White House says Russia and China are spreading anti-Western vaccine misinformation on social media
11.26am EDT 11:26
CDC head says country is undergoing ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’
9.35am EDT 09:35
Covid cases rising in every US state, data shows
5.40pm EDT 17:40
Gabrielle Canon here, signing on from the west coast to take you through the rest of the afternoon.
First up—
Today a US federal judge in Texas has ordered the suspension of DACA program, which protects so-called “Dreamers” — immigrants who have been in the US since they were children — from deportation, arguing that it was illegally created by the Obama Administration.
US District Judge Andrew Hanen wrote in his ruling that the order won’t yet impact the more than 616,000 people are already enrolled in the program until other courts weigh in, but the program is otherwise put on pause.
Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman)
Just in: A federal judge in Texas has blocked the DACA program going forward — it won’t affect current recipients for now (judge is putting that issue on hold, pending expected appeals), but it blocks DHS from approving new applications https://t.co/urJh8jnJDd pic.twitter.com/LqvSDWx2ao
July 16, 2021
“DHS violated the APA with the creation of DACA and its continued operation,” he wrote. “Nevertheless,” he added, “these rulings do not resolve the issue of the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and others who have relied upon this program for almost a decade. That reliance has not diminished and may, in fact, have increased over time.”
The order will be temporarily stayed in its application to current recipients until “further order of this Court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, or the United States Supreme Court” the ruling says.
5.00pm EDT 17:00
Afternoon summary
Here’s a quick summary of what happened today.
Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the country is currently in a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” as 97% of people who are hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated. Every state has reported increases, and the federal government has been doubling down on messaging to get vaccinated, even though many Americans remain skeptical.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the state department has found that Russia and China have been spreading misinformation on social media that claims vaccines made in the West are ineffective. The White House has been calling out social media companies to do more to curb misinformation on their sites.
An excerpt from an upcoming book by journalists Susan Glasser and Peter Baker revealed that Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, stopped Donald Trump from launching an attack on Iran.
Anonymous sources have said that the ex-daughter-in-law of Allen Weisselberg, who has surrendered to Manhattan prosecutors in their investigation of the Trump Organization for tax fraud, has implicated Trump by telling prosecutors that she witnessed the former president offering to pay for her children’s tuition instead of giving her husband a raise.
Stay tuned for more live updates.
4.53pm EDT 16:53
Caitlyn Jenner, who is campaigning to replace California governor Gavin Newsom in his recall race, is currently in Australia to be a contestant on a reality show two months before the election takes place on 14 September.
On Twitter, Jenner said she is “honoring a work commitment that I had made prior to even deciding to run for governor” and said that she has not paused her campaign.
Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner)
I am honoring a work commitment that I had made prior to even deciding to run for governor. There is no pause at all on this race to save CA!
July 16, 2021
Separate reports on Friday from Politico said that Jenner appears to be working on a documentary or series of sorts as a film crew has been following her on the campaign trail.
Jenner is part of a long slate of Republican candidates who are trying to oust Newsom. She held her first press conference last week, months after she first announced her run.
4.39pm EDT 16:39
Vulnerable Senate Democrats have gotten a flood of cash over the last few months as they gear up for the 2022 elections.
According to CQ Roll Call, four current Senator – Mark Kelly of Arizona, Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire – raised a combined $19.2m between April and June of this year and ended the quarter with $31.3m in the bank.
Warnock raised $7.2m in the second quarter of 2021, which he ended with $10.5m in the bank. Kelly meanwhile raised $6m and had $7.6m in the bank.
The fundraising numbers suggest the candidates are out-raising Republicans who have started trickling into the Senate races.
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1)
Punchbowl News: Cash on hand for senators in competitive races, per second-quarter FEC filings:
→ Sen. Mark Kelly: $7.5 million
→ Sen. Raphael Warnock: $10.5 million
→ Sen. Maggie Hassan: $6.5 million
→ Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto: $6.5 million
July 16, 2021
4.23pm EDT 16:23
Over 1m people were arrested at the US-Mexico between October and June, according to US Border Patrol data released Friday. Over 178,000 people were arrested in June, a 20-year record for that month.
