coronavirus task force openly discusses all options, batting back claims that members are being sidelined if they have opposing views. “I want to just put this to rest. There is complete, open, honest discussion within the task force. Task force meets three to four times a week,” he said, adding that Vice President Mike Pence regularly calls him. “I feel absolutely free saying anything to the vice president within those rooms. The vice president, I know, briefs the president on a daily basis. So nobody feels like anything is held back. We all take this as a serious crisis. It’s got to be science driving the policy. And that’s the way it is,” Giroir said.

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Title: Miami gorilla Shango tested for coronavirus after low-grade fever Advertisement That’s one ape-sized nasal swab. A gorilla in Miami was tested for the coronavirus after he developed a low-grade fever, according to his zoo. Shango, a 31-year-old lowland gorilla, received the tests — which came back negative — while getting medical treatment for a bite wound, according to Zoo Miami. The 433-pound animal was injured by his 26-year-old brother, Barney, when the gorillas tussled in a fight, zoo officials said. He was taken Wednesday to an animal hospital, where he received X-rays, vaccines, ultrasound and other tests, the zoo said. Though his bite wounds appear “quite deep,” there was no indication that there would be permanent damage, officials said. He has since been returned to the gorilla area where he will be closely monitored as he continues to recover. No decision has been made about when Shango will be reintroduced to his younger brother, the zoo said. Shango and Barney were both born at the San Francisco Zoo and arrived at Zoo Miami in May of 2017. The zoo said that scuffles between adult male gorillas are not uncommon, but most consists of a lot of posturing and rarely result in serious injuries.

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Title: Tech CEO enrolls in anti-racism school after restaurant tirade The Silicon Valley startup founder who went on a racist tirade against an Asian family at a California restaurant says he enrolled in anti-racism school to confront his “deeply inappropriate” behavior. Michael Lofthouse, the founder of IT company Solid8, said he would get sober and take actions to learn from the racist episode last week at Bernardus Lodge and Spa’s Lucia restaurant in Carmel Valley, Fox Business reported. “I have once again begun my journey back to sobriety and have enrolled in an anti-racist program with immediate effect,” Lofthouse said in a statement. “My comments towards the families involved were racist, hurtful and deeply inappropriate.” Lofthouse has been under fire since he was caught on video verbally attacking Jordan Chan and her family last week as they dined across from him. In the video, the tech entrepreneur could be seen railing into the patrons, saying, “You f–king Asian piece of s–t.” “The reactions to what was said have been deserved and I wholeheartedly acknowledge that I am complicit in a system that enables this behavior and these broken beliefs to exist but I am dedicated to changing,” Lofthouse told Fox Business. He also announced that he resigned as CEO of Solid8 and had cut all ties with them. “I can confirm that I have stepped down from Solid8, terminating all business relationships with immediate effect,” he said.

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Title: Weingarten: 'No way' schools open this fall without funding Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said there’s “no way” schools across the country could reopen this fall because of a lack of federal funding. “There’s no way that you’re going to have full-time schools for all the kids and all the teachers the way we used to have it,” Weingarten told John Catsimatidis on his AM 770 WABC radio show on Sunday. “Once we have a vaccine, I hope we can get back to that.” The School Superintendent Association estimated that it would cost an average of $1.8 million per school district to adhere to guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reopen this fall. But, so far, the Trump administration hasn’t said whether additional funds would be available. “And in doing this, not only is there a [need] for retrofitting, for ventilation systems, but also for buying the damned masks for the cleaning equipment, for the nurses that we’re going to need. That’s why we’ve been pushing really hard … To get the [federal] money that states need… to re-open schools,” Weingarten said. At a coronavirus briefing last week, Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said reopening schools was essential to students’ well being and mental health. DeVos, during an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” reemphasized that students must return to their classrooms. “Kids have got to get back to school,” she said, adding that”kids cannot afford to not continue learning.” DeVos said it is “not a matter of if” this happens, but “a matter of how.”

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Title: President Trump defends golf as ‘exercise,’ says he gets work done on the course President Trump on Sunday defended playing golf as his way of getting some “exercise” and said he also managed to work while hitting the links. “I know many in business and politics that work out endlessly, in some cases to a point of exhaustion. It is their number one passion in life, but nobody complains,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “My ‘exercise’ is playing, almost never during the week, a quick round of golf.” The president went on to say he golfs less than his predecessor Barack Obama and said the media tries to make a big deal out of his trips to the golf course. “Obama played more and much longer rounds, no problem. When I play, Fake News CNN, and others, park themselves anywhere they can to get a picture, then scream ‘President Trump is playing golf,” he said. “Actually, I play VERY fast, get a lot of work done on the golf course, and also get a “tiny” bit of exercise. Not bad!” The president played a round at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., on Saturday before visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he visited troops wounded in combat. According to Trump Golf Count, Trump has visited one of his golf courses 261 times since he became president on Jan. 20, 2017, and was confirmed to have played golf on 125 of those visits. Obama played 333 rounds of golf during his two terms in office.

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Title: Virginia deputy accused of faking roadside attack A Virginia deputy was busted for allegedly faking a roadside attack that he claimed left him unconscious, authorities said. Jake Preston Dooley, 22, of Marshall was charged Saturday with falsely summonsing law enforcement and obstruction of justice, according to the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office. The deputy had claimed that he was heading home after his shift Friday night when he pulled over to remove an object from the middle of the street, authorities said. Dooley said that as he was returning to his vehicle, he was yelled at then knocked out as he turned to see the source of the commotion, news station WTVR reported. About 10 minutes later, a passerby who discovered the deputy lying face down and called 911, authorities said. “Detectives thoroughly and vigorously investigated the allegation and determined the incident reported by the deputy was false,” the sheriff’s office said. It’s unclear how authorities determined that Dooley’s claims were bogus. Sheriff Robert P. Mosier said Saturday that Dooley has been let go from the force. “Sometimes bad things happen to good organizations,” Mosier said in a statement. “We truly regret that this happened but find a tremendous amount of comfort in the knowledge that our community understands and supports law enforcement in Fauquier County.”

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Title: Protester who died after being exposed to tear gas succumbed to natural causes, autopsy reveals An Ohio woman who died after she was tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed by police during a George Floyd protest succumbed to natural causes, her autopsy revealed. Sarah Grossman, 22, died two days after participating in a protest in Columbus on May 28, when she was exposed to tear gas and pepper spray discharged to control the crowds, the Dayton Daily News reported. Reports that Grossman’s death may be the result of tear gas exposure spread online after her sister suggested the possibility on Instagram before editing the post, news station WBNS reported. Her autopsy revealed that she died of a coronary artery dissection due to a previously undiagnosed genetic condition known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office. The rare disorder affects connective tissue, primarily skin, joints, and blood vessel walls, according to the Mayo Clinic. Grossman graduated this year from Ohio State University with a degree from the school’s Environment, Economy, Development and Sustainability program, according to her obituary. “Sarah was a fierce but compassionate supporter of environmental issues and social justice,” her family wrote. “Those who knew her will understand what a beautiful soul the world has lost. She lived a short but full life.” With Post wires

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Title: Two Texas cops shot dead responding to domestic disturbance call Two Texas cops were shot and killed in an ambush as they arrived on a domestic violence call, according to their chief. McAllen officers Edelmiro Garza, 45, and Ismael Chavez, 39, “never had a chance” as the gunman opened fire in the South Texas border town Saturday, police chief Victor Rodriguez said. Gunman Audon Ignacio Camarillo, 23, initially hid behind a car when other officers arrived — shooting and killing himself before he could be arrested, the chief said. Colleagues of the slain cops had no idea of the two officers’ deaths until they arrived and found their bodies, Rodriguez said. “We have lost two brave public servants who sought only to keep peace in our City,” Rodriguez, visibly distraught, told The (McAllen) Monitor. “They were doing their job. That is what they were supposed to do,” he said. “The officers never had a chance to suspect deadly assault on them, much less death.” Details of the domestic disturbance call that was responded to by Garza and Chavez — veterans with the force for eight and two years respectively — were not immediately known. Camarillo had a few run-ins with police beginning in 2016 to his most recent arrest last month on assault charges, according to public records. Law enforcement from several cities in Hidalgo County gathered Saturday evening at McAllen Medical to honor Garza and Chavez. More than 50 police cars were part of a procession that accompanied the bodies of the officers, who were taken to Hidalgo County pathology for an autopsy. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who spoke with Rodriguez, offered the full backing of the state and expressed his support via social media. “Two of our finest were killed in the line of duty while working to protect residents in their community,” Abbott wrote on Twitter. “We unite to #BackTheBlue.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted that his office will provide the McAllen Police Department with any help needed. “Our prayers and full support are with the valiant men and women of the #CityofMcAllen PD this evening,” Paxton wrote “We are grateful for police in McAllen and around this great state.” Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen said in a statement that receiving news of the two officers’ deaths was “devastating.” “This is devastating news to our community. My heart breaks for these fallen officers and their families,” Gonzalez said. “They served McAllen bravely and honorably and I will keep them in my prayers.” With Post wires

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Title: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joyride through Beverly Hills in SUV Do as I say, not as I drive? Despite their eco-friendly agenda, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry recently tooled around Beverly Hills in a gas-guzzling SUV, the Daily Mail reported Saturday. Photos obtained by the Mail show the formerly royal couple popping into a black Cadillac Escalade. Online reviews have called the low-miles-per-gallon Escalade about as far from environmentally friendly as a car owner can get, the Mail noted. The couple have been previously criticized for urging that the planet be saved from global warming but using a private jet for international travel. Just last week, in a video condemning racial injustice, the couple encouraged Britain to “promote prosperity, democracy and peace, amplify the voice of small states, and protect the environment.”

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Title: San Gabriel Mission destroyed in early morning fire Southern California’s historic San Gabriel Mission, which was built 1771, was ravaged by an early morning fire Saturday. There were no injuries. According to NBC News, the nearly 250-year-old Roman Catholic mission held many priceless artifacts that dated back to its founding. Much of the interior and roof were damaged in the fire,  which is under investigation by the San Gabriel Fire Department. Capt. Antonio Negrete of the fire department called the scene “heartbreaking.” Archbishop Jose Gomez tweeted photos of the destruction asking members of the community for prayers as repairs begin for the Southern California landmark. “Our beloved #SanGabrielMission, founded in 1771, devastated by fire before dawn. St. Junípero Serra, pray for this land that you helped to found.” Junipero Serra, who founded the mission, recently came under scrutiny for his colonization and brutalization of the Native Americans who occupied the land before he settled there. Serra’s statue in Los Angeles was toppled in June amid the many protests that erupted all over the country calling for the removal of many racist statues. Another statue of Serra was beheaded in Monterey in 2016.

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Title: John Wayne exhibit will be dismantled at California film school A film school in California is canceling its John Wayne exhibit due to what administrators are calling the late ­actor’s history of bigoted and homophobic statements. The School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California announced last week that it was removing the indoor exhibit, which featured archival photos and movie costumes, props and memorabilia. The move was announced by the school via Twitter. Wayne, who attended USC in the ’20s, told Playboy magazine in 1971, “I believe in white supremacy.”

