LONDON (AP) — As the World Health Organization's emergency committee convened Thursday to consider for the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-politics-health-united-nations-world-organization-349b235908c13a166da97653b7f028fc">second time</a>&nbsp;within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis, some scientists said the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-africa-zimbabwe-10824530a2c021482dbebc08a9cd33ef">African officials</a>&nbsp;say they are already treating the continent's epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus can't be stopped. British officials recently downgraded their assessment of the disease, given its lack of severity.

“I remain concerned about the number of cases, in an increasing number of countries, that have been reported,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the emergency committee as its meeting got underway.

He said it was “pleasing” to note falling numbers of monkeypox cases in some countries but that the virus is still increasing elsewhere and that six countries reported their first infections last week.

Monkeypox has been entrenched for decades in parts of central and western&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-treatment-africa-inequities-004e53968120eaeda117b5b792d95807">Africa</a>, where diseased wild animals occasionally infect people in rural areas in relatively contained epidemics. The disease in Europe, North America and beyond has circulated since at least May among gay and bisexual men. The epidemic in rich countries was likely triggered by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-explained-health-72a9efaaf5b55ace396398b839847505">sex at two raves</a>&nbsp;in Spain and Belgium.

Some experts worry these and other differences could possibly deepen existing medical inequities between poor and wealthy nations.

There are now more than 15,000 monkeypox cases&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/world-map.html">worldwide</a>. While the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries have bought millions of vaccines, none have gone to Africa, where a more severe version of monkeypox has already killed more than 70 people. Rich countries haven't yet reported any monkeypox deaths.

“What’s happening in Africa is almost entirely separate from the outbreak in Europe and North America,” said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia who previously advised WHO on infectious diseases.

The U.N. health agency said this week that outside of Africa, 99% of all reported monkeypox cases are in men and of those, 98% are in men who have sex with other men. Still, the disease can infect anyone in close, physical contact with a monkeypox patient, regardless of their sexual orientation.

“In these very active gay sexual networks, you have men who really, really don’t want people to know what they’re doing and may not themselves always know who they are having sex with,” Hunter said.

Some of those men may be married to women or have families unaware of their sexual activity, which “makes contact tracing extremely difficult and even things like asking people to come forward for testing,” Hunter said, explaining why vaccination may be the most effective way to shut down the outbreak.

That’s probably not the case in Africa, where limited data suggests monkeypox is mainly jumping into people from infected animals. Although African experts acknowledge they could be missing cases among gay and bisexual men, given limited surveillance and stigmatization against LGBTQ people, authorities have relied on standard measures like isolation and education to control the disease.

Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health department at Congo’s Institute of National Biomedical Research, said there are also noticeable differences between patients in Africa and the West.

“We see here (in Congo) very quickly, after three to four days, visible lesions in people exposed to monkeypox,” Mbala said, adding that someone with so many visible lesions is unlikely to go out in public, thus preventing further transmission.

But in countries including Britain and the U.S., doctors have observed some infected people with only one or two lesions, often in their genitals.

“You wouldn’t notice that if you’re just with that person in a taxi or a bar,” Mbala said. “So in the West, people without these visible lesions may be silently spreading the disease.”

He said different approaches in different countries will likely be needed to stop the global outbreak, making it challenging to adopt a single response strategy worldwide, like those for Ebola and COVID-19.

Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a professor of medicine at Nigeria's Niger Delta University, said he feared the world’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-pandemics-united-nations-world-organization-a4848839d86d2d08100000d918b6bd0d">limited vaccine supplies</a>&nbsp;would result in a repeat of the problems that arose in the coronavirus pandemic, when poorer countries were left empty-handed after rich countries hoarded most of the doses.

“It does not make sense to just control the outbreak in Europe and America, because you will then still have the (animal) source of the outbreak in Africa,” said Ogoina, who sits on WHO’s monkeypox emergency committee.

This week,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-public-rochelle-walensky-a7d197e26f4e650600c4b2cd13e0b436">U.S. officials</a>&nbsp;said more than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses were being sent to states in the next few days, with several million more on order for the months ahead. The U.S. has reported more than 2,000 cases so far, with hundreds more added every day.

Some U.S. public health experts have begun to wonder if the outbreak is becoming widespread enough that monkeypox will become a new sexually transmitted disease.

Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency could also inadvertently worsen the rush for vaccines, despite the mildness of the disease being seen in most countries.

Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-epidemics-8a675e8b6e969a9fddbf86e568c3f809">Britain</a>, said there aren’t many serious cases or infections beyond gay and bisexual men. Still, he said it was frustrating that more vaccines weren’t available, since the outbreak was doubling about every two weeks in the U.K..

“If reclassifying monkeypox as a global emergency will make (vaccines available), then maybe that’s what needs to be done,” he said. “But in an ideal world, we should be able to make the necessary interventions without the emergency declaration.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658321685447.png" alt="Monkeypox map July 20, 2022- CDC&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Monkeypox map July 20, 2022- CDC&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>LONDON (AP) — As the World Health Organization's emergency committee convened Thursday to consider for the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-politics-health-united-nations-world-organization-349b235908c13a166da97653b7f028fc">second time</a>&nbsp;within weeks whether to declare monkeypox a global crisis, some scientists said the striking differences between the outbreaks in Africa and in developed countries will complicate any coordinated response.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-africa-zimbabwe-10824530a2c021482dbebc08a9cd33ef">African officials</a>&nbsp;say they are already treating the continent's epidemic as an emergency. But experts elsewhere say the mild version of monkeypox in Europe, North America and beyond makes an emergency declaration unnecessary even if the virus can't be stopped. British officials recently downgraded their assessment of the disease, given its lack of severity.“I remain concerned about the number of cases, in an increasing number of countries, that have been reported,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the emergency committee as its meeting got underway.He said it was “pleasing” to note falling numbers of monkeypox cases in some countries but that the virus is still increasing elsewhere and that six countries reported their first infections last week.Monkeypox has been entrenched for decades in parts of central and western&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-treatment-africa-inequities-004e53968120eaeda117b5b792d95807">Africa</a>, where diseased wild animals occasionally infect people in rural areas in relatively contained epidemics. The disease in Europe, North America and beyond has circulated since at least May among gay and bisexual men. The epidemic in rich countries was likely triggered by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-explained-health-72a9efaaf5b55ace396398b839847505">sex at two raves</a>&nbsp;in Spain and Belgium.Some experts worry these and other differences could possibly deepen existing medical inequities between poor and wealthy nations.There are now more than 15,000 monkeypox cases&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/world-map.html">worldwide</a>. While the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries have bought millions of vaccines, none have gone to Africa, where a more severe version of monkeypox has already killed more than 70 people. Rich countries haven't yet reported any monkeypox deaths.“What’s happening in Africa is almost entirely separate from the outbreak in Europe and North America,” said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia who previously advised WHO on infectious diseases.The U.N. health agency said this week that outside of Africa, 99% of all reported monkeypox cases are in men and of those, 98% are in men who have sex with other men. Still, the disease can infect anyone in close, physical contact with a monkeypox patient, regardless of their sexual orientation.“In these very active gay sexual networks, you have men who really, really don’t want people to know what they’re doing and may not themselves always know who they are having sex with,” Hunter said.Some of those men may be married to women or have families unaware of their sexual activity, which “makes contact tracing extremely difficult and even things like asking people to come forward for testing,” Hunter said, explaining why vaccination may be the most effective way to shut down the outbreak.That’s probably not the case in Africa, where limited data suggests monkeypox is mainly jumping into people from infected animals. Although African experts acknowledge they could be missing cases among gay and bisexual men, given limited surveillance and stigmatization against LGBTQ people, authorities have relied on standard measures like isolation and education to control the disease.Dr. Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health department at Congo’s Institute of National Biomedical Research, said there are also noticeable differences between patients in Africa and the West.“We see here (in Congo) very quickly, after three to four days, visible lesions in people exposed to monkeypox,” Mbala said, adding that someone with so many visible lesions is unlikely to go out in public, thus preventing further transmission.But in countries including Britain and the U.S., doctors have observed some infected people with only one or two lesions, often in their genitals.“You wouldn’t notice that if you’re just with that person in a taxi or a bar,” Mbala said. “So in the West, people without these visible lesions may be silently spreading the disease.”He said different approaches in different countries will likely be needed to stop the global outbreak, making it challenging to adopt a single response strategy worldwide, like those for Ebola and COVID-19.Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a professor of medicine at Nigeria's Niger Delta University, said he feared the world’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-pandemics-united-nations-world-organization-a4848839d86d2d08100000d918b6bd0d">limited vaccine supplies</a>&nbsp;would result in a repeat of the problems that arose in the coronavirus pandemic, when poorer countries were left empty-handed after rich countries hoarded most of the doses.“It does not make sense to just control the outbreak in Europe and America, because you will then still have the (animal) source of the outbreak in Africa,” said Ogoina, who sits on WHO’s monkeypox emergency committee.This week,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-public-rochelle-walensky-a7d197e26f4e650600c4b2cd13e0b436">U.S. officials</a>&nbsp;said more than 100,000 monkeypox vaccine doses were being sent to states in the next few days, with several million more on order for the months ahead. The U.S. has reported more than 2,000 cases so far, with hundreds more added every day.Some U.S. public health experts have begun to wonder if the outbreak is becoming widespread enough that monkeypox will become a new sexually transmitted disease.Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency could also inadvertently worsen the rush for vaccines, despite the mildness of the disease being seen in most countries.Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-epidemics-8a675e8b6e969a9fddbf86e568c3f809">Britain</a>, said there aren’t many serious cases or infections beyond gay and bisexual men. Still, he said it was frustrating that more vaccines weren’t available, since the outbreak was doubling about every two weeks in the U.K..“If reclassifying monkeypox as a global emergency will make (vaccines available), then maybe that’s what needs to be done,” he said. “But in an ideal world, we should be able to make the necessary interventions without the emergency declaration.”

