Coronavirus cases have surpassed 11 million worldwide, as the outbreak continues to surge in several countries including the United States, where case numbers tallied their largest single day total, topping 57,000.Friday’s totals in the United States, reported by The Washington Post, marked the seventh record-breaking day of coronavirus cases in nine days. Cases are now rising in 40 out of the 50 U.S. states.The U.S. state of Florida reported 9,488 new cases Friday, a day after setting a new daily record with more than 10,000 cases.Florida said it has reached about 80 percent capacity of its hospital intensive care units while the state of Arizona reported it is at 91 percent capacity, an all-time high.Patrons observing social distancing rules sit outdoors at the Guerrilla Tacos restaurant in Los Angeles, July 3, 2020.President Donald Trump visited Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday for an early Independence Day celebration that thousands of people attended.Although the U.S. leads the world in the number of COVID-19 cases, local officials did not require social distancing or mask-wearing at the event. However, free masks were available for those who wanted them.South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, said on Fox News earlier this week: “We’ve told folks that have concerns that they can stay home.”Brazil is another country where coronavirus cases are rising, surpassing 1.5 million. The nation has the world’s second-largest outbreak after the United States.On Friday, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro approved a law requiring people to wear face masks on streets and on public transportation. However, he vetoed clauses that would have required wearing a face mask in enclosed spaces, including churches, schools and shops. The president, who has been widely criticized by health experts for downplaying the severity of the virus, says such a move could violate property rights.In another development, the World Health Organization updated an account of how it learned of the coronavirus outbreak. It said it was alerted by its own office in China, and not by Chinese government officials. The agency had earlier said that the first report of the virus had come from China without further specifying from whom the information came.A woman wearing a face mask amid the spread of the new coronavirus walks past a mural of an Indigenous man in Bogota, Colombia, July 3, 2020.The United States has strongly criticized the World Health Organization for its early handling of the pandemic and its dealings with China and said it would withdraw from the group.In India, officials reported nearly 21,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus Friday. Johns Hopkins University said Friday that the South Asian nation has more than 625,000 COVID-19 cases.In Pakistan, the country’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced Friday he’s tested positive for the coronavirus. Qureshi, who says he is quarantining at home with a “slight fever” is the senior most government official in Pakistan to contract the virus.Australian officials say 10,000 people in Victoria have refused to take the coronavirus test this past week because they believe the outbreak is not real and is instead a “conspiracy theory.”The New York Times reports that Australia, which has been successful in keeping COVID cases to a minimum, is now locking down an area of 300,000 people in a largely immigrant community in the state of Victoria.In England, pubs are planning to reopen Saturday for the first time in more than three months.Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told voters not to be afraid to come out and cast ballots in the second round of the presidential election July 12.Despite hundreds of new cases reported daily, Poland has been relatively successful in fending off COVID-19, with 1,500 deaths.And in Mexico, a medical supply company has started using unmanned drones to deliver masks, gloves and other equipment to hospitals.Doctors, nurses and other medical workers have staged nationwide protests against what they say is a shortage of protective equipment. 
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Iran will retaliate against any country that carries out cyberattacks on its nuclear sites, the head of civilian defense said, after a fire at its Natanz plant that some Iranian officials said may have been caused by cyber sabotage.The Natanz uranium-enrichment site, much of which is underground, is one of several Iranian facilities monitored by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog.Iran’s top security body said Friday the cause of the incident at the nuclear site had been determined, but “due to security considerations” it would be announced at a convenient time.Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization initially reported an incident had occurred early Thursday at Natanz, located in the desert in the central province of Isfahan.It later published a photo of a one-story brick building with its roof and walls partly burned. A door hanging off its hinges suggested there had been an explosion inside the building.”Responding to cyberattacks is part of the country’s defense might. If it is proven that our country has been targeted by a cyberattack, we will respond,” civil defense chief Gholamreza Jalali told state TV late Thursday.An article issued Thursday by state news agency IRNA addressed what it called the possibility of sabotage by enemies such as Israel and the United States, although it stopped short of accusing either directly.”So far Iran has tried to prevent intensifying crises and the formation of unpredictable conditions and situations,” IRNA said. “But the crossing of red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran by hostile countries, especially the Zionist regime and the U.S., means that strategy … should be revised.”Three Iranian officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said they believed the fire was the result of a cyberattack but did not cite any evidence.One of the officials said the attack had targeted a centrifuge assembly building, referring to the delicate cylindrical machines that enrich uranium, and said Iran’s enemies had carried out similar acts in the past.In 2010, the Stuxnet computer virus, which is widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, was discovered after it was used to attack the Natanz facility.Lukasz Olejnik, a Brussels-based independent cybersecurity researcher and consultant, said that the Stuxnet incident did not necessarily say much about what transpired Thursday.