Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Biden, Harris should give Trump credit to increase vaccination rate

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican candidate for governor of Arkansas who previously served as former President Donald Trump's White House press secretary, penned an op-ed that ran in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday explaining why she chose to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Arkansas has one of the lower vaccination rates among U.S. states, with only 45 percent of the population having received at least one dose, according to The New York Times, so Sanders' piece appears to be an attempt at persuasion. She took a light-handed approach, however, writing that she considers the choice to get vaccinated to be a "deeply personal" one.

‘Shocked and horrified’: Missouri Circle of Hope owners out on bond after COVID claim

Jailed since March on felony child abuse charges, the owners of Circle of Hope Girls Ranch are now free and on home confinement after one of them reportedly has COVID-19. A southwest Missouri judge on Friday unexpectedly set a $10,000 bond for Boyd and Stephanie Householder. The couple were released from the Cedar County Jail on Friday evening and are out on bond pending trial.

Putin says Russian navy can carry out 'unpreventable strike' if needed

The Russian navy can detect any enemy and launch an "unpreventable strike" if needed, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday, weeks after a UK warship angered Moscow by passing the Crimea peninsula. "We are capable of detecting any underwater, above-water, airborne enemy and, if required, carry out an unpreventable strike against it," Putin said speaking at a navy day parade in St Petersburg. Putin's words follow an incident in the Black Sea in June when Russia said it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship to chase it out of Crimea waters.

California's largest fire torches homes as blazes lash West

Flames racing through rugged terrain in Northern California destroyed multiple homes Saturday as the state's largest wildfire intensified and numerous other blazes battered the U.S. West. The Dixie fire, which started July 14, had already leveled over a dozen houses and other structures when it tore through the tiny community of Indian Falls after dark. An updated damage estimate was not immediately available, though fire officials said the blaze has charred more than 181,000 acres (73,200 hectares) in Plumas and Butte counties and was 20% contained.

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  Homes Engulfed by Flames as Dixie Fire Burns in California's Plumas County

  Storyful
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  Rugged terrain, hot and dry conditions: The American West is a tinderbox set aflame

  USA TODAY

Haiti's spiral of misery

Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph was nominally left in charge after Jovenal Moïse was gunned down in his home by a hit squad working on behalf of unknown actors. Joseph has asked the U.S. to deploy troops to protect critical infrastructure. Who colonized Haiti?

Afghanistan curfew imposed as Taliban militants advance

The Afghan government imposed a month-long curfew across almost all of the country on Saturday in a bid to stop the Taliban from invading cities. Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces has increased over the past two months as international troops pull out of the country. BBC Afghanistan correspondent Secunder Kermani says there are concerns that with peace talks moving slowly, the focus of fighting will increasingly turn to more heavily populated urban centres.

China sends supplies to flooded area, rebuilds barriers

Trucks carrying water and food on Sunday streamed into a Chinese city at the center of flooding that killed at least 63 people, while soldiers laid sandbags to fill gaps in river dikes that left neighborhoods under water. Residents cleared away mud, wrecked cars and other debris after record rains that started Tuesday and flooded streets and disrupted train service. The rains subsided earlier in the week but some neighborhoods still were waiting for water up to two meters (six feet) deep to drain.

Bus swerves off road in Croatia; 10 killed, 44 injured

A bus swerved off a highway and crashed in Croatia Sunday after the driver apparently fell asleep, killing 10 people and injuring at least 44 others — some of them seriously, authorities said. The crash happened about 6 a.m. near the town of Slavonski Brod on the highway between the Croatian capital of Zagreb and the Serbian border, a key artery over the summer due to tourists and workers coming home from Western Europe.

Mar-a-Lago primary: Trump wields power with endorsements, but some in GOP fear midterm damage

Former President Trump, again upending American political norms, is moving to remake Congress and the Republican Party in his own image. Since leaving the White House, he has issued a spate of endorsements of House and Senate candidates for next year's crucial midterm election, including an array of political outsiders, conspiracy theorists and others who — like Trump himself — break the traditional mold. While most former presidents have steered clear of politics, Trump is intervening in Republican primaries like an old-style ward boss: rewarding allies, punishing enemies and trying to use his vast popularity among Republican voters to keep himself and his agenda at the center of the GOP.

Fauci says US headed in 'wrong direction' on coronavirus

Also, booster shots may be suggested for people with suppressed immune systems who have been vaccinated, Fauci said. Fauci, who also serves President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, told CNN's “State of the Union” that he has taken part in conversations about altering the mask guidelines. He noted that some local jurisdictions where infection rates are surging, such as Los Angeles County, are already calling on individuals to wear masks in public regardless of vaccination status.

Messy camp at national park lures bear and earns Idaho woman $5,800 fine, judge rules

A messy Grand Teton National Park campsite cost an Idaho woman a $5,800 fine after the garbage attracted a bear, a Wyoming judge ruled. The 50-year-old woman “failed to properly store garbage and beverages” while camping at the Wyoming national park, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Wyoming reported. The odor attracted a grizzly bear, which other campers captured on video as it rummaged through the woman's campsite for food, prosecutors said.

Ship hunts foreign ships doing work reserved for US crews

Offshore energy service companies are out to find foreign-flagged ships hauling pipeline parts and other energy-related equipment from U.S. ports and delivering or installing them in U.S. waters. The Offshore Marine Service Association has launched a ship to gather photos and videos of ships it considers to be violating a 1920 law requiring U.S. vessels to carry cargo between U.S. locations. It will provide such evidence to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which enforces the law, and to trade publications, said Aaron Smith, president and CEO of the association.