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Title: Ghislaine Maxwell didn't introduce Epstein to Prince Andrew: pal Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged right-hand woman is not the “cartoon caricature of a villain” portrayed in the media, her pal told the Daily Mail. Ghislaine Maxwell, who faces charges for allegedly finding and grooming underage girls for the late Epstein, adopted pets in the year after Epstein’s suicide and is heartbroken that her friends have lost jobs due to their mere association with the accused “madam.” “Ghislaine is no Cruella de Vil,” the friend told the tabloid. “She is being portrayed as this evil character and a cartoon-like villain but she is nothing like that. She is a real person and is determined to prove her innocence despite the fact that she has been characterized as some sort of monster.” Many victims have accused Maxwell, 58, as acting as Epstein’s sinister fixer in the 1990s, procuring him young girls to sexually abuse and convincing them to travel to his properties across the world. Friends of the British socialite, who is scheduled to appear in court via videoconferencing Tuesday, have jumped to her defense since her arrest in New Hampshire last week, the Mail reported. Pals had claimed Maxwell hadn’t seen Epstein in 15 years; that she had adopted a cat and dog after his death last year; and that she wasn’t the one to introduce the billionaire child sex abuser to Prince Andrew, as was widely reported. The two first met through socialite Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who made the introduction at a birthday party she threw in 1999 for her British billionaire husband, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, in the Hamptons, the friend told the Mail. “Ghislaine wasn’t at that party. Lynn introduced Andrew to Epstein,” the friend claimed. “It was all about the money with Andrew and Epstein. Just wait and see. There is a lot more to come out.” The pal said Maxwell’s romantic relationship with Epstein ended in 2001. They last saw in each other at a party in 2005, when Maxwell had moved on to date Ted Waitt, the billionaire Gateway computer founder. “The reality is that Ghislaine’s relationship with Epstein ended in 2001,” the friend told the Mail. “Starting in late 2002, early 2003, she was dating Ted and she loved him deeply. Epstein kept trying to woo her back but she wasn’t interested.” Maxwell has been moved around from cell to cell while being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to protect her from inmate attacks, the friend said. She was also initially issued paper clothes to keep her from harming herself, though she has since been offered traditional prison garb. The Oxford-educated Maxwell faces a six-count indictment of sex-trafficking minors and lying about the alleged crimes under oath. She faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.

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Title: Steve Bannon claims Wuhan scientists 'defected' to the West Steve Bannon claims scientists in the Wuhan lab eyed as a potential source for COVID-19 have “defected” and are working with US intelligence agencies. President Trump’s former chief strategist, a virulent China opponent, told the Daily Mail — while providing no evidence — that researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology are cooperating with the West to build a case that the bug spread from a lab leak. “They are not talking to the media yet, but there are people out of the Wuhan lab and other labs that have come to the West and are turning over evidence of the culpability of the Chinese Communist Party,” Bannon told the tabloid. “I think people are going to be shocked.” Bannon, giving the interview from a yacht off America’s East Coast, said the defectors were also speaking with agencies in Europe and the UK. “People around these labs have been leaving China and Hong Kong since mid-February,” he went on. “[US intelligence] along with MI5 and MI6 are trying to build a very thorough legal case, which may take a long time. It’s not like James Bond.” Bannon was the center of a ridiculous stunt last month where he and Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire, flew propeller planes carrying anti-Communist Party messaging. The media executive went on to disparage the World Health Organization and the Chinese government for their alleged culpability in the crisis. The Chinese government has dismissed claims the virus had stemmed from a lab leak, while the WHO has denied claims from President Trump that it has been China’s “puppet” during the pandemic. Bannon went on to call on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to back away from plans to allow the China-based Huawei to work in the UK’s new 5G network. “To me, Huawei should be shut down throughout the world in every country, and their assets liquidated,” he aside. “I say to Boris Johnson — shut down Huawei, and keep calm and carry on.”

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Title: What house arrest is like for Paul Manafort, Michael Avenatti, Mary Boone Pandemic lockdown can feel like a prison, but it’s meant freedom for some high-profile criminals. With the coronavirus crisis sweeping the country’s prison system — at a rate 5.5 times higher than that of the rest of the US population, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University — these jailbirds have gone from life behind bars to house arrest. Still, they are discovering their new normal is anything but. Michael Cohen learned his lesson this week, when he was sent back to prison less than two months after his lucky release. The former lawyer to Donald Trump was released to home confinement on May 21 from Otisville federal prison upstate, where he was serving three years after pleading guilty to tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations in 2018. Upon Cohen’s release, his lawyer, Jeffrey K. Levine, said of his home lock-up: “It’s still his prison until his sentence is over.” But after The Post published photos of Cohen dining out last week at Le Bilboquet, the 53-year-old was taken back into custody. “I think he’s probably still in disbelief he’s back in Otisville,” Levine told The Post. “The look in his eyes as he was being taken away [haunts me].” A friend said home re-entry wasn’t easy for Cohen. “It was disorienting going from solitary confinement [because of COVID-19 restrictions] to [his old life],” the friend told The Post. “This stuff is traumatic. You have this elation that you’re home, but you have to deal with the aftermath of your jail sentence.” Pastor Darrell Scott, a onetime close friend of Cohen, was less sympathetic. “It was dumb. I know thugs in the hood who know to keep their heads down,” Scott told The Post. “He’s his own worst enemy sometimes. You won’t see Paul Manafort at a restaurant.” Here’s how Manafort and others are handling house arrest. CRIME: Trump’s campaign chairman was found guilty on eight counts in his tax and bank fraud trial, and pleaded guilty to two felonies. SENTENCED TO: Seven-and-a-half years at FCI Loretto, a facility in Pennsylvania. TIME SERVED: Manafort moved to home confinement on May 13, 23 months into his sentence, after having been hospitalized for a cardiac event last year and the flu in February. “Being surrounded by family is a good thing for Paul,” his attorney Todd Blanche told The Post. While a source told The Post that some associates want nothing to do with Manafort, at least one looks forward to seeing him. Roger Stone was to report to prison next week after being convicted of crimes related to the Mueller investigation, but Trump commuted his sentence Friday. “When you’re indicted, the government gives a list of people with whom you can have no contact,” Stone said, adding he missed his pal. Manafort was on his list, but now that may be moot. CRIME: In September 2018, the art dealer pleaded guilty to false income tax returns — reporting business losses when her eponymous gallery made a profit of some $3.7 million. SENTENCED TO: Thirty months at the federal correctional institution in Danbury, Conn. TIME SERVED: She was released in June, about 13 months in, and is now at home on the East Side of Manhattan. “I feel extremely fortunate that I was able to go home early,” the 68-year-old, who represented artists including Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat, told The Post. “[Prison] teaches you a lot of humility.” Since release, she hasn’t spoken to anyone from her high-flying old life — focusing on her relationship with her son, Max, who visits often. “He’s here all the time.” She said that, after decades of a busy career, being at home is an unexpected blessing. “With the gallery, it [took up] so much time . . . I love being in my home. I’m on a new journey.” CRIME: In February, the lawyer. who represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her suits against President Trump, was found guilty of trying to extort $23.5 million from Nike. He is also charged with embezzlement in California. SENTENCED TO: Still awaiting sentencing, he faces 40-plus years in prison and had been detained at Tribeca’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. TIME SERVED: Avenatti was temporarily released in April and is set to return Sept. 24. He is now living at the “small one-bedroom” apartment of a friend in Venice Beach, Calif., according to lawyer Mariel Colon. Avenatti sleeps on a couch in the living room and has an ankle monitor strapped to him at all times. “Anything is better than where he was,” Colon said. “He’s scared to go back because of the risk of the virus.”

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Title: Ex-USA Gymnastics coach arrested for sex crimes with a minor A former USA Gymnastics coach has been arrested for multiple counts of lewdness with a minor, according to Las Vegas police. Terry Gray, 52, was arrested Friday by sex crimes detectives, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Gray coached in Las Vegas from 2009 to 2015 and was suspended by USA Gymnastics in 2019, the department said. He coached on the women’s national team and at gyms in Southern California and Ohio, according to the Orange County Register.  The paper said he was suspended from gymnastics for sexual misconduct with a minor. Gray was charged with 14 counts in Las Vegas stemming from alleged incidents at Brown’s Gymnastics in Las Vegas, according to the report. The facility has produced top gymnasts. There are at least three alleged victims, the paper said quoting a person familiar with the case. Gray had once worked under Olympic team coach Mary Lee Tracy at Cincinnati Gymnastics, where he coached Alyssa Beckerman, an alternate on the 2000 Olympic team, according to the newspaper. Las Vegas police urged anyone who may have been one of Gray’s victims to call the department at 702-828-3421.

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Title: COVID-19 ravages parts of the US as New York sees record lows More Americans are dying from coronavirus nationwide as the pandemic rages in the southern and western parts of the country, statistics show. More than 134,600 people in the US have now died of COVID-19, a figure that’s increased over the last two weeks — with 27 states, including Florida, Texas, California and Arizona, seeing a rise in fatalities. There were 802 deaths in the country on Friday alone, according to a report. In New York, however, the pandemic remained under control with the lowest average deaths and hospitalizations in the state since mid-March, Gov. Cuomo said Saturday. In the past three days, COVID-19 deaths statewide were in the single digits, with just 6 reported Friday, and hospitalizations fell to below 800 for the first time since March 18, Cuomo said Saturday. In California, 8,000 state prisoners are set to be released in a bid to slow the virus’ spread, officials told Reuters. Only prisoners with less than a year remaining on their sentences will be eligible for release. Those with violent rap sheets or convictions for sex crimes will be excluded from the program. In Texas, a patient in their 30s who had attended a “COVID party” made a chilling confession before dying of coronavirus, a doctor said. “Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said ‘I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,’” Dr. Jane Appleby, Chief Medical Officer of Methodist Healthcare in San Antonio, told NBC. And in Florida, a bit of normalcy returned with the opening of Disney World after nearly four months — even as cases in the state surge, with more than 10,000 new cases and 95 deaths reported Saturday. Across the pond, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was all about work, not play, urging employers to get people back in the office as early as next week, according to a report. “I think everybody’s taken the ‘stay at home if you can’ [advice]. I think now we should say ‘go back to work if you can,’” he said.

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Title: Flynn could make a campaign comeback for Trump, insiders say As Michael Flynn’s three-year legal drama nears its end, some of President Trump’s allies are hyping a new job for the ousted national security adviser: campaign surrogate. “He’s the perfect example of deep-state victimization,” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told Politico. “Great surrogate — lots of people would come to see him.” Flynn, a former three-star general who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration, was one of Trump’s most vociferous boosters ahead of the 2016 presidential election. He was known for leading anti-Hillary Clinton chants of “Lock her up!” during the Republican National Convention that year — and in the years since has become a martyr-like figure for many in Trump’s base, after being prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller for lying to the FBI and pleading guilty. The campaign has not spoken directly with Flynn about stumping for Trump, an official told Politico. But three people close to the re-election effort said they would welcome his return once he is free of the threat of jail time. The plan would get a major boost if Joe Biden chooses former National Security Adviser Susan Rice as his running mate, another Trump adviser said. In that case, Flynn “would be our No. 1 draft pick to open President Trump’s rallies,” the adviser said, after recently revealed documents implicated both Biden and Rice in efforts to snoop on Flynn during the transition period before Trump took office. Flynn would play up “his own experience with the deep state that Biden and Rice would do everything to protect,” the adviser said. Some Republicans warned that a focus on Flynn would be a backward-looking move for an incumbent who is struggling to expand his appeal. “All it does is cement the fact that Donald Trump is running a base campaign, just mining for his voters,” GOP strategist Susan del Percio told The Post. “He keeps looking back at what happened four years ago. But he is the establishment now, whether he likes it or not.” Additional reporting by Jon Levine

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Title: President Trump dons face mask for visit to military hospital President Trump is covering up. The president, who has resisted calls to wear a face covering in public throughout the coronavirus epidemic, appeared for the first time with one before the White House press corps. It was navy blue bearing the presidential seal in gold. The occasion was a visit to Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he met with wounded troops and medical staff on Saturday. “I love masks in the appropriate locations,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House. Earlier in the week he had promised to take the precaution during his visit. “You’re in a hospital setting, I think it’s a very appropriate thing,” the president told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday. Trump has worn a face mask — out of the cameras’ glare — at least once before, during a visit to a Ford auto plant in May, NBC News reported.

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Title: GOP voter registrations outpace Dems in swing states: report The Republican Party has edged out the Democrats in the race to sign up new voters — and coronavirus lockdowns are to blame, a new report says. New registrations cratered in the last three months, says TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm. In May of this year, 194,596 new voters were registered nationwide, according to TargetSmart’s report. That’s just 13 percent of the 1,490,631 who registered in May 2016. In at least five battleground states, Democrats appear to have borne the brunt of the damage during the COVID-shutdown period. In Maine, for example, 59 percent of new voters registered as Dems pre-coronavirus — but only 40 percent have done so in the months since. Dem declines were also seen in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, TargetSmart found. Additionally, in the swing state of Iowa, the new voters helped the GOP retake the statewide lead in voter registrations last month, Politico reported. The new voters who did manage to send in applications were older and whiter than those who had been recruited before the pandemic hit. Voters in those demographic groups are expected to break for President Trump, rather than for Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden, in November. Despite the recent registration decline, over the entire pre-election period Republicans “have doubled the amount of new voter registrations … than we did in the entire 2016 cycle,” RNC press secretary Mandi Merritt told The Post. GOP canvassers added nearly 4,000 new voters to the polls over the July 4th weekend, she said. Voter registration drives, particularly in hotly contested swing states, are crucial pre-election battles. Both parties and their allied interest groups pour cash and staff time into the effort every election cycle. COVID-19 was a “perfect, horrible storm in terms of undercutting registration efforts, and undercutting people’s ability to get registered,” Page Gardner of the Democrat-aligned Voter Participation Center told Politico. “People like us can’t be out in the street with clipboards the way that we normally would be, and also DMVs are closed,” said Ben Wessel of NextGen America, another Dem-linked advocacy group. Some partisans seem to be resorting to desperate measures — like sending a voter registration form to a long-deceased pet cat in Georgia this week.