WHO again considers declaring monkeypox a global emergency

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite desperate pleas from aides, allies, a Republican congressional leader and even his family, Donald Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-da9e850c8744a3d4395928cf19eaf36f">refused to call off the Jan. 6 mob</a>&nbsp;attack on the Capitol, instead “pouring gasoline on the fire” by aggressively tweeting his false claims of a stolen election and celebrating his crowd of supporters as “very special," the House investigating committee showed Thursday night.

The next day, he declared anew, “I don't want to say the election is over." That was in a previously unaired&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/final-jan-6-hearing-live-updates-2532549688cac4580d0a2d174832faba">outtake of an address to the nation</a>&nbsp;he was to give, shown at the prime-time hearing of the committee.

The panel documented how for some 187 minutes, from the time Trump left a rally stage sending his supporters to the Capitol to the time he ultimately appeared in the Rose Garden video that day, nothing could compel the defeated president to act. Instead, he watched the violence unfold on TV.

“President Trump didn’t fail to act,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a fellow Republican but frequent Trump critic who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “He chose not to act.”

After months of work and weeks of hearings, the prime-time session started the way the committee began — laying blame for the deadly attack on Trump himself for summoning the mob to Washington and sending them to Capitol Hill.

The defeated president turned his supporters' “love of country into a weapon,” said the panel's Republican vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Far from finishing its work after Thursday's hearing, probably the last of the summer, the panel will start up again in September as more witnesses and information emerge. Cheney said “the dam has begun to break” on revealing what happened that fateful day, at the White House as well as in the violence at the Capitol.

“Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office,” Cheney declared.

“Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted in any position of authority in our great nation?” she asked.

Trump, who is considering another White House run, dismissed the committee as a “Kangaroo court,” and name-called the panel and witnesses for “many lies and misrepresentations.”

Plunging into its second prime-time hearing on the Capitol attack, the committee aimed to show a “minute by minute” accounting of Trump’s actions with new testimony, including from two White House aides, never-before-heard security radio transmissions of Secret Service officers fearing for their lives and behind-the-scenes discussions at the White House.

With the Capitol siege raging, Trump was “giving the green light” to his supporters by tweeting condemnation of Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to go along with his plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory, a former White House aide told the committee.

“I thought that Jan. 6 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” Sarah Matthews told the panel. “And President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion. So it just further cemented my decision to resign.”

The committee played audio of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reacting with surprise to the president’s inaction during the attack.

“You’re the commander-in-chief. You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America. And there’s Nothing? No call? Nothing, Zero?” he said.

On Jan. 6, an irate Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his supporters had stormed the building, well aware of the deadly attack, but his security team refused.

“Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.

At the Capitol, the mob was chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” testified Matt Pottinger, the former deputy national security adviser, as Trump tweeted his condemnation of his vice president.

Pottinger, testifying Thursday, said that when he saw Trump's tweet he immediately decided to resign, as did Matthews, who said she was a lifelong Republican but could not go along with what was going on. She was the witness who called the tweet “a green light” and “pouring gasoline on the fire.”

Meanwhile, recordings of Secret Service radio transmissions revealed agents at the Capitol trying to whisk Pence to safety amid the mayhem and asking for messages to be relayed telling their own families goodbye.

The panel showed previously unseen testimony from the president's son, Donald Trump, Jr., with a text message to his father's chief of staff Mark Meadows urging the president to call off the mob.

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner also testified in a recorded video of a “scared” GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy calling him for help.

And in a gripping moment, the panel showed Trump refusing to deliver a speech the next day declaring the election was over, despite his daughter, Ivanka Trump, heard off camera, encouraging him to read the script.

“The president’s words matter,” said Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer on the panel. “We know that many of the rioters were listening to President Trump.”

Luria said the panel had received testimony confirming the powerful previous account of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson of an altercation involving Trump as he insisted the Secret Service drive him to the Capitol.

Among the witnesses testifying Thursday in a recorded video was retired District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Mark Robinson who told the committee that Trump was well aware of the number of weapons in the crowd of his supporters but wanted to go regardless.

“The only description that I received was that the president was upset, and that he was adamant about going to the Capitol and that there was a heated discussion about that,” Robinson said.

Chairman Bennie Thompson, appearing virtually as he self-isolates with COVID-19, opened Thursday’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">hearing</a>&nbsp;saying Trump as president did “everything in his power to overturn the election” he lost to Joe Biden, including before and during the deadly Capitol attack.

“He lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath,” charged Thompson, D-Miss.

“Our investigation goes forward,” said Thompson. “There needs to be accountability.”

The hearing room was packed, including with several police officers who fought off the mob that day, and the family of one officer who died the day after the attack.

While the committee cannot make criminal charges, the Justice Department is monitoring its work.

So far, more than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 330 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment.

No former president has ever been federally prosecuted by the Justice Department.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that Jan. 6 is “the most wide-ranging investigation and the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into.”

Five people died that day as Trump supporters battled the police in gory hand-to-hand combat to storm the Capitol. One officer has testified that she was “slipping in other people's blood” as they tried to hold back the mob. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">Jan. 6 committee aims</a>&nbsp;to show in its final hearing Thursday that Donald Trump's lies about a stolen election fueled the grisly U.S. Capitol attack, which he did nothing to stop but instead “gleefully” watched on television at the White House.

The prime-time hearing will dive into&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-ivanka-trump-biden-presidential-elections-e8fc57e5de4fe00e848e63d923f7c758">the 187 minutes that Trump failed to act</a>&nbsp;on Jan. 6, 2021, despite pleas for help from aides, allies and even his family. The panel intends to show how the defeated president's attempt to overturn Joe Biden's election victory has left the United States facing enduring questions about the resiliency of its democracy.

“A profound moment of reckoning for America,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee.

With&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-biden-donald-trump-government-and-politics-00896eaba6df614bf46fc6beebe63fce">live testimony from two former White House aides</a>, and excerpts from its trove of more than 1,000 interviews, the nearly two-hour session will add a closing chapter to the past six weeks of hearings that at times have captivated the nation.

Returning to prime time for the first time since the series of hearings began, the panel aims to show just how close the United States came to what one retired federal judge testifying this summer called a constitutional crisis.

The events of Jan. 6 will be outlined “minute by minute,” said the panel's vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

“You will hear that Donald Trump never picked up the phone that day to order his administration to help," Cheney said.

“He did not call the military. His Secretary of Defense received no order. He did not call his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security," Cheney said. “Mike Pence did all of those things; Donald Trump did not.”

The hearing will also show never-before-seen outtakes of a Jan. 7 video that White House aides pleaded for Trump to make as a message of national healing for the country. The footage will show how Trump struggled to condemn the mob of his supporters, who violently breached the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it ahead of its public release. Trump reluctantly condemned the riot in a three-minute speech that night.

Testifying Thursday will be former White House aides who had close proximity to power.

