US sees deadliest day of summer in coronavirus outbreak – live | US news

The flag-draped coffin of former Democratic Representative John Lewis, the Civil Rights icon, is scheduled to be transported from the Capitol in Washington DC to Atlanta, Georgia this morning. Here’s more from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

It will pass several notable spots in Atlanta, including the Rainbow Crosswalk at 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue, Chabad Intown Synagogue, will travel down John Lewis Freedom Parkway, the Martin Luther King Jr Historic District, the John Lewis “HERO” mural and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headquarters.

As was done in the nation’s capital and three Alabama cities, members of the public will be allowed to file past Lewis’ casket from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, and again from 8 to 10 p.m.

Good morning, US live blog readers, it’s going to be a lively day in American political news. We will have a separate live blog for you on all the drama on Capitol Hill as the chiefs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are grilled (via video conference) in a historic anti-trust hearing, which begins at 12pm ET.

In this regular live blog, here’s what’s afoot, stay tuned.

• More than 1,300 lives were lost from coronavirus nationwide in the US yesterday, making it the biggest one-day increase since May and the deadliest day of the summer so far.
• The US death toll from Covid-19 is approaching 150,000, while confirmed US cases are now above 4.3m.
• A total of 21 states are now considered to be in what the federal government considered a “red zone” for concerning rates of infection.
• The Trump administration has started talks with the Oregon governor’s office and indicated that it would begin to draw down the presence of federal agents sent to quell two months of chaotic protests in Portland if the state stepped up its own enforcement, a senior White House official has said.
• Donald Trump said he never questioned Russian leader Vladimir Putin about US intelligence reports that Moscow paid the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, casting doubt on the reports in an interview with Axios on its HBO show. “I have never discussed it with him,” Trump said last night. The full interview airs next week.