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Title: Exclusive | Great white sharks are lurking off NYC-area beaches Beware, beachgoers: Social-distancing violators might be the least of your problems. At least three great white sharks lurk in local waters, with another monster moving our way, and a possible fifth maneater — the venerable Mary Lee, all 16 feet and 3,456 pounds of her — likely hanging around her old chomping grounds off the Jersey Shore. The most recent apex predators to take up residence in New York/New Jersey waters, according to the Ocearch online shark tracker, are Caroline (12 feet 9 inches long, 1,348 pounds), who pinged between Seaside Heights and Barnegat Light, NJ, on July 1; and Caper (8 feet, 348 pounds) and Cabot (9 feet, 533 pounds), whose electronic tags signaled on June 8 and 4, respectively, off the Hamptons. New to the neighborhood is Vimy, a 1,164-pound behemoth nearly 13 feet long, who was tracked on July 10 in the deep ocean off Delaware and southern New Jersey. It’s possible he’s just doing a dive-by as he heads for the cool waters off Canada. Mary Lee’s satellite tracker stopped working in 2017 when its five-year battery gave out, but scientists believe the locavore is alive and well. News of the great whites within biting distance of our shores comes after a 7-foot shark washed up on Rockaway Beach on July 1. But that was only a thresher, a harmless species that poses a puppy dog’s threat to the bathing public. Great whites, on the other hand, can have upwards of 3,000 serrated, blade-like teeth that can each grow to 6 inches long. They fear no one, as Capt. Quint discovered while becoming sharkbait in the movie “Jaws.” Are we in for the same kind of summer as Amity Island? Probably not, the experts say. “The drive to the beach is much riskier than swimming with sharks in the water,” said Paul Sieswerda, head of Gotham Whale, a NYC research and advocacy organization. He says the appearance of great whites is actually a good thing, a sign of healthy local waters. He explained that since 2010, cleaner water has led to an abundance of menhaden bait fish and even seals — shark snacks that attract the predators.  He said to expect even more great whites in coming years if seals take up year-round residence here, like they have in Cape Cod. Chris Fischer, founder of the Ocearch shark tracker, also expects “a steady slow increase in shark numbers.” He said the five great whites are “no more than normal,” and that they are following typical migration patterns. For example, Mary Lee, whom he called “one of the true queens of the ocean,” could still be summering off Long Beach Island, NJ, based on past habits and a route that takes her as far south as the Bahamas and as far north as Massachusetts. He said the growing population of great whites here is “a thing to celebrate.” They prey on the weak, which keeps marine stocks strong and ensures that “everyone will see an ocean full of fish for generations, and our great-grandkids will be able to enjoy fish sandwiches and lobster rolls deep into the future.” But make sure you don’t become fish food yourself: “Be smart. Don’t swim out into the ocean if you see a bunch of seals, baitfish crashing, and birds diving.” Source: Ocearch

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Title: Green Beret known as 'Captain America' commits suicide A decorated Green Beret who served a dozen combat tours, including six in Afghanistan, committed suicide last week in front of his wife, becoming the 30th member of his elite battalion to kill himself, according to reports. Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano, 34, was known as “Captain America” to his fellow soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division. He earned a Silver Star for bravery and had recently moved to Washington, DC, to work at the Pentagon. But on July 6, after having dinner with his former battalion commander, Marckesano returned home and committed suicide in front of his wife. He was still on active duty and leaves behind three small children. It was not clear how he killed himself. In the days before he died, he sent an upbeat message to his fellow soldiers: “Text me, I told you before my door is open . . . my phone is at hand. We did things that people make movies about and in some cases, writers and producers wouldn’t even try to write our story . . . the rucksack is heavy . . . and when it gets heavy we [&$#*] help each other, but you have to reach out . . . Don’t let the Valley win,” according to Fox News. Friends and family said Marckesano never really got past his 2009 tour in Afghanistan’s Arghandab Valley with the 2-508 battalion, which had one of the highest mortality rates in the war. “That deployment was like being in the ring with Mike Tyson for a year,” the battalion’s former Command Sgt. Major Bert Puckett told Fox. Marckesano is one of an estimated 20 combat veterans who are killing themselves every day, according to military statistics. Last month, President Trump launched the PREVENTS Task Force to aid veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress. “My administration is marshaling every resource to stop the crisis of veteran suicide and protect our nation’s most treasured heroes,” Trump said. “They’ve been through so much, and it’s such a deep-seated problem.”

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Title: Detroit police release footage showing Hakim Littleton shooting As protesters took to the streets of Detroit Friday, the police chief released a video of the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man by a police officer earlier that day, saying it shows the use of force was justified. Police Chief James Craig released the police dash cam video seven hours after the shooting of Hakim Littleton, which had spurred angry demonstrations in the area almost immediately after. Chaos broke out in the west-side neighborhood of San Juan near McNichols Road. More than 100 people began yelling at police and throwing bricks and bottles at them because of what they said was another case of police brutality against an innocent black man. But the video clearly showed a male, apparently Littleton, pulling a gun out of his pocket, pointing it at the head of a police officer and opening fire, the Detroit Free Press reported. Three nearby officers quickly fired back. The man went down before a police officer could get him to ground. He was pronounced dead shortly after. “We needed to get the facts out,” Craig said. Craig said messages on social media had misled the public. “It’s always tragic when a police officer has to use force,” Craig said, then added, “This knee-jerk reaction to not knowing facts is a problem … It’s to incite others.” Police told Littleton’s family what happened and they accepted it. “They weren’t happy,” Craig said, “but they believed what we said, and I greatly appreciate that.” Why did Littleton pull a gun on the cops? “When Mr. Littleton was walking in the opposite direction, he heard that his friend was being detained, then he walked toward the officers,” Craig told reporters. “Some comments were made. He was angry about his friend being arrested, and that’s when he pulled out his weapon.” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said the video convinced him the shooting was justified. “Public confidence requires citizens to be able to judge for themselves the actions of our officers. The video is clear that the officer was suddenly and unexpectedly fired upon. I commend Chief Craig for moving so quickly to release the video publicly,” Duggan said. Police said Littleton, 20, was out on probation for a 2017 unarmed robbery and felony firearm conviction. Court records obtained by the Detroit Free Press indicate he was initially charged with armed robbery, but cut a deal to plead guilty to a lesser charge that got him three years probation. Police also explained that the shooting happened while cops from the gang intelligence unit were investigating a July 5 shooting at a block party that left three people dead.

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Title: Man arrested for biting seagull after it tried to steal Big Mac Who ordered the McSeagull? A man in Cornwall, England, was arrested this week after biting a seagull who tried to steal his Big Mac. The 26-year-old man “claimed he was being attacked for his McDonald’s meal and in response, he grabbed the bird and bit it,” reports Cornwall Live. “He sunk his teeth into it before throwing it to the floor,” a police spokesperson told the site. “Officers had seen the incident and immediately went over and detained and took details from him.” The man told police officers he was “under the influence of drugs” and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. “The seagull was clearly injured by the incident but flew off before we were able to check on its welfare,” the rep said. “We don’t know what happened to it afterward.” Seagulls are notoriously aggressive around food but are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981.

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Title: Portuguese police launch search for Madeleine McCann remains Police in southern Portugal are searching wells near the resort town where a British toddler went missing 14 years ago after uncovering evidence that links a German drifter to her disappearance, according to reports. The search is in Vila do Bispo in the Portuguese Algarve, not far from the resort town of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine McCann vanished in May 2007,  the Sun newspaper reported. Authorities launched their hunt based on “fundamental evidence” that tied Christian Brueckner, 43, to McCann’s disappearance, according to the Sun, which didn’t detail what the evidence was. Besides police, firefighters have been called in to help with the search; they are ”looking for a body,” Portuguese broadcaster RTP reported. RTP also linked Brueckner, a convicted rapist and child molester, to another disappearance in resort town of Silves, but gave no details. Brueckner had fled from Germany to Portugal in 1994 after being convicted of the sexual abuse of a child in Germany.

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Title: Trump blasts prosecutorial misconduct in Michael Flynn case President Trump again signaled his displeasure with the prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn on Saturday. “New documents just released reveal General Flynn was telling the truth, and the FBI knew it!” Trump said in a tweet referencing a new disclosure Friday which Flynn’s attorneys say shows their client was the target of prosecutorial misconduct. In a new 14-page filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals Friday, Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell said prosecutors deliberately suppressed evidence that would have been favorable to his client, Bloomberg reported. The docs reveal prosecutors’ internal debates over whether to bring charges against Flynn. In one, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tashina Gauhar described agents assessments of Flynn after speaking to him, saying they believed he had been “forthright” about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and that there was no indication of any deliberate attempt at deception. “These documents establish that on January 25, 2017 – the day after the agents ambushed him at the White House – the agents and DOJ officials knew General Flynn’s statements were not material to any investigation, that he was open and forthcoming with the agents, that he had no intent to deceive them, and that he believed he was fully truthful with them,” the filing reads. New documents just released reveal General Flynn was telling the truth, and the FBI knew it! @OANN — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2020 Flynn, who joined the White House in early 2017, had pleaded guilty twice to making false statements to FBI agents about his dealings with a Russian diplomat in late 2016. He was fired as national security advisor after just 24 days on the job. The Justice Department moved to drop the charges against Flynn in May over investigative misconduct, though the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has so far frustrated that effort.

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Title: Trump calls for extradition of former British spy Christopher Steele President Trump has called for the extradition of a former MI6 agent who compiled a controversial report about his alleged links to Russia during the 2016 campaign. Christopher Steele, who is now a director of Orbis Business Intelligence, was the author of the 2016 dossier that alleged collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putin — an allegation that was denied by both parties. “This man should be extradited, tried and thrown into jail,” said Trump in a tweet Saturday. “A sick lier [sic] who was paid by Crooked Hillary and the DNC!” Trump referred to a British court ruling on Wednesday that Steele had violated a data privacy law by failing to check on Trump’s connections to the Kremlin. The UK High Court ordered the former spy to pay $23,000 in damages to two Russian businessmen who he claimed had paid bribes to Putin in the 1990s. Steele had accused Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman of facilitating the transfer of large amounts of money to Putin when he was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. A few minutes after the first Steele extradition tweet, Trump wrote, “Bring back Steele!!!”, retweeting a link to a book on the Russia investigation by Fox News legal and political analyst Gregg Jarrett.

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Title: Portland protesters burn effigy of cop wearing KKK hood Protesters in Portland, Oregon set fires and burned an effigy of a cop wearing a KKK hood after police arrested a vandal at the city’s federal courthouse, according to a report. The unrest erupted after federal officers nabbed a protester who appeared to be writing “RIP Dominique Dunn” on the court building, according to The Oregonian. The paper estimated there were about 200 demonstrators at the site. Dunn has been identified in social media posts as the black man shot dead at a strip club Thursday night. A group called the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front alleged the shooting was racially motivated — which police have denied — and urged demonstrators to gather, according to the newspaper. Portland police tweeted Friday night they were aware of an arrest at the courthouse. The area has been the scene of demonstrations after George Floyd’s death and they have sometimes turned violent.