A man found with guns and ammunition in his Chicago hotel room told police it was a 'mistake' and he 'didn't mean to startle anyone'

An man caught by police with guns in his Chicago hotel room said it was "an honest to God accident." Footage viewed by media outlets showed that police had worried "it could've been a Las Vegas thing." Keegan Casteel, 32, was arrested and charged with two felony counts.

91-year-old grandma is penalized by Idaho Legislature’s change to the circuit breaker

How did your state representative or senator vote on House bill 389, the property tax bill revising provisions regarding the homeowners exemption, circuit breaker, disabled veterans property tax reduction, property tax deferral and taxation of personal property? The bill was rushed through in the final days of the Legislature in May with little consideration of the effect on current property owners who have qualified for the property tax reduction (circuit breaker) program.

Brazil reopens amid looming threat from delta variant

With the number of coronavirus deaths starting to recede in Brazil, a renewed sense of optimism has led state governors to roll back restrictions, soccer fans are starting to return to stadiums, and the mayor of Rio de Janeiro has said the city's famous New Year's party is back on. But one question looms over these early signs of recovery: What will happen as the delta variant of COVID-19 spreads through the mostly unvaccinated country, which already has the world's second-highest death toll with 547,000 fatalities? The variant is boosting cases and deaths globally after a period of decline, and the World Health Organization anticipates it will become dominant within months.

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  Global Economic Recovery Accelerates, but Delta Variant Clouds Outlook

  The Wall Street Journal
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  COVID Delta variant will infect kids at school, expert warns

  KTRK – Houston

15-year-old girl critically injured in ‘hill jumping’ crash in Kansas City

A young teenage girl was critically injured after the car she was riding in flipped while the driver was “hill jumping” early Sunday in Kansas City, police said. Officers were called to a single vehicle crash about 1:32 a.m. Sunday in the 7500 block of James A Reed Road, Capt. Leslie Foreman, a spokeswoman with the Kansas City Police Department, said in an email. The girl was hospitalized with critical injuries.

Eleven seconds that changed Miami. Surfside condo collapse forced a South Florida reckoning | Editorial

Stretching across two vast canvases next to the memorial in Surfside, the Cubist-inspired painting is a jagged expression of grief and horror. The artist, Roberto Marquez, has been working on it for weeks. Now the Champlain Towers South condo site is all but cleared, and the names of the recovered dead have slowed to a tiny, terrible trickle.

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  Search for bodies concludes at Surfside condo collapse site

  Yahoo News Video
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  Fire department ends search of collapsed Florida condo for remains

  Reuters

Chris Christie suggested that Trump conduct a 'thank you' tour of hospitals and small businesses to pick up in the polls and counter Biden during 2020 race: book

Christie advised Trump to adjust his 2020 campaign message and focus on the future, per a new book. The former New Jersey governor encouraged Trump to conduct a 'thank you' tour of small businesses. Last summer, then-President Donald Trump was privately concerned about the state of the presidential race, fearing that the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the proliferation of mail-in balloting would threaten his reelection bid, according to a newly-released book by the Washington Post reporters Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker.

Florida man shoots himself while showing off gun at bar

A man accidentally shot himself while showing off his gun at a bar in Florida, local reports say. According to the Pensacola News Journal, the incident happened on Thursday night at O'Riley's Uptown Tavern in Pensacola. Police told WEAR-TV the self-shooter is 28-year-old Carlos Feituuaki Tuifua, who survived and is recovering.

Rugged terrain, hot and dry conditions: The American West is a tinderbox set aflame

Thousands of firefighters across the nation were combating "extreme fire behavior" Sunday as California's largest blaze razed homes and forced thousands of residents to flee the fast-spreading flames. The Dixie Fire in Northern California was one of at least 88 major wildfires raging across 13 states, including one in Oregon that has burned through 640 square miles. More than 22,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, often struggling with rugged terrain in hot, dry conditions, the National Interagency Fire Center said.

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  Dixie Fire spreads as western wildfires rage

  Associated Press Videos
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  California's largest fire torches homes as blazes lash West

  Associated Press

Qualified immunity won't protect college administrators who discriminate against religion

College officials have been put on notice: targeting religious student groups isn't just unconstitutional, it's costly. A federal court of appeals this month agreed with my firm, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, that University of Iowa officials “turned a blind eye to decades of First Amendment jurisprudence” by punishing Christian, Muslim, and Sikh groups for the crime of asking their leaders to agree with their faith. That blatant violation meant the officials weren't shielded by “qualified immunity,” a rule that protects government officials from personal liability when making close judgment calls about constitutional rights.

Chinese TikTok star Xiao Qiumei dies after falling 160 feet from a crane while recording a livestream video

Xiao Qiumei, an influencer who was popular on the Chinese version of TikTok, died after a fall. The Sun reported that the 23-year-old was filming herself in a crane cabin when she fell. Xiao was known for regularly sharing videos of her job as a crane operator on social media.

‘Let’s call him Mohammed’: Trump fails to remember name of Taliban leader during wild speech

Donald Trump pleased thousands of his political supporters on Saturday night when he returned to Arizona for a rally, delivering a near two-hour speech focused on bashing the Democrats and stirring up trouble with the Taliban. Referring to the organisation's leader, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, the former US president appeared to forget his name – instead telling the 5,000-strong crowd he would just “call him Mohammed”. Mr Trump characteristically used the Turning Point Action gathering to blast the “disgraceful” 2020 election, repeating previous and already debunked claims about votes being “stolen” from him.