The CDC reported 6,587 Covid-19 breakthrough cases as of July 26, including 6,239 hospitalizations and 1,263 deaths.
At that time, more than 163 million people in the United States were fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Most of the breakthrough cases -- about 74% -- occurred among adults 65 or older.
Since May, the CDC has focused on investigating only hospitalized or fatal Covid-19 cases among people who have been fully vaccinated. The agency says the data relies on "passive and voluntary reporting" and are a "snapshot" to "help identify patterns and look for signals among vaccine breakthrough cases."
"To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in the case demographics or vaccine characteristics among people with reported vaccine breakthrough infections," according to the CDC.
The agency shared a study this week that showed the Delta variant produced similar amounts of virus in vaccinated and unvaccinated people if they get infected. Experts continue to say that vaccination makes it less likely you'll catch Covid-19 in the first place. But for those who do, the findings suggest they could have a similar tendency to spread it as unvaccinated people.
That study also convinced CDC leaders to update the agency's mask guidance on Tuesday, recommending that fully vaccinated people also wear masks indoors when in areas with "substantial" and "high" Covid-19 transmission to prevent further spread of the Delta variant. Guidance for unvaccinated people remains to continue masking until they are fully vaccinated.
Pace of vaccinations is going up
But experts say those vaccinated, while they may be able to transmit the virus, remain very well protected against getting seriously ill. Amid the latest surge of Covid-19 cases nationwide fueled by the Delta variant, local leaders across the US are reporting that the majority of new infections and hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people.
The Delta variant is now so contagious, one former health official recently warned that people who are not protected -- either through vaccination or previous infection -- will likely get it.
Amid concerns over the rising cases and the dangerous strain, the country has seen a steady rise in the pace of vaccinations in the past three weeks -- and an even sharper increase in states that had been lagging the most, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data.
The seven-day average of new doses administered in the US is now 652,084, up 26% from three weeks ago.
The difference is even more striking in several southern states: Alabama's seven-day average of new doses administered is more than double what it was three weeks ago. The state has the lowest rate of its total population fully vaccinated in the US, at roughly 34%.
Arkansas, with just 36% of its population fully vaccinated, has also seen its average daily rate of doses administered double in the last three weeks.
Louisiana, which had by far the most new Covid-19 cases per capita last week and has only fully vaccinated 37% of its population, saw daily vaccination rates rise 111% compared to three weeks ago.
Article From & Read More ( Less than 0.001% of fully vaccinated Americans died after a Covid-19 breakthrough case, CDC data shows - CNN )
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Case
Article From & Read More ( Florida sets a record with 21,683 new COVID-19 cases reported Saturday, the CDC says - Miami Herald )
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Case
Florida has reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19, the state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to federal health data released Saturday.
The latest numbers were recorded on Friday and released on Saturday on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. The previous peak in Florida had been 19,334 cases reported on Jan. 7.
While Florida accounts for nearly one out of every four new infections and hospitalizations in the country, according to federal data, the majority of people falling ill (and a large number of those falling seriously ill) are younger adults who have not gotten vaccines.
Adults in their 20s to 40s account for 53 percent of infections and about 34 percent of hospitalizations, according to state data.
Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld on Saturday became the latest theme parks in Florida to again ask visitors to wear masks indoors, with Universal also ordering its employees to wear face coverings to protect against COVID-19.
All workers at Universal’s Florida park on Saturday started being required to wear masks while indoors as the employees returned to practicing social distancing.
“The health and safety of our guests and team members is always our top priority,” Universal said in a statement.
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As COVID-19 cases rise, health officials are contemplating reimplementing mask mandates in some parts of the state.
Santa Barbara County Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg says an uptick in COVID-19 cases in Santa Barbara County is concerning, and if cases continue to rise at this rate, another mask mandate may not be out of the question.
During a virtual press conference on Tuesday, Dr. Ansorg spoke about why we are seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases.
"We now experience the pandemic of the unvaccinated. It is unnecessary and completely preventable. This new surge in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths is affecting the people who do not get vaccinated for whatever reason," he said.
Due to individuals choosing not to get vaccinated, restrictions lifting, and the contagious delta variant, cases are increasing.
"Basically in the old tier system, we made it from the yellow to the purple tier almost in a three-week period... so very rapid increase in cases overall," Ansorg said.
Ansorg says they have received requests from business owners to issue a mask mandate so they can enforce mask-wearing among customers, but the thought of another mask mandate leaves some community members feeling uncomfortable.
"I'm against it as a mandatory thing. You know, if individual businesses want to enforce that, it's their right, but as a government mandate, I don't think it should come back," said San Luis Obispo resident Justin Machado.
"It actually concerns me greatly. I'm an immune-compromised veteran and I'm also the parent of a child who's not old enough to be vaccinated, so both of those things make me worry about, you know... I just see so many people that are going out unmasked and not thinking about their kids are walking there right with them," said San Luis Obispo County resident Michelle Cook.
Dr. Ansorg says another mask mandate will depend on the development of cases in the county and they will look at the case count again next week.
"If the case rate is going significantly up, we are definitely considering this for Santa Barbara County," he said.
According to Ansorg, the majority of vaccinated individuals who are infected with COVID-19 will have mild symptoms and usually do not experience shortness of breath. Ansorg recommends everyone wear a mask in crowded areas.
"The more people are vaccinated, the faster we get out of this and forget about masks," he said.
Sr. Ansorg recommends vaccinated individuals who know they have been in close contact with a person infected by COVID-19 to get tested.
Article From & Read More ( Could rising COVID-19 case counts prompt another mask mandate in Santa Barbara County? - KSBY San Luis Obispo News )
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Case
A medical worker in protective suit collects a swab from a resident for nucleic acid testing at a sports centre in Jiangning district, following new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China July 21, 2021. cnsphoto via REUTERS
BEIJING, July 31 (Reuters) - China on Saturday reported 55 new coronavirus cases on the mainland for July 30, compared with 64 cases a day earlier, as the Delta variant spreads across the country during the summer holiday.