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Title: Texas millennial dies after attending COVID-19 party A Texas millennial died after attending a “COVID party” and later contracting the illness. “I thought it was a hoax,” the patient, who was in their 30s, told their nurse moments before passing away. Chief Medical Officer of Methodist Healthcare in San Antonio Dr. Jane Appleby told the local NBC affiliate: “This is a party held by somebody diagnosed by the COVID virus and the thought is to see if the virus is real and to see if anyone gets infected.” COVID parties are held by young people to intentionally get sick and produce antibodies. While it was first thought COVID-19 only caused death in older people and people with underlying health issues, more and more formerly healthy young people are filing hospitals and morgues. “Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said ‘I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,'” Appleby told NBC. There has been a huge spike in COVID-19 cases across Texas and San Antonio currently is overloaded with 18,000 cases, and more than 1,200 patients in the hospital. “It doesn’t discriminate and none of us are invincible,” Appleby said. “I don’t want to be an alarmist, and we’re just trying to share some real-world examples to help our community realize that this virus is very serious and can spread easily.”

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Title: Botswana elephant deaths may be due to pachyderm pathogen Advertisement The hundreds of elephants that mysteriously died in Botswana might have been victims of a pachyderm-adverse pathogen, a deadly new novel disease, according to the government. The world was shocked earlier this month when the intact bodies of 281 elephants were found near the Okavango Delta. Samples were sent to Zimbabwe and South Africa and initial results have, according to Bloomberg, “eliminated known diseases that would cause mass deaths and this may signal ‘novel diseases,’ the government said in a statement.” Although the number of deaths so far represents a fraction of the estimated 130,000 elephants in Botswana, there are fears more could die if authorities cannot establish the cause soon.

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Title: British tourist falls to death from Spanish hotel, kills man A Brit visiting Spain plunged from a hotel and landed on a local enjoying a drink at a bar, killing both of them instantly, according to police in Marbella. The unnamed tourist, in his fifties, tumbled from the seventh floor of the luxury Melia Don Pepe Hotel on the country’s Costa del Sol early Saturday, slamming into the 43-year-old Spaniard as he sat at a bar on the terrace below, The Sun newspaper reported. Spanish police are trying to figure out whether the tourist jumped or fell.

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Title: Scientists predict second coronavirus wave when winter comes Advertisement Scientists are warning that a second wave of the coronavirus could hit in winter when temperatures drop, more than likely forcing another round of lockdowns to keep the infection from spreading. A senior member of Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies told The Sun newspaper that COVID-19 flourishes in colder temperatures and could spread rapidly when the mercury dips to 39 degrees. “It is really important that people get ready for the challenges that winter will undoubtedly bring,” said an unnamed senior official with the group. Scientists are monitoring spikes in the spread of the coronavirus in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city. As the country heads into the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, authorities ordered a second six-week lockdown last week after the confirmation of 75 new cases.

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Title: Cecil the lion's killer slaughters endangered Mongolian ram The “driller killer” from Minnesota who killed the beloved Cecil the lion bagged an endangered ram in Mongolia last year. Dentist Walter Palmer, 60, forked over almost $100,000 for the pleasure of killing an endangered Altai argali — the world’s biggest ram — in Mongolia last August. The enormous sheep are considered a national treasure and, with only 19,000 left in the world, are on the endangered species list. Coincidentally, Donald Trump Jr. caused international outrage last year for bagging a similar ram on a hunt during the same month. It is not known if the hunting parties knew each other or were hunting together in the remote region of Western Mongolia. Fellow hunters posted photos of the dead ram — but were careful to crop out Palmer’s face in an attempt to protect the dentist who had killed the ram with a crossbow — the same method he killed Cecil the Lion with during a hunt in Zimbabwe. “For trophy hunters to travel to Mongolia to kill a beautiful and ­endangered ram is an absolute outrage,” Dr Teresa Telecky, wildlife vice-president at Humane Society International, told the Daily Mirror. “The argali ram is a species in danger of extinction, so the idea that these animals can be killed for pleasure is abhorrent. The killing of Cecil the lion five years ago caused international shock. But clearly the killing for kicks continues. It’s time for the law to stop wildlife killers in their tracks by banning trophy hunting.” Mongolia allows trophy hunting of the animals — for a steep price. “The right to kill an argali is controlled by an opaque permitting system that experts say is mostly based on money, connections and politics,” according to ProPublica. Palmer is said to have traveled to Mongolia last August with his friend and fellow hunting enthusiast, Canadian Brent Sinclair. “At the time of Cecil’s death, Walter took a back seat,” An insider told the Mirror. “But he’s been hunting ever since he was a boy. It’s a way of life to him. Walter has undertaken several hunts since Cecil’s death. … The trip to Mongolia was his idea. The ram was on his list of hunts he wanted to complete.” Palmer’s trophy is not hanging on his wall as US customs haven’t granted him a permit for it to be exported yet from Mongolia. Palmer doesn’t have the trophy of his other big bow hunt, Cecil, whose head and body were taken by Zimbabwe police. “I have booked more hunting trips with this guy over the past 20 years than I can count. Together, we have travelled to many far reaches of the world,” Sinclair said of the driller killer on his Facebook page in posts now made private or deleted. Sinclair mentioned the two killing an elephant, but said the jaunt to Mongolia was “at the top of the pinnacle and hard to beat … Thanks, Amigo (Palmer) for the adventure … look forward to our next one,” according to the Mirror. When the Mirror caught up with Palmer to ask for comment, the dentist angrily sped off in his Porsche. Palmer was also with Sinclair and Zimbabwean hunter Theo Bronkhorst when they illegally lured Cecil out of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe before killing the famed lion. “Palmer, hidden in a tree, was armed with ‘lethally sharp arrows,” according to reports in the Post. After being hit with the first arrow, it is said to have taken Cecil 10 to 12 agonizing, painful hours to die.

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Title: Granny defrauds British government in $1.2M welfare scam Advertisement A British grandmother who pretended to be blind and suffering from a debilitating illness scammed the British government out of an eye-opening $1.2 million in benefits — and not even her husband was clued in, according to reports. At one point, Christina Pomfrey, 65, was earning more than $16,000 a month, using two identities and pretending to be blind and suffering from multiple sclerosis, the Daily Mail reported. The news came as a shock to her husband of 15 years, who said he first heard about his wife’s welfare scams after a police officer recently showed him a copy of her driver’s license. “So what?” said John Pomfrey. “Doesn’t everyone have one?” He was stunned when the officer told him, “No — not if they’re blind they don’t.” The granny pled guilty to fraud charges last month in court, and was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. “You stole £1 million from your fellow citizens, Judge Sophie McKone said, the Daily Mail reported. “Money which would have gone to people who justly deserved it. Money that could have gone to schools and hospitals.” Pomfrey’s fraud, which began in 2002, was discovered three years ago when she was put under surveillance by the Britain’s Department for Work and Pensions. Agents secretly filmed her driving, reading a newspaper and picking up her grandchildren from school. “People think I must have known what she was up to and where all the money went, but the answer to both is I don’t have a clue,’ said Pomfrey’s husband, 60. “She has destroyed my life and I cannot forgive her. She is the craftiest woman I have ever known.”

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Title: Joe Biden's family has a long rap sheet In August 2019, Caroline Biden, 33, a niece of former Vice President Biden, was busted in Lower Merion Township, Penn., for driving under the influence and without a license, public records show. While the case is active, it’s unlikely Caroline will face much in the way of consequences — if history and Biden family rap sheets are any guide. Her arrest, which was never made public, was at least the ninth among Joe Biden’s close family, and followed incidents involving his brother Frank, his son Hunter and his daughter Ashley. The cases — ranging from felony theft to drug possession — were all either thrown out, or resulted in light sentences with no jail time, according to a Post review of public records and published reports. The Pennsylvania drunken-driving collar was the third run-in with the law for Caroline, who is the daughter of Joe’s younger brother, James Biden Sr. In September 2013, she was booked for allegedly hitting an NYPD officer during a full scale meltdown at her Tribeca apartment, following a dispute with a roommate over unpaid rent. The case was dismissed after Caroline agreed to anger management treatment. In 2017, she was busted for spending more than $110,000 on a stolen credit card. A felony conviction was later tossed, and she was allowed to re-plead to the lesser charge of petty larceny as part of a sweetheart deal negotiated by her attorneys. She avoided jail time. There is no evidence that Joe Biden, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, ever personally interceded on his family’s behalf — but the string of favorable outcomes has raised eyebrows. “Eric Garner or George Floyd on the day each died could have benefited from the Biden touch,” criminal defense attorney Robert Barnes told The Post. Barnes — who is currently representing “Central Park “Karen” Amy Cooper — added that the kid gloves for Biden’s kin was “very unusual treatment when looking at the … treatment over time, geography, and kind of crime involved.” Biden’s campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo, when asked if Biden ever made phone calls to law enforcement on behalf of busted relatives, said, “No he didn’t, and this entire story is garbage.” The trouble for Ashley Biden, 39, started with a pot bust when she was a student at Tulane University in 1999. New Orleans police confirmed the possession arrest of the daughter of the then-Delaware senator, but no conviction was recorded in court records. Ten years later, during her father’s vice-presidency, video circulated showing a woman resembling Ashley snorting what appeared to be cocaine at a party. Joe Biden refused to comment on the reports, and there were no legal consequences. A second misdemeanor arrest for the Biden daughter was reported in 2002 after she allegedly attempted to obstruct a police officer — making “intimidating statements” — after a bottle-throwing brawl outside a Chicago bar. The charges were dropped. Ashley hung up the phone when contacted by The Post. Joe Biden’s brother, Francis ‘Frank’ Biden, 66, won the prize for the most bizarre Biden family bust when he allegedly stuffed two DVDs from a Florida Blockbuster down his pants in October 2003, cops said. He was 49 at the time. He never showed up for a scheduled court hearing on the attempted theft and the state attorney declined to prosecute, according to records obtained by the Miami New Times. He had more serious scrapes with the law. He was pinched in August 2003 for drunk driving in Fort Lauderdale, earning six months probation. He was arrested a year later for driving with a suspended license but avoided jail again by spending three months in rehab. In 1999, Biden was a passenger in a car involved in a fatal drunk-driving accident. He was found partially liable for the death of 38-year-old William Albano, and owes his family almost $1 million dollars, according to the Daily Mail. Today, Frank Biden works as a senior advisor to the Berman Law Group. He did not respond to request for comment, but has said previously that he has been “sober for a long time.” Biden’s son Hunter’s long history of drug abuse began in 1988 with an arrest for drug possession — at around the same time his father was intensifying his War on Drugs bonafides and pushing for stiffer sentences for drug users. “I was cited for possession of a controlled substance in Stone Harbor, NJ. There was a pre-trial intervention and the record was expunged,” he admitted in a disclosure after being nominated to serve on the Amtrak Reform Board in 2006. The same year Hunter was arrested, Sen. Biden voted for the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which specifically targeted the use of crack cocaine, making it the only narcotic with a mandatory penalty for possession. Since then, however, The Post reported that Hunter Biden was suspected of smoking the rock in 2018 by staffers at Archibald’s Gentlemen’s Club in Washington, D.C. He’s been in rehab at least six times for drugs and alcohol, and by his own admission spent four years addicted to crack. He is not known to have ever spent a day in jail. The rap sheets, and favorable court outcomes, of four Joe Biden relatives Ashley Biden Daughter, 39 Charge: Pot possession in New Orleans in 1999. No conviction recorded. Charge: Attempting to obstruct a police officer in Chicago in 2002. Dropped. Frank Biden Brother, 66 Charge: DUI in Florida in 2003. Six months probation. Charge: Petty theft in Florida in 2003. Dropped. Charge: Driving with suspended license in Florida in 2004. Three months in rehab. Caroline Biden Niece, 33 Charge: Resisting arrest, obstruction of government administration, harassment in NYC, 2013. Case dismissed. Charge: Grand and petty larceny in NYC in 2017. Two years probation; restitution of $110,000 in stolen credit card charges. Charge: DUI, driving without a licence in Pennsylvania in 2019. Case pending. Hunter Biden Son, 50 Charge: Drug possession in New Jersey in 1988. Pretrial intervention program, records expunged.

