Friday, July 10th, 2020

An Afghan government spokesman says it will continue to release Taliban prisoners though disagreement prevails over the release of some 600 of them that are considered a “threat to national security”. The Taliban could not be reached for comment and it is not clear whether they are willing to accept to start talks based on the list of prisoners set to be freed. (Reuters)

President Rodrigo Duterte passionately rejects the prospect of reopening the country during a televised cabinet meeting. He goes on to claim that following the examples of the United States’, Brazil’s and others’ “bold actions” would result in “pandemonium”, and the potential resultant spike in coronavirus cases would land the nation in “deep shit”. (Vice)

Interim President of Bolivia Jeanine Áñez tests positive for COVID-19. (Reuters)

The court rules that nearly half of Oklahoma is Native American tribal land. (The New York Times)

The court rules that prosecutors in New York can seek President Trump’s financial records in a major case on the scope and limits of presidential power. (The New York Times)

Governor of Khabarovsk Krai Sergey Furgal is arrested by Russian police over a series of murders of several businessmen in 2004 and 2005 in his region, according to the Investigative Committee of Russia. (Sky News)

Park Won-soon, the Mayor of Seoul, is found dead after being declared missing earlier today. (Yonhap News Agency)

Supreme Court rules prosecutors can see Trump’s financial records The Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision on Thursday said New York prosecutors can subpoena eight years of President Trump’s personal and business tax records. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch concurred with the majority in ruling against Trump in his attempt to block a subpoena of his accounting firm. “The president is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers nor entitled to a heightened standard of need,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. The court, however, in another 7-2 decision prevented Congress from accessing Trump’s financial records for now, rejecting Trump’s claims of immunity but sending the case back to lower courts for additional review. Source: The Washington Post

Biden campaign says his manufacturing and innovation plan would create 5 million jobs

Former Vice President Joe Biden pitched his “Buy American” plan Thursday in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, which his campaign says would create at least five million jobs in manufacturing and innovation. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s plan narrows restrictions on what can be considered an American-made good and calls for investing $400 billion in manufacturing and $300 billion in research and development for several diverse industries, Politico reports. “America can’t sit on the sidelines in the race of the future,” Biden said. “The Chinese are spending multiple billions of dollars trying to own the technology of the future while we sit with our thumb in our ear.” He also accused President Trump of spending the coronavirus pandemic “almost singularly focused on the stock market,” and promised to be “laser focused on working families” if elected. Source: Politico

Fauci says states with coronavirus resurgences should consider shutting down again States seeing surging COVID-19 cases “should seriously look at shutting down” again, Anthony Fauci, the Trump administration’s top coronavirus official, said on a Wall Street Journal podcast Wednesday. “It’s not for me to say, because each state is different,” Fauci clarified. That statement puts Fauci at odds with President Trump, who has pledged the U.S. will not shut down again even though coronavirus case counts are continuing to hit record highs. Dr. Ali Khan, the former director of the CDC’s public health preparedness office, similarly told CNN that if states aren’t doing what’s necessary to “get this outbreak under control … your only option is to shut down.” Source:  CNN

U.S. sanctions China over human rights abuses The U.S. Treasury and State Departments issued sanctions Thursday against several Chinese officials over their human rights abuses against China’s Uighur Muslims and other minority groups. The treasury sanctioned several Xinjiang province officials for their abuses to seize any of their U.S. assets under the Global Magnitsky Act. In addition, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced he had “designated” three of those officials “for gross violations of human rights” to block them from accessing visas. The Trump administration had previously been criticized for ignoring human rights concerns during trade negotiations with China, and Former National Security Adviser John Bolton alleged President Trump endorsed Uighur concentration camps in conversations with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, Trump has yet to sign the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which would sanction businesses and Chinese leaders after the country moved to restrict civil liberties in Hong Kong. Source: Axios

Record spike lifts U.S. coronavirus cases over 3 million The total number of U.S. coronavirus cases reached 3 million on Wednesday as officials confirmed a record 60,000-plus new cases over the previous 24 hours, and the national death toll rose above 132,000. States in the South and West continued to report spiking new infections. California and Texas both reported more than 10,000 new cases on Wednesday. U.S. deaths, which had been trending downward, rose by more than 900 for the second straight day, the highest level since early June. Hospitalizations also have increased in the states where infections have jumped, including Florida, where 56 intensive care units this week reached capacity, and Arizona, where ICUs are rapidly filling up, too. Infections have risen in 42 of the 50 states over the past two weeks, according to Reuters. Source:  BBC