Thirty of the new infections were local cases, compared with 21 the previous day, the National Health Commission said in a statement. There were no new deaths.
The other 25 cases originated overseas.
A majority of the local cases were reported in Jiangsu province whereNanjing, its provincial capital, is facing an outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant this month traced to airport workers who cleaned a plane which arrived from Russia. read more
Nanjing has reported 190 locally transmitted cases since July 20, while there has been a total of 262 cases across the country, figures released on Saturday showed.
The Nanjing outbreak has spread to other cities in Jiangsu, to the country's capital Beijing, and to other provinces including Anhui, Sichuan, Liaoning, Guangdong and Hunan.
Suzhou, a major city in Jiangsu, announced on Saturday it is shutting all games parlours for chess, cards and mahjong, after several people in another Jiangsu city caught the virus while playing in one such parlour.
To curb the outbreak in Beijing, some schools in the city have asked students on summer vacation to return to Beijing at least 14 days before the autumn semester starts on August 15, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
Zhengzhou, a provincial city in Henan province hit by heavy floods this month, announced on Saturday that people must test negative for COVID-19 before leaving the city. It also reported one asymptomatic case, its first in months.
Some who contracted the Delta variant in Nanjing had been vaccinated, official data showed.
"On the whole, the various variants can be controlled with current vaccines," Shao Yiming, researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention told a media briefing on Saturday, adding that no vaccine can prevent infections 100%.
China had administered over 1.6 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of July 30.
The vaccinated included 150 million people above the age of 60 and 12 million youth 12-17 years old, a health authority official said.
As of July 30, mainland China had a total of 92,930 confirmed coronavirus cases and its death toll stood at 4,636.
Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Roxanne Liu; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jason Neely
Detectives arrested a man Friday and charged him with sexually battering a woman in Tampa last Sunday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Elieser Alvarez Lima, 31, was charged with kidnapping, sexual battery and aggravated battery.[ Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office ]
Elieser Alvarez Lima, 31, of Tampa, was charged with kidnapping, sexual battery and aggravated battery. He is being held at Orient Road Jail.
A woman was walking home in the early morning July 25 near W Humphrey Street when a male attacked her, striking her in the face, choking her and sexually battering her, the sheriff’s office said. She had multiple physical injuries, according to the sheriff’s office.
Federal COVID-19 health guidelines recommend that vaccinated residents of most metro area counties should wear masks indoors, according to an update issued Friday afternoon.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that while vaccinated people are less likely to become infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, they have the potential to spread the disease to others.
In the seven-county metro area, all counties except Carver are seeing worrisome case transmission rates, in addition to 29 more counties statewide, based on per capita case rates and percentage of tests that are positive.
The rapidly spreading delta variant has governments and private companies reassessing their mask policies just two months after federal officials said masks were not needed for the fully vaccinated.
The Minnesota Judicial Branch, which had ended its mask requirement, told its chief judges Friday that they could reinstate mask-wearing in courtrooms and public spaces of court facilities.
Hennepin County Public Health said it encourages everyone to "follow CDC guidance and to mask indoors, whether or not they are fully vaccinated."
"Hennepin County leadership will be discussing next steps for the county in the coming days," spokeswoman Carolyn Marinan said.
Ramsey County Public Health spokesman Christopher Burns said, "We are very concerned about the rise in community transmission and are monitoring the data."
Burns said the county is continuing COVID-19 vaccination outreach efforts, but there are no changes to mask policies for visitors or staff in county buildings.
"Any policy change on masking would be a board decision, which would be informed by recommendations and expertise of our public health staff," he said.
The Minnesota Department of Health said it supports the CDC mask recommendations.
"We will continue to … share the data with locals and encourage them to think about increasing community level protections as the conditions warrant," Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said.
The state's public health emergency has ended, meaning that it cannot issue a mask mandate, but local public health agencies do have that option.
"At this point in time, that would be a local governmental decision," Malcolm said. "The No. 1 recommendation is to get vaccinated."
Altogether, 35 of Minnesota's 87 counties are considered to have substantial or high virus transmission, according to the CDC.
Dodge, Lake and Morrison counties are considered to have high transmission rates.
The 32 counties that have substantial rates are Aitkin, Anoka, Benton, Crow Wing, Dakota, Douglas, Fillmore, Freeborn, Hennepin, Hubbard, Isanti, Kandiyohi, Lake of the Woods, Le Sueur, McLeod, Meeker, Nobles, Ramsey, Redwood, Renville, Rice, Rock, Scott, Sherburne, Stearns, Swift, Traverse, Waseca, Washington, Wilkin, Winona and Wright.
When the federal health agency first announced the indoor masking policy on Tuesday, only 14 Minnesota counties were on the list.
That increase is mirrored in COVID-19 public health measures compiled by the Minnesota Department of Health.
The statewide per capita case growth rate is 6%, putting it above the 5% cautionary level set by public health officials.
Another 702 new COVID-19 infections were reported on Friday. The test positivity rate was 3.1%, up from 1.2% at the beginning of July.
The state's hospitals were caring for 231 COVID-19 patients, an 11% increase from the previous day. Of those, 64 were receiving intensive care, a one-day increase of seven.
Although the CDC had earlier said that vaccinated people did not have to wear masks indoors, the change was made as more information came to light about the highly infectious delta variant.
"We are seeing that people who are infected with delta have higher viral loads," state Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann said. "Fully vaccinated people who have a breakthrough illness might be infectious and could potentially spread the virus to others.
"That is why they made this recommendation for masking vaccinated persons," she said.
As of Wednesday, 63.7% or nearly 3 million Minnesotans 12 and older had completed the COVID-19 vaccination series
Five more deaths were announced Friday, including three who were long-term care residents. One person was in the 40 to 44 age category while another was 100 or older.
Since the pandemic began, Minnesota has confirmed 612,701 infections and had 7,668 fatalities.