Matt Pottinger, who was deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, then press aide, both submitted their resignations on Jan. 6, 2021, after what they saw that day. Trump has dismissed the hearings on social media and regarded much of the testimony as fake.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee, is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 and will attend by video.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-veterans-virginia-adam-kinzinger-government-and-politics-d894f4671dcf21b5e2427c5d209f368c">Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer who will lead the session with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan,</a>&nbsp;said she expects the testimony from the White House aides will “just be really compelling.”

"These are people who believed in the work they were doing, but didn’t believe in the stolen election,” Luria said.

The White House aides were not alone in calling it quits that day. The panel is expected to provide a tally of the Trump administration aides and even Cabinet members who resigned after Trump failed to call off the attack. Some Cabinet members were so alarmed they discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

As the panel continues to collect evidence and prepares to issue a preliminary report of findings, it has amassed the most substantial public record to date of what led up to Americans attacking the seat of democracy.

What remains uncertain is whether Trump or the former president's top allies will face serious charges. No former president has ever been federally prosecuted by the Justice Department.

“We have to get this right,” Garland said. “For people who are concerned, as I think every American should be, we have to do two things: We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism.”

In delving into the timeline, the panel aims to show what happened between the time Trump left the stage at his “Stop the Steal” rally shortly after 1:10 p.m., after telling supporters to march to the Capitol, and some three hours later, when he issued a video address from the Rose Garden in which he told the rioters to “go home” but also praised them as “very special.”

It also expects to produce additional evidence about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-united-states-government-and-politics-e5b67d9a848b76a3803e9f7e3546bb51">Trump's confrontation with Secret Service agents</a>&nbsp;who refused to drive him to the Capitol — a witness account that the security detail has disputed.

Five people died that day as Trump supporters battled the police in gory hand-to-hand combat to storm the Capitol. One officer has testified about how she was “slipping in other people's blood” as they tried to hold back the mob. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police.

“The president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television during this time frame,” Kinzinger said.

Not only did Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he did not call other parts of the government for backup and gave no order to deploy the National Guard, Cheney said.

This despite countless pleas from Trump's aides and allies, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and Fox News host Sean Hannity, according to previous testimony and text messages the committee has obtained.

“You will hear that leaders on Capitol Hill begged the president for help,” Cheney has said, including House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who she said indicated he was “'scared' and called multiple members of President Trump’s family after he could not persuade the President himself.”

The panel has said its investigation is ongoing and other hearings are possible. It expects to compile a preliminary report this fall, and a final report by the end of this session of Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite desperate pleas from aides, allies, a Republican congressional leader and even his family, Donald Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-da9e850c8744a3d4395928cf19eaf36f">refused to call off the Jan. 6 mob</a>&nbsp;attack on the Capitol, instead “pouring gasoline on the fire” by aggressively tweeting his false claims of a stolen election and celebrating his crowd of supporters as “very special," the House investigating committee showed Thursday night.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pbRVqWbHGuo?start=165" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>The next day, he declared anew, “I don't want to say the election is over." That was in a previously unaired&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/final-jan-6-hearing-live-updates-2532549688cac4580d0a2d174832faba">outtake of an address to the nation</a>&nbsp;he was to give, shown at the prime-time hearing of the committee.The panel documented how for some 187 minutes, from the time Trump left a rally stage sending his supporters to the Capitol to the time he ultimately appeared in the Rose Garden video that day, nothing could compel the defeated president to act. Instead, he watched the violence unfold on TV.“President Trump didn’t fail to act,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a fellow Republican but frequent Trump critic who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “He chose not to act.”After months of work and weeks of hearings, the prime-time session started the way the committee began — laying blame for the deadly attack on Trump himself for summoning the mob to Washington and sending them to Capitol Hill.The defeated president turned his supporters' “love of country into a weapon,” said the panel's Republican vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.Far from finishing its work after Thursday's hearing, probably the last of the summer, the panel will start up again in September as more witnesses and information emerge. Cheney said “the dam has begun to break” on revealing what happened that fateful day, at the White House as well as in the violence at the Capitol.“Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office,” Cheney declared.“Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted in any position of authority in our great nation?” she asked.Trump, who is considering another White House run, dismissed the committee as a “Kangaroo court,” and name-called the panel and witnesses for “many lies and misrepresentations.”Plunging into its second prime-time hearing on the Capitol attack, the committee aimed to show a “minute by minute” accounting of Trump’s actions with new testimony, including from two White House aides, never-before-heard security radio transmissions of Secret Service officers fearing for their lives and behind-the-scenes discussions at the White House.With the Capitol siege raging, Trump was “giving the green light” to his supporters by tweeting condemnation of Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to go along with his plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory, a former White House aide told the committee.Two aides resigned on the spot.“I thought that Jan. 6 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” Sarah Matthews told the panel. “And President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion. So it just further cemented my decision to resign.”The committee played audio of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reacting with surprise to the president’s inaction during the attack.“You’re the commander-in-chief. You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America. And there’s Nothing? No call? Nothing, Zero?” he said.On Jan. 6, an irate Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his supporters had stormed the building, well aware of the deadly attack, but his security team refused.“Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.At the Capitol, the mob was chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” testified Matt Pottinger, the former deputy national security adviser, as Trump tweeted his condemnation of his vice president.Pottinger, testifying Thursday, said that when he saw Trump's tweet he immediately decided to resign, as did Matthews, who said she was a lifelong Republican but could not go along with what was going on. She was the witness who called the tweet “a green light” and “pouring gasoline on the fire.”Meanwhile, recordings of Secret Service radio transmissions revealed agents at the Capitol trying to whisk Pence to safety amid the mayhem and asking for messages to be relayed telling their own families goodbye.The panel showed previously unseen testimony from the president's son, Donald Trump, Jr., with a text message to his father's chief of staff Mark Meadows urging the president to call off the mob.Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner also testified in a recorded video of a “scared” GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy calling him for help.And in a gripping moment, the panel showed Trump refusing to deliver a speech the next day declaring the election was over, despite his daughter, Ivanka Trump, heard off camera, encouraging him to read the script.“The president’s words matter,” said Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer on the panel. “We know that many of the rioters were listening to President Trump.”Luria said the panel had received testimony confirming the powerful previous account of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson of an altercation involving Trump as he insisted the Secret Service drive him to the Capitol.Among the witnesses testifying Thursday in a recorded video was retired District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Mark Robinson who told the committee that Trump was well aware of the number of weapons in the crowd of his supporters but wanted to go regardless.“The only description that I received was that the president was upset, and that he was adamant about going to the Capitol and that there was a heated discussion about that,” Robinson said.Chairman Bennie Thompson, appearing virtually as he self-isolates with COVID-19, opened Thursday’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">hearing</a>&nbsp;saying Trump as president did “everything in his power to overturn the election” he lost to Joe Biden, including before and during the deadly Capitol attack.“He lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath,” charged Thompson, D-Miss.“Our investigation goes forward,” said Thompson. “There needs to be accountability.”The hearing room was packed, including with several police officers who fought off the mob that day, and the family of one officer who died the day after the attack.While the committee cannot make criminal charges, the Justice Department is monitoring its work.So far, more than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 330 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment.No former president has ever been federally prosecuted by the Justice Department.Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that Jan. 6 is “the most wide-ranging investigation and the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into.”Five people died that day as Trump supporters battled the police in gory hand-to-hand combat to storm the Capitol. One officer has testified that she was “slipping in other people's blood” as they tried to hold back the mob. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police.-----------WASHINGTON (AP) — The House&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">Jan. 6 committee aims</a>&nbsp;to show in its final hearing Thursday that Donald Trump's lies about a stolen election fueled the grisly U.S. Capitol attack, which he did nothing to stop but instead “gleefully” watched on television at the White House.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pbRVqWbHGuo" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>The prime-time hearing will dive into&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-ivanka-trump-biden-presidential-elections-e8fc57e5de4fe00e848e63d923f7c758">the 187 minutes that Trump failed to act</a>&nbsp;on Jan. 6, 2021, despite pleas for help from aides, allies and even his family. The panel intends to show how the defeated president's attempt to overturn Joe Biden's election victory has left the United States facing enduring questions about the resiliency of its democracy.“A profound moment of reckoning for America,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee.With&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-biden-donald-trump-government-and-politics-00896eaba6df614bf46fc6beebe63fce">live testimony from two former White House aides</a>, and excerpts from its trove of more than 1,000 interviews, the nearly two-hour session will add a closing chapter to the past six weeks of hearings that at times have captivated the nation.Returning to prime time for the first time since the series of hearings began, the panel aims to show just how close the United States came to what one retired federal judge testifying this summer called a constitutional crisis.The events of Jan. 6 will be outlined “minute by minute,” said the panel's vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.“You will hear that Donald Trump never picked up the phone that day to order his administration to help," Cheney said.“He did not call the military. His Secretary of Defense received no order. He did not call his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security," Cheney said. “Mike Pence did all of those things; Donald Trump did not.”The hearing will also show never-before-seen outtakes of a Jan. 7 video that White House aides pleaded for Trump to make as a message of national healing for the country. The footage will show how Trump struggled to condemn the mob of his supporters, who violently breached the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it ahead of its public release. Trump reluctantly condemned the riot in a three-minute speech that night.Testifying Thursday will be former White House aides who had close proximity to power.Matt Pottinger, who was deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, then press aide, both submitted their resignations on Jan. 6, 2021, after what they saw that day. Trump has dismissed the hearings on social media and regarded much of the testimony as fake.Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee, is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 and will attend by video.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-veterans-virginia-adam-kinzinger-government-and-politics-d894f4671dcf21b5e2427c5d209f368c">Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer who will lead the session with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan,</a>&nbsp;said she expects the testimony from the White House aides will “just be really compelling.”"These are people who believed in the work they were doing, but didn’t believe in the stolen election,” Luria said.The White House aides were not alone in calling it quits that day. The panel is expected to provide a tally of the Trump administration aides and even Cabinet members who resigned after Trump failed to call off the attack. Some Cabinet members were so alarmed they discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.As the panel continues to collect evidence and prepares to issue a preliminary report of findings, it has amassed the most substantial public record to date of what led up to Americans attacking the seat of democracy.While the committee cannot make criminal charges, the Justice Department is monitoring its work.So far, more than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 330 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment.What remains uncertain is whether Trump or the former president's top allies will face serious charges. No former president has ever been federally prosecuted by the Justice Department.Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that Jan. 6 is “the most wide-ranging investigation and the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into.”“We have to get this right,” Garland said. “For people who are concerned, as I think every American should be, we have to do two things: We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism.”In delving into the timeline, the panel aims to show what happened between the time Trump left the stage at his “Stop the Steal” rally shortly after 1:10 p.m., after telling supporters to march to the Capitol, and some three hours later, when he issued a video address from the Rose Garden in which he told the rioters to “go home” but also praised them as “very special.”It also expects to produce additional evidence about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-united-states-government-and-politics-e5b67d9a848b76a3803e9f7e3546bb51">Trump's confrontation with Secret Service agents</a>&nbsp;who refused to drive him to the Capitol — a witness account that the security detail has disputed.Five people died that day as Trump supporters battled the police in gory hand-to-hand combat to storm the Capitol. One officer has testified about how she was “slipping in other people's blood” as they tried to hold back the mob. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police.“The president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television during this time frame,” Kinzinger said.Not only did Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he did not call other parts of the government for backup and gave no order to deploy the National Guard, Cheney said.This despite countless pleas from Trump's aides and allies, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and Fox News host Sean Hannity, according to previous testimony and text messages the committee has obtained.“You will hear that leaders on Capitol Hill begged the president for help,” Cheney has said, including House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who she said indicated he was “'scared' and called multiple members of President Trump’s family after he could not persuade the President himself.”The panel has said its investigation is ongoing and other hearings are possible. It expects to compile a preliminary report this fall, and a final report by the end of this session of Congress.

