• 28 Chinese air force aircraft amass near Taiwan as US Navy carrier enters South China Sea region
• EU, India try again to clinch trade deal, sidelining China
• John Pilger: The Coming War on China

• Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance Has Hidden Almost $40 Million In Pentagon Funding And Militarized Pandemic Science
• Wuhan Lab lies bring to light a conflict of interest for Dr. Daszak
• Tucker Carlson: Google funded Peter Daszak's 'bat virus' research, then censored search results on 'lab leak' theory
• 'Utterly unreliable': The mystery behind the true COVID-19 death rate
• World's leading epidemiologist John Ioannidis on COVID-19 fiasco: 'We are making decisions without reliable data'
• New England Journal of Medicine: Coronavirus mortality rate may be much closer to a very bad flu
• NYT 'refused' to publish comparison of countries Covid-19 death statistics - Russian Embassy
• Open letter to the Covid-corrupted media: Non-stop reporting, alarming and fearmongering

• Common sense: Florida gov. DeSantis eliminates remaining local emergency COVID-19 restrictions
• Liberty King: Florida governor to pardon everyone in state charged with breaking Covid restrictions
• Florida Governor DeSantis hints at special session to fight school mask mandates: We're not doing that in Florida!
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issues executive order banning 'vaccine passports'
• Florida gov. DeSantis is fed up with big tech — now he's unveiled a way to fight back
• Florida Gov DeSantis will ban critical race theory from state's school curriculum
• Florida Governor DeSantis signs bill to protect women's and girls' sports from trans lobby
• DeSantis signs education reform bill requiring students learn about the 'evils of Communism'

President Joe Biden on Tuesday reprimanded GOP governors for banning mask mandates, as he told them to let "businesses and universities who want to do the right thing to be able to do it."

People who choose to wear masks are still free to do so.

"We need leadership from everyone and if some governors aren't willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic, then they should allow businesses and universities who want to do the right thing to be able to do it," Biden said at the White House on Tuesday, according to The Hill.

"I say to these governors, please help. If you aren't going to help, at least get out of the way of people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives," he added.

Biden was asked about Florida and Texas, where governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, respectively, have signed executive orders prohibiting mask mandates.

"I believe the results of their decisions are not good for their constituents, and it's clear to me and to most of the medical experts that the decisions being made like not allowing mask mandates in schools and the like are bad health policy," Biden said during the press conference.

When asked why he doesn't tell DeSantis this message directly over a phone call, Biden said, "He knows the message. We had a little discussion while we were down there," apparently referring to his trip to Surfside, Fla., in July, following the condominum collapse.

Arizona, Iowa, South Carolina, and Vermont have also banned schools from implementing mask mandates.

Questioned about his ban on local officials enacting mask mandates in April at a press conference on Tuesday, Hutchinson was surprisingly open about his change in position.

"Everything has changed now," the governor said. "And yes in hindsight, I wish that had not become law. But it is the law. And the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the court to say that it has an unconstitutional foundation."

Hutchinson is one of multiple Republican governors to sign bills into law that push back against potential vaccine passports or mask mandates.

Note that it's not just mask mandates that are up for grabs, there's the threat of vaccine passports too:

Arkansas is seeing its highest Covid-19 cases since January. Less than half of adults in the state are fully vaccinated, and the state has the third lowest vaccination rate in the country.

It's telling that in countries across much of the planet, even in those where the experimental injections are widely available, less than half of people have chosen to be vaccinated.

Hutchinson's criticism of a law he signed led to heavy mockery online from liberal critics.

Hutchinson is now calling for a special state legislative session to reevaluate the ban, which the governor argued he signed into law when Covid-19 cases were dropping.

The Republican governor did not go as far as some Democrats have in recent weeks by calling for an actual mask mandate across the state, but did appear open to mask mandates dictated by school districts.

The state's health secretary, Jose Romero, added that coronavirus cases among young people have been rising dramatically in recent months. Cases among those under 18, the health secretary said, rose by 500% from the month of April to July. Hospitalizations for people under 18, meanwhile, have reportedly increased by over 200%.

• The United States rejoining the Iran nuclear deal is a good thing, right? Well, not necessarily
• Iran detains UAE ship and its crew after two fishermen killed, tensions run high amidst US brokered UAE-Israel deal
• Trump reaps the whirlwind with China/Iran mega deal

The U.S. Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) is issuing a new order temporarily halting evictions in counties with heightened levels of community transmission in order to respond to recent, unexpected developments in the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the rise of the Delta variant. It is intended to target specific areas of the country where cases are rapidly increasing, which likely would be exacerbated by mass evictions. Accordingly, subject to the limitations under "Applicability," a landlord, owner of a residential property, or other person with a legal right to pursue eviction or possessory action, shall not evict any covered person from any residential property in any county or U.S. territory while the county or territory is experiencing substantial or high levels of community transmission of SARS-CoV-2.