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Case
St. John, 54, is facing three counts of criminal sexual conduct with heinous elements and a charge of kidnapping after being indicted by a grand jury in October.
The indictment, which carries the possibility of life imprisonment, stems from an incident that allegedly occurred in July 2020 wherein St. John is accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an adult woman at his Scanlon residence over the course of 34 hours.
With the case set for trial in September, defense counsel for St. John claims his Fourth Amendment rights to a lawful search and seizure were violated, and that as a result, certain DNA and cell site evidence should not be permitted in the courtroom.
Dennis Michael St. John Jr. (2021 handout)
DNA evidence
According to court documents, the Cloquet Police Department received a call from the alleged victim on the morning of July 19, 2020, reporting that she had just escaped St. John's home. Police advised her to go to a hospital, where she underwent a sexual assault nurse examination. An investigating officer obtained a search warrant for a sample of St. John's DNA on July 20, 2020.
Defense attorneys for St. John claim the warrant affidavit didn't assert that any testing had been conducted to determine whether DNA was present on any physical evidence related to the investigation and, therefore, failed to establish probable cause.
PREVIOUSLY:
"The absence of testing meant that (the investigating officer) could not assert that DNA was actually present to compare with the sample he sought to collect from Mr. St. John," a July 12 memo from the defense said.
Statements from the alleged victim that were corroborated by officers' observations should serve as probable cause, the state responded in a July 23 memo.
"In this case ... the victim of the offense was an identified citizen witness describing to officers her direct observation and experience of physical and sexual assault," the memo said. "As such, her statements are presumed credible."
Court documents state that the officer taking the victim’s statement noted bruises on her face, arms, hands and legs. A search warrant executed at St. John's residence also recovered clothing the victim told police she left behind, with a subsequent search resulting in a pair of women’s underwear and two knives being found in St. John's pockets.
Cell site evidence
In addition to DNA evidence, the defense argues that cell site evidence should also be suppressed from trial on the grounds that it was obtained without probable cause and through means that violated state statute.
The alleged victim in the case claims that she and St. John met at Black Bear Casino and Resort in Carlton the night the alleged sexual assault and kidnapping incident began. According to the criminal complaint, she said they left the casino about 11 p.m. and went to St. John’s home, where he allegedly physically and sexually assaulted her repeatedly.
Court documents allude to the fact that a warrant for data from St. John and the alleged victim's cellphones was granted to investigating officers on the basis that it would be used to corroborate witness statements and timelines — a legal rationale that the defense calls "anemic."
"Helpfulness to law enforcement is not the same as probable cause," the defense argued in the July memo.
The defense also claims that the warrant, which was issued Oct. 29, 2020, was invalid by the time the cellphone data was collected and analyzed in December under a Minnesota statute that states “a search warrant must be executed and returned to the court which issued it within ten days after its date.”
The state argues that the warrant was technically executed the same day it was issued, with law enforcement taking possession of the property and things listed in the warrant.
"There is a distinction between the time when a search warrant is executed and the time when law enforcement obtains data and conducts an analysis of that data," the memo filed by the state said.
The court has yet to file a ruling on the motions.
Chicago is nearing the daily COVID-19 case rate that Mayor Lori Lightfoot has previously warned would prompt city officials to explore reinstating a mask mandate and other mitigation efforts.
Chicago was averaging 192 new COVID-19 cases per day as of Friday, according to city data. That metric was up from 185 the day before and has grown by 64% in the past week.
On July 9, that figure was 61, meaning the number of average new cases per day has more than tripled in the past three weeks. The average daily case rate hit a low of 34 in late June before it began to climb again.
The 192 average of new cases per day recorded Friday is also just shy of the 200 that Lightfoot and other officials have said would indicate a level of transmission that may necessitate stronger efforts to slow the spread of disease.
In an interview with the New York Times released Monday, Lightfoot was asked what the threshold would be for the city to reinstate a mask mandate.
"Well, look, if we get back into an area where we feel like we’re in a red zone, which we are working very hard to make sure that our daily case rate is below 200, if we start to see consistently going over that, we’re not only going to look at a mask mandate, but we’re going to look back at other tools that we’ve been compelled to use," Lightfoot said. "I hope we don’t get there. What we’re going to keep focusing on is pushing the vaccine. But my number one priority is to keep people safe."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance Tuesday to recommend that fully vaccinated people should wear masks in indoor settings again in areas of the U.S. that are seeing "substantial" or "high" transmission of COVID-19.
The new guidance marked a reversal from earlier recommendations that said fully vaccinated people could remove masks in most settings.
On Thursday, Cook County was moved into the "substantial" transmission category, meaning that recommendation for universal indoor masking now applies to the county.
The CDC uses two measures to group U.S. counties into the four levels of community transmission: the number of new cases per 100,000 residents and the percent of COVID-19 tests that are positive over the past week.
If a county has reported 50 to 100 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period or has a positivity rate of 8% to 10%, it falls into the "substantial transmission" tier, while those reporting 100 cases or more per 100,000 or have a positivity rate of at least 10% are labeled as "high transmission." Those are the two groups for which the CDC recommends mask-wearing, versus "low" or "moderate" transmission in areas with lower metrics.
Chicago's top doctor said Thursday that the city could move into the "substantial" transmission category "very shortly," noting that an average of 200 new cases per day would signal that shift.
"Sitting at 185 average cases per day and increasing, I do anticipate we will be moving very shortly into that substantial risk category," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said during a Facebook Live broadcast.
Chicago could make formal announcements about further COVID precautions next week, Arwady continued, blaming the delta variant for the increased number of cases in Chicago and across Illinois.
Chicago's COVID metrics continue to rise as the city sees the return of Lollapalooza, its largest music festival that typically brings about 100,000 people per day to Grant Park.
Experts have warned that the festival - which requires attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test upon entering the event - could cause case rates to rise even more.