“Events taking place more than 10 years ago, and once, in themselves cannot form any evidence about things happening today,” said Olejnik, who formerly worked as scientific adviser on cyberwarfare at the International Committee of the Red Cross, in an email.He added that talk of a cyberattack was “way too premature” and that invoking the specter of digital sabotage “might be a convenient explanation for natural events, or incompetence.”Two of the Iranian officials said Israel could have been behind the Natanz incident but offered no evidence.Asked on Thursday evening about recent incidents reported at strategic Iranian sites, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters: “Clearly we can’t get into that.”The IAEA said Friday the location of the fire did not contain nuclear materials, and that none of its inspectors was present at the time.”The Agency has been in contact with relevant Iranian authorities to confirm there will be no impact on its safeguards verification activities, which are expected to continue as before,” an IAEA statement said, adding that Iran had told it the cause of the fire was not yet known.Natanz is the centerpiece of Iran’s enrichment program, which Tehran says is only for peaceful purposes. Western intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe it had a coordinated, clandestine nuclear arms program that it halted in 2003.Tehran denies ever seeking nuclear weapons.Iran curbed its nuclear work in exchange for the removal of most global sanctions under an accord reached with six world powers in 2015 but has reduced compliance with the deal’s restrictions since the United States withdrew in 2018. 
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U.S. House Democrats published an open letter Friday expressing concern about the recent firings of heads of several news agencies under the U.S. Agency for Global Media, urging more transparency in its strategy and suggesting lawmakers should “consider fencing portions of USAGM funding.”Eleven representatives sent the FILE – Michael Pack, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is seen at his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 19, 2019. Pack’s nomination was confirmed June 4, 2020.Signed by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and other top Democrats, the letter expresses alarm about changes made by USAGM’s CEO, Michael Pack, whom the Senate confirmed to lead the agency last month.Beyond personnel and budgetary matters, the lawmakers expressed concern that the agency’s “truth-based reporting and programming” would be jeopardized if its editorial independence was eroded.The letter was sent ahead of Monday’s scheduled congressional hearing on oversight of the agency by the subcommittee that helps set funding for America’s outreach to the world.Earlier in the week, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to Pack saying they planned to review USAGM’s funding in light of recent developments. The senators said they were “deeply concerned” by Pack’s decision to fire the chiefs of Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, as well as the Open Technology Fund, which supports the free flow of information to countries that restrict press freedom.“These actions, which came without any consultation with Congress, let alone notification, raise serious questions about the future of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) under your leadership,” the senators wrote.Pack and the USAGM have not responded to questions from VOA about the lawmakers’ letters.In an email to USAGM staff shortly after his arrival, Pack promised to respect VOA’s charter and the editorial independence of the news agency, as is mandated by federal law. This week, Pack nominated career employees at VOA, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as acting heads of each agency.FILE – A view of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting in Miami.At the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Pack named Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a lawyer, legal analyst and reporter who worked for the Breitbart news website before becoming an adviser at OCB in 2017, as acting director and principal deputy director.The Senate confirmed Pack on June 4, two years after President Donald Trump nominated him to head the agency that oversees U.S. government-funded news networks. Pack said the appointments announced Tuesday “will serve critical roles in allowing our networks to become higher performing and to more effectively serve our audiences.”Together, the five USAGM news networks, including VOA, have a weekly global audience of more than 350 million listeners, viewers and internet users in 61 languages.Trump recently accused VOA of being pro-China in its reporting on Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
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A trial of those charged in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi opened Friday in Turkey, but none of the 20 Saudi nationals accused in the killing were in attendance.The fiancee of Khashoggi, Hatice Cengiz, told the court in Istanbul that the accused used “great betrayal and deception” to lure the journalist to his death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.Cengiz told reporters outside the courthouse that “we will continue seeking justice not just in Turkey but everywhere we can.”Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident, went to the consulate in 2018 to pick up documents that would allow him to marry Cengiz, who is Turkish. He was killed inside the consulate while Cengiz waited outside, sparking global outrage.The journalist, who wrote columns for The Washington Post, was a prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.The 20 defendants, including two former aides of the crown prince, have all returned to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has rejected Turkey’s request for their extradition.Some of the men have been tried in Saudi Arabia behind closed doors.Turkish prosecutors allege the men were sent to Turkey from Riyadh to confront Khashoggi.Rogue operatives blamedSaudi Arabia has given varying accounts of Khashoggi’s disappearance, eventually saying the killing was the work of rogue operatives.The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has concluded with “medium to high confidence” that Crown Prince Mohammed ordered the killing. The crown prince denies he was involved.The remains of Khashoggi have not been found. Turkish and Saudi prosecutors allege the Saudi agents dismembered his body after the killing.A handyman at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Zeki Demir, told the Turkish court Friday that he had been asked to light a tandoor oven less than one hour after Khashoggi entered the building. He described the Saudi agents as having an “air of panic.”The trial was adjourned Friday until November 24.