A bulk of the arrests were of people who are trying to recross the border after being turned away. Migrants looking to cross can immediately be turned away when the government uses Title 42, an order from the Trump administration that allows Border Patrol to bar entry to those who pose a public health risk.
About 455,000 unique individuals were arrested by US Border Patrol this past year, which is lower than the number of unique individuals who crossed in 2019.
4.04pm EDT 16:04
New Yorker: Milley stopped Trump attacking Iran
Martin Pengelly
Susan Glasser of the New Yorker and her husband, Peter Baker of the New York Times, have a Trump book coming out next year. Not to be left out this summer, as the bestseller lists are drenched in the things, Glasser has a piece of standardly startling reporting out on the subject today.
In short, Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and star of many a Trump-related books story of late, reportedly did not only stop Trump from shooting protesters and muse to friends about “Reichstag moments” and “the gospel of the Führer”. He also did his best to stop Trump launching an attack on Iran.
Here’s the key passage:
In the months after the election, with Trump seemingly willing to do anything to stay in power, the subject of Iran was repeatedly raised in White House meetings with the president, and Milley repeatedly argued against a strike. Trump did not want a war, the chairman believed, but he kept pushing for a missile strike in response to various provocations against US interests in the region. Milley, by statute the senior military adviser to the president, was worried that Trump might set in motion a full-scale conflict that was not justified. Trump had a circle of Iran hawks around him and was close with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also urging the administration to act against Iran after it was clear that Trump had lost the election.
“If you do this, you’re gonna have a fucking war,” Milley would say.
Trump did not do it.
For what it’s worth, Trump returned to the offensive against Milley on Friday, issuing yet another intemperate statement about the contents of books with which, in the most part, he himself co-operated. The gist: “’General’ Milley (who [former defense secretary James] Mattis wanted to send to Europe in order to get rid of him), if he said what was reported, perhaps should be impeached, or court-martialed and tried.”
Here, meanwhile, is Lloyd Green’s review of perhaps the biggest of the Trump books, I Alone Can Fix It by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker of the Washington Post, which includes a lot of Milley’s musings about the possibility of a coup, which have really angered Trump. The book is out next week but is No1 on Amazon already:
3.42pm EDT 15:42
US representative Joyce Beatty said in an interview that the arrest of her and eight others yesterday during a voting rights protest was ironic given how quick the response to the protest was compared to the Capitol riot 6 January.
“Here we are with the disparities of treatment with less than a hundred of people [compared to the] thousands and thousands of people who were not peacefully protesting,” she told SiriusXM Urban Vie’s The Joe Madison Show.
The protest was “in the same spirit” as protests that took place during the Civil Rights Movement that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Joyce Beatty (@RepBeatty)
Let the people vote. Fight for justice. pic.twitter.com/JnEUPl9KJW
July 15, 2021
“Fannie Lou Hamer and John Lewis and other marched, sang, protested and what happened? They got America’s attention,” she said. “We are in a critical point right now… voting rights is our power”
Updated at 3.50pm EDT
3.08pm EDT 15:08
Speaking to the press briefly before he left for Camp David for the weekend, Joe Biden doubled down on the White House’s message against vaccine misinformation.
Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins)
Asked what his message is to platforms like Facebook on coronavirus misinformation, President Biden says, “They’re killing people. The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and they’re killing people.” pic.twitter.com/Ke27Vi4M18
July 16, 2021
At the White House’s daily press briefing yesterday, press secretary Jen Psaki said that Facebook and other social media companies aren’t doing enough to combat misinformation spreading on their platforms.
“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. We’re working with doctors and medical professionals to connect medical experts who are popular with our audience with accurate information and boos trusted content,” she said.
2.56pm EDT 14:56
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a new bill into law Thursday barring police from lying to underage kids during interrogations.
