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Congress has approved roughly $2.5 trillion since March to rescue an economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

And it doesn't look like it will be nearlyenough.

Lawmakers are working on a fifth round of stimulus relief that could dwarf the four previous rounds of assistance combined.

The Democratic-led House has passed the HEROES Act, a roughly$3.4 trillion bill that would provide a second round of direct payments to millions of Americans, provide nearly $1 trillion to revenue-strapped states and local governments, and provide billions forhousing and food assistance.

The Republican-controlled Senate has introduced its counter-proposal, the HEALS Act, a $1.1 trillion package that also includes direct payments but no federal aid for housing, food or state and local governments. It has yet to pass the chamber.

The latest on negotiations: Democrats and Republicans have 'most productive' stimulus talk to date, but deal still 'not imminent'

Here are some of the key similarities and differences between the two proposals.

The Democratic bill proposes extending the currentbenefit of $600 per week(which ends July 31) through December, a federal bonus on top of what states pay. The Republican plan proposes cutting that amount to $200 through September and then limiting the maximum benefit (state and federal combined) to 70% of an applicants pay moving forward.

Both bills would provide another stimulus check to millions of Americans under the same rules as the CARES Act: $1,200 for individuals earning up to $75,000 (phasing out at $99,000); and $2,400 for married couples earning up to $150,000 (phasing out at $198,000). The Democratic bill would be more generous for dependents ($1,200 for each dependent up to three versus $500 for each dependent in the GOP bill).

Democrats propose nearly$1 trillion in direct aid to help states, counties and cities whose budgets have been decimated by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The Republican bill has no such aidthough it does provide states and local governments more flexibility in how they use aid provided in earlier stimulus bills.

The Democrats' proposalprovides roughly $200 billion in housing assistance to help renters and homeowners affected by coronavirus avoid eviction/foreclosure. The GOP bill includesno such aid.

The Democrats provide about $60 billion to reopen schools, compared to $70 billion in the GOP bill. Each also provides about $30 billion to assist colleges.But the Democratic bill says thenearly $1 trillion in aid for stateand local governments could be usedfor education as well. The GOP bill does not and says that a portion of the education aid must go to help private schools reopen as well.

Democrats are proposing roughly $380 billion on ways to combat the coronavirus.Most of that would beused on two priorities: $100 billion to reimbursehospitals and other health care providers for pandemic-related costs, and $98 billion to assist laid-off workers pay for the health coverage they lost because of the economic steps taken to control the pandemic. The Republican plan sets aside$111 billion, much of it to help federal agencies and private companies develop vaccines and therapeutic remedies ($50 billion) or to help medical providers cover costs ($25 billion).

Senate Republicans release info on $1 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package

The new GOP plan includes another check for Americans and continued help for the unemployed.

USA TODAY

There's a big gulf on COVID-19 testing and contact tracing as well with Democrats proposing $75 billion and Republicans $16 billion.

The Democrats provide $290 billion in business assistance but largely in tax credits to companies that keep employees on the payroll and in tax breaks for pandemic-related expenses. The Democraticplan also includes a number of other priorities, including $190 billion in "hazard pay" for essential workers nationwide, $35 billion for food assistance to poor families, and $3.6 billion to help states run their elections in November. The GOP proposal does not include money for those but it does provide $158 billion in grants and loans to help small businesses stay afloat.

The rest is here:
$1,200 checks? Money for schools? Breaking down what Republicans and Democrats want in the coronavirus stimulus plan - USA TODAY

The Trump administrations decision to withdraw nearly 12,000 troops from Germany has come under bipartisan attack in the Senate, amid warnings it would disrupt US alliances.

The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, fended off insistent questions in the Senate on Thursday, and in so doing, falsely claimed to have fought along the East German border when he was stationed there as an army lieutenant in the late 1980s. There was no fighting in Germany during the cold war.

The Pentagon has insisted the withdrawal was ordered as part as an overall strategic repositioning of US forces abroad, but Donald Trump made clear that he saw it as punishment of Germany for not spending enough on defence.