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A passenger train crashed into a bus carrying Sikh pilgrims at an unmanned railway crossing in eastern Pakistan on Friday, killing 20 people, including seven women, officials said. At least eight pilgrims were injured. The accident happened in the district of Sheikhupura in Punjab province, according to Raja Ijaz, an official at the state-run emergency service. Ghazi Salahuddin, the district police chief, said the dead and injured were taken to a nearby hospital. The Sikh pilgrims were from the northwestern city of Peshawar and were returning home from a visit to the shrine of Nankana Sahib in Sheikhupura. The officials said the injured were later transported to a hospital in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, with two of the victims listed in critical condition. Asghar Joya, a government official in Sheikhupura, said an initial assessment indicated the bus driver tried to cross the railway tracks as the train neared but the bus skidded and got stuck. He said, however, that officials were still investigating. TV footage showed the train and the badly destroyed bus on the railway tracks. People carry a girl, who was injured in bus and train accident, after receiving initial treatment at a hospital in Sheikhupura near Lahore, Pakistan, July 3, 2020.Sheikhupura resident Dilbir Singh said the pilgrims, after visiting the shrine and before leaving for Peshawar, had also visited the home of a relative whose family member had recently died. Pakistan’s President Arif Ali and Prime Minister Imran Khan issued statements expressing their sorrow and ordering local authorities to provide the best possible treatment for the injured. Sikhs have several shrines of their religious leaders in Pakistan. One, of Sikh founder Guru Nanak, built after he died in the 16th century, is located in the Punjab village of Kartarpur, on the border with India. Many Sikh holy sites became part of Pakistan after the British partitioned the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947 following two centuries of colonial rule. Ties between the rival nuclear-armed neighbors deteriorated sharply after India revoked the disputed Kashmir region’s semi-autonomous status in early August. Train accidents are common in Pakistan, mainly due to lack of enforcement of safety standards, a poorly kept railroad system and negligence of drivers. In February, a train crashed into a bus carrying passengers at an unmanned railway crossing in the district of Rohri in southern Pakistan, killing 19 people and injuring 28 others. Last November, a fire caused by a cooking gas stove swept through a train in Punjab, killing 74 people. Survivors at the time said it took nearly 20 minutes for the train to stop; there were also contradictory reports about the condition of the train’s brakes. 
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French President Emmanuel Macron named Jean Castex, a senior civil servant, as his new prime minister on Friday as he acted to recast his presidency and take back control of policy ahead of elections in 2022.Macron wants to start afresh after the coronavirus crisis reversed some of the hard-fought gains earned from moves to liberalize the economy, and is aware he needs to win back disillusioned voters.Outgoing premier Edouard Philippe gave Castex a “namaste” welcome greeting outside the prime minister’s Matignon office, having earlier tendered his government’s resignation ahead of an anticipated reshuffle.”The economic crisis is already here,” Castex said. “Priorities will therefore have to evolve, ways of working will have to be adapted. We will have to unite the nation to fight this crisis that is setting in.”Macron is reshaping his government as France grapples with the deepest economic slide since World War II, a sharp downturn that will shrink the economy by about 11% in 2020 and bring about big job losses.Castex, 55, hails from the center-right, a career technocrat with experience in local politics who most recently has been known as “Monsieur Deconfinement” for his role bringing the country out of lockdown measures.Also the mayor of Prades, a town in southwest France, he speaks with a local lilt and will help Macron connect with provincial France, Elysee insiders hope.Investors will be watching to see if Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who has overseen reforms to liberalize the economy and spent big to keep companies like Air France and Renault afloat during the crisis, keeps his job.FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the closing press conference at the G5 Sahel summit on June 30, 2020, in Nouakchott.”The return from summer holidays will be difficult, we must get ready,” Macron said on the eve of his government’s resignation.Taking controlPhilippe’s popularity had grown as he steered France through the coronavirus crisis with calm, leaving Macron with a tough decision over whether to jettison his prime minister and opt for a new team.As he did with Philippe, Macron plucked Castex from relative obscurity. The new prime minister, an alumni of France’s top administrative school for politicians and public servants, has held civil servant positions at all levels of government, including as a senior adviser to former President Nicolas Sarkozy.The appointment of a civil servant with a low profile showed “Macron’s willingness to exert full control over the policy agenda in the coming months,” said Antonio Barroso at risk advisory firm Teneo.An Elysee source confirmed Macron had imposed his choice of chief of staff on Castex but rejected suggestions this was an attempt to reduce Matignon’s influence over decision-making.LoyaltyMacron said in mid-June that he wanted to “reinvent” his presidency as France emerges from its coronavirus slump. Then came his party’s dire showing in nationwide municipal elections on June 28.The president’s first three years in office have been mired in social unrest and the elections showed surging support for the Green party and underlined Macron’s troubles connecting with ordinary folk. His ruling party failed to win a single big city, depriving the president of a local power base ahead of 2022.The most notable win was Philippe’s success in Le Havre. His exit from the government clears the way for him to be mayor of the northern port, from where he could emerge as a rival to Macron in two years.Macron aides said Macron and Philippe were leaving on warm terms. Philippe will be tasked with rebuilding Macron’s majority ahead of 2022, a sign Macron may want to ensure he keeps his former prime minister close to him.”I don’t think Philippe’s loyalty has ever been called into question,” the Elysee official said.
