WHAT'S BREWING
PRESIDENT: 'NO ONE TOLD ME' ABOUT RUSSIAN BOUNTY TO KILL U.S. SOLDIERS President Donald Trump on Sunday denied that U.S. intelligence officials had briefed him about an alleged plot by Russian operatives to pay Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops. “Nobody briefed me or told me, [Vice President] Pence, or Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians,” Trump tweeted. The president accused The New York Times of using a fake “anonymous source” to report the alleged briefing. In fact, the Times report cited multiple officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. [HuffPost]
MILITANTS ATTACK PAKISTAN STOCK EXCHANGE Militants attacked the stock exchange in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Monday, killing at least three people — two guards and a policeman, according to police. Special police forces deployed to the scene of the attack and in a swift operation secured the building, killing all four gunmen. There were no reports of any wounded among the brokers and employees inside the exchange and a separatist militant group from a neighboring province later claimed responsibility for the attack. The attackers were armed with grenades and automatic rifles, police said. [HuffPost]
PENCE CANCELS CAMPAIGN EVENTS IN FLORIDA, ARIZONA Vice President Mike Pence canceled campaign events in Florida and Arizona, as the number of COVID-19 cases in both states surge. Pence backed out of the scheduled appearances on Saturday, just a day after falsely claiming that the nation is “flattening the curve." The U.S. reached a new record number of coronavirus cases — more than 42,000 — on Saturday. Florida had nearly 9,600 new cases, and Arizona tallied an additional 3,951 cases. This comes as reports are saying the Trump campaign peeled social distancing stickers off in the arena before the president's Tulsa rally, and a GOP senator pleads with the president to wear a mask. [HuffPost]
TRUMP SHARES VIDEO SHOWING PEOPLE SHOUTING 'WHITE POWER' President Donald Trump on Sunday shared a video that appeared to show one of his supporters yelling “white power” at a group of people protesting the president in a Florida retirement community. The video, apparently first shared Saturday on Twitter by user @davenewworld_2, captures a series of testy exchanges between Trump supporters and protesters in The Villages, an overwhelmingly white community that describes itself as “Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.” [HuffPost]
WHAT'S SO HARD ABOUT DEVELOPING COVID-19 VACCINE? With COVID-19 taking lives and crushing economies around the world, stopping the spread would provide tremendous relief. Researchers are working on almost 200 potential vaccines for this coronavirus, but there’s no guarantee any of them will ever work, let alone one that’s ready for wide use within months. Creating a safe, effective vaccine that quickly would be unprecedented. In addition, no one has ever attempted to produce a new vaccine, distribute it to every corner of the world and carry out an immunization campaign on this scale and with this much speed. [HuffPost]
ONE WOMAN'S STRUGGLE TO GET HER KIDS EDUCATED DURING CORONAVIRUS Terri Johnson willed her body not to show signs of impatience. She had been sitting in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Greenville, Mississippi, for more than an hour, so her oldest child, Kentiona, could connect to the building’s Wi-Fi, something they didn’t have at home. Johnson didn’t want her daughter to feel rushed. Kentiona, 16, was in the passenger seat using the car’s dashboard as a makeshift desk. Her high school had recently closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic and shifted to distance learning. [HuffPost] |
