The confirmed coronavirus in the United States surpassed 3.6 million,according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, the national death toll from the disease reached to 138,649, according to the data.

The hardest-hit New York has counted 405,551 cases.

Besides, California, Florida and Texas, also reported 364,835, 327,234 and 308,611 cases, respectively, the tally showed.

States with over 100,000 cases also include New Jersey, Illinois, Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, the CSSE data showed.

A large number of critics of the Trump administration were sweeping set of rules to restrict asylum in the United States and came up with a deluge of comments opposing the effort.

The proposal directs immigration judges to be more selective about granting asylum claims and allows them to deny some without a court hearing. Its dense language describes rules President Donald Trump’s administration has already tried and others that are new, reports AP.

Groups taking aim at the newest proposal focusing on immigration courts urged supporters to issue comments. HIAS, a group that assists refugees, hosted a briefing for 370 people two weeks ago.

“These regulations would plunge the United States into moral darkness,” the group said in its own 101-page letter.

Under the administration’s proposal, immigration judges, who work for the US Justice Department, could reject “legally deficient” asylum claims without a court hearing. Several new factors would weigh against asylum, including failure to pay taxes. Criminal records would still count against an asylum-seeker even if their convictions were expunged.

Asylum is to protect people from persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group, a loose category that may include victims of gang.

The US Supreme Court last month refused to let the Trump administration scrap DACA, citing a failure to follow procedures outlined in the 1946 law.

Last year, the court prohibited a census question about citizenship for similar reasons.

Read Also: https://unb.com.bd/category/World/tougher-us-asylum-policy-follows-in-europes-footsteps/35685

US biotech company Moderna has planned to begin its final phase of testing its COVID-19 vaccine on July 27, according to details posted Tuesday on government database clinicaltrials.gov.

Researchers planned to enroll 30,000 adult participants, including people whose locations or circumstances put them at high-risk of infection. Participants will either receive the vaccine or a placebo, reports Xinhua.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company, is the first to announce a start date for phase 3 study in the United States.

The study aims to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in adults aged 18 years and older, according to information on the website, which is maintained by the US National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers will evaluate whether the participants develop COVID-19 14 days after they get their second dose. The participants will be followed for two years after receiving their second dose.

The study will be conducted at 87 locations across the US.

According to Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the phase 3 trials will begin with one by Moderna in July, then an Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in August and one by Johnson & Johnson in September.

President Donald Trump signed legislation and an executive order on Tuesday that he said will hold China accountable for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong.

“Democratic Joe Biden and President Obama freely allowed China to pillage our factories, plunder our communities and steal our most precious secrets,” Trump said, claiming that he has “stopped it largely.”

Trump said as vice president, Biden advocated for the Paris Agreement addressing climate change. Trump withdrew the US from the accord. “It'd have crushed American manufacturers while allowing China to pollute the atmosphere with impunity, yet one more gift from Biden to the Chinese Communist Party,” Trump said.

The legislation Trump signed into law targets police units that have cracked down on Hong Kong protesters as well as Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for imposing a new, strict national security law widely seen as chipping away at Hong Kong’s autonomy, reports AP.

Hong Kong is considered a special administrative region within China and has its own governing and economic systems.

“Their freedom has been taken away. Their rights have been taken away, and with it goes Hong Kong in my opinion because it will no longer be able to compete with free markets. A lot of people will be leaving Hong Kong, I suspect.” Trump said.

China called the legislation gross interference in its internal affairs and warned it would respond by imposing sanctions on related American individuals and entities.

US President Donald Trump wore a mask for the first time in public during the pandemic while visiting a military hospital in suburban Washington on Saturday.

Trump flew by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to meet wounded service members and health care providers caring for COVID-19 patients.

Health officials recommended the facial covering for Trump as a precaution against spreading or becoming infected by the novel coronavirus.

As he left the White House, he told reporters: “When you’re in a hospital, especially ... I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask.”

Read Also: Face coverings recommended, but Trump says he won't wear one

Trump was wearing a mask in Walter Reed’s hallway as he began his visit. He was not wearing one when he stepped off the helicopter at the facility.

However, the president was a latecomer to wearing a mask during the pandemic, which has raged across the US since March and infected more than 3.2 million and killed at least 134,000.

Most prominent Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence, endorsed wearing masks as the coronavirus gained ground this summer.

Republican governors have been moving toward requiring or encouraging the use of masks as the pandemic has grown more serious in some states in the South and West.

Trump, however, has declined to wear a mask at news conferences, coronavirus task force updates, rallies and other public events.

According to the people close to him, the president feared a mask would make him look weak and was concerned that it shifted focus to the public health crisis rather than the economic recovery. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private matters.

While not wearing one himself, Trump sent mixed signals about masks, acknowledging that they would be appropriate if worn in an indoor setting where people were close together.

He accused reporters of wearing them to be politically correct and retweeted messages making fun of Democratic rival Joe Biden for wearing a mask and implying that Biden looks weak.