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Keep up with the latest news from the United States with our daily round-up of the top stories. From politics and current affairs to entertainment and sports, you’ll find all the news you need to know right here.
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COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge in the United States, hospitals are feeling the strain of the influx of patients. The virus has now infected over 1.5 million people in the US and killed over 93,000.
Cases in the US
There are currently more than 28 million cases of coronavirus in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
More than 500,000 people have died from the virus in the US.
The number of new cases has been rising in recent weeks, with more than 200,000 new cases reported in the last week alone.
The rise in cases comes as the country prepares to enter a new phase of the pandemic, with a vaccine expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Cases Worldwide
The total number of global COVID-19 cases has now reached 107,776,835, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The pandemic has resulted in 2,468,435 deaths worldwide.
The United States continues to lead the world in both total cases and fatalities, with 27,054,146 confirmed infections and 473,160 deaths.
Brazil is second in both categories, with 11,669,191 cases and 268,848 fatalities. India is third globally in total cases with 10,480,086 infections. The country has also recorded a total of 152,092 deaths due to COVID-19.
Many other countries are also struggling with worrisome surges in infections despite having imposed strict lockdowns and other measures to try to stop the spread of the virus.
Trump Administration
The Trump administration is looking to make changes to the H-1B visa program. The changes would require companies to pre-register for the visa before they can apply. The administration is also considering changing the wage requirements for H-1B visa holders.
Trump’s taxes
The New York Times has obtained 10 years of previously unreleased tax information that shows President Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency and in his first year in the White House.
The records also reveal that Mr. Trump reported $427.4 million in losses in 2005, which may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for years. The newspaper said it had obtained the information through “Complex business records” it had received “legally,” though it did not disclose how.
The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court handed down a major defeat to the Trump administration Wednesday, ruling that it violated federal law when it tried to end an Obama-era program that has protected hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The 5-4 decision, with the court’s liberal justices in the majority, is a stinging rebuke to President Trump, who made undoing his predecessor’s immigration policies a central tenet of his 2016 campaign.
Justices ruled that the administration had failed to give adequate justification for its decision to rescind the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The program has allowed nearly 700,000 young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children to live and work without fear of deportation.
“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “We address only whether the administration complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.”
The court’s decision means that DACA will remain in place at least until Mr. Trump’s next election, when he will almost certainly face pressure from his conservative base to deliver on his promises to deport undocumented immigrants and build a wall along the Mexican border.
The Economy
The United States economy is expected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2019, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. The budget office also projects that the economy will continue to grow at a modest pace over the next few years, reaching 2.4 percent in 2020 and 2.5 percent in 2021 before slowing to 2.3 percent in 2022. Despite the positive projections, the budget office warns that the economy could slow down more quickly than expected if trade tensions escalate or if financial conditions tighten.
Unemployment
The unemployment rate in the United States fell to 13.3 percent in May 2020 from 14.7 percent in April 2020, as the economy added 2.5 million jobs. The unemployment rate dropped for the first time since March, as several states eased lockdown restrictions imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19.
This is the first decrease in the unemployment rate since the pandemic began, but it is still historically high. The last time the unemployment rate was this high was during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The decline in the unemployment rate is a positive sign for the economy, but there is still a long way to go before the job market returns to normal. There are nearly 21 million people unemployed in the United States, and many of them are facing an uncertain future.
The Stock Market
The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 600 points on Wednesday as a range of factors reignited investor anxiety about a potential recession.
The drop was the market’s worst sell-off since August and put the Dow back in negative territory for 2019. The S&P 500, the market’s broadest index, is now also down for the year.
Investors sold off stocks across the board, with tech shares leading the way lower. The Nasdaq composite, which has a large contingent of tech stocks, fell more than 2%.
The selling was set off by a series of worries, including new data indicating a manufacturing slowdown in China and Europe and fresh concerns about trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
