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This is VOA news. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton.
Johns Hopkins University says 13 million cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed worldwide. The death toll stands at [570,000] 571,685 people. The United States has 3.3 million cases within its borders and some 135,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the United States. The World Health Organization warned on Monday that the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening globally and things will not return to the old normal for some time. At the agency's regular Monday news briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said while many countries in Europe and elsewhere have demonstrated it's possible to bring large outbreaks under control, too many nations are going in what he called "the wrong direction." The WHO director-general said the Americans remain the epicenter of the pandemic where more than 50 percent of the world's cases have been recorded. The United States and Brazil are the two countries worst hit. A U.S. federal judge issued an injunction on Monday delaying what would have been the first federal execution in 17 years just hours before it was to take place. U.S. district court judge Tanya Chutkan ordered a stay on the executions of four men until further order of the court. The Trump administration is likely to appeal to a higher court so that the executions can proceed. [One of the members] One of the men to be executed was a member of a white supremacist group from Yukon, Oklahoma. He was scheduled to die by lethal injection Monday afternoon at a federal prison in Indiana. He was convicted of murdering a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl in 1996. From Washington, this is VOA news. A White House lawyer has given President Donald Trump a second 45-day extension to [fill his personal] file his personal financial disclosure forms. The White House deputy counsel gave Mr. Trump until August 13 to detail his income, debt, stocks and loans for 2019, according to a White House letter. A White House spokesperson said last week that Trump "has a complicated report, and he's been focused on addressing the coronavirus and other matters." Lawyers have already granted Mr. Trump one 45-day extension, and federal law allows only two such extensions. The forms were originally due May 15. The letter, which was dated [July] June 29, was revealed on Monday by media outlets, including The Washington Post. The U.S. government, faced with a surge in COVID-19 cases and their economic impact, said it incurred its biggest monthly deficit ever in June, $864 billion. That sum is more than the country has recorded annually throughout its history. The deficit occurred as the White House and Congress have authorized trillions of dollars in massive relief programs to combat the coronavirus even as more than 40 million workers have been laid off and curtailed consumer spending, thus cutting tax revenues. The June figure topped the previous single month deficit record, $738 billion in April. That was as the coronavirus began to spread across the country. Investigators of Russia's Federal Security Service have formally charged an aide to the chief of Russia's space agency, journalist Ivan Safronov, with high treason. Safronov's lawyer Ivan Pavlov said his client was indicted on July 13. He is pleading not guilty. Moscow police on July 13 detained about 20 supporters of Safronov near the Moscow detention center, where Safronov is being held. Safronov has worked since May as an adviser to the head of the space agency. He is a prominent journalist who covered the military-industrial complex. He was arrested July 7 amid allegations he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about [Russians] Russian arms sales in the Middle East. After years of protests and controversy, the Washington Redskins, the professional football team in the U.S. capital, said Monday it's immediately dropping the use of its nickname which has been criticized for being racially offensive. It has not yet announced a new name. Team owner Dan Snyder had long vowed he would never change the name of the Redskins, the team he grew up cheering for. But less than two weeks after he launched what he called a "thorough review," the team announced it's "retiring" the name. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton. You're listening to VOA news. |