Pompeo said that the state department had been part of the discussion about the redeployment, which involves 6,400 soldiers being brought to the US and another 5,500 being placed elsewhere in Europe, mostly Belgium and Italy.

Questioning Pompeo at a hearing of the Senate foreign relations committee, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen said: The only country that has publicly supported the removal of US troops from Germany today has been Russia.

The Republican senator Mitt Romney, reflecting widespread unease in the GOP about the move, told Pompeo: I have heard from the highest levels of the German government that this is seen by them as an insult to Germany, and I cant imagine at a time when we need to be drawing in our friends and allies so that we can collectively confront China, we want to insult them.

Pompeo insisted that the withdrawal of troops to the US did not mean they were off the field.

These units will participate in rotational activity. Theyll be forward deployed, he said. They wont be stationed or garrisoned, but make no mistake about it, they will be fully available to ensure that we can properly prosecute the challenges we have from the global powers.

His remarks appeared to reflect defence department assurances that troops brought back to the US would be available to serve temporary tours in the Baltic states, Poland or the Black Sea region.

When pressed by Shaheen on the impact of the withdrawal on the relationship with Berlin, Pompeo did not directly respond, but said: This is personal for me. I fought on the border of East Germany when I was a young soldier. I was stationed there.

Pompeo served as a lieutenant in a tank regiment in West Germany from 1986 to 1991, during which time the east-west border was entirely peaceful. He did not take part in any combat during his military career.

Shaheen reminded him that his former unit was one of those being recalled to the US. Foreign Policy cited defence department documents on Thursday, in which troops in Germany were informed the redeployment would likely take months to plan and years to execute.

Trump has said he ordered the move because Germany was not spending enough on its own defence and American taxpayers were being taken for suckers.

However, Germany has recently increased its spending, and has said it is on course to achieve the 2% GDP target for defence expenditure that Nato set for 2024.

Belgium and Italy, where many US troops are due to be redeployed, spend less than Germany as a share of national income.

Diplomats and former officials have suggested that Trumps decision may have been driven by personal animus towards Germany and its chancellor, Angela Merkel.

Fox News reported in June that the withdrawal was the idea of the ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as a reprisal for Angela Merkels decision not to attend a G7 summit at Camp David at the height of the pandemic.

Read more here:
Democrats and Republicans take aim at Pompeo over US troop withdrawal from Germany - The Guardian

Trump told WRAL he would announce the exact location of his acceptance speech in the coming week.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Republican National Convention was set to take place in Charlotte. But as cases and deaths mounted in North Carolina over the spring, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper insisted a scaled-down convention was necessary.

Trump bristled at the possible denial of a blockbuster event and wrote on Twitter on June 2 that he would be moving the main action of the convention away from North Carolina.

Nine days later, the Republican National Committee picked Jacksonville as its new destination, with Trump scheduled to deliver the keynote acceptance address as part of a multinight event. But the shift to Jacksonville proved to be too fraught with complications as Floridas Covid-19 caseload spiked, straining the state's resources.

As recently as July 21, Trump campaign officials were assuring the public the event could go on safely, even as local law enforcement sounded warning signs. Trump called off the Jacksonville event on July 23.

It's just not the right time, Trump said.

The North Carolina Democratic Party blasted Trumps acceptance speech flip-flop as evidence of his bungled response to the coronavirus.

Read this article:
Trump says he will accept Republican nomination in North Carolina after all - POLITICO

As the general election unofficially kicks off, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is being aided by an unusual array of groups for a presidential election. What makes them an oddity is that they are Republican. A growing number of GOP organizations are moving forward with strategic efforts to unseat a commander-in-chief of their own party and turn the White House over to a Democrat.

Appalled by Donald Trump's presidency, they are spending millions on television ads and digital campaigns and weighing ground efforts in an election year that has seen a global pandemic and major economic crisis following the impeachment trial of the president earlier this year.

