Australian student, meat plant workers among new virus cases as curbs ease

A school in the Australian city of Sydney was closed on Monday after a student tested positive for the coronavirus, while a testing blitz in neighbouring Victoria state returned 22 new cases, the biggest daily jump in weeks.

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Brazil's Bolsonaro headlines anti-democratic rally amid alarm over handling of coronavirus

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attacked Congress and the courts in a speech to hundreds of supporters on Sunday as the number of coronavirus cases blew past 100,000 in Brazil, underlining the former army captain's increasing isolation as he downplays the impacts of the pandemic.

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Letters to the Editor: The Democratic Party's #MeToo hypocrisy on Joe Biden is stunning

Democrats who expect all voters sick of President Trump to vote for Joe Biden are insulting people who care more about the issues than the party.

Fact check: Will Florida order residents to get vaccinated for COVID-19?

An Instagram post says Florida can order people to take a coronavirus vaccination. That is true, but it is false to imply this will happen right away.

Bashar al-Assad's cousin makes unprecedented public criticism of security forces amid family rift

Sanctions-hit Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf said on Sunday that security forces were arresting employees at his companies "in an inhumane way" amid pressure on him to step down from his business empire and pay millions of dollars in tax. Mr Makhlouf, a cousin of President Bashar al-Assad and widely considered part of the president’s inner circle, has a business empire that ranges from telecoms and real estate to construction and oil trading. He has played a big role in financing President Assad's war effort, Western officials say. However, a major and unusually public rift has appeared between the cousins, with the alleged arrest of employees being the latest development. "Today pressures began in an unacceptable ways and the security forces, in an inhumane way, are arresting our employees," Mr Makhlouf said in a video, in an unprecedented attack on the powerful security forces by one of the country's most influential figures.

Clamoring to get home, India's migrant workers stone police

More than 2,000 rural migrant workers blocked from returning home pelted Indian police with stones, officials in Gujarat said, as millions more stranded in the state readied to return to villages. Poor migrant workers across the country lost their jobs during the world's biggest pandemic lockdown, which began in late March to guard against the spread of new coronavirus. Saturday's clash in western India's Gujarat is the latest in a spate of such protests across India.

'Devastatingly worrisome': Dr. Deborah Birx decries scenes of protesters not practicing social distancing amid coronavirus

Dr. Deborah Birx warned that protesters who carry an infection home to their grandmother or grandfather would feel guilty for the rest of their lives.