Health News at Your Fingertips

Throughout his speech, in attacking Joe Biden, Trump has repeated several false claims.

Trump: “Think of this: If we didn’t do testing — instead of testing over 40 million people, if we did half the testing we’d have half the cases.”

Fact: This is an obvious one, but testing fewer Americans doesn’t mean that we’d have fewer coronavirus cases, we’d just be reporting fewer of them. People with the infection who aren’t able to get tested could unknowingly spread the infection to others, exacerbating the crisis.

Trump: The president said Joe Biden’s son Hunter was “jobless” when he was appointed to the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.

Fact: Hunter Biden was employed at a law firm, and as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University at the time. He was CEO of his own investment advisory company.

Trump: He said Biden would “abolish law enforcement as we know it.”

Fact: Joe Biden’s platform does not include any proposal to abolish law enforcement.

These are just a few fact-checks, of a slew of misleading and false statements from the president.

Donald Trump is continuing to deliver what sounds like a prepared campaign speech form the Rose Garden, revisiting unfounded allegations against Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and attacking his Democratic opponent directly.

The top news line is Trump’s executive order, which ends Hong Kong’s favored trading status, in reaction to a Chinese national security law the administration says has undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy.

In late June, my colleague Lily Kuo reported on the developments in Hong Kong. The controversial national security law gives Beijing unprecedented powers over Hong Kong, laying out “penalties as severe as life imprisonment for the crimes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces” she wrote:

The measure deals a devastating blow to Hong Kong’s autonomy as promised under the “one country, two systems” framework, the terms of the former British colony’s handover to Chinese control in 1997. Rights advocates and legal scholars believe the law will be used broadly to stifle dissent.

Read more background:

More on Ginsburg: The justice is “resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment”, according to a statement from the supreme court.

She had a fever on Monday night and underwent a procedure to clean out a bile duct stent that was inserted in August, according to the statement. In May, Ginsburg underwent treatment for a gallbladder condition.

“Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China. No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies,” he said at the Rose Garden press conference.

From there, Trump went on to hit common campaign points, attacking Joe Biden for being weak on China and lashing out at Democrats. Trump also touted stock market gains, largely ignoring the coronavirus crisis so far.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is reportedly in the hospital, seeking treatment for a possible infection. Stay tuned for more details.

Ginsburg, 87, is the oldest judge on the supreme court, which just wrapped up a set of historic rulings in June.

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh – blogging from the West Coast.

We’re awaiting Donald Trump, who is set to speak at the Rose Garden shortly. Stay tuned for more live coverage.

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Trump responded to a question on the police killing of George Floyd by saying more white Americans are killed by police. Asked in a CBS News interview why black Americans are “still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country,” Trump replied, “So are white people. … More people, by the way. More white people.” White Americans make up a majority of those killed by police, but black Americans are roughly 3.5 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement, according to a 2018 study.
• The Trump administration has agreed to rescind its controversial policy on foreign student visas. District Judge Allison Burroughs announced at a hearing today that the government reached an argreement with Harvard and MIT to rescind the policy, which would have required foreign students to leave the country if they are earning their degrees entirely online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Ghislaine Maxwell was denied bailed in New York. Maxwell also pleaded not guilty to changes linked to her alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking.
• Joe Biden unveiled his $2tn clean energy proposal aimed at reinvigorating the US economy, which has suffered greatly as a result of the pandemic. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee delivered a speech on the plan in Wilmington, Delaware, saying, “We won’t just tinker around the edges. We’re going to make historic investments that will seize the opportunity and meet this moment in history.”
• The US carried out its first federal execution in 17 years. Convicted murderer Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death at a federal prison in Indiana after the supreme court issued a late night, 5-4 decision allowing the execution to proceed.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Studies have repeatedly shown that black Americans are more likely to be killed by police than white Americans.

More Americans have become aware of that discrepancy in recent months, as protests in reponse to the police killing of George Floyd spread across the country.

According to an AP-NORC poll taken in June, 61% of Americans say police are more likely to use deadly force against black people, up from 49% in July 2015.

So when Trump downplays the disproportionately high threat faced by black Americans, he is out of step with a majority of the country.

Another study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2016 found that white Americans make up a majority of those killed by police, but the study noted black Americans made up a disproportionately high percentage of the victims.

“Victims were majority white (52%) but disproportionately black (32%) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites,” the study reads.

“Most victims were reported to be armed (83%); however, black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8%) than white (9.4%) or Hispanic (5.8%) victims.”

Trump pushed back against a question on the police killing of George Floyd, whose death sparked nationwide protests over racism and police brutality.

In a CBS News interview, Trump described the killing of Floyd as “terrible.” He was then asked by reporter Catherine Herridge why black Americans are “still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country.”

Trump replied, “So are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people.” He added, “More people, by the way. More white people.”

But a 2018 study showed black Americans are roughly 3.5 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than white Americans.

In the CBS interview, Trump also described the debate over displaying the Confederate flag as a freedom of speech issue.

“All I say is freedom of speech. It’s very simple. My attitude is freedom of speech,” Trump said. “Very strong views on the Confederate flag. With me, it’s freedom of speech. Very simple. Like it, don’t like it, it’s freedom of speech.”

Critics have argued the Confederate flag is a symbol of white supremacy that has no place in modern-day America, and Nascar recently announced the flag would be banned at their races.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered a grim prediction for how coronvirus will impact the US in the months to come.

Speaking during a webinar with the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr Robert Redfield said, “I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be the probably one of the most difficult times that we experienced in American public health.”

Redfield emphasized it was crucial that Americans do everything they can to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system. “Keeping the healthcare system from being overstretched, I think, is really going to be important,” Redfield said. “And the degree that we’re able to do that, I think, will define how well we get through the fall and winter.”

A number of public health experts have warned a “second wave” of coronavirus infections is likely later this year, but members of the Trump administration have downplayed or outright dismissed such predictions.

The Trump administration has agreed to rescind its controversial policy on foreign student visas during the coronavirus pandemic.

The policy had sparked multiple lawsuits, including one from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

According to Bloomberg News, District Judge Allison Burroughs announced at a hearing today that the government reached an argreement with Harvard and MIT to rescind the policy.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced last week that foreign students who were earning their degrees entirely online could not stay in the US.

That announcement sparked outcry from students, universities and Democratic lawmakers, with many critics insisting the policy was an attempt by the White House to pressure universities to reopen.

Trump has repeatedly urged universities and schools to welcome students back this fall, despite concerns about the potential spread of coronavirus in classrooms and on college campuses.

Joe Biden has just concluded his remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on his plan to rebuild the American economy, which has suffered greatly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee argued investing in clean energy could revitalize the US economy, describing the climate crisis as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to jolt new life into our economy.”

Biden promised bold change, saying, “We won’t just tinker around the edges. We’re going to make historic investments that will seize the opportunity and meet this moment in history.”

The quote was noteworthy considering one of Biden’s former primary rivals, Eiizabeth Warren, has previously said Democrats “can’t afford to just tinker around the edges.” Warren has now been named as a potential running mate for Biden.