"We haven't really ever seen anything like this before in a general election," said Mitchell West, of Kantar/Campaign Media Analysis Group. "In primaries, there's always one Republican group that supports one specific Republican candidate and will obviously bash some others, but in terms of a general election, usually you don't see anything like this."

From April through June, The Lincoln Project raised more than $16.8 million, rivaling several prominent Democratic PACs after raising less than $2 million in the first quarter of 2020. The Lincoln Project, whose founders include George Conway, a prominent Trump critic who is married to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, views this president as an existential threat to the nation, a "clear and present danger to the Constitution and our Republic."

The Lincoln Project's recent financial filing shows donations flooded in from all over the country. According to the group, the average contribution was around $56.

Its first anti-Trump ad aired in March, but it was the "Mourning in America" ad in early May that really launched the group, attacking Mr. Trump's handling of the economy and coronavirus. The spot was a twist on President Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign ad and attracted the attention of the president when it appeared on Fox News. Mr. Trump blasted the group on Twitter, inadvertently helping the Lincoln Project raise about $2 million in 24 hours.

"He saw the ad, it did what we wanted it to do, and we have been the beneficiaries organizationally of his inability or unwillingness to not respond to things that we know are his weak points," said The Lincoln Project co-founder Reed Galen. The group has since churned out videos on the coronavirus response, Confederate flags, reported bounties on U.S troops and more. "That's the advantage of being independent of everybody we say we think this going to move, this is going to hit, and we go do it."

According to Kantar/CMAG, The Lincoln Project has spent nearly $4 million on advertising since March. Now as the general election nears, the group plans to take the fight directly into battleground states to target "soft Republican" and conservative-leaning independent voters. While it plans to continue with targeted advertising, the group also has a rapidly growing army of volunteers including some 3,000 in Michigan.

"I think we will be contacting voters directly," Galen told CBS News. "I think the effectiveness of our messaging creates a potent combination to get in front of these voters who you can convince to make sure they get out and vote for Joe Biden, and if they're not going to vote for Joe Biden, then leave Donald Trump blank."

At the same time, Republican Voters against Trump is also going after similar voters, but with a slightly different approach, one that seeks to make Republican voters comfortable with the idea of not supporting their party's incumbent nominee, even if they voted for him in 2016.

"I've been a Republican for more than 30 years in western North Carolina, and I find myself for the first time in many years not able to vote for a Republican," said Steve in one video on the project's website. The project has been compiling hundreds of testimonials from GOP voters in all fifty states.

"I voted for Donald Trump four years ago because I didn't trust Hillary. That was a mistake," said Craig from Colorado in another video. While some voters focus on what's made them turn their backs on Mr. Trump, other voters talk about why they'll be voting for Biden.

"What people were most persuaded by was real stories from real people, so basically we decided to build a project around that for 2020," said Republican Voters against Trump founder Sarah Longwell. The initiative, which is a project of Defending Democracy Together the organization founded by conservatives including Bill Kristol is now using the videos in its $10 million campaign to digitally target voters in five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Arizona. Testimonials have also been used as TV ads.

But while a series of recent polls have shown Biden with at least a slight edge, these groups are aware that the president retains a strong base of unshakable Republican support. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, Mr. Trump would have the support of 84% of Republicans.

Where Anti-Trump Republicans see an opening is in the three states won by the president in 2016 by the slimmest of margins over Hillary Clinton. The presumptive Democratic nominee helps . According to Longwell, early focus groups viewed far left Bernie Sanders as a "nonstarter," but Biden is "not nearly as big a lift for a lot of these right-leaning independents." He puts the crucial suburbs into play.

"A lot of the women who would consider themselves Republican or right-leaning, who voted for Mitt Romney, who voted for John McCain those are the people who are moving out of the party fastest, or moving away from Donald Trump the fastest," said Longwell.

That's what some former George W. Bush administration officials also believe. At the beginning of July, they launched 43 Alumni for Joe Biden PAC. The galvanizing moment for the PAC founders was the attack on protesters in Lafayette Park in June.