🎥 Jan. 6 panel Day 8 replay: "Trump's inaction" during Capitol riot

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and is isolating with “very mild symptoms," the White House said, as new variants of the highly contagious virus challenge the nation's efforts to get back to normal after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic">two and a half years of pandemic.</a>

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Biden had begun taking Paxlovid</a>, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease. He was isolating in the family quarters of the White House and “continuing to carry out all of his duties fully,” she said.

Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor,&nbsp;said in a letter that Biden had a runny nose and “fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening.”

Biden himself said in a video posted on Twitter: “I really appreciate your inquiries and concerns. But I’m doing well, getting a lot of work done.“

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-covid-business-health-united-states-762d03274aac3b09c78dc70b81354d59">Biden, 79, is fully vaccinated, after getting two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office,</a>&nbsp;a first booster shot in September and an additional dose March 30. The president will isolate for five days and can return to his usual activities after a negative test, White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters at a briefing.

Jean-Pierre described the president's symptoms as "very mild" and said Biden had been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone and would participate in his planned meetings “via phone and Zoom from the residence.”

Asked where Biden might have contracted the virus, Jean-Pierre said, ”I don't think that matters." She later clarified that to say the White House was focused on how feeling and would engage in contact tracing.

In the video that Biden recorded outdoors to tell the world he was OK, the videographer stood six feet away and wore an N95 mask, Jean-Pierre said. The president will stop taking his anti-blood clot and cholesterol medications while receiving Paxlovid.

The White House took steps to show that the president was busy working despite his diagnosis, with Biden tweeting out a picture of himself making calls from the treaty room of the White House.

The president spoke by phone to lawmakers in Pennsylvania to apologize for having to cancel his planned trip Thursday to the city of Wilkes-Barre&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-police-pennsylvania-wilkes-barre-c3d8e3ee5190adde35b1b7932a47dc4b">to promote his crime prevention plans.</a>&nbsp;Biden also called South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn to wish him a happy birthday and congratulate him on receiving an award from the NAACP.

Dr. O'Connor wrote in his letter about the president's treatment plan: “I anticipate that he will respond favorably” to Paxlovid “as most maximally protected patients do.”

Jean-Pierre said Biden had tested negative on Tuesday and would stay isolated until he tests negative again.

White House chief of staff Ron Klain said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press that “all close contacts of the president” will be informed of Biden's positive test “per standard protocol.”

"We have said for some time that there was a substantial possibility that the president – like anyone else – could get COVID, and we have prepared for this possibility," Klain wrote to White House staff. "We are now executing on our plan so that the president can continue to work seamlessly from the Residence."

First lady Jill Biden, speaking to reporters as she arrived for a school visit in Detroit, said she'd just gotten off the phone with her husband.

“He’s doing fine,” she said. "He’s feeling good.”

The first lady, who was wearing a mask, said she tested negative earlier in the day. She will keep her full schedule in Michigan and Georgia on Thursday, though she will be following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on masking and distancing, said Michael LaRosa, her spokesperson.

The president spent much of last week&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-africa-israel-iran-ba943ceaceb78d17cf50c64511ba6db4">in Israel and Saudi Arabia.</a>&nbsp;White House officials had told reporters that Biden planned to minimize contact during the trip, yet as soon as he exited Air Force One on July 13, he was fist-bumping, handshaking and even was seen in an occasional hug. The CDC says symptoms can appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus.

Biden has had a minimal public schedule after returning from Saudi Arabia late on Saturday night, attending church the next day and helping to welcome Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska to the White House on Tuesday. The president traveled to Massachusetts on Wednesday to promote efforts to combat climate change.

Up to this point, Biden’s ability to avoid the virus seemed to defy the odds, even with the testing procedures in place for those expected to be in close contact with him. Prior waves of the virus swept through Washington’s political class, infecting Vice President Kamala Harris, Cabinet members, White House staffers and lawmakers. Biden has increasingly stepped up his travel schedule and resumed holding large indoor events where not everyone is tested.

A White House official said Harris tested negative for COVID-19. She was last with the president on Tuesday and spoke with him on the phone Thursday morning. Harris planned to remain masked on the guidance of the White House medical team.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped that Biden's positive test for the virus would cause more Americans to get vaccinated and boosted because "none of us is immune from it, including the president of the United States, and we really have to be careful.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Twitter wished the president "a speedy recovery.”

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-rochelle-walensky-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention-government-politics-0bd2ccf19f1c27379f312b9edf5f3634">Top White House officials in recent months have been matter-of-fact about the likelihood of the president getting COVID</a>, a measure of how ingrained the virus has become in society — and of its diminished threat for those who are up to date on their vaccinations and with access to treatments.

When administered within five days of symptoms appearing, Paxlovid, produced by drugmaker Pfizer, has been proven to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-covid-death-toll-one-million-7cefbd8c3185fd970fd073386e442317">deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.</a>

Biden is far from the first world leader — and not the first U.S. president — to get the coronavirus, which has infected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and more than a dozen other leaders and high-ranking officials globally.

