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from Asia Times
LEAST BIASED, HIGH; News & Media Website based in Hong Kong
Cold War-style US-China spat rattles the world
China’s retaliatory move ordering the United States to shut its consulate in Chengdu city days after it was asked to close its consulate in Houston could be more damaging than a trade war to the global economy, reeling from a pandemic that is still spreading. Financial markets panicked, the dollar slid and safe-haven gold surged to near all-time highs after the tit-for-tat moves capped a furious week of Cold War-style diplomacy. ... Markets reacted quickly – Mainland China’s benchmark CSI300 tumbled 4.39%, while the regional MSCI Asa ex-Japan benchmark fell 1.74%. Meanwhile, the dollar dropped to 22-month lows against a basket of currencies and gold jumped 0.4% to 1,894 an ounce. The yuan slipped 0.2% versus the dollar.
China’s retaliatory move ordering the United States to shut its consulate in Chengdu city days after it was asked to close its consulate in Houston could be more damaging than a trade war to the global economy, reeling from a pandemic that is still spreading. Financial markets panicked, the dollar slid and safe-haven gold surged to near all-time highs after the tit-for-tat moves capped a furious week of Cold War-style diplomacy. ... Markets reacted quickly – Mainland China’s benchmark CSI300 tumbled 4.39%, while the regional MSCI Asa ex-Japan benchmark fell 1.74%. Meanwhile, the dollar dropped to 22-month lows against a basket of currencies and gold jumped 0.4% to 1,894 an ounce. The yuan slipped 0.2% versus the dollar.
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from CBS News (& affiliates)
Study identifies six different "types" of COVID-19
A new study of COVID-19, based on data from a symptom tracker app, determined that there are six distinct "types" of the disease involving different clusters of symptoms. The discovery could potentially open new possibilities for how doctors can better treat individual patients and predict what level of hospital care they would need.
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from CNN
Senior US government officials said Friday that a Chinese scientist who had been hiding in the country's San Francisco consulate after accusations of visa fraud is now in US custody and also charged that Beijing has been using its diplomatic outposts to run an espionage network to steal intellectual property from US businesses, universities and research centers. Tang Juan, a researcher who said she was focusing on biology, "was a fugitive from justice until last night," a senior Justice Department official said, but has now been charged in Sacramento. The circumstances of Tang's arrest were not clear, but she has not been charged with espionage.
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from Competitive Enterprise Institute
President Trump is expected to issue an executive order today directing his administration to take a series of actions related to pharmaceuticals and the price of new medicines. Anticipated initiatives include rules addressing drug importation and pharmaceutical price controls, and a key feature of the order reportedly involves adopting an International Pricing Index (IPI) as a reference for the maximum prices drug companies may charge for their products. Imposing price controls on pharmaceuticals may lower drug prices in the short run, but would result in sharply lower investment in medical research and development and reduce the number of innovative new medicines that reach the market in coming years, warns CEI Senior Fellow Gregory Conko.
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from Forbes
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread throughout the U.S. despite mask mandates and social distancing measures, more than 150 medical experts, scientists and other health professionals signed a letter organized by a prominent consumer group and delivered to government leaders Thursday calling for new shutdowns to bring case counts down and “hit the reset button” to implement a more effective response.
A detailed view of the contents of Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre's defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, which Maxwell settled with Roberts Giuffre for an undisclosed amount in 2016, has just been made possible by New York senior district judge Loretta Preska, who, on July 23 in response to a suit brought by the Miami Herald, ordered the trove to be prepared for unsealing next week. The Herald's superb 2018 series of articles on Epstein is credited with triggering his arrest and meticulously planned prosecution last year. All documents in this initial unsealing were part of the discovery phase of Virginia Roberts Giuffre's 2015 suit, which claimed defamation since, in refuting Ms. Giuffre's claims of being groomed and trafficked, Maxwell had accused Ms. Giuffre of lying.
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Society & Culture Website
Baldwin, Buckley, and Berry on Racism and the World Order
By Mark Clavier: Even in grainy black and white film, the atmosphere in the Cambridge Union debating chamber remains palpable. A field of impeccably turned out students packed densely into that grand nineteenth-century theatre; an almost uninterrupted field of white faces directed with eager anticipation towards the gaunt, slightly nervous looking African American sitting on the left-hand side of the central aisle. Across from him, exuding the confidence of a virtuoso in his natural element, sat his blonde-haired opponent. The topic for that evening’s debate was “The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro.” The two debaters were James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr.
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from The Guardian (UK)
LEFT-CENTER, HIGH, British daily newspaper published in London UK
Sheffield Cathedral to investigate bullying and harassment claims
Sheffield Cathedral, which closed its choir this week to an outcry from parents, former choristers and musicians, is being investigated over allegations of bullying and harassment. The cathedral’s dean, Peter Bradley, ordered an external inquiry after complaints were made to its governing body, the Chapter, over alleged bullying of musical staff and volunteers.
Sheffield Cathedral to investigate bullying and harassment claims
Sheffield Cathedral, which closed its choir this week to an outcry from parents, former choristers and musicians, is being investigated over allegations of bullying and harassment. The cathedral’s dean, Peter Bradley, ordered an external inquiry after complaints were made to its governing body, the Chapter, over alleged bullying of musical staff and volunteers.
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Coronavirus updates: School districts back off in-person learning for fall, Inslee tightens Safe Start rules
Many schools were looking to open this fall with at least partial in-person learning, leaning toward a hybrid model of learning that would combine some social-distance approved in-person learning with online instruction. But with COVID-19 cases on the rise throughout the state once again, school districts are backing off, with many announcing Thursday a move toward exclusively online-learning in the fall to open the 2020-21 school year.
