Italy and US flip on coronavirus . . . Italy announced just 264 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday — the same day that the United States reported nearly 32,000. The European nation opened its restaurants and stores a month ago, albeit under new, national safety measures, even as U.S. states wrestled with inconsistent, hasty reopening efforts that have been blamed for new virus spikes. And Italy’s outbreak has dramatically ebbed from its mid-March peak, while America’s new per capita cases remain on par with Italy's worst day — and show signs of rising further, with record hospitalizations in states like Arizona, Florida and Texas last week. Politico

 

Vitamin D can help prevent COVID-19 . . . Anglia Ruskin University has found European populations with lower vitamin D levels have had a significantly higher death rate. Another study, carried out in Indonesia, revealed 98.9 per cent of Covid-19 patients with a vitamin D deficiency died. Previous studies have shown vitamin D can help treat respiratory infections, so it may be useful when it comes to fighting Covid-19, too. ‘Vitamin D has an anti-inflammatory action, particularly if it’s given at higher doses,’ says Professor Adrian Martineau, a clinical professor of respiratory infection and immunity at Queen Mary University of London. ‘The overactive inflammatory response in patients with Covid-19 seems to be implicated with poor prognosis. If vitamin D can reduce this response, it might prevent the patient from deteriorating.’ Daily Mail

 

Italian doctor thinks coronavirus weakening . . . An Italian infectious disease doctor believes the coronavirus has become less dangerous — and could disappear on its own without a vaccine.

Dr. Matteo Bassetti, the head of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital, said the virus appears to have become less potent, possibly due to genetic mutations. “In March and early April the patterns were completely different. People were coming to the emergency department with a very difficult to manage illness. But he said in the past month, “the picture has completely changed in terms of patterns.” “Even elderly patients, aged 80 or 90, are now sitting up n bed and they are breathing without help. The same patients would have died in two or three days before.” Fox News

 

Trump won't break up CHAZ . . . President Donald Trump isn’t planning on imminently sending federal assets to reclaim the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, Wash. despite repeatedly threatening to do so, he told the Daily Caller in an exclusive Oval Office interview. In recent days, Trump has urged Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to deploy National Guard troops to retake CHAZ and said that he himself “will take care of it” if Inslee fails to act. The president said Monday that he had discussed the situation with Attorney General Bill Barr. When asked by the Caller what Barr is “advising” him to do, POTUS answered, “right now, I think it’s great sitting back and watching this catastrophe.” Daily Caller

 

 

Trump campaign worried about Biden evangelical support . . . Biden, a lifelong Roman Catholic, has performed better in recent polling among white evangelicals — and other religious groups — than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton did in 2016 and is widely perceived as more religious than the current White House occupant. A Pew Research study conducted earlier this year showed that a majority of U.S. adults (63 percent) think Trump is “not at all” or “not too religious,” versus 55 percent who said they believed Biden is somewhat or very religious. Many conservative evangelical leaders have argued that Biden’s positions on cultural issues — like abortion, judges and religious freedom — are disqualifying. Politico

 

Video || McEnany faces off with Acosta, who accuses Trump of exploiting children . . . This was a fun exchange. CNN’s Jim Acosta, who continues the process of destroying journalism by personalizing the news while representing an organization that is supposed to be objective, accused the president of exploiting children and producing fake news, pointing to a tweeted video that satirized CNN’s own distortion of the news. White House Dossier

 

John Kerry predicts Trump win could spark insurrection . . . Well, I imagine his head would come off as well as the rest of the nobility, if the proletariat can find him in Nantucket or wherever. According to the Washington Examiner, voter fraud will be the issue that sets everyone off, and it hampered Kerry in his own presidential bid. Still whining about 2004. Thing is, he’s right. Not because there will be voter fraud, but because people like John Kerry will tell everyone there was. White House Dossier

 

Former Ukrainian president says Biden never pressed him on Burisma . . . Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko denied Sunday that former Vice President Joe Biden ever approached him about Burisma Holdings, a gas company of which Biden’s son Hunter was a board member.  “My absolutely clear answer: no, never,” Poroshenko told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” “But I also cannot accept that, neither President Obama nor President Biden — Vice President Biden, nor President Trump, nor Vice President Pence never press[ed] me.” Poronshenko became president of Ukraine in 2014, the same year that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, a gas company based in Kyiv. Politico

 

Navarro: Trump joking with talk about slowing down coronavirus testing . . . White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said President Trump was joking when he said he asked officials to "slow down" coronavirus testing. Navarro was asked by CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday to react to the president's comments during his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "Come on now, Jake. You know it was tongue-in-cheek," Navarro said. "Come on now. That was tongue-in-cheek, please."