"Our goal is to really give those folks who either still identify themselves as Republicans or those who have left the party or view that the party has left them permission to vote for Joe Biden, given the circumstances the country is in right now and needing to move in a new direction," said John Farner.

The PAC aims to be a grassroots volunteer-based effort that uses the substantial Bush alumni network to engage Republicans and independents who have traditionally voted for Republicans. Those signing up to get involved online are asked how they would like to help on fundraising, field operations or online. The PAC expects to have a strong digital push as well as a get-out-the-vote effort, depending on what the coronavirus landscape looks like in the fall.

"There are a lot of people who have never voted for a Democrat for president before," said Kristopher Purcell. "We feel we can talk to those voters very well."

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Anti-Trump Republican groups urge GOP voters to support Joe Biden for president - CBS News

Good morning,

According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, the US confirmed 77,300 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours on Thursday, another world record. With infections rising in 41 of the nations 50 states, the Republican National Committee has announced plans to scale back its convention in Florida next month while elected Democrats have been urged to skip their partys rival shindig in Milwaukee after advice from health officials.

In Georgia, the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, is suing Atlantas local leaders to block the city from enforcing a mandate to wear masks in public, arguing that its Democratic mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms who tested positive for the coronavirus herself this month had overstepped her authority.

As the G20s finance ministers prepare to meet online this weekend, the UN has warned that western nations must step up to help the worlds poor tackle the coronavirus crisis, or risk creating a generations worth of tragic and exportable problems. On top of those killed directly by Covid-19, economists fear the crisis could lead to as many as 1.7m preventable deaths in poorer countries, from HIV, TB and malaria.

One leading anti-poverty campaign group says the International Monetary Fund has already allowed hard-pressed countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America to use $11.3bn in Covid-19 bailout cash to service their debts to private sector lenders, in breach of the IMFs own rules.

Kremlin-backed hackers targeted Covid-19 vaccine researchers in the US, UK and Canada, British security officials have said, while stressing that no research was compromised as a result.

The Trump administration kept up its diplomatic and rhetorical offensive against Beijing this week with a verbal assault on the US film industry, which William Barr accused of kowtowing to the Chinese Communist party (CPC). In a speech in Michigan, the US attorney general pointed to several instances when the Disney movie studio tailored its content in an apparent attempt to appease China, claiming such acts represented a threat to the classical liberal order.

The US secretary of state has launched a draft report suggesting the proliferation of human rights being asserted by US and international institutions has diluted those he views as paramount: the rights to private property and to religious freedom, as laid down by the countrys founding fathers. Speaking in Philadelphia on Thursday, Mike Pompeo said the report by his commission on unalienable rights had concluded that many are worth defending in light of our founding; others arent.

The US has opposed references to reproductive and gender rights in UN and other multilateral documents, though on Thursday Pompeo did not specify which human rights he considered superfluous or secondary.

He was the star of If and A Clockwork Orange, but the insolent prince of early 1970s cinema is now an elder statesman and a jobbing Hollywood actor specialising in baddies. You cant keep playing the rebel for ever, Malcolm McDowell tells Xan Brooks.

The comedian Ziwe Fumudoh has a new Instagram Live show, which involves her interrogating guests for 30 minutes each on topics such as race and sexism. If it makes you incredibly uncomfortable, well thats sort of the point, she tells Poppy Noor.

If you were among the millions who took part in recent Black Lives Matter protests, your photo could end up in the sort of facial recognition database used by one in four US law enforcement agencies. The implications are troubling, say Evan Selinger and Albert Fox Cahn.

Aside from the ethics of diminishing peoples obscurity when they are in public and stripping away their right to do lawful things like protest anonymously, there is a real risk of misidentification through this technology.

Virginia-born Morgan Bullock is one of the worlds top 50 Irish dancers. During lockdown she has become a TikTok star by setting her footwork to hip-hop favourites like Savage, a song by Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonc whose mother reposted the clip.

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First Thing: Georgia's Republican governor sues to stop mask order - The Guardian