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WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has unveiled a more than $3 trillion new coronavirus aid package. It would provide nearly $1 trillion for states, cities and tribal governments to avert layoffs and another $200 billion in “hazard pay” for essential workers. It would offer $1,200 in direct cash aid to individuals, up to $6,000 per household. It would also extend unemployment benefits, and there would be $75 billion more for virus testing. A House vote is expected Friday. But the Senate's Republican leader is cautioning his colleagues not to go so fast. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says there is no “urgency” to act immediately.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is making clear he will not immediately rule on the Justice Department’s decision to dismiss its criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan says he will instead let outside individuals and groups weigh in with their opinions. Flynn pleaded guilty, as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, to lying to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition period. But the Justice Department said last week that the FBI had no basis to question Flynn in the first place.
UNDATED (AP) — Pakistan crossed 2,000 new positive coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time since the start of the outbreak. The increase comes just days after Prime Ministerstar Imran Khan eased lockdown restrictions and stepped up the return of Pakistanis stranded overseas, ignoring please for stricter controls by Pakistan’s medical professionals. Scenes of crowds of people crammed into markets throughout the country greeted the let up in restrictions despite the government’s call for safe distancing, which has been largely ignored by many of Pakistan’s 220 million people. Khan has been criticized for downplaying the severity of the pandemic.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s primary voters mostly steered clear of polling sites Tuesday while shattering the state record for absentee voting with nearly 400,000 mail-in ballots in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Republican President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic challenger Joe Biden sailed to easy victories in the election, the first in-person primary since a heavily criticized election in Wisconsin five weeks ago in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. So did Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, who faced a GOP primary challenge because of his previous criticism of Trump. Sasse will face Democrat Chris Janicek, the winner of a nine-way primary.
UNDATED (AP) — Democrats are making new moves toward a virtual presidential nominating convention this August. The Democratic National Committee's influential Rules & Bylaws Committee voted Tuesday to grant convention organizers in Milwaukee the authority to design an event that won’t require delegates to attend in person amid the coronavirus pandemic. Party chairman Tom Perez says the move gives organizers “the tools necessary to adapt and plan” for a gathering and “ensure that every delegate is able to accomplish their official business without putting their own health at risk.” The convention committee will be able to determine the convention's final dates, along with its “format, voting mechanisms, structure and other logistical aspects.”
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