“I think a lot of people are going to get COVID at Lollapalooza,” Dr. Emily Landon, executive medical director for infection prevention and control at the University of Chicago Medical Center said earlier this week. “The real problem is not so much that a bunch of young people who come into Chicago getting COVID at this event. The real problem is them taking it back to places that have very low vaccination rates."
“Lolla has let us down with respect to how vigorously they’re restricting people based on the things that they sort of initially told us (about how) ‘we’re going to be really strict’ and now it’s like they’ve lightened up quite considerably on checking vaccines and negative tests,” she added.
Lightfoot dismissed the remarks from Landon - who has previously appeared alongside the mayor to deliver updates earlier in the pandemic - as coming from "critics standing on the sidelines."
As of Thursday, many of Illinois' counties fell into either "substantial" or "high" transmission, indicated in orange and red, respectively, on the CDC's COVID data tracker map. Some counties - mostly concentrated in the northern and central regions of the state - are seeing "moderate" transmission, labeled in yellow, while just two are colored blue for "low" transmission.
Other Chicago-area counties besides Cook that are seeing "substantial" transmission includ: Will, DuPage, Kendall, McHenry, Boone, Winnebago, DeKalb, LaSalle and Grundy.
More than 97% of people contracting COVID from the delta variant are unvaccinated, Lightfoot said Thursday as she encouraged residents to get the vaccine.
"Without that protection, you're playing Russian roulette," Lightfoot said. "This variant is real. It is deadly."
The CDC also said Tuesday that fully vaccinated people also "might choose to mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they or someone in their household is immunocompromised or at increased risk for severe disease, or if someone in their household is unvaccinated."
The Illinois Department of Public Health said Tuesday that it is "fully adopting" the CDC's updated guidance.
IDPH also said the state will follow the CDC's new recommendations for K-12 schools, recommending universal masking indoors among teachers, staff, students and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.
"While data continues to show the effectiveness of the three COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized in the U.S., including against the Delta variant, we are still seeing the virus rapidly spread among the unvaccinated," IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a statement, noting that COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to increase, especially among those who are unvaccinated against the virus.
"The risk is greater for everyone if we do not stop the ongoing spread of the virus and the Delta variant," Ezike said. "We know masking can help prevent transmission of COVID-19 and its variants. Until more people are vaccinated, we join CDC in recommending everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask indoors in areas of substantial and high transmissions, and in K-12 schools."
IDPH pointed to the CDC's data on the delta variant showing the variant is considerably more contagious than other strains and spreads more than twice as easily from person to person.
Ezike and IDPH continued to encourage Illinois residents to get vaccinated.
"According to CDC, the Delta variant is causing some vaccine breakthrough infections, but even so, most breakthrough infections are mild, and the vaccines are preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death," IDPH said.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker also issued an order Thursday requiring that everyone who enters a state building wear a face mask regardless of vaccination status.
Article From & Read More ( Chicago Nears COVID Case Rate That Lightfoot Warned Could Trigger Mask Mandate, Other Mitigations - NBC Chicago )
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Case
Tong Ying-kit, 24, who drove a motorcycle into police officers while carrying a protest flag, was convicted of terrorism and inciting secession.
HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court sentenced a protester to nine years in prison on Friday for terrorism and inciting secession, the first demonstration of the teeth of a sweeping new national security law aimed at those who might speak out against Beijing.
The collision with the police complicates any analysis of how the courts used the national security law to punish peaceful dissent. But legal experts said the sentence sent a clear message that antigovernment speech now carries a greater risk.
“It may appear lenient, as life imprisonment was a possibility. But in my view, it is not: The objective of the N.S.L. is not merely to punish but also to prevent and deter others,” said Surya Deva, an associate professor of law at City University of Hong Kong, using an abbreviation for the national security law. “So swift and serious penalties should be expected.”
The security law has transformed Hong Kong’s judicial system, which has long been known for its independence and is separate from mainland China’s. Under the security law, the Beijing-backed leader of the city selects which judges are authorized to issue verdicts and render sentences, and the government can dispense with the city’s customary trial-by-jury system.
Mr. Tong’s case is, in some ways, a preview of how the courts may consider a slew of national security cases centering on peaceful protest and free expression that are set to follow. Jimmy Lai, an outspoken government critic and media tycoon, has been charged with colluding with foreign governments. Dozens of opposition politicians, including the pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, the former journalist Gwyneth Ho and Leung Kwok-hung, better known as Long Hair, have also been charged with subversion for their election campaign, which called for blocking the government’s agenda.
“The Chinese and Hong Kong governments have been successful in using the national security legislation in instilling fear in Hong Kong and also using it to clamp down on critics of both the local government and Beijing,” said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor of politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “The message could not be more clear, which is that Beijing will not tolerate any opposition, let alone activities considered seditious or subversive.”
Mr. Tong days after his arrest in July 2020.Vincent Yu/Associated Press
The national security law was imposed on Hong Kong last summer to quash months of unrest and widespread opposition in 2019, and it has quickly curtailed civil and political rights. Mr. Lai’s pro-democracy newspaper was forced to shut down. Schools, shops and art museums have been warned about what they say and the messages carried in merchandise and displays. This month, the United States government warned businesses operating in Hong Kong that they were at risk from the security law.
In Mr. Tong’s case, the prosecutors made clear that the sentence against him should be determined as much by the message on his banner — a popular slogan the government has deemed a call to independence — as his collision with the police.
He was sentenced to six and a half years for inciting secession and eight years for terrorism, terms that were to run partly concurrently, for a total of nine years.
Without the national security law, a person convicted of driving dangerously could have received a sentence of seven years, and of two years for assaulting a police officer. Clive Grossman, Mr. Tong’s lead defense lawyer, said they would appeal the verdict and the sentence.
The power to interpret the security law rests with Beijing, and some observers say the outcome of Mr. Tong’s trial shows that Hong Kong’s courts have less space to weigh individual rights when considering security-related charges.