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President Donald Trump Friday heads to Mount Rushmore, where he will headline U.S. Independence Day celebrations featuring fireworks for the first time in more than a decade at the national park in South Dakota.“It’s going to be a fireworks display like few people have seen. It’s going to be very exciting,” Trump said during a White House event Thursday.FILE – FILE- President Donald Trump and Governor Kristi Noem.Americans urged to stay homeAs the nation witnessed a spike in new coronavirus cases, with an 80 percent increase in the past two weeks, health officials urged Americans to stay home on July 4 – a holiday usually celebrated with big parties and town parades.“The safest choice this holiday is to celebrate at home,” the Oregon Health AuthorityFireworks explode over Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol, along the National Mall in Washington, during the Fourth of July celebration, July 4, 2018.Presidential preferenceAmerican presidents typically have celebrated July 4 based on their personal preferences and many have done so in ways that are “very much connected to what’s happening at that moment”, said Matthew Costello, a historian with the White House Historical Association, in an interview with VOA.   James K. Polk, the nation’s 11th president and the one who pursued the expansion of the continental United States through wars in the mid-19th century, celebrated with military parades and other ways that were very much about patriotism, said Costello. “It was about the war effort, but it was also about continuing the fight for what he believed was in the best interest of the country.”Trump is not the first American president to commemorate Independence Day in a pandemic. During the Spanish Flu in 1918, Woodrow Wilson reviewed a parade that marched on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, said Costello.Wilson missed the 4th of July in 1919, as he was returning from the Paris Peace Conference. Many historians, including John M. Barry, professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, believe Wilson himself fell ill with the flu around that time. 
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Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s rebuke of President Donald Trump’s handling of allegations that Russians paid bounties for the killing of American soldiers reflects his longstanding criticism of the president on national security and foreign policy. However, on closer inspection the two presidential rivals are not that far apart on key issues, such as ending foreign wars, protecting American jobs, and countering China’s aggression.On Tuesday, Biden slammed Trump’s passive response to intelligence reports that Russians paid Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, claiming he was not briefed, and the reports were not credible.“The idea that somehow he didn’t know or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty. If that’s the case, and if he was briefed and nothing was done about this, that’s a dereliction of duty,” Biden said to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday.The White House has disputed a New York Times report on Friday that a Russian military intelligence unit had offered bounties to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan for U.S. and allied soldiers, saying it has “not been verified, and there is no consensus among the intelligence community.”FILE – American soldiers wait on the tarmac in Logar province, Afghanistan.Brink of warBiden, who served as President Barack Obama’s vice president, has been highly critical of what he says is Trump’s “deference” to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian leaders, his “haphazard” handling of national security threats, and his “America First” foreign policy.In January, Biden said Trump put the U.S. on the brink of war, after the president authorized a U.S. airstrike that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, after deadly Iranian backed attacks on Americans in Iraq.  “The failure to consult with our allies or Congress and the reckless disregard for the consequences that would surely follow was, in my view, dangerously incompetent,” Biden said in New York Jan. 7. Calls for “harsh revenge” during Soleimani’s massive funeral in Tehran raised concerns that military conflict with the United States could escalate, but tensions have eased after Iran retaliated with a non-lethal missile attack against a U.S. military base in Iraq.Biden agenda  In contrast to Trump’s reliance on personal diplomacy and unilateral action to confront U.S. security threats, the former vice president said he would organize a summit of democracies to strengthen alliances in the face of growing authoritarianism around the world, and would prioritize negotiation over confrontation. Biden wants to restore military ties with NATO in Europe after Trump strained relations by demanding increased defense spending. Trump recently ordered the military to withdraw about 10,000 U.S. troops from Germany, unless Berlin increases its NATO contributions.  The Trump administration has also demanded steep cost sharing increases for basing U.S. troops in Germany, South Korea and Japan.However, the Democratic presidential candidate is closer to Trump’s position on ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and Syria, continuing negotiations with North Korea to end its nuclear program, and confronting China’s suppression of human rights in Hong Kong and military buildup in the South China Sea.  
