US politics live: Ilhan Omar faces challenge as six states hold primaries – news updates | The Guardian

By Survivability News Editor On Aug 11, 2020 - 12:00 162

900 US healthcare workers have died of Covid-19 – and the toll is risingTrump considers blocking Americans who may have Covid-19 from coming homeGeorgia, Minnesota, Connecticut, Vermont and Wisconsin to hold primariesCori Bush interview: ‘They don’t know what I know’Sign up to our First Thing newsletter 12.36pm BST If you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve launched a series today called Lost on the frontline where we have partnered with Kaiser Health News in an effort to document every US healthcare worker who dies from Covid-19.At the heart of it is our interactive where our journalists have so far profiled 167 of the 922 healthcare workers who have died during the coronavirus pandemic in the US, many of them under the age of 40, and some only in their 20s. Related: Lost on the frontline: US healthcare workers who died fighting Covid-19 As long as the patients keep coming, there will be someone to care. Let’s give nurses and doctors a chance to catch their breath and go about healing our other issues. Let’s not ask more medical professionals to pay the price we don’t need to pay. They aren’t just medical professionals. They are our neighbors who get the early bus, our friends who always pick up the phone, our sisters who make us laugh, our dads who always know what to say. They have their own lives and we must give them that chance. Related: Let us honor our healthcare workers by giving them the protection they need | Andy Slavitt 12.25pm BST Some slow moves towards police reform in Seatlle continue. The city council approved proposals on Monday that would reduce the police department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition. It was, reports the Associated Press, an action supported by demonstrators who have marched in the city following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but strongly opposed by the mayor and police chief.The measures that cut less than $4 million of the department’s $400 million annual budget this year passed out of committee unanimously last week. On Monday, only council member Kshama Sawant voted against the budget package, saying it does not do enough to defund the police. Continue reading…

900 US healthcare workers have died of Covid-19 – and the toll is rising
Trump considers blocking Americans who may have Covid-19 from coming home
Georgia, Minnesota, Connecticut, Vermont and Wisconsin to hold primaries
Cori Bush interview: ‘They don’t know what I know’
Sign up to our First Thing newsletter

12.36pm BST

If you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve launched a series today called Lost on the frontline where we have partnered with Kaiser Health News in an effort to document every US healthcare worker who dies from Covid-19.

At the heart of it is our interactive where our journalists have so far profiled 167 of the 922 healthcare workers who have died during the coronavirus pandemic in the US, many of them under the age of 40, and some only in their 20s.

As long as the patients keep coming, there will be someone to care. Let’s give nurses and doctors a chance to catch their breath and go about healing our other issues. Let’s not ask more medical professionals to pay the price we don’t need to pay. They aren’t just medical professionals. They are our neighbors who get the early bus, our friends who always pick up the phone, our sisters who make us laugh, our dads who always know what to say. They have their own lives and we must give them that chance.

12.25pm BST

Some slow moves towards police reform in Seatlle continue. The city council approved proposals on Monday that would reduce the police department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition. It was, reports the Associated Press, an action supported by demonstrators who have marched in the city following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but strongly opposed by the mayor and police chief.

The measures that cut less than $4 million of the department’s $400 million annual budget this year passed out of committee unanimously last week. On Monday, only council member Kshama Sawant voted against the budget package, saying it does not do enough to defund the police.