Bhinneka News Online: Tuesday Morning Briefing: Republicans and Democrats face tough talks on coronavirus relief

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Republicans and Democrats in tough talks
U.S. Republicans and Democrats faced difficult talks on Tuesday over how best to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, after Republicans unveiled a relief proposal four days before millions of Americans lose unemployment benefits.

Senate Republicans announced on Monday a $1 trillion aid package hammered out with the White House, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell touted as a “tailored and targeted” plan to reopen schools and businesses while protecting firms from lawsuits.

But the proposal brought opposition from both sides. Democrats decried it as too limited compared with their $3 trillion proposal that passed the House of Representatives in May. Some Republicans called it too expensive.

Vaccine updates
U.S. and company officials are hopeful Moderna Inc’s vaccine against COVID-19 could be ready for widespread use by the end of this year, after the drugmaker announced the start of a 30,000-subject trial to demonstrate it is safe and effective, the final hurdle prior to regulatory approval.

German biotech BioNTech and U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc said on Monday they would begin a pivotal global study to evaluate their lead vaccine candidate. If the study is successful, the companies could submit the vaccine for regulatory approval as early as October.

Meanwhile, European efforts to secure potential COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Sanofi and Johnson & are mired in wrangles over price, payment method and potential liability costs, three EU officials told Reuters.

‘Negligence’ blamed for Germany’s virus case rise
Negligence is behind Germany’s steady rise in new coronavirus infections, the head of a state-funded research body said on Tuesday, adding it was unclear if a second wave was underway.

“The new developments in Germany make me very worried,” said Lothar Wieler, of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. “The rise has to do with the fact that we have become negligent,” he added, urging people not to flout social distancing rules.

The number of daily new cases almost doubled on Tuesday to 633, and the RKI linked that to increased contact at parties and the workplace.

Swift moves in Vietnam
Vietnam suspended all flights to and from Danang for 15 days after at least 14 coronavirus cases were detected in the city. Two people were in critical condition.

“All evacuation flights now are cancelled,” CAAV deputy director Vo Huy Cuong told Reuters by phone on Tuesday. “We operated 90 flights to evacuate tourists stranded in Danang yesterday but most tourists had already left Danang on Sunday, mostly by coach or train to nearby provinces.”

All bus and train services to and from Danang have also been suspended from Tuesday. With over 95 million people, Vietnam is the most populous country in the world to have recorded no COVID-19 fatalities.

Fly all you want
China Southern Airlines, China’s biggest carrier by passengers, on Tuesday rolled out a “Fly Happily” deal, which allows buyers to use passes for as many flights as they wish for destinations across the country from Aug. 26 to Jan. 6 for 3,699 yuan ($529).

At least eight of China’s dozens of airlines have introduced similar deals since June. Industry watchers say the packages have been a shot in the arm.

But Luya You, transportation analyst at BOCOM International, said these promotional packages can only stimulate demand when coronavirus risks are already sufficiently reduced. “While these packages may work in domestic markets, we do not expect similar rollouts for outbound routes anytime soon,” she said.

Track the spread with our live global and U.S.-focused interactive graphics.

Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Singapore, Peugeot, Crisis warning. Read the daily column updated throughout the day by Breakingviews columnists around the world with short, sharp pandemic-related insights.

Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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U.S.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr faces tough questioning by a Democratic-controlled House of Representative committee whose members believe he abused his power to bolster President Donald Trump’s allies and silence his political enemies. The hearing will mark Barr’s first testimony before the House Judiciary Committee since he took office in February 2019, and comes as the Justice Department faces criticism for its role in sending federal officers to forcibly disperse protesters in Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will explain how he would address systemic racism and racial economic inequality in a speech, outlining the fourth and final plank of his sweeping plan to revitalize the coronavirus-hit U.S. economy. At an event in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, the former vice president will again seek to draw a contrast between his vision for economic recovery and what he has criticized as a disastrous response to the pandemic from President Trump.

SPECIAL REPORT: In the hearts of New York and metro Los Angeles, Rite Aid installed facial recognition technology in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods, Reuters found. Among the technology the U.S. retailer used: a state-of-the-art system from a company with links to China and its authoritarian government.

Six U.S. mayors, all Democrats, urged Congress to halt President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal forces to their cities, saying the move has escalated tensions at anti-racism protests spreading across the country. The request came on the same day the U.S. attorney for Oregon announced the arrest of 22 people on charges stemming from clashes with federal and local police at the federal courthouse in Portland.

COVID Science

New heart problems seen in recovered COVID-19 patients
More than three-quarters of recently recovered COVID-19 patients had heart muscle problems show up during magnetic resonance imaging tests, German doctors reported on Monday in JAMA Cardiology. In some patients, the heart may be "in serious trouble as a part of COVID-19 disease," Dr. Valentina Puntmann of University Hospital Frankfurt told Reuters. Among 100 patients ages 45 to 53, "a considerable majority" - 78 - had inflammation in the heart muscle and lining.

Mutation may have made virus more vulnerable to vaccines
A genetic mutation that made the new coronavirus more infectious may also make it more vulnerable to vaccines, researchers believe. The mutation, designated D614G, increases the number of "spikes" on the surface of the virus and makes them more stable, allowing the virus to more efficiently break into and infect cells. The mutation will not pose problems for vaccines now in clinical trials, however, because the extra spikes retain the targets for the "neutralizing antibodies" the vaccines are designed to induce.