On Thursday, Biden issued a statement denouncing China’s crackdown on democracy protests in Hong Kong and as said as president he would prohibit U.S. companies from “abetting repression” in Hong Kong and impose sanctions on China for human rights abuses.NEW: Statement by Vice President Joe Biden on China’s Human Rights Abuses
Biden’s most comprehensive statement to date on China human rights, including several steps he’ll take as President. pic.twitter.com/jlwWYR31We
— Ely Ratner (@elyratner) FILE – Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama wave to the delegates at the conclusion of President Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, September 6, 2012.Obama eraBiden would likely rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, negotiated by the Obama administration, that Trump pulled out of because it did not limit ballistic missile development and support for Iranian backed militias.He would recommit the U.S. to the Paris climate accord, signed by nearly 200 countries and designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and factories to counter global warming.But Biden said he would not rejoin the Obama-era Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact, which Trump pulled out of in early 2017, until stronger protections for labor and American jobs are added.  “There is no going back to business as usual on trade,” Biden said on his campaign website. But he also argues in favor multilateral trades agreements to improve fair trade practices and democratic values in the developing world.  
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President Donald Trump ventures to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday for an early Independence Day celebration that thousands of people are expected to attend.Although the U.S. leads the world in the number of COVID-19 cases, local officials say there are no plans for observing social distancing or mask wearing at the event  However, free masks will be available for those who want them.South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem, said on Fox News earlier this week: “We’ve told folks that have concerns that they can stay home.”The Washington Post reports that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to Arizona this week was delayed from Tuesday to Wednesday after Secret Service agents organizing the trip either fell sick with the virus or displayed symptoms.The U.S. on Thursday reported more than 50,000 new cases. Four states – Arizona, California, Florida, Texas – were responsible for half of the new cases.The jump in coronavirus numbers is blamed in part on what New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called “knucklehead behavior” – people not wearing masks or practicing social distancing.There are nearly 11 million global COVID-19 cases. The U.S is approaching 3 million cases.Australian officials say 10,000 people in Victoria have refused to take the coronavirus test this past week because they believe the outbreak is not real and is instead a “conspiracy theory.”The New York Times reports that Australia, which has been successful in keeping COVID cases to a minimum, is now locking down an area of 300,000 people in a largely immigrant community in the state of Victoria.India reported nearly 21,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus Friday.India said Thursday that it had it had recorded about 100,000 cases in four days. Johns Hopkins University said early Friday that the South Asian nation has more than 625,000 COVID-19 cases.South Africa reported a new record number of 8,100 new cases in 24 hours Thursday.Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told voters not to be afraid to come out and cast ballots in the second round of the presidential election July 12.Despite hundreds of new cases reported daily, Poland has been relatively successful in fending off COVID-19, with 1,500 deaths.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday he is easing the mandatory quarantines for travelers arriving in Britain. He said he would announce details Friday or Saturday.And in Mexico, a medical supply company has started using unmanned drones to deliver masks, gloves and other equipment to hospitals.Doctors, nurses and other medical workers have staged nationwide protests against what they say is a shortage of protective equipment. 
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Two former presidents of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, have been charged with money laundering in separate cases.After leaving the prosecutor’s office in Panama City on Thursday, Martinelli said he was angered by prosecutors continuing to link him to the so-called “New Business” case in which a publishing group was allegedly purchased with government money during his five-year term, ending in 2014.The French News Agency (AFP) said prosecutors accuse former President Juan Carlos Varela of taking illegal campaign donations from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht during his term ending in 2019.Varela has pledged to cooperate with prosecutors to clear his name.Both Martinelli and Varela share more than identical legal challenges.Martinelli won the 2009 election with Varela as his running mate, but their partnership collapsed when Varela was fired as foreign minister in 2011. 
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