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Title: Nepal floods, landslides kill at least 30 people Advertisement   Heavy rainstorms pummeled Nepal, leaving at least 30 dead and displacing thousands in flash floods and landslides, officials said Saturday. Monsoon-like conditions killed at least 23 people and left thousands homeless in western Nepal,  Reuters reported. Another nine were reported dead and more than 30 were missing northwest of the capital Kathmandu, where several houses were destroyed on Friday, local officials said. In the nearby Kaski district, seven people were killed and a “We are searching for eight people who are still missing,” said Kishore Shrestha, a police official. The Koshi river —which borders India, triggers killer floods in the Indian state of Bihar almost every year —was flowing above the danger level, police said.

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Title: Hermine de Clermont-Tonnerre dies after motorcycle crash A French socialite with royal blood and a love of fast cars and cigars died of injuries she suffered in a motorcycle crash a month ago in her home country. Princess Hermine de Clermont-Tonnerre had been in a medically induced coma before her July 3 death. She was 54. “All her family and friends will keep from Hermine the memory of a great lady with a big heart who always had time for others,” her family told the French magazine Point de Vue, the Daily Mail reported. The princess had a penchant for parties, where she often walked around with a cigar in one hand and a cocktail in the other. The French embraced her edgy style, with the media nicknaming her “the rock-and-roll princess.” Her friends called her simply “our Mimine.” After the crash, the French pop singer Jean-Luc Lahaye talked about Hermine, who was his relative. “She is a girl that I adore, a faithful friend, very joyful, an extraordinary character,” he said, according to the news outlet. Hermine loved cars and had many friends in the racing community, including Viviane Zaniroli, the founder of the four-day Rallye des Princesses, exclusively for women and their vintage rides. “Bye my lovely princess! You will forever be in my heart,” Zaniroli wrote on Facebook. “You are the soul and spirit of the Rally of Princesses forever! We had fun, had a good laugh! I love you and my heart is bleeding today.” Born in 1966, Hermine was the only daughter of Charles Henri, 11th Duke of Clermont-Tonnerre and Anne Moranvillé. Her work life reflected her personal passions. In her 20s, she worked as a stylist for the French fashion house Christian Dior, the Mail reported. Then she struck out on her own, establishing an events communication company. Hermine also wrote seven novels, publishing her first in 1996, and appeared on reality TV shows, including “La Ferme Celebrités en Afrique” and “Fear Factor,” French media outlets reported. The princess was married to French businessman Alastair Cuddeford for a decade, from 1999 to 2009; they had two children, Allegra and Calixte.

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Title: Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly filmed politicians with underage girls Ghislaine Maxwell once boasted she had video of two “high profile” US politicians, along with other powerful figures, having sex with underage girls, claims a former jewel thief who described the disgraced socialite as a nymphomaniac. The reformed thief and author, who uses the pseudonym William Steel, said he long suspected Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell were abusing underage girls after meeting them in a jewelry store in Palm Beach as he tried to sell his stolen wares, he said in an interview with The Sun. Steel, who claims he once swiped computer discs from the couple and sent the discs to authorities, did not reveal the identities of the people he says he saw in the videos. Steel admitting having sex with Maxwell, noting she would do “everything and anything in bed,” but said he never touched anyone underage, according to the tabloid. “I was forced to watch their videos because they were trying to impress me,” said Steel. “They wanted to convince me of their power and who they held in their grip. I saw videos of very powerful people — celebrities, world figures — in those videos having sex, threesomes, even orgies with minors.” Steel, the author of “Sex and the Serial Killer” about multimillionaire Robert Durst, said he had initially included in his book some of the scenes he saw at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, where the multimillionaire convicted pedophile was accused of sexually abusing girls as young as 14. The descriptions, including Epstein putting his hands down the back of a young girl’s shorts, were ultimately removed from the book for legal reasons, he said, and never published. Steel said he has come forward because he wants to see Maxwell, a British socialite and former Epstein gal pal, convicted for her alleged crimes. Maxwell was arrested July 2 at her New Hampshire hideout, and is currently in a Brooklyn lockup, charged with helping Epstein sexually abuse young women. Steel said he is giving all of his information to authorities and is willing to testify in court. Epstein and Maxwell got in touch with him to buy stolen goods for the girls they were allegedly grooming as sex slaves, said Steel, who stole millions of dollars in art and jewels in the US. “It was mostly tennis bracelets, charm bracelets, women’s Piaget watches,” he said. Steel said while Maxwell was very loyal to Epstein, she also knew he would prove her undoing. “She said to me that she often thought she needed to do something about Epstein, telling me, ‘He is going to be the death of me,'” he said, adding she had an escape plan she called the “Polanski plan” after filmmaker Roman Polanski, who fled the United States for France after raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977. “She told me about her Polanski plan where she would flee to France because they couldn’t extradite her,” Steel said. Last week, Maxwell asked a federal judge to grant her bail. Epstein died in an apparent suicide Aug. 10 while awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan.

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Title: British PM Boris Johnson tells country to 'go back to work' Get back to work, and that’s an order — according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson wants employers to tell their underlings to return to the office next week as long as it’s safe to do so, the Daily Mail reported Saturday. It’s all to get Britain’s devastated economy, which shrank by 25% over March and April, cranking again. Civil servants should set an example by getting off their couches and back to their desks at work, Johnson said. He also pointedly asked companies like Goldman Sachs to encourage staffers to return to the office. “I want people to go back to work as carefully as possible,” Johnson said in a question-and-answer session with members of the public. “It’s very important that people should be going back to work if they can, now. I think everybody’s taken the ‘stay at home if you can’ (advice). I think now we should say ‘go back to work if you can.’” British finance minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday the government would pay bonuses to employers who bring temporarily laid-off staff back to work.

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Title: California will release prisoners to stop spread of COVID-19 California will release 8,000 prisoners in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19 inside state lockups. “These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff,” California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary, Ralph Diaz told Reuters. Only prisoners with less than a year remaining on their sentences will be eligible for release. Those with violent rap sheets or convictions for sex crimes will be excluded from the program. As the US continues to face tens of thousands of new cases daily, prisons have been particularly hard hit. In California’s 35 state prisons, nearly 2,400 people have tested positive for the virus. Across the country, states have been releasing non-violent offenders for similar safety concerns, including Michael Cohen. President Trump’s disgraced former attorney was later ordered back to the clink after he was busted dining out with his wife at an posh Upper East Side restaurant last week.

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Title: Teen dies after shark attack in Australia An Australian teen is dead after being bitten by a shark in the country’s 10th attack by maneaters this year. Mani Hart-Deville’s legs were mauled by what authorities believe was a great white shark. As the creature made multiple passes at the 17-year-old, fellow beachgoers tried to fend it off, according to news.com.au. Hart-Deville was treated on the beach but died at the scene, Reuters reported. The beach was shut down. “What’s happened there this afternoon would shake everybody,” Jim Simmons, the mayor of nearby Clarence Valley, said in a statement, reported by The Guardian. “It’s terribly shocking. All of our sympathies, from people in the area, go out to the boy’s family.” The attack occurred off Wooli Beach on the country’s eastern coast near Coffs Harbour, roughly 240 miles south of Brisbane.

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Title: Trump defends Roger Stone commutation, blasts 'illegal Witch Hunt' President Trump defended his decision to commute the sentence of his longtime ally Roger Stone, tweeting Saturday that the process leading to his conviction had been illegal. “Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place. It is the other side that are criminals, including Biden and Obama, who spied on my campaign – AND GOT CAUGHT!” Trump said. After months of hinting, Trump made the commutation official late Friday evening. “Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” he said in a statement. “He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!” The commutation came just days before Stone was set to begin serving a 40-month sentence after being found guilty of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering. Stone, a longtime GOP operative, has been close to Trump for decades. Unlike other insiders targeted by the Special Counsel probe, he consistently maintained his innocence and refused to cooperate with the investigation. Democrats denounced the commutation en masse Friday, grousing that the president was undermining the criminal justice system. “Donald Trump has abandoned the rule of law and made a mockery of our democracy. He truly is the most corrupt president in history,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a tweet.

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Title: Jeffrey Epstein's first victim was 17-year-old from London, book claims She may have been Jeffrey Epstein’s first victim — a young woman recruited by the convicted pedophile’s gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell in London in 1994 when she was 17. In his book, “Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein,” Florida lawyer Bradley Edwards describes his interviews with a woman he calls “Fantasia,” who reached out to him when she was nearly 40 to describe the alleged abuse she suffered by Epstein and Maxwell. “Fantasia explained that Ghislaine’s role in life was to please Jeffrey, a job which included telling Fantasia what sex outfit to wear to make him happy,” writes Edwards. “The school girl outfit was his favorite.” She also told Edwards that when underage girls were around, “Epstein’s desire to have sex with them was so overwhelming that he would physically shake.” In 2017, “Fantasia,” who said she had been Epstein’s sex slave for a decade, ultimately told Edwards that she was too afraid to join the litigation against him. She told Edwards that she got a call in the middle of the night as she was mulling whether or not to speak out. “If you care about your daughter, you will stay out of the litigation in New York,” the caller warned. The description of Fantasia is very similar to the unnamed “Minor Victim – 3” in the July 2 federal indictment against Maxwell, which alleges that she procured girls for sex with Epstein between 1994 and 1997. “Maxwell groomed and befriended Minor Victim-3 in London … between approximately 1994 and 1995,” the indictment reads. “Maxwell introduced Minor Victim-3 to Epstein and arranged for multiple interactions between Minor Victim-3 and Epstein. During those interactions, Maxwell encouraged Minor Victim-3 to massage Epstein, knowing that Epstein would engage in sex acts with Minor Victim-3 during those massages.” In an interview with The Post, Edwards refused to say whether “Fantasia” was Minor Victim-3.

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Title: North Korea slams Britain for sanctions aimed at prison camps North Korea slammed Britain on Saturday for placing sanctions on two organizations British officials say are involved in North Korea’s grim prison labor camps. The sanctions, placed on the Ministry of State Security Bureau 7 and Ministry of People’s Security Correctional Bureau, are among the first under the UK’s new global human rights regime, Reuters reported Saturday. “Britain’s latest move is a flagrant political plot to jump on the bandwagon of the United States’ inimical policy,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement on state media KCNA. “We strongly condemn and reject the UK’s daring to impose sanctions on the institutions responsible for our country’s security as violent interference in domestic affairs.” The sanctions will take the form of asset freezing. North Korea’s prison camps are believed to involve forced labor, torture and murder. Tensions between North Korea, South Korea and the United States have been rising as a result of an impasse over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang.