“Thus far, the government has run the table on N.S.L. cases, both on key procedural matters and now on guilty verdicts,” said Thomas Kellogg, the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. “This is not a good sign that the courts will be able to mitigate the worst elements of the N.S.L.”
Mr. Tong, 24, was a cook in a Japanese restaurant who helped provide first aid to protesters in 2019. He was the main breadwinner for his family and helped support his sister’s studies abroad, according to his lawyers.
He was arrested on July 1, 2020, after colliding with police officers while driving his motorcycle, which had a flag mounted on it that bore the slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times.” Three officers were injured, though not seriously, according to the court.
He was held for a year without bail. Instead of facing a jury, as is often the case for serious crimes in Hong Kong, he was tried by three judges, all of them from a group of jurists selected by Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, to hear security law cases.
Mr. Tong’s lawyers acknowledged that he had driven dangerously but said that he had tried to avoid the officers and that his actions did not amount to terrorism. They noted that he had been carrying first aid equipment, and that he had scheduled a lunch meeting with friends near the site of his collision with the police.
Clive Grossman, center, a lawyer for Mr. Tong, leaving the courthouse on Tuesday, the day his client was convicted. Miguel Candela/EPA, via Shutterstock
The case had been closely watched for how the court would rule on the central question of whether the slogan on Mr. Tong’s flag amounted to a call for secession, which is banned under the security law. During the 2019 protests, that slogan was widely chanted, written on signs and spray-painted on walls.
Defense witnesses argued that the phrase did not have a single, specific meaning, but instead expressed a broad desire for fundamental change. But the court ruled that a call to separate Hong Kong from China was one key meaning of the phrase, and that the context of Mr. Tong’s motorcycle ride — in which he repeatedly defied the police on the day after the security law went into effect — showed that he intended to convey that secessionist message.
Legal scholars said that finding would be significant not just for other cases involving the “Liberate Hong Kong” slogan, but for an array of language that would now be parsed for illegal meanings.
“This is a green light for the prosecution to do more ambitious prosecutions in the future,” Professor Deva said. “People will be more careful about what they say and what they write about because anything could be argued by the government as being capable of having that meaning of inciting secession.”
Nigerian police spokesman Frank Mba sent a statement to CNN confirming that they received an indictment for Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari from the FBI and an internal investigation has been ordered.
"Sequel to the receipt of allegations and indictment processes from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) against one of the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force, DCP Abba Kyari, the Inspector General of Police IGP Usman Alkali Baba ... has ordered an internal review of the allegations," the statement said.
'Arranged arrest'
Court documents cited by the Justice Department allege an undisclosed sum was paid to Kyari by Abbas, who pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering through cybercrime schemes on April 20, according to documents which were only unsealed Wednesday.
Abbas also admitted his involvement in a conspiracy to defraud a Qatari businessman of more than $1 million, the US Justice Department said in a Wednesday statement.
The alleged scam nearly fell apart after one of the group, Kelly Chibuzo Vincent, tried to tip-off their Qatari victim about the million-dollar fraud, the Justice Department said in the court papers.
Abbas is accused of arranging to have Vincent jailed in Nigeria by Kyari, "who is alleged to have arranged for Vincent to be arrested and jailed at Abbas' behest, and then sent Abbas photographs of Vincent after his arrest," according to the court documents.
Kyari, 46, is a highly-decorated officer, who was conferred with a Presidential medal for courage from Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari. The FBI alleges he sent Abbas bank details for an account where he could paid for agreeing to arrest Vincent.
They succeeded in defrauding the unnamed businessman of $1.1m and part of the stolen money was used to "purchase a Richard Mille RM11-03 watch, which was hand delivered to Abbas in Dubai and subsequently appeared in Hushpuppi's social media posts," prosecutors said.
Abbas also used part of the proceeds to allegedly acquire "St. Christopher and Nevis citizenship, as well as a passport for Abbas obtained by creating a false marriage certificate and then bribing a government official in St. Kitts," according to official documents.
The Los Angeles-based lawyer representing Abbas, Louis Shapiro, told CNN on Thursday that he did not advise Hushpuppi to plead guilty. Shapiro declined to comment further on the case, adding, "I don't comment on cases that I handle."
Police officer denies
Kyari denied the claims in a Facebook post on Thursday, saying Vincent's arrest was carried out based on Abbas' "distress call" following threats made to his family.
"Abbas who we later came to know as Hushpuppi called our office about 2 years ago that somebody in Nigeria seriously threatened to kill his family here in Nigeria and he sent the person's phone number and pleaded we take action before the person attacks his family," Kyari said on social media.
"Nobody demanded any money from Abbas Hushpuppi and nobody collected any money from him. We responded to a distress call he made on threat to his family and released the suspect when we discovered there was no life threat from the suspect. This is the true story. Vincent is alive, he can be contacted," he added.
Attempts to reach Vincent have been unsuccessful.
Abbas was a lavish spender who claimed to be a real estate developer and was famous for tossing wads of cash and flaunting his Rolls Royces, luxury watches, and designer clothing on Instagram where he has amassed more than two million followers.
He was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in June last year after local police raided his Dubai apartment.
Abbas was handed over to FBI agents to face trial in the US on charges of money laundering through cybercrime schemes..
Nearly $41 million in cash, 13 luxury cars valued at around $6.8 million, and phone and computer evidence containing more than 100,000 fraud files and the addresses of nearly two million possible victims were found during the raid, according to Dubai Police.
Lawyers for families of those killed in the mass shooting say they are moving “full-steam ahead” after the company did not allow for full access to its internal documents.
From the outset, legal experts said the case faced long odds, running headfirst into barriers that are built into federal law and protect gun companies from most litigation.
The case, brought by the families of those killed in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, seeks to hold responsible the companies that made and sold the weapon used in the attack, in part by unearthing documents they hoped would reveal the gun industry’s inner workings.
The families acknowledged the hurdles they faced, but saw the lawsuit as a gamble worth taking.
Now, after winding through the courts for nearly seven years, the suit has yielded an offer: Remington, which made the AR-15-style Bushmaster that was used in the 2012 attack, has proposed settling with the families for $33 million as a trial date looms.