When Biden’s predecessor,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-virus-outbreak-7fece2838ff7a9bd91ccf5ac287348b3">Donald Trump, contracted the disease in October 2020,</a>&nbsp;vaccines were not available and treatment options were limited and less advanced. After being diagnosed at the White House, Trump was given an experimental antibody treatment and steroids after his blood oxygen levels fell dangerously low. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three days

After more than two years and over a million deaths in the U.S., the virus is still killing an average of 353 people a day here., according to the CDC. The unvaccinated are at far greater risk, more than twice as likely to test positive and nine times as likely to die from the virus as those who have received at least a primary dose of the vaccines, according to the public health agency.

The highly transmissible omicron variant is the dominant strain in the U.S., but scientists say it poses a lower risk for severe illness to those who are up to date on their vaccinations. Omicron's BA.5 sub-strain, believed to be even more contagious, now makes up more than 65% of U.S. cases.

The coronavirus pandemic helped put Biden in the White House, as he pledged to handle COVID-19 better than his predecessor. After he had initial months of success surging the nation’s supply and availability of vaccines, the virus became a worse problem as he struggled to stay ahead of the unpredictable disease.

As cases sharply declined earlier this year, Biden highlighted his administration’s efforts to end the pandemic and help the nation regain a sense of normalcy. He said in his March 1 State of the Union address, “It’s time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, underscoring the persistence of the highly contagious virus as new variants challenge the nation's efforts to resume normalcy after two and a half years of pandemic disruptions.

White House Press Secretary<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/21/statement-from-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre/"> Karine Jean-Pierre said that</a> Biden was experiencing “mild symptoms" and has begun taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease.

She said Biden “will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time. He has been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone this morning, and will participate in his planned meetings at the White House this morning via phone and Zoom from the residence.”

Biden, 79, is fully vaccinated, after getting two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, a first booster shot in September and an additional dose March 30.

Top White House officials in recent months have been matter-of-fact about the likelihood of the president getting COVID, a measure of how engrained the virus has become in society — and of its diminished threat for those who are up to date on their vaccinations and with access to treatments.

When administered within five days of symptoms appearing, Paxlovid, produced by drugmaker Pfizer, has been proven to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.

In an April 30 speech to more than 2,600 attendees at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Biden acknowledged the risks of attending large events, but said it was worthwhile to attend.

“I know there are questions about whether we should gather here tonight because of COVID,” he said. “Well, we’re here to show the country that we’re getting through this pandemic.”

When Biden’s predecessor, President Donald Trump, contracted the disease in October 2020, it was a far different time. Vaccines were not available and treatment options were limited and less advanced. After being diagnosed with COVID-19 at the White House, Trump was given an experimental antibody treatment and steroids after his blood oxygen levels fell dangerously low. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three days

While much of the world has resumed normal rhythms after the early lockdowns to control spikes in cases and deaths, the virus still serves as a disrupter in daily life as people are forced to change plans, isolate and calculate the risks of taking part in various activities.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and is isolating with “very mild symptoms," the White House said, as new variants of the highly contagious virus challenge the nation's efforts to get back to normal after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic">two and a half years of pandemic.</a><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">An update from me: <a href="https://t.co/L2oCR0uUTu">pic.twitter.com/L2oCR0uUTu</a>&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1550179049598861314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Biden had begun taking Paxlovid</a>, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease. He was isolating in the family quarters of the White House and “continuing to carry out all of his duties fully,” she said.Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor,&nbsp;said in a letter that Biden had a runny nose and “fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658416889840.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Biden himself said in a video posted on Twitter: “I really appreciate your inquiries and concerns. But I’m doing well, getting a lot of work done.“<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-covid-business-health-united-states-762d03274aac3b09c78dc70b81354d59">Biden, 79, is fully vaccinated, after getting two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office,</a>&nbsp;a first booster shot in September and an additional dose March 30. The president will isolate for five days and can return to his usual activities after a negative test, White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters at a briefing.Jean-Pierre described the president's symptoms as "very mild" and said Biden had been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone and would participate in his planned meetings “via phone and Zoom from the residence.”Asked where Biden might have contracted the virus, Jean-Pierre said, ”I don't think that matters." She later clarified that to say the White House was focused on how feeling and would engage in contact tracing.In the video that Biden recorded outdoors to tell the world he was OK, the videographer stood six feet away and wore an N95 mask, Jean-Pierre said. The president will stop taking his anti-blood clot and cholesterol medications while receiving Paxlovid.The White House took steps to show that the president was busy working despite his diagnosis, with Biden tweeting out a picture of himself making calls from the treaty room of the White House.The president spoke by phone to lawmakers in Pennsylvania to apologize for having to cancel his planned trip Thursday to the city of Wilkes-Barre&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-police-pennsylvania-wilkes-barre-c3d8e3ee5190adde35b1b7932a47dc4b">to promote his crime prevention plans.</a>&nbsp;Biden also called South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn to wish him a happy birthday and congratulate him on receiving an award from the NAACP.Dr. O'Connor wrote in his letter about the president's treatment plan: “I anticipate that he will respond favorably” to Paxlovid “as most maximally protected patients do.”Jean-Pierre said Biden had tested negative on Tuesday and would stay isolated until he tests negative again.White House chief of staff Ron Klain said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press that “all close contacts of the president” will be informed of Biden's positive test “per standard protocol.”"We have said for some time that there was a substantial possibility that the president – like anyone else – could get COVID, and we have prepared for this possibility," Klain wrote to White House staff. "We are now executing on our plan so that the president can continue to work seamlessly from the Residence."First lady Jill Biden, speaking to reporters as she arrived for a school visit in Detroit, said she'd just gotten off the phone with her husband.“He’s doing fine,” she said. "He’s feeling good.”The first lady, who was wearing a mask, said she tested negative earlier in the day. She will keep her full schedule in Michigan and Georgia on Thursday, though she will be following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on masking and distancing, said Michael LaRosa, her spokesperson.The president spent much of last week&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-africa-israel-iran-ba943ceaceb78d17cf50c64511ba6db4">in Israel and Saudi Arabia.</a>&nbsp;White House officials had told reporters that Biden planned to minimize contact during the trip, yet as soon as he exited Air Force One on July 13, he was fist-bumping, handshaking and even was seen in an occasional hug. The CDC says symptoms can appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus.Biden has had a minimal public schedule after returning from Saudi Arabia late on Saturday night, attending church the next day and helping to welcome Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska to the White House on Tuesday. The president traveled to Massachusetts on Wednesday to promote efforts to combat climate change.Up to this point, Biden’s ability to avoid the virus seemed to defy the odds, even with the testing procedures in place for those expected to be in close contact with him. Prior waves of the virus swept through Washington’s political class, infecting Vice President Kamala Harris, Cabinet members, White House staffers and lawmakers. Biden has increasingly stepped up his travel schedule and resumed holding large indoor events where not everyone is tested.A White House official said Harris tested negative for COVID-19. She was last with the president on Tuesday and spoke with him on the phone Thursday morning. Harris planned to remain masked on the guidance of the White House medical team.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped that Biden's positive test for the virus would cause more Americans to get vaccinated and boosted because "none of us is immune from it, including the president of the United States, and we really have to be careful.”Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Twitter wished the president "a speedy recovery.”<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-rochelle-walensky-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention-government-politics-0bd2ccf19f1c27379f312b9edf5f3634">Top White House officials in recent months have been matter-of-fact about the likelihood of the president getting COVID</a>, a measure of how ingrained the virus has become in society — and of its diminished threat for those who are up to date on their vaccinations and with access to treatments.When administered within five days of symptoms appearing, Paxlovid, produced by drugmaker Pfizer, has been proven to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-covid-death-toll-one-million-7cefbd8c3185fd970fd073386e442317">deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.</a>Biden is far from the first world leader — and not the first U.S. president — to get the coronavirus, which has infected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and more than a dozen other leaders and high-ranking officials globally.When Biden’s predecessor,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-virus-outbreak-7fece2838ff7a9bd91ccf5ac287348b3">Donald Trump, contracted the disease in October 2020,</a>&nbsp;vaccines were not available and treatment options were limited and less advanced. After being diagnosed at the White House, Trump was given an experimental antibody treatment and steroids after his blood oxygen levels fell dangerously low. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three daysAfter more than two years and over a million deaths in the U.S., the virus is still killing an average of 353 people a day here., according to the CDC. The unvaccinated are at far greater risk, more than twice as likely to test positive and nine times as likely to die from the virus as those who have received at least a primary dose of the vaccines, according to the public health agency.The highly transmissible omicron variant is the dominant strain in the U.S., but scientists say it poses a lower risk for severe illness to those who are up to date on their vaccinations. Omicron's BA.5 sub-strain, believed to be even more contagious, now makes up more than 65% of U.S. cases.The coronavirus pandemic helped put Biden in the White House, as he pledged to handle COVID-19 better than his predecessor. After he had initial months of success surging the nation’s supply and availability of vaccines, the virus became a worse problem as he struggled to stay ahead of the unpredictable disease.As cases sharply declined earlier this year, Biden highlighted his administration’s efforts to end the pandemic and help the nation regain a sense of normalcy. He said in his March 1 State of the Union address, “It’s time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again.”------<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658413817667.png" alt="President Biden at Brayton Point in Massachusetts on Wednesday-White House photo" />
 <figcaption>President Biden at Brayton Point in Massachusetts on Wednesday-White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, underscoring the persistence of the highly contagious virus as new variants challenge the nation's efforts to resume normalcy after two and a half years of pandemic disruptions.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658416889840.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>White House Press Secretary<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/21/statement-from-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre/"> Karine Jean-Pierre said that</a> Biden was experiencing “mild symptoms" and has begun taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease.She said Biden “will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time. He has been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone this morning, and will participate in his planned meetings at the White House this morning via phone and Zoom from the residence.”Biden, 79, is fully vaccinated, after getting two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, a first booster shot in September and an additional dose March 30.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Praying and hoping for a speedy recovery for the President.&mdash; Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1550129798235635713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Up to this point, Biden’s ability to avoid the virus seemed to defy the odds, even with the testing procedures in place for those expected to be in close contact with him. Prior waves of the virus swept through Washington’s political class, infecting Vice President Kamala Harris, Cabinet members, White House staffers and lawmakers. Biden has increasingly stepped up his travel schedule and resumed holding large indoor events where not everyone is tested.Top White House officials in recent months have been matter-of-fact about the likelihood of the president getting COVID, a measure of how engrained the virus has become in society — and of its diminished threat for those who are up to date on their vaccinations and with access to treatments.When administered within five days of symptoms appearing, Paxlovid, produced by drugmaker Pfizer, has been proven to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.In an April 30 speech to more than 2,600 attendees at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Biden acknowledged the risks of attending large events, but said it was worthwhile to attend.“I know there are questions about whether we should gather here tonight because of COVID,” he said. “Well, we’re here to show the country that we’re getting through this pandemic.”Biden is far from the first world leader — and not the first U.S. president — to get the coronavirus, which has infected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and more than a dozen other leaders and high-ranking officials globally.When Biden’s predecessor, President Donald Trump, contracted the disease in October 2020, it was a far different time. Vaccines were not available and treatment options were limited and less advanced. After being diagnosed with COVID-19 at the White House, Trump was given an experimental antibody treatment and steroids after his blood oxygen levels fell dangerously low. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three daysWhile much of the world has resumed normal rhythms after the early lockdowns to control spikes in cases and deaths, the virus still serves as a disrupter in daily life as people are forced to change plans, isolate and calculate the risks of taking part in various activities.