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Title: Ghislaine Maxwell's extreme rules for all Epstein staff Advertisement When Ghislaine Maxwell was put in charge of running Jeffrey Epstein’s various homes around the world in 1991, she took a page straight out of the Buckingham Palace servants’ guide, and forced household staff to follow the royal rules. That’s one of the revelations from “Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein,” a book by crusading lawyer Bradley Edwards that the British socialite oddly kept on her bedside table while she was hiding out at a secluded New Hampshire mansion before getting busted July 2. “It’s hard to tell exactly why she wanted to know what it was that I knew about her in the book,” said Edwards, 44, a Florida lawyer who has been representing 56 alleged Epstein victims for more than a decade. In addition to his access to the accusers, Edwards spent a great deal of time over the last decade interviewing Epstein’s household staff, who shared how Maxwell ruled the pervert’s palaces with an iron fist and made them follow actual royal protocol. Maxwell, 58, who counted Prince Andrew among her friends and infamously posed for a pic with disgraced actor Kevin Spacey sitting on the Buckingham Palace thrones of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, distributed a guide for royal help that all of the servants were required to read, according to butler Juan Alessi. Among the most important rules: “The staff never look the master, Jeffrey Epstein, in the eye.” Household staff had to linger in the background, and could not speak unless they were spoken to. Edwards added, “Ghislaine was deeply controlling and did things Juan did not appreciate.” Among those things was having Alessi drive her around Palm Beach on her missions to recruit young masseuses, which a recently unsealed federal indictment says she began doing as early as 1994. Edwards believes it was the start of a global sex-trafficking scheme that entrapped more than 500 women, some as young as 14. Maxwell, transferred last week to a Brooklyn federal lock-up, began overseeing Epstein’s properties in Palm Beach, New Mexico, the Caribbean and Paris as early as 1991. She became the woman of the house, replacing Eva Andersson, a former Miss Sweden now married to hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, as Epstein’s live-in girlfriend, Edwards said. Edwards found out much about their domestic arrangements in 2009 when he deposed Alessi, who worked at the Palm Beach mansion from 1991 to 2002. Alessi met Epstein through Leslie Wexner, the billionaire owner of Victoria’s Secret. Alessi used to do repair work for Wexner, and did the same for Epstein when he was first hired as a handyman. “Alessi liked Eva because she was well-mannered, considerate and respectful of household staff,” Edwards writes. “When Eva was in charge, Alessi said, there weren’t other females, including young girls, around the house.” As soon as Maxwell took over, he said, “there were female visitors there who were referred to as ‘masseuses’ but who did not look professional and appeared too young.” Maxwell loved to take nude pictures of the girls, and following the “massages” Alessi would be dispatched to the rubdown room to clean up, according to Edwards’ book. Alessi said he would find used dildos and use rubber gloves to pick them up and rinse them off, then deposit them in a laundry basket filled with sex toys that Maxwell kept in her closet, Edwards writes. Last week’s 18-page indictment focuses on three young women that Maxwell allegedly procured between 1994 and 1997 for Epstein, who died in an apparent suicide in the Manhattan Correctional Center where he was awaiting trial on Aug. 10. Edwards refused to discuss any details of the federal case against Maxwell. He said he was also prohibited from disclosing anything about Maxwell’s 2016 deposition in a related defamation case brought against her by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims she was brought to England as a 17-year-old to have sex with Prince Andrew. That deposition, which contains what Edwards called “more surprises,” remains under seal. Maxwell has previously denied any involvement in or knowledge of Epstein’s alleged sexual misconduct. But the full deposition may be made public if Maxwell’s case proceeds to trial. In the federal indictment against her, she is accused of lying in the 2016 legal interview, which took place over several days, Edwards said. In the deposition, Maxwell is asked about Epstein’s scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” replied Maxwell, according to court papers. “Were you aware of the presence of sex toys or devices used in sexual activities in Mr. Epstein’s Palm Beach house?” Maxwell said she couldn’t recall them, the court documents say. Edwards claims he didn’t know the federal indictment was imminent, and was surprised when he heard of Maxwell’s arrest. “I was just fascinated that she had my book,” he said. “Certainly, if Jeffrey Epstein was around he would read the book.” Edwards began representing Epstein’s victims 11 years ago, beginning with Courtney Wild, who alleged she was 14 when Epstein hired her as a masseuse and later paid her to lure her underage friends to his Palm Beach mansion. In the years that he squared off against Epstein in the courtroom, Edwards said he became well acquainted with his calculating and domineering adversary. In 2015, the billionaire reached out to Edwards by phone and the two began a series of meetings at a Starbucks in Boca Raton. Epstein, whose number always showed up on Edwards’ cell phone as a row of zeros, wanted to figure out a way for them to “divorce” from one another and settle the legal actions between them, said Edwards. Epstein had sued Edwards in 2008, linking him to convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, a Florida lawyer who stole millions from his firm’s investors. Edwards worked for Rothstein for a short time, and was accused by Epstein of aggressively going after him in order to generate cash for the Ponzi scheme. But Rothstein denied Edwards knew anything about the scam and Edwards countersued Epstein for malicious prosecution. The legal impasse ended with a deal they hammered out in the coffee shop, with Epstein agreeing to apologize publicly to Edwards in 2018. Edwards then dropped his counter suit. Edwards met Epstein for the last time in May 2019, two months before Epstein was arrested. Although Epstein appeared harried and nervous, “he was still the king of the chessboard,” he said. Edwards firmly believes Epstein committed suicide last summer. For Epstein, going to jail and being forced to give up his lifestyle was the ultimate loss of control, Edwards said Edwards believes that a similarly strategic Maxwell has that “same desire to control,” which is probably why she was reading “Relentless Pursuit” in hiding, Edwards said. Like Epstein, she wants to get into Edwards’ head, and find out what victims have told him about her as she readies for her coming battle with federal authorities, he said. Her control issues made her “a crucial figure to the spider web of victims,” Edwards said. “She was the groomer, the enabler and the facilitator.” Edwards said he was relieved when Maxwell was arrested. “I felt there was new hope to finally hold everyone accountable,” he told The Post, adding that victims were denied their day in court in 2008 after Epstein cut a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors in Florida which allowed him to plead guilty to minor charges of soliciting a prostitute and spend little time in jail. Now, after Maxwell’s blockbuster arrest, Edwards is urging anyone who has any information about Epstein and Maxwell to call him “immediately.” “Whether they are a billionaire or a 16-year-old girl on the streets of New York, we want to hear from them,” he said. He’s already been flooded with phone calls from new purported victims, although he won’t say how many. “They continue to come forward, almost everyday,” he said.

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Title: Tesla boss Elon Musk now richer than Warren Buffett Elon Mu$k is seeing green. The CEO of Tesla zoomed past Warren Buffett on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index after the electric automaker’s stock rose 11% on Friday. Musk, 49, controls about 20% of Tesla’s stock, and his now $70.5 billion fortune makes him the seventh richest person on Earth. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 has been a boom year for Tesla with share prices rising 269%. Musk earned about $6.07 billion on Friday alone. Buffett, 89, saw his fortune decline after donating $2.7 billion of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to charity. The Oracle of Omaha has given away $37 billion in shares since 2006. He has promised to give at least half his fortune to charity during his lifetime or upon his death.

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Title: Fay downgraded to tropical depression after making landfall MIAMI — Tropical Storm Fay weakened into a tropical depression early Saturday morning, forecasters said. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 2 a.m. advisory that the storm has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as it moves over southern New York. Fay had closed beaches and flooded shore town streets after it made landfall Friday afternoon in New Jersey. It weakened once it hit land and was expected to quickly become a post-tropical low, then dissipate on Sunday, forecasters said. The forecast track put the depression over portions of eastern New York later Saturday, then moving into western New England and southeastern Canada. The depression was moving at 17 mph, forecasters said. A tropical storm warning that had been issued from East Rockaway, New York, to Watch Hill, Rhode Island was ended with the National Hurricane Center’s early morning update. No watches or warnings were in effect for the depression. Forecasters said Fay was expected to produce 1 to 3 inches of rain, with flash flooding possible in some areas. Fay was the earliest sixth-named storm on record, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. The previous record was Franklin on July 22, 2005, Klotzbach tweeted. Two named storms formed before the official June 1 start of the hurricane season. None of this season’s previous five named storms strengthened into hurricanes.

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Title: Trump confirms 2018 US cyberattack against Russia President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed for the first time that the United States launched a cyberattack against the Russian Internet Research Agency in 2018. The IRA, a Russian company that deploys online trolls for influence operations, was blamed by U.S. officials for meddling in both the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 midterms. Trump confirmed the attack during a two-part interview with Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen. When asked whether the U.S. had launched an attack on the IRA, Trump responded “correct.” The Washington Post in 2019 reported on the attack, which blocked the IRA’s internet access, but Trump had not previously confirmed U.S. involvement. The president went on to criticize former President Obama for not doing enough to address the interference ahead of the 2016 elections. Obama “knew before the election that Russia was playing around. Or, he was told. Whether or not it was so or not, who knows? And he said nothing,” Trump said. “And the reason he said nothing was that he didn’t want to touch it because he thought [Hillary Clinton] was winning because he read phony polls,” he added. “So, he thought she was going to win. And we had the silent majority that said, ‘No, we like Trump.’” Obama responded to the meddling after the fact, through sanctions on Russians and Russian agencies involved and the expulsion of dozens of diplomats from the country. The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a cyber campaign in 2016 to interfere in the presidential election and it believes the IRA works at the direction of the Kremlin. Robert Mueller’s Russia probe eventually led to Treasury Department sanctions in 2018 against the IRA, its financier, Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, and nearly a dozen others for 2016 election interference.

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Title: Police seize rifle of St. Louis couple filmed waving guns at protesters St. Louis police officers reportedly seized a rifle from the husband-and-wife lawyers filmed waving firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters last month. The officers served a warrant on Mark and Patricia McCloskey on Friday night, taking the rifle the husband was pictured aiming, the local NBC affiliate reported. The officers were told by the couple that their attorney had the second gun, the pistol brandished by the wife, the report said. The couple were filmed as they emerged barefoot from their lavish mansion in the Central West End neighborhood, each toting a firearm as protesters marched down their private street toward the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson. Mark stood with the rifle on their Renaissance-style porch as Patricia aimed the gun at the passersby with her finger on the trigger. The two have defended their actions by saying they felt their lives were at risk. “We were threatened with our lives, threatened with a house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog’s life being threatened, Mark McCloskey told the station, KDSK. “It was about as bad as it can get,” he added. Police have not announced any charges against the couple.

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Title: Trump to sign order giving ‘road to citizenship’ to DACA recipients President Trump on Friday pledged to sign an executive order creating a “road to citizenship” for “Dreamer” immigrants — although a press secretary later backpedaled on the plan and some experts say he’s not authorized to do so. Trump told Telemundo anchor Jose Diaz-Balart that the order would lead to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. “One of the aspects of the [order] is going to be DACA. We are going to have a road to citizenship,” Trump said. But immigration experts and his fellow Republicans said Trump would have to go through Congress for such a sweeping immigration policy. “There is ZERO constitutional authority for a President to create a ‘road to citizenship’ by executive fiat,” tweeted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “It was unconstitutional when Obama issued executive amnesty, and it would be a HUGE mistake if Trump tries to illegally expand amnesty.” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere later released a statement saying “As the President announced today, he is working on an executive order to establish a merit-based immigration system to further protect U.S. workers.” The statement, added, “Furthermore, the President has long said he is willing to work with Congress on a negotiated legislative solution to DACA, one that could include citizenship, along with strong border security and permanent merit-based reforms. “This does not include amnesty.”

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Title: Wisconsin driver intentionally crashes head-first into motorcyclist A Wisconson man who struck and killed a motorcyclist told investigators he intentionally crashed head-first into the victim because he believed all Harley riders are “white racists,” local officials said. Daniel Navarro, 27, of Fond du Lac, has been charged with a homicide as a hate crime after he allegedly veered across a road around 6:45 p.m. last Friday to hit former Marine and police officer Phillip Thiessen, 55, on his Harley Davidson, the county sheriff said during a press conference Thursday. “Navarro told detectives that he believed the person driving the motorcycle was white because in Wisconsin, white people drive Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and the Harley culture was made up of white racists,” Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt said. “He admitted he could not specifically see who was driving this motorcycle.” Navarro, who is Hispanic, told investigators during a 3.5-hour interview his attack was motivated by increasing instances of racism against him — though Navarro had never previously met Thiessen or known anything about him, Sheriff Waldschmidt said. “Navorro told detectives he believed he had been intentionally poisoned by coworkers and by a neighbor; that people drive by his house and rev their engines and squeal their tires to try to upset him; and that people make racist comments towards him — all because he’s Hispanic,” Waldschmidt said. He added that, “Navarro said if President Donald Trump and white people are going to create the world we are living in, he has no choice and people are going to have to die.” Navorro also allegedly told investigators that he decided to crash into a motorcycle because there was a greater chance that he would kill the victim than if he had crashed into another car. The suspect also said he “wanted to go to prison” so his parents would not have to take care of him “as his health deteriorates” and so he would be free of the people who harass him, Waldschmidt said. The sheriff’s office declined to comment on Navorro’s mental or physical health. Thiessen, a 1983 graduate of L.P. Goodrich High School, was a Marine who later served as a police officer in Fairfax, Va. He later worked for the Wisconsin Department of Justice Internet Crimes Against Children unit before moving back to Fond du Lac for retirement in 2018, where he volunteered at a local food pantry. “Phillip was a generous, caring, loyal man that made friends easily anywhere he went, and maintained long-distance friendships for many years,” Thiessen’s obituary reads. “He believed in giving back to his community and was a volunteer at the Fondy Food Pantry.” Navarro is being held on a $1 million bond on charges of 1st Degree Intentional Homicide, Hate Crime; Use of a Dangerous Weapon and 1st Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety.

