WHAT'S BREWING
TRUMP FAMILY MOVES TO BLOCK NIECE'S TELL-ALL Trump’s family has asked a judge to block the publication of his niece Mary Trump’s tell-all book set to be released next month. The president’s younger brother, Robert Trump, filed for a temporary restraining order Tuesday, saying Mary Trump is violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed in 2001 following a bitter court battle over the estate of Trump’s father. “Her attempt to sensationalize and mischaracterize our family relationship after all of these years for her own financial gain is both a travesty and injustice,” Robert Trump said. [HuffPost]
TRUMP USES PANDEMIC TO PUSH ANTI-IMMIGRATION AGENDA Trump is using the coronavirus pandemic to justify a crackdown on immigration that puts vulnerable migrants at risk, separates families, and could deepen the current economic crisis. Since declaring a national emergency over COVID-19 in March, Trump has halted refugee resettlement, deported unaccompanied children fleeing violence and abuse, suspended some categories of legal immigration, closed the border to asylum-seekers and repeatedly pushed back court hearings for people awaiting them in Mexico. On Monday, he restricted legal immigration even further via executive order as he ramps up his struggling reelection campaign. [HuffPost]
REPUBLICANS THINK THE U.S. SHOULD SPEED UP TESTING Republicans say the U.S. should expand its testing capacity for the coronavirus, breaking with Trump, who said over the weekend that he had ordered staff to “slow the testing down.” “We need the tests. They help us contain the disease and they build confidence so we can go back to work, back to school,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) told HuffPost. Meanwhile, four top U.S. public health officials and members of Trump’s coronavirus task force told Congress on Tuesday that he has not asked them to slow down testing for the virus. [HuffPost]
PROBE INTO POLICE ATTACK ON PROTESTERS BEFORE TRUMP POSED WITH BIBLE The inspector general of the Interior Department is launching an investigation into law enforcement attacks on protesters ordered by Attorney General William Barr outside the White House before Trump walked to a nearby church to hold up a Bible for a photo-op. The Office of the Inspector General “confirmed that it is investigating the Trump administration’s excessive use of force” against the protesters, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said. [HuffPost]
JUDGE ORDERS BOLSONARO TO WEAR MASK A Brazilian judge ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a mask in public after the right-wing populist attended political rallies without one in the middle of the world’s second-worst coronavirus outbreak. Federal Judge Renato Borelli ruled in a decision made public on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was subject to a fine of 2,000 reais ($387) a day if he continued to disobey a local ordinance in the federal district meant to slow the pandemic. [Reuters]
IT'S TIME FOR THE U.S. TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT FIXING TRAINS While rail advocates have long called on the U.S. to invest in train infrastructure and commit to building a world-class, coast-to-coast, environmentally friendly passenger rail system, the funding has yet to come. Flying remains the default way to travel between distant cities. Some see a sliver of hope, however, as the U.S. grapples with both the coronavirus pandemic and the climate crisis. Air travel looks a lot less enticing now, with social distancing nearly impossible at 30,000 feet. Anxieties are high, and passengers worry that every cough or sneeze will spread the coronavirus. [HuffPost] |
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