🎥 Biden talks about his positive COVID test: Going to be OK

NEW YORK (AP) — An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently 
contracted polio, the first U.S. case in nearly a decade, health 
officials said Thursday.

Officials said the patient, who lives in 
Rockland County, had developed paralysis. The person developed symptoms a
 month ago and did not recently travel outside the country, county 
health officials said.

It appears the patient had a 
vaccine-derived strain of the virus, perhaps from someone who got live 
vaccine — available in other countries, but not the U.S. — and spread 
it, officials said.

The person is no longer deemed contagious, but
 investigators are trying to figure out how the infection occurred and 
whether other people may have been exposed to the virus.

Most 
Americans are vaccinated against polio, but unvaccinated people may be 
at risk, said Rockland County Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel 
Ruppert. Health officials scheduled vaccination clinics nearby for 
Friday and Monday, and encouraged anyone who has not been vaccinated to 
get the shots.

“We want shots in the arms of those who need it,” she said at a Thursday press conference announcing the case.

Polio
 was once one of the nation's most feared diseases, with annual 
outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis — many of them in 
children.

Vaccines became available starting in 1955, and a 
national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to 
less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s, according to 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning there was no longer routine spread.

Rarely,
 travelers have brought polio infections into the U.S. The last such 
case was in 2013, when a 7-month-old who had recently moved to the U.S. 
from India was diagnosed in San Antonio, Texas, according the federal 
health officials. That child also had the type of polio found in the 
live form of vaccine used in other countries.

There are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/public/index.html#types-of-polio">two types</a>
 of polio vaccines. The U.S. and many other countries use shots made 
with an inactivated version of the virus. But some countries where polio
 has been more of a recent threat use a weakened live virus that is 
given to children as drops in the mouth. In rare instances, the weakened
 virus can mutate into a form capable of sparking new outbreaks.

U.S.
 children are still routinely vaccinated against polio with the 
inactivated vaccine. Federal officials recommend four doses: to be given
 at 2 months of age; 4 months; at 6 to 18 months; and at age 4 through 6
 years. Some states require only three doses.

According to the 
CDC's most recent childhood vaccination data, about 93% of 2-year-olds 
had received at least three doses of polio vaccine.

Polio spreads 
mostly from person to person or through contaminated water. It can 
infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis and possibly permanent 
disability and death. The disease mostly affects children.

Polio 
is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, although numerous countries in 
Africa, the Middle East and Asia have also reported cases in recent 
years.

Rockland County, in New York City's northern suburbs, has been a center of vaccine resistance in recent years. A 2018-2019 <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-new-york-new-york-city-measles-f9eb8e014fc64c63a60d78cc200d49a6">measles outbreak</a> there infected 312 people.

Last month, health officials in Britain <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-london-438e04cb67698bd4e96b5eb2fafa1aeb">warned parents</a>
 to make sure children have been vaccinated because the polio virus had 
been found in London sewage samples. No cases of paralysis were 
reported.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658429954707.jpeg" alt="CDC illustration" />
 <figcaption>CDC illustration</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently 
contracted polio, the first U.S. case in nearly a decade, health 
officials said Thursday.Officials said the patient, who lives in 
Rockland County, had developed paralysis. The person developed symptoms a
 month ago and did not recently travel outside the country, county 
health officials said.It appears the patient had a 
vaccine-derived strain of the virus, perhaps from someone who got live 
vaccine — available in other countries, but not the U.S. — and spread 
it, officials said.The person is no longer deemed contagious, but
 investigators are trying to figure out how the infection occurred and 
whether other people may have been exposed to the virus.Most 
Americans are vaccinated against polio, but unvaccinated people may be 
at risk, said Rockland County Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel 
Ruppert. Health officials scheduled vaccination clinics nearby for 
Friday and Monday, and encouraged anyone who has not been vaccinated to 
get the shots.“We want shots in the arms of those who need it,” she said at a Thursday press conference announcing the case.Polio
 was once one of the nation's most feared diseases, with annual 
outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis — many of them in 
children.Vaccines became available starting in 1955, and a 
national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to 
less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s, according to 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning there was no longer routine spread.Rarely,
 travelers have brought polio infections into the U.S. The last such 
case was in 2013, when a 7-month-old who had recently moved to the U.S. 
from India was diagnosed in San Antonio, Texas, according the federal 
health officials. That child also had the type of polio found in the 
live form of vaccine used in other countries.There are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/public/index.html#types-of-polio">two types</a>
 of polio vaccines. The U.S. and many other countries use shots made 
with an inactivated version of the virus. But some countries where polio
 has been more of a recent threat use a weakened live virus that is 
given to children as drops in the mouth. In rare instances, the weakened
 virus can mutate into a form capable of sparking new outbreaks.U.S.
 children are still routinely vaccinated against polio with the 
inactivated vaccine. Federal officials recommend four doses: to be given
 at 2 months of age; 4 months; at 6 to 18 months; and at age 4 through 6
 years. Some states require only three doses.According to the 
CDC's most recent childhood vaccination data, about 93% of 2-year-olds 
had received at least three doses of polio vaccine.Polio spreads 
mostly from person to person or through contaminated water. It can 
infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis and possibly permanent 
disability and death. The disease mostly affects children.Polio 
is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, although numerous countries in 
Africa, the Middle East and Asia have also reported cases in recent 
years.Rockland County, in New York City's northern suburbs, has been a center of vaccine resistance in recent years. A 2018-2019 <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-new-york-new-york-city-measles-f9eb8e014fc64c63a60d78cc200d49a6">measles outbreak</a> there infected 312 people.Last month, health officials in Britain <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-london-438e04cb67698bd4e96b5eb2fafa1aeb">warned parents</a>
 to make sure children have been vaccinated because the polio virus had 
been found in London sewage samples. No cases of paralysis were 
reported.Cover image courtesy CDC

New York reports 1st US polio case in nearly a decade

WASHINGTON (AP) — The right to use contraceptives would be inscribed into law under a measure Democrats are pushing through the House, their latest campaign-season response to worries that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">a conservative Supreme Court that’s erased federal abortion rights</a>&nbsp;could go further.