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Title: 'Tiger King' zoo searched for human remains A new reality show shoot at the private zoo once owned by Joe Exotic — and featured in the hit Netflix reality show, “Tiger King” — was briefly thrown into turmoil when the film crew thought they’d found human remains. Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and Garvin County Sheriff’s deputies rushed to the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park Friday after cadaver dogs there alerted handlers to the possibility of human remains, the local ABC affiliate reported. The dogs were in the park for the filming of a “Ghost Adventures” episode, the zoo’s current operator, Jeff Lowe, told the outlet. But the supposed cadaver turned out to be just the remains of a small animal, reporter Taylor Adams of Oklahoma station KFOR tweeted just before midnight Friday. “!!EXOTIC UPDATE!!” Taylor tweeted. “The Garvin County Sheriff says no human remains were found on-site at the GW Zoo tonight. Instead … a small animal. He says the investigation is over.” During filming, handlers had been convinced that two cadaver dogs had picked up the scent of body parts, Lowe said, according to the ABC affiliate. Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as “Joe Exotic,” had owned the park before he was imprisoned after being convicted in April 2019 of conspiring to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin — as well as for killing five tigers and selling tiger cubs. The zoo will not be in Lowe’s hands for much longer. A federal judge last month granted Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue control of the facility, after ruling the property was fraudulently transferred years ago to Joe Exotic’s mother, Shirley Schreibvogel, to as a way to avoid paying Baskin a previous $1 million trademark judgment. Weeks after the ruling, authorities announced they were probing the zoo after photos of allegedly neglected and injured animals surfaced. Lowe has also recently been sued by the state of Oklahoma for at least $50,000 in back sales taxes.

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Title: Roger Stone 'grateful' Trump commuted his prison sentence President Trump may well have just saved his life, an elated and relieved Roger Stone told The Post moments after learning his sentence was commuted — from Trump himself. “I’m obviously very pleased,” Stone, 67, said shortly after Trump called his Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home with the good news on Friday night. The reprieve came just days before Stone was to turn himself in on Tuesday to begin serving a 40-month sentence. “I told him I was grateful,” Stone told The Post of his chat with the president. “He protected my health.” Stone added, “He believes in justice. I felt pretty confident that if he heard the facts of my case, he would make the right decision. During their call, Trump, in turn, cited their long friendship and his belief that Stone is not a criminal. “He said we’ve known each other for 40 years,” Stone said. “In his opinion, he did not believe I committed a crime.” Stone said he can now appeal his case from the safety of his South Florida home, without the danger of catching the coronavirus while in prison. “With the risk of catching COVID, I might not live long enough to see my opinion” in his appeal, he said. Stone, who has been under home confinement for some two years, said he would spend Friday night celebrating with friends — all of them wearing “Free Roger Stone” face masks. Then, “starting now, I’m working to help General Flynn,” he said of his future efforts to lobby for former national security adviser and fellow Trump adviser Michael Flynn, who is awaiting sentence for admittedly lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials. Stone had said Thursday that he was “praying” Trump would keep him out of prison. Stone was sentenced in February by DC federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson to more than three years in prison after being convicted in November 2019 on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress. The charges were lodged after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Stone appealed his conviction and has continued to deny that he did anything wrong. Additional reporting by Laura Italiano

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Title: California couple agrees to guilty pleas in college admissions scam BOSTON — A California couple agreed Friday to plead guilty to paying $250,000 to get their daughter into the University of Southern California as a fake volleyball recruit. Diane Blake and Todd Blake will plead guilty in front of a judge at a future date, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston said in a statement Friday. The couple from Ross, California, had initially pleaded not guilty, news outlets previously reported. The couple was accused of tapping William “Rick” Singer, who authorities say was mastermind behind the sweeping nationwide scheme, to facilitate their daughter’s admission into USC. According to the indictment against the couple posted on the U.S. attorney’s website, Todd Blake sent a check for $50,000 to USC Women’s Athletics and wired $200,000 to a sham charity set up by Singer. USC spokesperson Lauren Bartlett said in an email that the university would not comment the case. Diane Blake, 55, will plead guilty to a count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud, her plea agreement states. Todd Blake, 54, will plead guilty to the same charge, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, his plea agreement states. Per their plea agreements, Diane Blake has agreed to serve six weeks in prison, while Todd Blake has agreed to serve four months. Each also agreed to a $125,000 fine and two years’ supervised release with 100 hours of community service. Charges of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and conspiracy to commit money laundering against both Blakes will be dismissed under the plea agreements. An email to the Blakes’ lawyers wasn’t immediately returned. Singer pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government’s investigation into what authorities have dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues” — a series of indictments that have rocked the worlds of higher education, sports and entertainment. Dozens of wealthy parents, athletic coaches and others were charged last year in the scheme. Parents paid hefty bribes to get their children into top universities with bogus test scores or fake athletic credentials, authorities say. The Blakes are the 27th and 28th parents to plead guilty in connection with the scam, according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office. Others who have pleaded guilty include “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, who agreed in May to plead guilty to paying half a million dollars to get their two daughters into USC. A judge has yet to decide whether he’ll accept deals they made with prosecutors. “Desperate Housewives” actress Felicity Huffman also pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to have someone rig her daughter’s entrance exam, and was sentenced to two weeks in prison.

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Title: US Marine Corps base in Okinawa reports coronavirus infections A number of personnel at a US Marine Corps base on the Japanese island of Okinawa have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, officials say. The Marines first reported the cases at Camp Butler on Thursday, without disclosing exactly how many had tested positive. “The individuals that have tested positive have been moved into isolation,” Marine Corps Installations Pacific said in a statement. U.S. military officials also said a temporary shelter-in-place was issued for nearby Camp Hansen “to allow health professionals to facilitate contact tracing and cleaning teams.” “These measures are put in place to ensure the safety and well-being of our forces, families, and our Okinawa neighbors,” the Marines said. On Friday, Marine Forces Japan also issued new coronavirus prevention rules for its personnel there. For now, personnel will no longer be allowed to eat at restaurants off-base or use non-military public transport, among other restrictions.

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Title: Turkey President Erdogan formally makes Hagia Sophia a mosque ANKARA, Turkey — The president of Turkey on Friday formally converted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia back into a mosque and declared it open for Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had made the religious landmark a museum. The decision sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians. Originally a cathedral, Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque after Istanbul’s conquest by the Ottoman Empire but had been a museum for the last 86 years, drawing millions of tourists annually. There was jubilation outside the terracotta-hued structure with its cascading domes and four minarets. Dozens of people awaiting the court’s ruling chanted “Allah is great!” when the news broke. A large crowd later prayed outside it. In the capital of Ankara, legislators stood and applauded as the decision was read in Parliament. Turkey’s high administrative court threw its weight behind a petition brought by a religious group and annulled the 1934 Cabinet decision that turned the site into a museum. Within hours, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree handing over Hagia Sophia to Turkey’s Religious Affairs Presidency. In a televised address to the nation, Erdogan said the first prayers inside Hagia Sofia would be held on July 24, and he urged respect for the decision. “I underline that we will open Hagia Sophia to worship as a mosque by preserving its character of humanity’s common cultural heritage,” he said, adding: “It is Turkey’s sovereign right to decide for which purpose Hagia Sofia will be used.” He rejected the idea that the decision ends Hagia Sophia’s status as a structure that brings faiths together. “Like all of our other mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia will be open to all, locals or foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims,” Erdogan said. Erdogan had spoken in favor of turning the hugely symbolic UNESCO World Heritage site back into a mosque despite widespread international criticism, including from U.S. and Orthodox Christian leaders, who had urged Turkey to keep its status as a museum symbolizing solidarity among faiths and cultures. The move threatens to deepen tensions with neighboring Greece, whose prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, condemned the decision as an affront to Hagia Sophia’s ecumenical character. “It is a decision that offends all those who recognize Hagia Sophia as an indispensable part of world cultural heritage” Mitsotakis said. “This decision clearly affects not only Turkey’s relations with Greece but also its relations with the European Union, UNESCO and the world community as a whole.” In Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, protesters gathered outside a church that is modeled on Hagia Sophia and bears the same name. They chanted, “We’ll light candles in Hagia Sophia!” and held Greek flags and Byzantine banners. Cyprus “strongly condemns Turkey’s actions on Hagia Sophia in its effort to distract domestic opinion and calls on Turkey to respect its international obligations,” tweeted Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides. Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian upper house of parliament, called the action “a mistake.” “Turning it into a mosque will not do anything for the Muslim world. It does not bring nations together, but on the contrary brings them into collision,” he said. Turkish President Tayyip ErdoganTurkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS The debate hits at the heart of Turkey’s religious-secular divide. Nationalist and conservative groups in Turkey have long yearned to hold prayers at Hagia Sophia, which they regard as part of the Muslim Ottoman legacy. Others believe it should remain a museum, as a symbol of Christian and Muslim solidarity. “It was a structure that brought together both Byzantine and Ottoman histories,” said Zeynep Kizildag, a 27-year-old social worker, who did not support the conversion. “The decision to turn it into a mosque is like erasing 1,000 years of history, in my opinion.” Garo Paylan, an ethnic Armenian member of Turkey’s Parliament tweeted that it was “a sad day for Christians (and) for all who believe in a pluralist Turkey.” “The decision to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque will make life more difficult for Christians here and for Muslims in Europe,” he wrote. “Hagia Sophia was a symbol of our rich history. Its dome was big enough for all.” The group that brought the case to court had contested the legality of the 1934 decision by the modern Turkish republic’s secular government ministers, arguing the building was the personal property of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, who conquered Istanbul in 1453. “I was not surprised at all that the court weighed to sanction Erdogan’s moves because these days Erdogan gets from Turkish courts what Erdogan wants,” said Soner Cagaptay, of the Washington Institute. “Erdogan wants to use Hagia Sophia’s conversion into a mosque to rally his right-wing base,” said Cagaptay, the author of “Erdogan’s Empire.” “But I don’t think this strategy will work. I think that short of economic growth, nothing will restore Erdogan’s popularity.” In Paris, the United Nations cultural body, UNESCO, said Hagia Sophia is part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul, a property inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List as a museum. “States have an obligation to ensure that modifications do not affect the `outstanding universal value’ of inscribed sites on their territories,” Director-General Audrey Azoulay said. The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, considered the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, warned last month that the building’s conversion into a mosque “will turn millions of Christians across the world against Islam.” On Friday, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America said the decision runs counter to the vision of secular Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk “who understood that Hagia Sophia should serve all Turkey’s people and indeed the whole world.” “The days of conquest should remain a closed chapter of our collective histories,” he told The Associated Press, adding that Turkey’s government “can still choose wisely” but letting Hagia Sophia remain a “monument to all civilizations and universal values.” see also Turkish Islamist tyrant's obscene bid to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, called for “prudence” and the preservation of the “current neutral status” for the Hagia Sophia, which he said was one of Christianity’s “devoutly venerated symbols.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that the landmark should remain a museum to serve as bridge between faiths and cultures. His comments drew a rebuke from Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, which said Hagia Sophia was a domestic issue of Turkish national sovereignty. Erdogan, a devout Muslim, has frequently used the Hagia Sophia issue to drum up support for his Islamic-rooted party. Some Islamic prayers have been held in the museum in recent years. In a major symbolic move, Erdogan recited the opening verse of the Quran there in 2018. Built under Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia was the main seat of the Eastern Orthodox church for centuries, where emperors were crowned amid ornate marble and mosaic decorations. The minarets were added later, and the building was turned into an imperial mosque following the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople — the city that is now called Istanbul. The building opened its doors as a museum in 1935, a year after the Council of Ministers’ decision. Mosaics depicting Jesus, Mary and Christian saints that were plastered over in line with Islamic rules were uncovered through arduous restoration work for the museum. Hagia Sophia was the most popular museum in Turkey last year, drawing more than 3.7 million visitors.

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Title: Cuomo predicts COVID-19 bump for NY amid surge in other states Gov. Andrew Cuomo predicted New York will see another bump in coronavirus cases because of the pandemic’s surge in many southern and western states — and admitted the quarantine he imposed on visitors from hotspot areas will be unable to stop it. “Look, we’re doing everything we can. The quarantine, we have an enforcement mechanism. But, you know, how do you catch somebody driving in, right? I mean, it’s very very difficult, it’s trying to catch water in a screen,” Cuomo said Friday on WAMC radio. Cuomo imposed a travel advisory on 19 states with rising COVID-19 infections — including California, Florida and Texas — that requires visitors from these areas to quarantine for 14 days upon entering New York. “You’re going to see our numbers and the Northeast numbers probably start to increase because the virus that you see now in the south and the west, California has real trouble, it’s going to come back here,” he said. The governor said it’s a shame after “we defeat [COVID-19] in New York” —  following a grueling three month period of severe lockdowns and social distancing rules that helped contain and reduce infections — to see the killer bug re-emerge. “The other states don’t take the same precautions. It rises up in the other states and then is going to come back here from the other states. That’s what’s going to happen. “The only question is how far up our rate goes. But you can’t have it all across the country and not come back. You think nobody’s coming here from California and these states?”