The company’s offer underscores the viability of the novel strategy the families have adopted to pierce the legal shield that guards gun makers, offering a potential road map to the survivors and relatives of victims involved in other mass shootings.
The Sandy Hook plaintiffs are considering the offer, which includes $3.66 million apiece for each of the nine families who are pursuing the suit. But a lawyer for the families, Joshua D. Koskoff, added that his clients were still moving “full-steam ahead” toward trial.
The families have long said that they want a jury to see the company’s behind-the-scenes communications, including, possibly, those in which they outline plans for marketing the weapon — a central component of the suit.
“One glaring inadequacy about the offer, among many,” Mr. Koskoff said, “is that it doesn’t contain a provision for full access to all documents.” Any agreement would have to include that access, he added.
Lawyers for Remington, which is in bankruptcy, declined to comment on the offer. The company has previously argued that the claims raised by the families fall squarely within the protections provided by federal law, which the gun industry’s supporters described as a critical defense against predatory or politically driven lawsuits.
Remington’s lawyers have said the families are trying to obtain internal company documents without any justification to do so. In one recent court filing, the lawyers said the families’ suit did not contain any evidence that the gunman “even saw Remington’s advertisements — much less was inspired by them to commit mass murder.”
The case is being watched closely as the United States continues to be gripped by the anguish stirred by recurring mass shootings and the political rancor surrounding the ownership and use of guns. And the interest has only intensified through the many legal twists and turns the case has endured, surviving far longer than other litigation brought after a mass shooting.
The families argue that Remington marketed the assault rifle in a way that was meant to appeal to troubled young men like the 20-year-old who stormed into the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 first graders and six adults in a spray of gunfire that saw 154 rounds fired off in under five minutes.
The suit seizes on an exception built into federal law that allows for litigation over sales and marketing practices that violate state or federal laws. The families contend that Remington’s practices violated a Connecticut consumer law that prohibited businesses from marketing or promoting their products in a way that encouraged illegal behavior.
The families’ lawyers have described how the Bushmaster was portrayed as a weapon of war with slogans and product placement in video games that invoked combat violence. The marketing of the rifle also employed hypermasculine themes, including an advertisement with a photograph of the weapon that said, “Consider your man card reissued.”
“Since this case was filed in 2014, the families’ focus has been on preventing the next Sandy Hook,” Mr. Koskoff said. “An important part of that goal has been showing banks and insurers that companies that sell assault weapons to civilians are fraught with financial risk.”
In 2005, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which blocks lawsuits by providing industrywide immunity from blame when a gun company’s product is used in a crime.
In April, President Biden said he would like to scrap those protections. State lawmakers in New York passed legislation in June that would classify the illegal or improper marketing or sale of guns as a nuisance, a technical distinction that supporters said would make it easier to sue gun companies. The measure is the first of its kind in the nation.
“The only industry in the United States of America immune from lawsuits are the gun manufacturers, but we will not stand for that any longer,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, said as he announced the signing of the legislation.
But the gun industry has fought fiercely to protect that immunity.
A state court judge in Connecticut, Barbara N. Bellis, dismissed the Sandy Hook case in 2016, siding with Remington’s argument that the immunity applied to the claims raised by the families.
But the Connecticut Supreme Court, ruling on an appeal, said in 2019 that the suit could proceed because the sweeping federal protections did not prevent the families from bringing litigation based on wrongful marketing claims.
With the case moving toward trial — jury selection is scheduled to begin in September 2022 — legal experts said Remington’s $33 million offer reflected an effort to end the case without having to divulge its internal documents.
“Once again, meaningful discovery is imminent,” said Heidi Li Feldman, a professor at Georgetown Law, referring to the process the families hope to use to pry open the industry and learn about its operations.
“Every time that happens, defendants do something momentous to prevent it,” Professor Feldman said. “This makes me think that they’re pretty desperate not to let any materials related to marketing come to light.”
Lawyers for the families filed a motion this month complaining that Remington was not giving them the documents they wanted. “Remington refuses to comply with their discovery obligations,” the lawyers said in the filing.
The case attracted some attention recently for what Remington did hand over: a bizarre, seemingly irrelevant collection of thousands of images that included videos of gender reveal parties and an ice-bucket challenge, an emoji of a farmer with a pitchfork and a cartoon of a character from children’s movie “Despicable Me” being sliced like a steak with the caption “filet minion.”
The Alaska Capitol on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. (Nat Herz/Alaska Public Media)
A lawsuit by Alaska’s attorney general against the Legislative Affairs Agency is really an action by the governor against the Legislature that is barred by the Alaska Constitution, a state court judge ruled Thursday.
Superior Court Judge Herman Walker Jr. cited comments by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Attorney General Treg Taylor in reaching his decision.
The state constitution allows a governor to take legal action “in the name of the State” to enforce compliance with laws but says that the authority “shall not be construed to authorize any action or proceeding against the legislature.”
Taylor sued the Legislative Affairs Agency on June 21, after the House failed to adopt effective date provisions for a state spending package. Dunleavy said the budget was “constitutionally impaired if the goal was for it to take effect on July 1.”
A week after the lawsuit was filed, and days before the new fiscal year started on July 1, the House passed the effective date provisions. Attorneys for the Legislative Affairs Agency, in court filings, said that action itself rendered the lawsuit moot.
But they also argued the lawsuit “in substance” was “brought in the name of the state against the Legislature,” and barred by the constitution.
Margaret Paton Walsh, an attorney for the state, argued the attorney general has independent authority to bring actions in the public interest.
“The fact that the governor wanted him to do it doesn’t change the fact that he has that independent authority,” she argued last week.
Walker, in his ruling, noted a June 18 letter Dunleavy sent the chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court. In the letter, Dunleavy said that given the “consequences flowing from the lack of an effective date” he had asked Taylor “to seek a determination of the issue” through the courts.
