President made remark in Fourth of July message at White House
Trump says US under assault from ‘far-left fascism’ in speech
US coronavirus deaths near 130,000
Supreme court gives conservatives blues – what’s really going on?
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Donald Trump says US ‘under siege from far-left fascism’ in Mount Rushmore speech – video
5.41pm EDT17:41 Summary
12.21pm EDT12:21 Trump says US on its way to ‘tremendous victory’ over Covid-19 as cases rise
10.15am EDT10:15 Trump speech sparks media storm
8.06am EDT08:06 Good morning …
5.41pm EDT17:41
Summary
We will be shutting down today’s coverage of US politics, protest and public health crisis shortly, but our Washington bureau chief David Smith will have a full report from tonight’s Salute to America in the nation’s capital and Trump’s speech from the South Lawn of the White House. Here’s a look at today’s top news items:
Trump claims ‘victory’ as US sees Covid-19 case records in multiple states. Florida says confirmed cases up by record 11,458 but president claims US on the way to ‘tremendous victory’ over coronavirus.
WHO says trials show malaria and HIV drugs don’t cut Covid-19 hospital deaths. Hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir not found to help patients in hospital.
Trump’s niece says 2001 NDA based on ‘fraudulent’ financial information. Lawyers seeking to clear path for Mary Trump’s book made argument in filings in New York this week.
Two women injured as car drives through Seattle protest crowd. Two women struck and injured by a car whose driver sped through a protest-related closure on a freeway in Seattle, authorities said.
Neil Young says Trump’s use of songs at Mount Rushmore ‘not OK with me’. Singer objects to playing of Like a Hurricane and Rockin’ in the Free World and says he stands with Lakota Sioux protesters.
‘We don’t want things to get out of hand again’: as New York reopens, dangers lie ahead. The virus could be reimported to New York City from other parts of the US as several states record surges.
5.31pm EDT17:31
Donald Trump is charged up ahead of tonight’s Salute to America if the blur of activity on his Twitter feed is any indicator. The US president has fired off no fewer than 55 tweets or retweets since noon today, including a message of congratulations from Indian prime minister Narendra Modi so nice he retweeted it twice.
The alarming nationwide trends around the coronavirus pandemic, which barely warranted a mention during Friday night’s Mount Rushmore speech, have not been Trump’s preferred subject these days. But he’s chosen to address it head on in the hours before tonight’s extravaganza, repeating the debunked claim that increased testing is responsible for the spike in cases.
“Cases, Cases, Cases! If we didn’t test so much and so successfully, we would have very few cases. If you test 40,000,000 people, you are going to have many cases that, without the testing (like other countries), would not show up every night on the Fake Evening News,” Trump wrote. “In a certain way, our tremendous Testing success gives the Fake News Media all they want, CASES. In the meantime, Deaths and the all important Mortality Rate goes down. You don’t hear about that from the Fake News, and you never will. Anybody need any Ventilators???”
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Cases, Cases, Cases! If we didn’t test so much and so successfully, we would have very few cases. If you test 40,000,000 people, you are going to have many cases that, without the testing (like other countries), would not show up every night on the Fake Evening News…..
July 4, 2020
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
….In a certain way, our tremendous Testing success gives the Fake News Media all they want, CASES. In the meantime, Deaths and the all important Mortality Rate goes down. You don’t hear about that from the Fake News, and you never will. Anybody need any Ventilators???
July 4, 2020
Politifact, a Pulitzer prize-winning fact-checking organization, punctured this fallacy last month, but it hasn’t prevented Trump from trotting it out with bold regularity.
5.02pm EDT17:02
Texas has recorded 8,258 new cases in the 24 hours to Saturday, the highest single-day surge in the state since the pandemic started.
The overall number of confirmed infections in Texas now stands at 191,790, the state’s health department said.
Current Covid-19 hospitalizations rose by 238 in one day to a record high of 7,890.
Texas governor Greg Abbott took to Twitter to wish Americans a happy Fourth of July, earning a barrage of criticism from members of the public.
Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott)
Thank you to those who fought and continue to fight for our great nation.⠀Have a safe and happy Fourth of July. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/4hs1dehTCf
July 4, 2020
His critics are bitterly divided however, with one camp voicing disappointment in his leadership amid rising infections, and the other clamoring for his resignation because Abbott issued an executive order on Thursday requiring Texans to wear face coverings in public in counties with 20 or more Covid-19 cases.
Gov. Greg Abbott