Tapper said he did not "know that it was tongue-in-cheek at all." He claimed Trump has "said similar things for months." Washington Examiner

 

AOC builds massive fundraising and political machine . . . Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has spent more money than any House Democrat seeking reelection this year, building a massive political team and an even bigger money machine. An analysis of the freshman firebrand's prodigious spending shows Ocasio-Cortez has nearly 40 staffers on her campaign, with 30 having been hired in 2020 — a staff size more typical of a top-tier Senate campaign than a congresswoman seeking reelection in a safely progressive seat. Ocasio-Cortez has become a magnet for small-dollar donors. She has raised more than $10.5 million, about 80 percent of which came from donors giving under $200, the FEC reports show. The Hill

 

Trump urges AOC to run against Schumer . . . President Trump urged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to run against the state’s longtime Sen. Chuck Schumer in the 2022 primary in November, saying that she would be a “big improvement” and that she would likely win. Schumer, the Senate minority leader, has been a vocal critic of the president, but so has Ocasio-Cortez, who faces her own primary challenger this year for her House seat. Critics of the president say Trump's call on Ocasio-Cortez to run is simply an attempt to divide the party. Trump retweeted a report from the Washington Times that said liberals “are kicking around the idea” of the “Squad” leader taking on Schumer, who represents to them the old establishment. Fox News

 

Iran engaged in secret nuclear work . . . Iran engaged in covert nuclear work that breached international accords as recently as 2019, according to nuclear inspectors who have been blocked from accessing these contested military sites. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board of governors officially reprimanded Iran on Friday for denying inspectors access to at least two sites now known to have been part of Tehran’s secretive atomic weapons program. The two locations have remained off limits to the IAEA despite evidence they were used for illicit nuclear operations in the last year. At least one of these sites contained a secret high-explosives testing site that could have been used to advance Tehran’s nuclear know-how. Washington Free Beacon

 

North Korea strikes out amid worst economy in decades . . . Blowing up a building meant to symbolize friendship may have been North Korea’s forceful way of demanding help for an economy straining under international sanctions and borders shut by the coronavirus. The destruction of the $15 million facility paid for by South Korea in the North Korean border city of Kaesong was one of the biggest provocations Kim Jong Un’s regime has made against its neighbor in years. Bloomberg

 

Brits protect Churchill statue from vandalism . . . 

The recently “unboxed” statue of Sir Winston Churchill remained unscathed at Black Lives Matter protests in London as the Metropolitan Police (Met) finally stationed officers to guard the monument to Britain’s wartime leader. Police and counter-protesters formed a protective ring around Churchill’s statue to protect it from further acts of vandalism, as thousands of Black Lives Matter activists broke coronavirus laws to take to the streets of the British capital for the fourth consecutive week. Initially, the protests were ostensibly against the death of George Floyd in the United States, however they have since morphed into an attack on symbols and structures of the West in general, which the activists claim is fraught with “systemic racism”. Breitbart

 

Britain reels from terrorist stabbing attack . . . The English town of Reading held a minute’s silence on Monday for the victims of a stabbing that killed three people including an American in the latest terrorism-linked attack. Three people were also hospitalised after a man wielding a five-inch knife went on the rampage in a park on Saturday, randomly stabbing people enjoying a sunny, summer evening. A Western security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the suspect was a 25-year-old Libyan called Khairi Saadallah. Reuters

 

These things are gruesome. Not sure if I'd rather get shot or stabbed.

 

Mortgage delinquencies at highest level since 2011 . . . U.S. home-mortgage delinquencies climbed in May to the highest level since November 2011 as the pandemic’s toll on personal finances deepened.

The number of borrowers more than 30 days late swelled to 4.3 million, up 723,000 from the previous month, according to property information service Black Knight Inc. More than 8% of all U.S. mortgages were past due or in foreclosure. The increase in delinquencies was smaller than the 1.6 million jump in April, when the economy ground to a halt nationwide. Still, the path ahead is clouded by the spread of new Covid-19 cases, uncertainty over business reopenings and the looming expiration of benefits that have helped jobless homeowners avert delinquency. Bloomberg 

 

San Francisco protesters tear down statues of Ulysses S. Grant and Francis Scott Key . . . Grant, who led the Union army into battle against the Confederacy, and Scott Key, who wrote America’s national anthem, are just two of the latest statues to be ripped down by protesters on the Juneteenth holiday that marks the 155th anniversary since a federal order to liberate slaves reached Galveston, Texas, almost two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Even though Grant is widely celebrated as the general who led the Union into the war that brought an end to slavery in the United States, some critics have pointed to his ownership of a slave for about one year as a result of his marriage, despite the future president reportedly working alongside him in the fields and setting him free before the Civil War began. Daily Caller

 

Theodore Roosevelt Statue to be removed from NY Museum of Natural History . . . The bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt, on horseback and flanked by a Native American man and an African man, which has presided over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1940, is coming down. The decision, proposed by the museum and agreed to by New York City, which owns the building and property, came after years of objections from activists and at a time when the killing of George Floyd has initiated an urgent nationwide conversation about racism. For many, the equestrian statue at the museum’s Central Park West entrance has come to symbolize a painful legacy of colonial expansion and racial discrimination. New York Times

 

"Ridiculous, don't do it," Trump said in a tweet on Monday

 