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from HumanProgress.org
Education Website
This week, our heroes are Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace—two 19th century English mathematicians and pioneers of early computing. Babbage is often called “The Father of Computing” for conceiving the first automatic digital computer. Building on Babbage’s work, Lovelace was the first person to recognize that computers could have applications beyond pure calculation. She has been dubbed the “first computer programmer” for creating the first algorithm for Babbage’s machine. Babbage and Lovelace’s work laid the groundwork for modern-day computers. Without their contributions, much of the technology we have today would likely not exist.
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from NBC News (& affiliates)
LEFT-CENTER BIAS
CDC changes COVID-19 guidance on how long patients need to be isolated
People who have been confirmed with mild to moderate COVID-19 can leave their isolation without receiving a negative test, according to recently revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Increasing evidence shows that most people are no longer infectious 10 days after they begin having symptoms of COVID-19. As a result, the CDC is discouraging people from getting tested a second time after they recover. “For most persons with COVID-19 illness, isolation and precautions can generally be discontinued 10 days after symptom onset and resolution of fever for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing medications, and with improvement of other symptoms,” the CDC says. For people who have tested positive but don't have symptoms, "isolation and other precautions can be discontinued 10 days after the date of their first positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.”
CDC changes COVID-19 guidance on how long patients need to be isolated
People who have been confirmed with mild to moderate COVID-19 can leave their isolation without receiving a negative test, according to recently revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Increasing evidence shows that most people are no longer infectious 10 days after they begin having symptoms of COVID-19. As a result, the CDC is discouraging people from getting tested a second time after they recover. “For most persons with COVID-19 illness, isolation and precautions can generally be discontinued 10 days after symptom onset and resolution of fever for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing medications, and with improvement of other symptoms,” the CDC says. For people who have tested positive but don't have symptoms, "isolation and other precautions can be discontinued 10 days after the date of their first positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.”
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from The News Tribune
News & Media Website in Tacoma, WA
News & Media Website in Tacoma, WA
Coronavirus updates: School districts back off in-person learning for fall, Inslee tightens Safe Start rules
Many schools were looking to open this fall with at least partial in-person learning, leaning toward a hybrid model of learning that would combine some social-distance approved in-person learning with online instruction. But with COVID-19 cases on the rise throughout the state once again, school districts are backing off, with many announcing Thursday a move toward exclusively online-learning in the fall to open the 2020-21 school year.
from New York Post
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, Newspaper in New York
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, Newspaper in New York
Washington Post settles $250M suit with Covington teen Nick Sandmann
The Washington Post on Friday agreed to settle a monster $250 million lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann over its botched coverage of his 2019 encounter with a Native American elder. ... It’s the teen’s second win in a whopping $800 million defamation battle against a number of news outlets including the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Hill and NBC. Sandmann and a group of his Covington classmates were vilified on social media after they were filmed wearing “Make America Great Again” hats after an anti-abortion rally while being yelled at by demonstrators.Sandmann, then 16, was singled out after footage of his confrontation with Native American activist Nathan Phillips was picked up by CNN and other outlets who claimed the incident was racially motivated. Footage released later showed it was the Covington students who were being harassed.
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from NPR (& affiliates)
Nonprofit Broadcasting & Media Production Company
Judge Denies Oregon's Request For Restraining Order Against Federal Officers
A federal judge on Friday denied the Oregon attorney general's request for a temporary restraining order against certain actions by federal authorities in Portland, saying the state lacked the legal standing to seek that relief. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a lawsuit on July 17 against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protection Service and their agents. In it, she alleged that federal officers in the city of Portland have acted unlawfully by seizing and detaining Oregonians without probable cause, and she sought a restraining order that would temporarily stop them from using such tactics.
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Judge Denies Oregon's Request For Restraining Order Against Federal Officers
A federal judge on Friday denied the Oregon attorney general's request for a temporary restraining order against certain actions by federal authorities in Portland, saying the state lacked the legal standing to seek that relief. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a lawsuit on July 17 against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protection Service and their agents. In it, she alleged that federal officers in the city of Portland have acted unlawfully by seizing and detaining Oregonians without probable cause, and she sought a restraining order that would temporarily stop them from using such tactics.
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from People
Media/News CompanyRepublican Senate Passes Bill Renaming Bases That Honor Confederacy Despite Trump's Veto Threat
Senate Republicans ignored President Donald Trump's threats to veto a bill over its provision to rename military bases that honor Confederate soldiers. Congress' upper chamber, which is majority Republican, voted 86-14 vote to approve the annual National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday. The bill largely focuses on increasing military spending, including a 3 percent raise for soldiers, but it also features a policy that clears the way for military bases to be renamed.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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from Washington Policy Center
Educational Research Center in Seattle, Washington
Data ignorance is making COVID restrictions worse than they need to be
As Governor Inslee puts Washington back toward lockdown in response to COVID, he is still relying on broad social restrictions that limit the freedom of everyone, rather than targeted protections focusing on those most at risk. For example, the new social restrictions include rules that limit who can be together at a restaurant. A better approach would be to provide treatment and assistance to those who are most at risk or who currently have coronavirus but are asymptomatic and may be spreading the illness. That approach, however, is not possible because we don’t have the information necessary to follow that strategy, in part because governor has failed to take the steps he promised.
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Data ignorance is making COVID restrictions worse than they need to be
As Governor Inslee puts Washington back toward lockdown in response to COVID, he is still relying on broad social restrictions that limit the freedom of everyone, rather than targeted protections focusing on those most at risk. For example, the new social restrictions include rules that limit who can be together at a restaurant. A better approach would be to provide treatment and assistance to those who are most at risk or who currently have coronavirus but are asymptomatic and may be spreading the illness. That approach, however, is not possible because we don’t have the information necessary to follow that strategy, in part because governor has failed to take the steps he promised.
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