10 things you need to know today: August 3, 2020

1. Birx warns U.S. in 'new phase' of widespread coronavirus crisis

Trump administration coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said Sunday that the crisis had entered a "new phase" in the U.S., with the outbreak now "extraordinarily widespread." The U.S. death toll is near 155,000. "It's into the rural as equal urban areas. So everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune," Birx said on CNN's State of the Union. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on ABC's This Week that she lacked confidence in Birx. "I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don't have confidence there, no," Pelosi said. Asked about Pelosi's comment, Birx said she had "tremendous respect for the speaker" but noted: "I have never been called Pollyannish or non-scientific or non-data driven."

The New York Times The Guardian

2. 2 astronauts splash down in SpaceX capsule

Test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken made the first spacecraft splashdown by U.S. astronauts in 45 years on Sunday, returning from the first commercially built and operated capsule to carry humans into orbit and back. Hurley and Behnken, inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule dubbed Endeavour, parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico about 40 miles from Pensacola a day after leaving the International Space Station. Their mission started two months earlier with a blastoff from Florida. "This is the next era in human spaceflight where NASA gets to be the customer," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "It was an enormous relief after months of anxiety making sure we could bring Bob and Doug back home safely," said Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX.

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The Associated Press

3. Pelosi, Mnuchin double down over coronavirus relief differences

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin doubled down on their clashing coronavirus relief packages ahead of fresh Monday talks. Pelosi repeated Democrats' calls to renew the $600 per week in extra jobless benefits that expired Friday, although she said the sum could be reduced as unemployment falls. Pelosi said Democrats were "unified" behind the $600 figure, but that Republicans are in "disarray." Senate Republicans have proposed lowering the figure to $200 per week. Mnuchin said in an interview on ABC's This Week that Republicans had proposed a one-week extension of the $600 during negotiations, but after that payments "should be tied to some percentage of wages, the fact that we had a flat number was only an issue of an emergency."

CNN

4. Isaias skirts Florida coast, heads north with heavy rain and winds

Tropical Storm Isaias regained some strength Sunday as it delivered Florida a glancing blow and continued heading north, with forecasters saying it could regain hurricane strength on Monday as it passes east of Georgia. It is expected to hit the coasts of the Carolinas on Monday night with heavy rains, high winds, and storm surge of up to four feet. The storm is expected to move inland over eastern North Carolina on Monday night, then continue north to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York on Tuesday. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said Sunday that the storm's slight turn inland increased the threat of flooding and tornadoes in the eastern part of the state. Isaias' top sustained winds were around 70 miles per hour early Monday.

Reuters

5. White House: No plan to delay November election

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Sunday that the Trump administration has no plan to try to delay the November election, despite a Thursday tweet by President Trump suggesting a delay might be necessary. "Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???" Trump wrote, setting off a volley of bipartisan criticism. Meadows said Trump's post was merely intended to call attention to potential fraud and counting delays due to expanded mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic. "We're going to hold an election on Nov. 3, and the president is going to win," Meadows said on CBS News' Face the Nation. Meadows added that widespread use of mail-in ballots could delay election results by a month or more because election officials are "just not equipped to handle it."

The Washington Post

6. Russia plans October vaccination campaign with drug not yet approved

Russia plans to launch a nationwide coronavirus vaccination campaign using a drug that has not yet completed clinical trials. The country's health minister, Mikhail Murashko, said teachers and health-care workers would be vaccinated first with the drug, which is undergoing accelerated trials. The lab developing it is in the process of seeking regulatory approval. Russia is racing with other countries to develop the first vaccine, although its rush to start using the drug so quickly is concerning public health officials in other countries. "I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, said Friday at a congressional hearing.

The New York Times

7. Wildfire scorches more than 20,500 acres in Southern California

California's first major wildfire of the year, the Apple fire, continued to burn out of control in Riverside County, California, through the weekend, with authorities saying on Sunday night that it was just five percent contained. The blaze has scorched more than 20,500 acres and destroyed one building. It was first reported on Friday evening in Cherry Valley, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles, and is sweeping through rugged terrain and steep hillsides. Fire authorities said the cloud of smoke has been so immense that the fire is generating its own winds. Nearly 8,000 people have been evacuated, and there are more than 2,200 firefighters working on the ground and offering air support.

Los Angeles Times

8. Microsoft confirms talks to buy TikTok U.S. operations

Microsoft confirmed Sunday it was negotiating to buy the U.S. operations of popular social app TikTok from Chinese technology company ByteDance. Microsoft said it hoped to conclude talks on the deal by Sept. 15. The talks were first reported two days earlier. President Trump said he was against a TikTok acquisition by Microsoft, and that he would try to ban the app, which the Trump administration has accused of feeding data to the Chinese Communist Party. Microsoft said CEO Satya Nadella had spoken with Trump, who reportedly has given ByteDance 45 days to make a deal. Microsoft said the new structure "would build on the experience TikTok users currently love, while adding world-class security, privacy, and digital safety protections."

CNBC

9. Deutsche Bank investigates personal banker of Trump, Kushner

Deutsche Bank has opened an internal review into Rosemary Vrablic, the longtime personal banker of President Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, The New York Times reported Sunday. The investigation is focused on a real estate transaction involving Vrablic and a company called Bergel 715 Associates. In June 2013, Vrablic and two of her co-workers in Deutsche Bank's private banking division bought a $1.5 million Manhattan apartment from Bergel 715, the Times reported, citing property records. At the time, Kushner reportedly held an ownership stake in Bergel 715. In 2013, Trump and Kushner were clients of Vrablic, and had collectiveky received about $190 million in Deutsche Bank loans. Banks usually bar employees from doing personal business with clients to avoid conflicts of interest.

The New York Times

10. Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume dies at 83

John Hume, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work ending "The Troubles" in his native Northern Ireland, died on Monday after a short illness. He was 83. Hume, a moderate Roman Catholic politician, worked doggedly for peace, inspired by the late U.S. civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hume played a major role in peace talks that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair called Hume a "political titan" who "refused to believe the future had to be the same as the past." Hume's family said it seemed "particularly apt for these strange and fearful days to remember the phrase that gave hope to John and so many of us through dark times: We shall overcome."

The New York Times BBC News