The House planned to vote Thursday on the legislation and send it to the Senate, where its fate seemed uncertain. The push underscored that Democrats are latching onto&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-gavin-newsom-marriage-cultures-d82094c4d869a7b084b5ccccd5b47271">their own version of culture-war battles</a>&nbsp;to appeal to female, progressive and minority voters by casting the court and Republicans as extremists intent on obliterating rights taken for granted for years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said now that the “radical, Republican-stacked Supreme Court" overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, GOP lawmakers want to do more than ban abortion.

“Those of us who’ve been in Congress a while can tell you that they have been against contraception, family planning, birth control the entire time,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. “This is their moment. Clarence Thomas has made that clear. They’re right down to the fundamentals of privacy that they want to erase.”

In his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade last month, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should now review other precedents. He mentioned rulings that affirmed the rights of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-f6b899076faba20517b9ac1e82438c16">same-sex marriage</a>&nbsp;in 2015, same-sex intimate relationships in 2003 and married couples' use of contraceptives in 1965.

Thomas did not specify a 1972 decision that legalized the use of contraceptives by unmarried people as well, but Democrats say they consider that at risk as well.

Thomas and congressional Republicans “are about one thing, control," said Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., chief sponsor of the contraception bill, which has around 150 co-sponsors, all Democrats.

“These extremists are working to take away the rights of women, to take away our right to decide when to have children, to take away our right to control our own lives and our own bodies. And we will not let this happen," she said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is close to GOP leaders, said he doubted the legislation could win the Republican support it will need to survive in the Senate. Democrats there have introduced a contraception bill similar to the House version.

“I think it’s pure hysteria” by Democrats, Cornyn said of the contraception rights bill. “It’s not in jeopardy” of being repealed, he said.

House Democrats have begun forcing votes on these and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-technology-politics-health-e5b6e90807a5a2b5e437cfc9bbe0f1f6">other issues related to privacy rights</a>, hoping for long-shot victories or to at least energize sympathetic voters and donors and force Republicans from competitive districts in difficult spots.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-bills-house-vote-fc24d99f184d7aeec4926a6520311da5">The House voted last week to revive a nationwide right to abortion,</a>&nbsp;with every Republican voting no, and voted largely along party lines to bar prosecuting women traveling to states where abortion remains legal.

The House voted Tuesday to keep same-sex marriage legal, with 47 Republicans joining all Democrats in backing the measure. Though 157 Republicans voted no, that tally raised expectations that the bill could win support from at least 10 GOP senators and get the 60 votes needed to clear the 50-50 Senate,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-f6b899076faba20517b9ac1e82438c16">sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature</a>.

The contraception bill explicitly allows the use of contraceptives and gives the medical community the right to provide them, covering “any device or medication used to prevent pregnancy.” Listed examples include oral contraceptives, injections, implants like intrauterine devices and emergency contraceptives, which prevent pregnancy several days after unprotected sex.

The bill lets the federal and state government, patients and health care providers bring civil suits against states or state officials that violate its provisions.

Same-sex marriage may have such broad public acceptance that growing numbers of Republicans are willing to vote for it. But anti-abortion groups oppose the contraception legislation, and it remains to be seen if significant numbers of GOP lawmakers are willing to make that break.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said the legislation “seeks to bail out the abortion industry, trample conscience rights, and require uninhibited access to dangerous chemical abortion drugs.” The National Right to Life Committee said it “goes far beyond the scope of contraception” and would cover abortion pills like RU486, which supporters said was incorrect.

Spokespeople for House GOP leaders did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the legislation.

The measure drew a mixed reaction from two of the Senate's more moderate Republicans.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was “most likely" to support the measure. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, demurred, saying she was working on bipartisan legislation that she said would codify the rights to abortion and perhaps for contraception.

There are few state restrictions on contraceptive use, said Elizabeth Nash, who studies state reproductive health policies for the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Nash said she was concerned that there will be efforts to curb emergency contraceptives and intrauterine devices and to help providers and institutions refuse to provide contraceptive services.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658399340498.png" alt="House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said now that the “radical, Republican-stacked Supreme Court" overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, GOP lawmakers want to do more than ban abortion.-courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said now that the “radical, Republican-stacked Supreme Court" overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, GOP lawmakers want to do more than ban abortion.-courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The right to use contraceptives would be inscribed into law under a measure Democrats are pushing through the House, their latest campaign-season response to worries that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">a conservative Supreme Court that’s erased federal abortion rights</a>&nbsp;could go further.The House planned to vote Thursday on the legislation and send it to the Senate, where its fate seemed uncertain. The push underscored that Democrats are latching onto&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-gavin-newsom-marriage-cultures-d82094c4d869a7b084b5ccccd5b47271">their own version of culture-war battles</a>&nbsp;to appeal to female, progressive and minority voters by casting the court and Republicans as extremists intent on obliterating rights taken for granted for years.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said now that the “radical, Republican-stacked Supreme Court" overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, GOP lawmakers want to do more than ban abortion.“Those of us who’ve been in Congress a while can tell you that they have been against contraception, family planning, birth control the entire time,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. “This is their moment. Clarence Thomas has made that clear. They’re right down to the fundamentals of privacy that they want to erase.”In his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade last month, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should now review other precedents. He mentioned rulings that affirmed the rights of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-f6b899076faba20517b9ac1e82438c16">same-sex marriage</a>&nbsp;in 2015, same-sex intimate relationships in 2003 and married couples' use of contraceptives in 1965.Thomas did not specify a 1972 decision that legalized the use of contraceptives by unmarried people as well, but Democrats say they consider that at risk as well.Thomas and congressional Republicans “are about one thing, control," said Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., chief sponsor of the contraception bill, which has around 150 co-sponsors, all Democrats.“These extremists are working to take away the rights of women, to take away our right to decide when to have children, to take away our right to control our own lives and our own bodies. And we will not let this happen," she said.Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is close to GOP leaders, said he doubted the legislation could win the Republican support it will need to survive in the Senate. Democrats there have introduced a contraception bill similar to the House version.“I think it’s pure hysteria” by Democrats, Cornyn said of the contraception rights bill. “It’s not in jeopardy” of being repealed, he said.House Democrats have begun forcing votes on these and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-technology-politics-health-e5b6e90807a5a2b5e437cfc9bbe0f1f6">other issues related to privacy rights</a>, hoping for long-shot victories or to at least energize sympathetic voters and donors and force Republicans from competitive districts in difficult spots.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-bills-house-vote-fc24d99f184d7aeec4926a6520311da5">The House voted last week to revive a nationwide right to abortion,</a>&nbsp;with every Republican voting no, and voted largely along party lines to bar prosecuting women traveling to states where abortion remains legal.The House voted Tuesday to keep same-sex marriage legal, with 47 Republicans joining all Democrats in backing the measure. Though 157 Republicans voted no, that tally raised expectations that the bill could win support from at least 10 GOP senators and get the 60 votes needed to clear the 50-50 Senate,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-f6b899076faba20517b9ac1e82438c16">sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature</a>.The contraception bill explicitly allows the use of contraceptives and gives the medical community the right to provide them, covering “any device or medication used to prevent pregnancy.” Listed examples include oral contraceptives, injections, implants like intrauterine devices and emergency contraceptives, which prevent pregnancy several days after unprotected sex.The bill lets the federal and state government, patients and health care providers bring civil suits against states or state officials that violate its provisions.Same-sex marriage may have such broad public acceptance that growing numbers of Republicans are willing to vote for it. But anti-abortion groups oppose the contraception legislation, and it remains to be seen if significant numbers of GOP lawmakers are willing to make that break.Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said the legislation “seeks to bail out the abortion industry, trample conscience rights, and require uninhibited access to dangerous chemical abortion drugs.” The National Right to Life Committee said it “goes far beyond the scope of contraception” and would cover abortion pills like RU486, which supporters said was incorrect.Spokespeople for House GOP leaders did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the legislation.The measure drew a mixed reaction from two of the Senate's more moderate Republicans.Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was “most likely" to support the measure. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, demurred, saying she was working on bipartisan legislation that she said would codify the rights to abortion and perhaps for contraception.There are few state restrictions on contraceptive use, said Elizabeth Nash, who studies state reproductive health policies for the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.Nash said she was concerned that there will be efforts to curb emergency contraceptives and intrauterine devices and to help providers and institutions refuse to provide contraceptive services.