“This belies the assertion that Attorney General Taylor brought the present suit under his common-law powers as Attorney General,” Walker wrote.
Despite having independent powers, the attorney general “serves under the supervision of the Governor and at this pleasure,” Walker wrote.
The judge also said public statements by Dunleavy and Taylor had “consistently framed the suit as a vehicle to resolve a dispute between the executive and legislative branches.”
He said he concluded the lawsuit was an action by Dunleavy “‘in the name of the state’ directed ‘against the legislature,’” and prohibited by the constitution.
Grace Lee, a state Department of Law spokesperson, said the department, which Taylor leads, was disappointed that the decision did not resolve “the underlying issue on the effective date clause, an important question that still needs to be answered.”
A decision on a possible appeal has not yet been made, Lee said by email.
With the trial date looming for a landmark school funding case in Pennsylvania, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled Wednesday that attorneys can present some evidence that disparate funding for school districts across the state has a negative impact on Black and Latino students.
Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer will allow fair funding attorneys to present information on racial disparities in the education system, including achievement gaps and variations in graduation rates, but not “background evidence” on housing and employment discrimination or rates of incarceration, saying it’s not necessary for the case.
The decision comes in response to Republican legislative leaders, Senate President Jake Corman and Speaker Bryan Cutler, whose attorneys argued in a July 7 hearing that evidence of racial disparities in this case is not relevant because the plaintiffs are not claiming the state intentionally discriminates against students of color.
A spokesperson for Cutler said after the ruling that “because the petitioners did not plead a racial argument initially, they are not in a position now to base arguments around racial discrimination.”
Six school districts, along with many parents and education advocacy groups, filed suit in 2014 against Pennsylvania, alleging that the state’s school funding procedures violate its state constitutional mandate to ensure a “thorough and efficient” system of education for students from all socioeconomic statuses. Currently, a large part of school funding in Pennsylvania comes from local taxes, leading to significant funding gaps between high- and low-income districts.
Jubelirer spelled out several reasons why presenting evidence of racial disparities could be relevant to the case. A trial is scheduled to begin in September.
Both sides conceded at the hearing that data on educational outcomes broken down by race or ethnicity could be presented at the trial, meaning it “must not be irrelevant,” Jubelirer said.
Courts in other states have also considered racial disparities in achievement when presiding over school funding cases, Jubelirer said. She cited cases in New York and Kansas, where courts considered evidence that Black and Latino students had lower standardized test scores and graduation rates. Those data points, she said, are similar to fair funding attorneys’ claims that students of color in Pennsylvania are “more likely to be served by unqualified,
inexperienced, or out-of-field teachers, principals, and support staff.”
Black and Latino students are roughly 25% of Pennsylvania’s K-12 population, but the plaintiffs said half of Black students and 40% of Latino students attend school in the poorest 20% of the state’s districts.
Jubelirer also emphasized that the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a plaintiff in this case.
“Given the NAACP-PA’s party status and stated interest in ensuring equality in education for its members and children...it is not unreasonable that evidence related to the effect on minority students may be introduced,” she said.
NAACP-PA president Kenneth Huston said the organization is pleased with the court for making a decision “we thought was obvious.”
“The NAACP will not rest until every child, of every race and ethnicity is able to access the education they deserve,” Huston said. “Pennsylvania’s educational system as it currently exists must be transformed into one that provides equal opportunity for all.”
There have been several delays in the case, including attempts by legislators to have the case dismissed. Many fair funding cases in Pennsylvania have been introduced in the last 30 years, but so far no other case has made it this far.
“We are grateful that the Commonwealth Court agreed with us,” said attorney Claudia De Palma, who argued on behalf of fair funding advocates. “The existence of these longstanding racial inequities, and the General Assembly’s insistence on ignoring their effects, is relevant to establishing that Pennsylvania’s school funding system is irrational and unconstitutional.”
WASHINGTON – Eleven people have been arrested following their indictments on federal charges stemming from an investigation into a drug trafficking network based in Southeast Washington that sold cocaine, crack cocaine, Fentanyl, PCP, and other drugs.
The indictments were made public this week and announced today by Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division Robert Bornstein, and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Most of the defendants were arrested by the FBI and MPD on Monday, July 19; all 11 remain in custody. A 12th individual was arrested on related charges. The arrests followed an extensive investigation into a ring that was primarily based in the areas of Martin Luther King Jr., Avenue SE, Mellon Street SE, and Malcolm X Avenue SE, in the Seventh Police District.
A total of 10 firearms have been seized during the investigation, along with PCP, crack, powder cocaine, heroin, pills, and over $2,500 in cash.
“This investigation is part of a broader effort to target violence, drug trafficking, and the possession of illegal firearms in the District of Columbia,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips. “This work is critically important to protecting those who live and work in our community. The arrests reflect the coordination taking place at the federal and local levels every day.”
“The FBI’s Washington Field Office is engaged and working on a daily basis in partnership with MPD and other law enforcement agencies to reduce violent crime in the District of Columbia,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Bornstein. “This joint partnership with MPD’s Violence Reduction Unit is producing significant results, as demonstrated by the arrests and indictment being announced today. The FBI is committed to continuing to work aggressively to seek justice for those affected by violent crime and prevent additional innocent citizens from becoming victims.”
“Through the focused coordination and intense collaboration of MPD’s Violence Reduction Unit and our law enforcement partners, we are determined to remove the District’s most violent offenders from our streets,” stated MPD Chief Contee. “As alleged in the indictment, these individuals are responsible for many of the drug transactions in our neighborhoods and this is one step closer to making our communities safer for all.”
Those named in the indictment include: Delonta Chappell, 34; Dezmond Cunningham, 27; Anthony Graves, 30; Nico Griffin, 31; Wesley Leake, 31; Leon Linsday, 36; Kevonte Randall, 24; Barry Tyson, 21, and Shawn Wooden, 39, all of Washington, D.C.; Deshawn Loggins, 20, of Temple Hills, Md., and Ricky Lyles, 41, of Accokeek, Md. The 12th individual, Corenzo Mobery, 39, of Washington, D.C., was indicted on related drug and firearms charges.
