Friday, July 16 top stories
It is Friday, July 16. Here are today’s top stories.
Los Angeles County is bringing back its mask mandate for all people starting this Saturday evening. All people, regardless of vaccination status, will be required to wear masks indoors.
LA Public Health said they are seeing increased levels of Covid-19 transmissions. Los Angeles County has about 10 million residents.
Reuters said other California counties and other states are facing spikes in Covid-19 cases, led by the Delta mutation.
The CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned that this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated because they are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination rates.
The White House said Covid-19 deaths that are happening now are very tragic because they could have been prevented with vaccines.
In western Germany and Belgium, many are dead and hundreds are missing after heavy rains and severe flooding pounded the region. AP News said the death toll has surpassed 125 people.
Pictures and videos show rushing waters going through narrow city centers, massive sinkholes, collapsed homes, and many cars strewn about with large debris.
There were several days of heavy rainfall in Western Europe that caused rivers to swell to dangerous levels, which trapped many people who weren’t expecting it. Thousands of people are now homeless.
The FBI said they charged two men for plotting to attack the California Democratic Party’s headquarters in Sacramento. Authorities said the two men were motivated by the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and hoped the attack would spark a movement.
One of the men had 49 firearms, 20 ammunition boxes, and five pipe bombs that were found during a search of his home. Court documents said the two men wanted to set the California governor’s mansion on fire among many different ideas and contacted the Proud Boys for some help.
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A Reuters photojournalist, Danish Siddiqui, was killed while covering a battle between the Afghanistan special forces and the Taliban. He was 38 and an Indian national.
He was embedded with Afghan troops in an area near the Pakistan border when they were ambushed by the Taliban.
Siddiqui’s last story was posted on July 13. It described a group of exhausted Afghan commandos who rescued a wounded policeman trapped by members of the Taliban and had to go through heavy gunfire. The story said throughout Afghanistan, Taliban fighters are putting heavy pressure on Afghan troops in their bid to take over the country, especially as the U.S. and other countries withdraw their troops.
Reuters said Siddiqui was an outstanding journalist, a devoted husband and father, and a much-loved colleague. Many people are mourning his death on social media.
ABC News reported that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will be questioned on Saturday by investigators with the New York State Attorney General’s office related to sexual harassment allegations against him.
The AG Letitia James has hired two outside lawyers to lead the probe, which has lasted for about four months now.
Cuomo has apologized for making people feel uncomfortable but denied any wrongdoing.
Contractors who have been working with Arizona Senate Republicans to review ballots from the 2020 election — to look for evidence of fraud — said they can’t complete their report because they do not have enough information. They have been auditing the ballots for a few months now.
The contractors said they want lawmakers to subpoena more records and visit the homes of tens of thousands of voters to check if they sent mail-in ballots and verify information.
The U.S. Department of Justice has warned that going to people’s homes could violate laws against voter intimidation.
Maricopa County (Phoenix area) said the contractors aren’t doing the tallying right. There is a lot of frustration and criticism surrounding the audit.
That is all the top stories for today. Have a great weekend and stay with the light.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mask-mandate-returns-los-angeles-coronavirus-cases-rise-2021-07-15/
https://news.yahoo.com/walensky-cdc-covid-pandemic-of-the-unvaccinated-164353747.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/16/covid-deaths-on-the-rise-again-after-weeks-of-decline-cdc-says.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-election-audit-need-information-report-results/