House Dems move to protect contraception from Supreme Court

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 42-year-old Lincoln man died when someone walked onto his boat at Branched Oak Lake and shot him, prompting four other people to dive in to the water to escape, authorities said.

Benjamin Case died in an apparently targeted shooting Tuesday night, Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said. The four other people on the boat were not injured, he said.

Case and his friends were inside the boat’s cabin when the man walked onto the boat's deck. Wagner said. Case opened the cabin door and was immediately shot twice with a handgun.

The suspect — who did not fire toward the others — left the lake area in a vehicle, the Lincoln Journal Star&nbsp;<a href="https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/watch-now-sheriff-identifies-man-shot-killed-on-boat-at-branched-oak-lake/article_a517f009-1b56-546d-b2c9-2f4c0c711ccc.html">reported.</a>

Wagner said it did not appear the suspect took anything from the boat or the victim’s vehicle, which was parked at the lake.

By Associated PressLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 42-year-old Lincoln man died when someone walked onto his boat at Branched Oak Lake and shot him, prompting four other people to dive in to the water to escape, authorities said.Benjamin Case died in an apparently targeted shooting Tuesday night, Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said. The four other people on the boat were not injured, he said.Case and his friends were inside the boat’s cabin when the man walked onto the boat's deck. Wagner said. Case opened the cabin door and was immediately shot twice with a handgun.The suspect — who did not fire toward the others — left the lake area in a vehicle, the Lincoln Journal Star&nbsp;<a href="https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/watch-now-sheriff-identifies-man-shot-killed-on-boat-at-branched-oak-lake/article_a517f009-1b56-546d-b2c9-2f4c0c711ccc.html">reported.</a>Wagner said it did not appear the suspect took anything from the boat or the victim’s vehicle, which was parked at the lake.

1 dead, others dive into water during shooting in Nebraska

By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/presumed-monkeypox-caseload-rises-in-nebraska/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

OMAHA — Lancaster County has reported
 its first presumed case of monkeypox, which makes a total of five 
presumed or confirmed cases now in Nebraska, state officials said 
Wednesday.

The Lancaster County patient is a man
 in his 30s, with recent travel history outside Nebraska. He is 
“isolating” at home, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department 
reported Tuesday.&nbsp;

Health officials are investigating potential close contacts but don’t believe that his case is related to another in Nebraska.&nbsp;

Douglas County has in recent weeks <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/douglas-county-reports-a-third-suspected-monkeypox-case/">reported three</a>
 presumed cases of monkeypox. Nebraska’s East Central District Health 
Department in Columbus has reported a presumed case, as well.&nbsp;

Close to 2,000 cases have been 
reported in the U.S. and its territories since May, and the number 
continues to rise. Since the beginning of the current global outbreak, 
more than 14,000 cases have been reported worldwide, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html">CDC data</a>.

Monkeypox is a disease caused by a 
virus and is primarily spread through close, skin-to-skin contact with 
someone who has the monkeypox rash.&nbsp;

The risk to the public is considered 
low at this time, the Lancaster health department said, but added that 
it is important to be aware that the virus has been identified in the 
area. Anyone with an unexplained rash or other monkeypox symptoms is 
advised to contact their health care provider.

The rash <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html">can look like pimples</a>
 or blisters that appear on the face, inside the mouth and on other 
parts of the body. The rash goes through different stages before healing
 is complete, and that process can take several weeks.

By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/presumed-monkeypox-caseload-rises-in-nebraska/">Nebraska Examiner</a>OMAHA — Lancaster County has reported
 its first presumed case of monkeypox, which makes a total of five 
presumed or confirmed cases now in Nebraska, state officials said 
Wednesday.The Lancaster County patient is a man
 in his 30s, with recent travel history outside Nebraska. He is 
“isolating” at home, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department 
reported Tuesday.&nbsp;Health officials are investigating potential close contacts but don’t believe that his case is related to another in Nebraska.&nbsp;Douglas County has in recent weeks <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/douglas-county-reports-a-third-suspected-monkeypox-case/">reported three</a>
 presumed cases of monkeypox. Nebraska’s East Central District Health 
Department in Columbus has reported a presumed case, as well.&nbsp;Close to 2,000 cases have been 
reported in the U.S. and its territories since May, and the number 
continues to rise. Since the beginning of the current global outbreak, 
more than 14,000 cases have been reported worldwide, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html">CDC data</a>.Monkeypox is a disease caused by a 
virus and is primarily spread through close, skin-to-skin contact with 
someone who has the monkeypox rash.&nbsp;The risk to the public is considered 
low at this time, the Lancaster health department said, but added that 
it is important to be aware that the virus has been identified in the 
area. Anyone with an unexplained rash or other monkeypox symptoms is 
advised to contact their health care provider.The rash <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html">can look like pimples</a>
 or blisters that appear on the face, inside the mouth and on other 
parts of the body. The rash goes through different stages before healing
 is complete, and that process can take several weeks.

Presumed monkeypox caseload rises in Nebraska

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week rose to the highest level in more than eight months in what may be a sign that the labor market is weakening.

Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 16 rose by 7,000 to 251,000, up from the previous week’s 244,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That's the most since Nov. 13, 2021 when 265,000 Americans applied for benefits.

Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet expected the number to come in at 242,000.

First-time applications generally reflect layoffs.

The four-week average for claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 4,500 from the previous week, to 240,500.

The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending July 9 rose by 51,000 from the previous week, to 1,384,000. That figure has been near 50-year lows for months.

Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that employers added 372,000 jobs in June, a surprisingly robust gain and similar to the pace of the previous two months. Economists had expected job growth to slow sharply last month given the broader signs of economic weakness.

The unemployment rate remained 3.6% for a fourth straight month, matching a near-50-year low that was reached before the pandemic struck in early 2020.

The government also reported earlier in July that U.S. employers advertised fewer jobs in May amid signs that the economy is weakening, though the overall demand for workers remained strong. There are nearly two job openings for every unemployed person.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/6/1561209733269.png" alt="" />
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 </figure>By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSWASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week rose to the highest level in more than eight months in what may be a sign that the labor market is weakening.Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 16 rose by 7,000 to 251,000, up from the previous week’s 244,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That's the most since Nov. 13, 2021 when 265,000 Americans applied for benefits.Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet expected the number to come in at 242,000.First-time applications generally reflect layoffs.The four-week average for claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 4,500 from the previous week, to 240,500.The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending July 9 rose by 51,000 from the previous week, to 1,384,000. That figure has been near 50-year lows for months.Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that employers added 372,000 jobs in June, a surprisingly robust gain and similar to the pace of the previous two months. Economists had expected job growth to slow sharply last month given the broader signs of economic weakness.The unemployment rate remained 3.6% for a fourth straight month, matching a near-50-year low that was reached before the pandemic struck in early 2020.The government also reported earlier in July that U.S. employers advertised fewer jobs in May amid signs that the economy is weakening, though the overall demand for workers remained strong. There are nearly two job openings for every unemployed person.Consumer prices are still soaring, up 9.1% in June compared with a year earlier, the biggest yearly increase since 1981, the government reported last week.The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week hit its highest level in nearly 8 months, but the total number of those collecting benefits fell. The Labor Department also reported last week that inflation at the wholesale level climbed 11.3% in June from a year earlier.All of those figures paint a divergent picture of the post-pandemic economy: Inflation is hammering household budgets, forcing consumers to pull back on spending, and growth is weakening, heightening fears the economy could fall into recession.In an effort to combat the worst inflation in more than four decades, the Federal Reserve raised rates by a half-point in May and another rare three-quarter point increase last month. Most economists expect the Federal Reserve to jack up its borrowing rate another half-to-three-quarters of a point when it meets later this month.Though the labor market is still strong, there have been some high-profile layoffs announced recently by Tesla, Netflix, Carvana, Redfin and Coinbase.