The prosecutions followed a joint investigation by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Cross Border Safe Streets Task Force in partnership with MPD’s Narcotics and Special Investigations (NSID) Violence Reduction Unit. This partnership targets the most egregious and violent street crews operating in the District of Columbia. Assistance was provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Park Police, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Henek of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
The investigation had the sponsorship and support of the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). OCDETF specializes in the investigation and prosecution of drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and related criminal enterprises.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. Every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.
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Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine may become slightly weaker over time, the company reported. But experts said that most people won’t need boosters anytime soon.
Pfizer reported on Wednesday that the power of its two-dose Covid vaccine wanes slightly over time, but nonetheless offers lasting and robust protection against serious disease. The company suggested that a third shot could improve immunity, but whether boosters will be widely needed is far from settled, the subject of heated debate among scientists.
So far, federal health officials have said boosters for the general population are unnecessary. And experts questioned whether vaccinated people should get more doses when so many people have yet to be immunized at all.
“There’s not enough evidence right now to support that that is somehow the best use of resources,” said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University in Atlanta.
Still, the findings raise questions about how well the Pfizer vaccine will prevent infection in the months to come. And with coronavirus cases surging again in many states, the data may influence the Biden administration’s deliberations about delivering boosters for older people.
If third shots are cleared for the general population, the boosters would likely represent a multi-billion-dollar business for Pfizer.
In a study posted online but not yet peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal, Pfizer and BioNTech scientists reported that the vaccine had a sky-high efficacy rate of about 96 percent against symptomatic Covid-19 for the first two months following the second dose. But the figure declined by about 6 percent every two months after that, falling to 83.7 percent after about four to six months.
Against severe disease, however, the vaccine’s efficacy held steady at about 97 percent.
“This drop is very slight — I wouldn’t say it’s waning,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University. She did not see in the new study any evidence that boosters should go into use for the general population. “These data don’t support a need for that right now,” she said.
The findings fit with what scientists have learned about how the immune system fends off viruses. Antibodies are the only defense to prevent an infection, but their levels typically drop in the months after vaccination or recovery from the disease. If the coronavirus takes hold, immune cells can swoop in to destroy infected cells and make new antibodies.
That enduring defense produced by the vaccine may explain how the virus can sometimes breed in the nose — producing a cold or sore throat — but fail to reach the lung where it can cause serious disease.
“Everything that’s engaged by the vaccine is able to fight off that spread that ultimately leads to severe disease,” Dr. Iwasaki said. “That’s probably not declining at all.”
The study period ended before the rise of the Delta variant, the highly contagious version of the virus that now dominates in the United States and makes vaccines somewhat less effective against infection.
The findings come from 42,000 volunteers in six countries who participated in a clinical trial that Pfizer and BioNTech began last July. Half of the volunteers got the vaccine, while the other half received a placebo. Both groups received two shots spaced three weeks apart.
The researchers compared the number of people in each group who developed symptoms of Covid-19, which was then confirmed by a P.C.R. virus test. When the companies announced their first batch of results, the vaccine showed an efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19 of 95 percent.
In other words, the risk of getting sick was reduced by 95 percent in the group that got the vaccine, compared with the group that got the placebo. That result — the first for any Covid-19 vaccine — brought an exhilarating dose of hope to the world in December when it was riding what had been the biggest wave of the pandemic.
Since then, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has made up the majority of shots that Americans have received, with more than 191 million doses given so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In the new study, the researchers followed the volunteers for six months after vaccination, up to March 13. Over the entire period, the researchers estimated, the vaccine’s efficacy was 91.5 percent against symptomatic Covid-19. (The study did not measure the rate of asymptomatic virus infections.)
But within that period, efficacy did gradually drop. Between one week and two months after the second dose, the figure was 96.2 percent. In the period from two to four months following vaccination, efficacy fell to 90.1 percent. From four months after vaccination to the March cutoff, the figure was 83.7 percent.
Those figures still describe a remarkably effective vaccine, however, and may not convince critics that booster shots are widely needed.
The study comes on the heels of data from Israel suggesting that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s protection may be waning there. But experts have pushed back against a rush to approving a booster there. The data have too many sources of uncertainty, they say, to make a precise estimate of how much effectiveness has waned. For example, the Delta-driven outbreak hit parts of the country with high vaccination rates first and has been hitting other regions later.
“Such an analysis is still highly uncertain,” said Doron Gazit, a physicist at Hebrew University who analyzes Covid-19 trends for the Israeli government.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pfizer reported that a third dose of its vaccine significantly increases blood levels of antibodies against several versions of the virus, including the Delta variant.
Results were similar for antibodies produced against the original virus and the Beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa. Pfizer and BioNTech expect to publish more definitive research in the coming weeks.
The announcement was a preliminary snapshot of data contained in an earnings statement. And although antibody levels are an important measure of immunity, they are not the only metric. The body has other defenses that turn back infection.
Pfizer also said in its statement that vaccines for children ages 5 through 11 years could be available as early as the end of September. The vaccine is already authorized in the United States for everyone ages 12 and up.
Pfizer’s vaccine brought in $7.8 billion in revenue in the last three months, the company said, and is on track to generate more than $33.5 billion this year.
The vaccine is poised to generate more sales in a single year than any previous medical product, and by a wide margin. Pfizer did not disclose its exact profits on the vaccine, but reiterated its previous estimate that its profit margins on the vaccine would be in the high 20 percent range. Even if the drugmaker’s profits fall on the lower end of that range, that would work out to about $3 billion in profit so far this year.
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![Elieser Alvarez Lima, 31, was charged with kidnapping, sexual battery and aggravated battery.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"%20viewBox="0%200%20384%20480"/%3E "Elieser Alvarez Lima, 31, was charged with kidnapping, sexual battery and aggravated battery.")
