Статті

Chilean President Sebastian Piñera is hoping his second economic stimulus package proposal to help middle-class citizens impacted by the coronavirus lockdown gets the full backing of the Congress.  His initial $1.5 billion proposal failed to generate enough support from the Chilean Congress last week. In a televised speech, Pinera said his latest proposal delivers financial contributions directly to the middle class. Piñera’s new stimulus package also has credit extensions, rent subsidies and loans to help pay for college.  Piñera hopes his proposal will counter an initiative by the opposition that would allow pensioners to withdraw 10 percent of their savings from a total of 200,000 dollars in Chile’s Pension Funds Administrator.  The opposition argues Piñera’s proposal is costly and would burden the middle class with unnecessary debt. 
…

A federal judge in Washington has issued a preliminary injunction halting the planned execution Wednesday of the second person scheduled to die this week after the federal government resumed carrying out death sentences.Lawyers for 68-year-old Wesley Ira Purkey argued he is currently incompetent to be executed because he does not understand it is punishment for his capital crime, that he has a history of mental illness, and that dementia has caused his mental health to decline.District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said in her ruling that Purkey’s defense has “made a substantial showing of incompetence,” and that he is therefore “entitled to an opportunity to be heard, including a fair hearing.”In order to ensure such a hearing can take place, she ordered the government may not go through with the execution at this time. Purkey was sentenced to death for killing and dismembering a teenager in the state of Missouri in 1998.  He also pleaded guilty to the later killing of an 80-year-old woman. Wednesday’s injunction comes a day after Daniel Lewis Lee became the first person the federal government executed since 2003.US Executes 1st Federal Prisoner in 17 YearsSupreme Court ruling early Tuesday allows four executions to go forwardA Supreme Court ruling early Tuesday cleared the way for the execution of four people, and hours later Lee was put to death with a dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at a federal prison in Indiana. U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Lee “finally faced the justice he deserved. The American people have made the considered choice to permit capital punishment for the most egregious federal crimes, and justice was done today in implementing the sentence for Lee’s horrific offenses.” Lee was originally due to be executed Monday, but hours before that happened a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on the grounds that courts should have more time to review whether the method of execution violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Lawyers for the four men scheduled to die argued that pentobarbital could cause a type of respiratory distress with the sensation of drowning or suffocating. The Supreme Court’s 5-4 majority rejected that argument, saying the drug has been adopted by individual states that carry out their own executions and that more than 100 people have been put to death that way “without incident.” “The Government has produced competing expert testimony of its own, indicating that any pulmonary edema occurs only after the prisoner has died or been rendered fully insensate,” the majority wrote. “The plaintiffs in this case have not made the showing required to justify last-minute intervention by a Federal Court.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Elena Kagan, said in a dissenting opinion that the majority had accepted the government’s “artificial claim of urgency” and rushed the review process. “Today’s decision illustrates just how grave the consequences of such accelerated decision making can be,” Kagan said.  “The Court forever deprives respondents of their ability to press a constitutional challenge to their lethal injections and prevents lower courts from reviewing that challenge.”  Justice Stephen Breyer, also joined by Ginsburg, suggested in his dissent that the court may need to examine the constitutionality of the death penalty itself. The next federal inmate scheduled for execution is Dustin Lee Honken, who is set to be put to death Friday.  The execution of the fourth inmate involved in the legal challenges, Keith Dwayne Nelson, is scheduled for August 28. Before Tuesday, the federal government had executed three people since reinstating the death penalty in 1988. 
…

Former college football coach Tommy Tuberville has defeated former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a Republican primary for a Senate seat representing the southern state of Alabama. Sessions held the seat for 20 years before stepping down to lead the Justice Department when President Donald Trump took office in 2017.  He fell out of favor with Trump when he recused himself from the investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and the president endorsed Tuberville in the primary. “Tommy Tuberville WON big against Jeff Sessions,” Trump tweeted late Tuesday.  “Will be a GREAT Senator for the incredible people of Alabama.” Tuberville moves on to the November general election to face Democratic Senator Doug Jones, who in a similar fashion to Sessions criticized Tuberville as lacking the experience necessary for the job.Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, joined by family members, delivers his concession speech Tuesday, July 14, 2020, in Mobile, Ala.“The choice before the voters is an unprepared hyper partisan that will add to the divide in Washington, or my proven track-record to find common ground and get things done,” Jones said in a statement. In Maine, state House Speaker Sara Gideon won a three-way Democratic Senate primary battle against attorney Bre Kidman and activist Betsy Sweet. Gideon’s November opponent is Republican Senator Susan Collins.  Democrats are targeting Collins as one of their top hopes in unseating a Republican and trying to gain the three seats necessary to flip the current slim Republican majority in the Senate. In Texas, combat veteran Mary Jennings Hegar won her primary runoff election against state senator Royce West and will be the Democrat going against Republican Senator John Cornyn in November. Cornyn has represented Texas for three terms, and polls ahead of Tuesday’s voting showed him leading Hegar by at least 8 points. There were also several House primaries in the three states Tuesday. In the 13th congressional district in Texas, Ronny Jackson, former White House physician during the Trump administration, won the Republican primary and in a strongly Republican district will likely win the seat in November. Former Congressman Pete Sessions won the Republican primary in the state’s 17th district, defeating Renee Swann, who was endorsed by retiring incumbent Congressman Bill Flores. 
…

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s self-isolation with the coronavirus does not appear to be affording him any sympathy from protesters calling for his resignation. Demonstrators, who are upset over Bolsonaro’s response to the outbreak, placed crosses representing COVID-19 victims outside the Brazilian Congress in the capital, Brasilia, on Tuesday. Protesters, including members of trade unions, Indigenous people and LGBT activists, delivered a petition to Congress calling for his impeachment.  Bolsonaro has been widely criticized for downplaying the impact of the pandemic.  Indigenous leader Kretan Kaingang said demonstrators also wanted to honor warriors who died during the pandemic.  Brazil has confirmed more than 74,000 deaths, the second-highest in the world behind the United States.  So far, nearly two million people have been infected with the coronavirus in Brazil.  
…

Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​. Daily DebunkClaim: “Bill Gates’ vaccine” against COVID-19 would modify human DNA.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Poynter.orgSocial Media DisinfoEUvsDisinfo”The Secret Labs Conspiracy: A Converging Narrative,” EUvsDisinfo, July 6 Factual Reads on CoronavirusLost on the Frontline
America’s health care workers are dying. … “Lost on the Frontline,” a collaboration between KHN and The Guardian, has identified 795 such workers who likely died of COVID-19 after helping patients during the pandemic.
— Kaiser Health News, July 14
…

Growing threats imperil life in the world’s oceans and seas. Scientists say warming waters endanger young and unborn fish more than previously thought while a newly discovered species of seaweed suffocates life in Pacific waters. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports on threats to waters both local and global.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi 
…

Charlie Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame best known for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” died last week after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. Border Crossings host, Larry London interviewed him in July of 2007.  Charlie had just Charlie had just released a new cd “The Charlie Daniels Band Live in Iraq” and a new book “Growing Up Country.”
…