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Title: French bus driver dies after 'barbaric' attack over face masks A French bus driver has died five days after being viciously beaten during a dispute over wearing face masks, his family announced Friday. Philippe Monguillot, 58, was initially left brain dead after he confronted a group of passengers who were not complying with a rule that requires face masks on public transportation when they boarded without tickets around 7 p.m. Sunday in Bayonne in south-west France. The passengers dragged him off the bus and onto the platform, where he was kicked and beaten by the group before they fled. Monguillot’s family and care providers decided it was best to take him off life support. “We decided to let him go,” Monguillot’s daughter Marie told AFP news agency Friday, adding doctors had agreed with the decision. Five male suspects face charges in the attack, though their names have not been released. Two men, ages 22 and 23, have been charged with attempted murder, two others with non-assistance to a person in danger and another with attempting to hide a suspect, the BBC reported. The group attacked Monguillot after he asked three of the men to put on face masks. France has instituted a nationwide face-covering mandated for public transit. The mayor of Bayonne condemned the “barbaric act,” which sparked a massive protest in the city where thousands marched for the driver, according to the BBC. Regional bus service was severely disrupted after the beating when drivers refused to work. As Monguillot clung to life, his wife, Veronique, said the couple’s lives have been “destroyed” by the tragedy. “He can’t leave us like this, he was going to be 59 years old soon,” she told Le Parisien. “No, you don’t do this over a bus ticket. You don’t kill for free like this.”

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Title: President Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence President Trump has commuted the sentence of his longtime adviser Roger Stone, calling him a victim of the “Russian hoax” and saying he would have been put at serious medical risk in prison. Trump on Friday signed an executive grant of clemency just days before Stone was due to report to prison Tuesday to serve a 40-month sentence after he was found guilty on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress. Stone had appealed the ruling and maintains his innocence. “Roger Stone has already suffered greatly,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement announcing the reprieve Friday night. Though issued in the name of his top press aide, the statement — filled with the president’s characteristic attacks on the Mueller investigation and superlatives for Stone — was pure Trump. “Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” the statement said. “He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!” Trump had hinted earlier Friday that he was considering a presidential pardon for Stone. “I think Roger Stone was very unfairly treated, as were many people, and in the meantime, Comey and all these guys are walking around, including Biden and Obama, because we caught them spying on my campaign,” Trump said. “Who would have believed that one?” Stone and his wife, Nydia, “appreciate all the consideration the President gave to this matter,” his attorney Grant Smith said in a statement, the Washington Post reported. “Mr. Stone is incredibly honored that President Trump used his awesome and unique power under the Constitution of the United States for this act of mercy,” Smith said. Stone’s pardon immediately drew strong condemnation from his rival Joe Biden and fellow Democrats who argued the decision smacked of cronyism and corruption. “President Trump has once again abused his power, releasing this commutation on a Friday night, hoping to yet again avoid scrutiny as he lays waste to the norms and the values that make our country a shining beacon to the rest of the world,” said Biden’s campaign spokesman, Bill Russo, in a statement. New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, pledged to investigate the pardon. “A jury found Roger Stone guilty,” Nadler tweeted. “By commuting his sentence, President Trump has infected our judicial system with partisanship and cronyism and attacked the rule of law. @HouseJudiciary will conduct an aggressive investigation into this brazen corruption.” Stone’s buddies hailed his new freedom Friday night. Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign advisor who serves as an assistant secretary at Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted a photo of a celebratory, white-tableclothed lobster dinner he ordered in Stone’s honor. “Hey #RogerStone. We still can’t talk but I know you’re reading this,” he wrote with the photo. “This lobster is for you old friend: congratulations!”

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Title: Six US states see record surges in COVID-19 cases Six U.S. states suffered record spikes in new COVID-19 cases on Friday and Florida, an epicenter of the pandemic, saw infections rise sharply for the second day in a row as the Walt Disney Co. stuck to its plans to reopen its flagship theme park in Orlando. The surges in Georgia, Louisiana, Montana, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin put the United States on a pace to once again set a single-day record for new coronavirus cases as Walt Disney World became the latest flash point in a national debate over access to public spaces. The Walt Disney Co. said the theme parks in Orlando would open on Saturday to a limited number of guests, requiring all visitors and employees to undergo temperature checks and wear face masks and cancelling parades, firework displays and other crow-drawing events. Disney’s chief medical officer said this week that she believed the broad set of safeguards the company developed with health experts would allow guests to visit the park safely. Roughly 19,000 people, including some theme park workers, have signed a petition asking Disney to delay the reopening. The union representing 750 Walt Disney World performers has filed a grievance against the company, alleging retaliation against members over a union demand that they be tested for COVID-19. A Disney spokeswoman said Disney World would reopen without the performers after Actors Equity union representatives had not been available for further talks. Seven other unions reached agreements with Disney on returning to work. Other theme parks opened in Orlando in June, including Comcast Corp’s Universal Studios Orlando and SeaWorld Entertainment Inc’s SeaWorld. Florida recorded 11,433 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the state health department said, just short of the state’s record high and more evidence that it was at the center of the U.S. pandemic. Florida does not disclose the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients but earlier this week more than four dozen Florida hospitals reported their intensive care units were full. This month, Florida has repeatedly reported more new daily coronavirus cases than any European country had at the height of their outbreaks. Its positive test rate, at 19% earlier this week, is one of the highest in the country. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, angered some residents and medical experts by calling the spike a “blip.” On Friday, DeSantis said that the state would receive more than 17,000 vials of the antiviral drug remdesivir from the U.S. government, adding: “That’ll be something that will hopefully help to improve patient outcomes.” Scott Burkee, a 43-year-old former Disney employee from Davenport, Florida, said DeSantis “has shown zero effort to control the spread, he only becomes concerned when Trump does. The virus is clearly out of control.” Trump, a Republican, traveled to Florida on Friday for an event at the U.S. military’s Southern Command and a campaign fundraiser. The president has sparred with state and local officials and teachers unions over the reopening of schools and said on Friday the Treasury Department would re-examine the tax-exempt status and funding of those that remain closed. Trump previously vowed to cut federal funding to the schools and eject foreign students attending universities in the United States unless their schools offer in-person classes, although most education funds come from state and local coffers. The United States has the world’s highest known numbers of both COVID-19 cases and deaths. The number of confirmed U.S. infections is over 3 million, according to a Reuters tally, stoking fears that hospitals will be overwhelmed. More than 133,000 Americans have died, a toll that experts warn will likely surge along with the rise in cases. Overall, coronavirus cases are rising in 44 American states, based on a Reuters analysis of cases for the past two weeks compared with the prior two weeks.

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Title: FBI offers $10K reward in search for missing Amish girl The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information on an Amish teen from Pennsylvania who has been missing for nearly three weeks. Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, of East Lampeter Township, was last seen on Sunday, June 21. Officials said she didn’t return home after attending a church service that Father’s Day, sparking an expansive search involving tracking dogs, horses, ATV equipment and drones. The FBI and the local Lampeter Township Police Department are now asking for the public’s help in the search. The reward money is being offered for any information that leads to her recovery and the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for her disappearance. Stoltzfoos was last seen Sunday at a farm on Stumptown Road in Bird-In-Hand while wearing a tan dress, white apron and a white cape, East Lampeter Township police said. Her parents called the police that Sunday after she never returned from the church service, saying she gave no indication that she wanted to leave or was about to take a trip. Stoltzfoos is described as being approximately 5’10” tall and weighing 125 pounds.

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Title: Independent probe of Fort Hood coming after Vanessa Guillen death AUSTIN, Texas — U.S. Army officials announced Friday they will begin an independent review of the command climate at Fort Hood following calls from members of Congress and community activists for a more thorough investigation into the killing of a soldier from the Texas base. Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy said he was directing the review and that it will be conducted by an independent panel of congressional representatives selected in collaboration with League of United Latin American Citizens. The panel will examine claims and historical data of discrimination, harassment and assault. The review comes in the wake of the death of 20-year-old Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who investigators say was bludgeoned to death at Fort Hood by a fellow soldier. She was last seen in April and was listed as missing for six weeks before the Army released details. The soldier suspected in Guillen’s slaying, Spc. Aaron Robinson, died by suicide on July 1 as police were trying to take him into custody. “The Army is deeply saddened and troubled by the loss of one of our own,” McCarthy said Friday during a press conference. In a separate press conference Friday, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, said McCarthy had also agreed to back calls for a Department of Defense to conduct an inspector general’s investigation into the death of Guillen. She said the independent review of Fort Hood’s climate showed military officials were listening. The Texas congresswoman and others met with McCarthy after dozens of lawmakers joined a letter demanding a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding of Guillen’s death. “This is the military ‘me too’ movement,” Garcia said. President Donald Trump acknowledged Guillen’s death in an interview with Noticias Telemundo on Friday. He said he had heard of the sexual harassment and assault allegations in the Army and was expecting a report by Monday, when he said he would say more. “I thought it was absolutely horrible,” Trump said. Questions over Guillen’s disappearance still loom. Guillen’s family has said Robinson, the soldier accused of killing her, sexually harassed Guillen at Fort Hood, but they have not given specifics of what they were told. Guillen was assigned to work in an armory room at Fort Hood on April 22, when she was last seen walking to a parking lot, according to the Army. On April 23, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division learned of her disappearance and began investigating. Investigators began interviewing people who had been in contact with Guillen on April 28, according to a timeline provided by the Army. That day, Robinson, of Calumet City, Illinois, was identified as a “person of concern” based on information that he provided investigators during his interview, Army officials said. The Army was receiving 20 to 30 tips per day about Guillen’s whereabouts, officials said, and it took more than a month to get cellphone records requested for the investigation. Phone records helped lead investigators to Cecily Aguilar, a civilian now charged with one federal count of conspiracy to tamper with evidence. Investigators believe she helped Robinson hide Guillen’s body. Aguilar, 22, of Killeen, Texas, near Fort Hood, is currently in custody at the Bell County Jail. The Army said a contractor not involved with the investigation found human remains June 30 in the woods near the Leon River. The remains were later identified as Guillen’s. Later that day, Robinson, who had been confined at Fort Hood for reasons that were not related to the Guillen investigation, ran away unnoticed from the barracks, according to the Army. After being confronted by police later that night, Robinson died July 1 by taking his own life. The Army says the gun Robinson used was not issued by Fort Hood, but it’s unclear where he got it. Army officials said 52 agents from multiple military and civilian law enforcement agencies have conducted more than 300 interviews investigating Guillen’s killing. That has lasted for more than 170 days, and Army officials say that has led to forensic examinations of more than 50 phones.

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Title: North Korean soldiers ordered to start breeding more bunnies North Korean soldiers are feeling hare-ied by a recent request by military authorities to start breeding more rabbits — 15 of them to be exact, according to a new report. The directive from the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces came down June 7 ordering soldiers and their families to raise more bunnies to eat, including some that are at least 7.7 pounds, Daily NK reported. The military’s politiburo, the General Political Bureau, is billing the new order as a way to boost the country’s meat supply in an inexpensive way — as part of Kim Jong Un’s order to raise more grass-eating animals. An “evaluation” of the soldiers’ breeding efforts will be made before the end of August. The request is believed to add more stress to soldiers, who began summer military drills on July 1, the publication said. They’ll have to find bigger cages and more food for their burgeoning nest, on top of preparing for the drills. “Soldiers carry out their duties and training in the morning, then have to head into the hills to pick acacia leaves and clover for an hour before they can rest,” a source told Daily NK. The source said it was the first time soldiers received specific orders on how many bunnies to raise. “The authorities seem to be subtly hinting that soldiers must find things to eat because they won’t get much food from the government,” the source said.

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