New York City shootings pile up . . . City shootings piled up at a rate of one per hour on Saturday — with more gunplay on Sunday — as an NYPD chief warned that hundreds of gun-possession defendants have been allowed to prowl Gotham thanks to coronavirus-closed courts. “We have over 1,000 people that have been indicted on a gun-possession charge, where the cases are open, and they are walking around the streets of New York today,” Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri said. New York Post

 

Complaint: Only whites allowed to monitor Chauvin in jail . . . Eight minority Ramsey County corrections officers have filed discrimination charges with the state’s Department of Human Rights after they were barred from guarding or having any other contact with former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last month. Chauvin was booked at the county jail the same day he was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. As Chauvin arrived, all officers of color were ordered to a separate floor, and a supervisor told one of them that, because of their race, they would be a potential “liability” around Chauvin, according a copy of racial discrimination charges. Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

Macy's: Black man who beat up employee was unprovoked . . . Macy’s said the black man who was caught on video attacking a white store employee in Michigan was "unprovoked." The video has circulated on various social media platforms since last Monday, and the man who originally posted the video, a rapper known by the name FT Quay, said it was sparked by the Macy’s employee saying the N-word to a black man in the store. The suspect is FT Quay's brother, according to the New York Post, and the attack “was spur of the moment.” Macy’s rejected this version of events. Washington Examiner

 

Shooting erupts again in CHOP . . . Less than 48 hours after a 19-year-old was fatally shot in the protest area near Seattle’s downtown known as CHOP, another shooting reportedly broke out on Sunday night that resulted in an individual being hospitalized in serious condition. The Seattle Fire Department arrived at the scene at 10:46 p.m. and went to a staging area near the zone's perimeter. The fire department was soon notified that the injured person has already been taken away. The person arrived in a private vehicle and was in serious condition. Both victims in Saturday's shooting -- whose identities hadn't yet been released -- were also transported to the same hospital via private car. Fox News

 

Oh well, another peaceful attempted murder.

 

Most colleges to welcome back students . . . According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which is tracking more than 860 institutions’ plans, two-thirds of colleges are planning to welcome back students in person, while only 7% are planning to hold classes only online. Many other colleges have yet to make a decision. In order to decrease density in residential facilities and minimize unnecessary social contact, college administrators are lowering dormitory occupancy and mandating changes to life in residence halls. USA Today

 

Family of Aunt Jemima opposes move to change brand . . . An East Texas family is not happy about the ‘brand changing’ of a popular pancake syrup: Aunt Jemima. The iconic “Aunt Jemima” has long-standing ties with the city of Hawkins, and a goodwill ambassador named “Lillian Richard.” Living in Forney, Vera Harris is the family historian for the Richard family of Hawkins. “A lot of people want it removed. We want the world to know that our cousin Lillian was one of the Aunt Jemima’s and she made an honest living. There wasn’t a lot of jobs, especially for black women back in that time. She was discovered by Quaker Oats to be their brand person,” Harris said. Lillian Richard became a goodwill ambassador for Quaker Oats, and for decades, portrayed Aunt Jemima all over Texas. “She made an honest living out of it for a number of years. She toured around Texas,” Harris said. And the family is proud of what she did. “She was considered a hero in Hawkins, and we are proud of that. We do not want that history erased,” Harris said. KLTV in Texas

 

No more Eskimo Pie . . . The brand behind the popular Eskimo Pie ice cream announced Friday that it will change the product's brand and marketing after nearly 100 years. It's just the latest in a slew of companies to announce they are changing or reviewing brand imagery as they attempt to grapple with racist histories amid global protests against racial injustice. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, which owns Eskimo Pie, said it acknowledges the name is "derogatory." "We have been reviewing our Eskimo Pie business for some time and will be changing the brand name and marketing," Elizabell Marquez, head of marketing, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, told CBS News. "We are committed to being a part of the solution on racial equality, and recognize the term is derogatory." CBS News

 

 

Soccer player claimed he missed practice because he was abducted by aliens . . . Gustavo Lorenzetti told Mexico’s Lado B he and former Argentine soccer player Guillermo Marino were playing for the club from 2011 to 2013 and that Marino one time gave a wild excuse for being late to practice. “He says that he arrived late to one training because he was abducted by aliens. He gave us the entire explanation of what he felt and the rest of it,” Lorenzetti said. Lorenzetti continued: “He started to explain that he was suddenly lost and abducted by aliens. He explained that they take out your soul, analyze it, and all the while on the journey they are looking after you. Fox News

 

"Bold and Beautiful to use blowup dolls for love scenes . . . CBS soap “The Bold and the Beautiful” will use a female blowup doll and actors’ significant others in love scenes to shoot its first episodes since the pandemic shutdown in mid-March. The quirky, imaginative steps are being taken to adhere to state, county and industry protocols regarding COVID-19 — as “B&B” became the first US broadcast series to go back into production Wednesday at Television City in LA. “When we were reviewing the scripts we started taking out all the romantic scenes and [the scripts] just fell flat,” the show’s executive producer/head writer Bradley Bell said. New York Post