VOL. 44 | NO. 31 | Friday, July 31, 2020
The powerhouse Southeastern Conference reconfigured its schedule Thursday to include only league games in 2020, a pandemic-forced decision that pushes major college football closer to a siloed regular season in which none of the power conferences cross paths.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
Some years back a friend and I were navigating remarkably similar choppy waters on the sea of life. We lived hundreds of miles apart but kept regular tabs on each others well-being via the most advanced communication devices of the day: landline telephones.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
With the number of COVID cases growing and the White House slapping the city on the wrist for its behavior, it would seem logical that residential real estate activity would slow. Yet it continues to move forward.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. average rates on long-term mortgages declined this week, remaining near historic lows as the key 30-year loan slipped back below 3%.
NEWSMAKERS
Waller has chosen John Tishler as leader of the firm’s Healthcare Restructuring Team, which provides support to borrowers and lenders at a time when the health care industry is being tested by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn.
BRIEFS
Vanderbilt Aerospace Design Lab won the 2020 NASA Student Launch competition.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way automakers debut their vehicles. Large auto shows have been canceled, and many planned vehicle debuts have been delayed.
CAREER CORNER
“He’s just not paying attention in meetings!” “She’s just not the same person right now.” “It’s like he doesn’t care anymore about his work!” “She missed her deadline.” These are all things people are saying about their colleagues right now.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Money transfer apps including Venmo, Cash App and PayPal have surged in popularity during the pandemic as people seek safe, contactless ways to send and receive money. Unfortunately, many people don’t understand the limitations of these payment platforms or how they can put someone’s finances at risk.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Months into working from home, it’s time to check in with yourself. How is your work-life balance? Have you figured out when and how you work best? And when did you last shower?
PREDATORS
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Arizona Coyotes knew they had a big opportunity once their challenge erased Nashville's go-ahead goal early in the third period.
ELECTION 2020
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the option for all eligible voters to vote by mail in November due to COVID-19.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Election Day in pandemic times has arrived in Tennessee, where voters on Thursday will decide a heated Republican U.S. Senate primary and other federal and state contests.
NASHVILLE (AP) — President Donald Trump offered one more virtual boost Wednesday on the eve of Election Day for Bill Hagerty, who is tangled up in a tough Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump took in $165 million for his reelection effort in the month of July, a sum that that surpasses what his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, raised during the same period.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At the last minute, President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, are searching for places to impressively yet safely accept their parties' presidential nominations as the spread of the coronavirus adds fresh uncertainty to the campaign for the White House.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee continued to defend its school voucher program Wednesday, with attorneys asking a state appeals court to reverse a judge's ruling declaring the program illegal.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is still trying to overturn "Obamacare," but his predecessor's health care law keeps gaining ground in places where it was once unwelcome.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota's profit plunged 74% in the last quarter as the coronavirus pandemic sank vehicle sales to about half of what the top Japanese automaker sold the previous year.
DETROIT (AP) — Two tests by AAA during the past two years show that partially automated driving systems don't always function properly, so the auto club is recommending that car companies limit their use.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans applied for state unemployment benefits last week, evidence that the coronavirus keeps forcing companies to slash jobs just as a critical $600 weekly federal jobless payment has expired.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After more than a week's worth of meetings, at least some clarity is emerging in the bipartisan Washington talks on a huge COVID-19 response bill. Negotiators are still stuck but still trying.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called for a big expansion of U.S. government curbs on Chinese technology, saying that it wants to see "untrusted Chinese apps" pulled from the Google and Apple app stores.
TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo Co.'s profit multiplied more than sixfold in April-June as people stuck at home during the pandemic turned to playing video games.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England predicted Thursday that the economic downturn in the U.K. economy might be less severe than it thought at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic - even as it warned it would take a longer time to heal the scars.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5
PREDATORS
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Nashville Predators stumbled in their postseason opener by falling into an early hole, putting themselves in a must-win situation for Game 2.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — On the eve of Tennessee's primary election, public health officials announced Wednesday that top Republican political candidates and others may have been recently exposed to COVID-19.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee reversed course Tuesday by announcing that Tennessee will release data on COVID-19 in schools despite initially declaring such information would not be collected by the state.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — About 1 million Fiat Chrysler vehicles with four-cylinder engines in the U.S. may spew too much pollution, and the company is working with government officials on a recall.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German automaker BMW lost 212 million euros ($250 million) in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns cut vehicle sales by a quarter in the April-June period. The company saw a rebound in China, its biggest market.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Honda reported Wednesday that it sank into the red for the April-June quarter, as its sales plunged due to the coronavirus pandemic, especially in the U.S., Japan and India.
COURTS
GOODLETTSVILLE (AP) — A children's summer camp instructor in Goodlettsville has been charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old camper.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — A former Google engineer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets before joining Uber's effort to build robotic vehicles for its ride-hailing service.
TECHNOLOGY
Samsung aims to lift its sinking smartphone sales with three new models that will test consumer willingness to buy high-priced gadgets during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary chairman was closing in on his Perry Mason moment with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Fortified with "hot" internal company documents, Rep. Jerrold Nadler was building his case at a hearing that seemed almost like a trial for Facebook and three other tech giants over alleged anti-competitive tactics.
Facebook's Instagram is officially launching its answer to the hit short video app TikTok — Instagram Reels.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he'll probably deliver his Republican convention acceptance speech from the White House now that plans to hold the event in two battleground states have been foiled by coronavirus concerns and health restrictions.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee voters can begin requesting absentee ballots for the November election Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In an abrupt reversal, President Donald Trump is encouraging voters in the critical swing state of Florida to vote by mail after months of criticizing the practice — and while his campaign and the GOP challenge Nevada over its new vote-by-mail law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's Democratic presidential campaign is reserving $280 million in digital and television ads through the fall, nearly twice the amount President Donald Trump's team has reserved.
HEALTH CARE
One of the nation's biggest telemedicine providers will spend more than $18 billion to stoke an approach to care that grew explosively during the pandemic and recently received an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
With new coronavirus clusters sprouting aboard ships overseas, the U.S. cruise industry is extending its suspension of operations through October.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, President Donald Trump was flanked in the White House briefing room by a team of public health experts in a seeming portrait of unity to confront the disease that was ravaging the globe.
BOSTON (AP) — Fourth of July gatherings, graduation parties, no-mask weddings, crowded bars — there are reasons the U.S. has racked up more than 155,000 coronavirus deaths, by far the most of any country, and is fast approaching an off-the-charts 5 million confirmed infections, easily the highest in the world.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street's big rally keeps rolling, and the S&P 500 rose for a fourth straight day Wednesday to sit just 1.7% below its record.
A group of 16 Republican senators has endorsed giving more money to airlines to avoid layoffs right before the November election, giving a boost to a lobbying effort by airlines and their unions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Stark evidence of the damage the resurgent viral outbreak has caused the U.S. economy could come Friday when the government is expected to report that the pace of hiring has slowed significantly after a brief rebound in the spring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Activity in the services sector, where most Americans work, hit a 17-month high in July but economists fear that may be unsustainable because of the failure in the U.S. to contain COVID-19 infections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department will ramp up the size of the bonds and other securities it auctions across-the-board in the face of the unprecedented borrowing needs of the U.S. government as cases of COVID-19 surge in parts of the country.
U.S. businesses sharply reduced hiring last month suggesting that the resurgent viral outbreak this summer slowed the economic recovery as many states closed parts of their economies again and consumers remained cautious about spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit fell in June for the first time since February as exports posted a record increase, rising twice as fast as imports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Frustrated Senate Republicans re-upped their complaints that Democratic negotiators are taking too hard a line in talks on a sweeping coronavirus relief bill, but an afternoon negotiating session brought at least modest concessions from both sides, even as an agreement appears far off.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A small but singularly influential group is a driving force for an agreement on a stalled coronavirus relief bill: endangered Senate GOP incumbents who need to win this fall if Republicans are going to retain control of the majority.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Black-owned businesses have been almost twice as likely to fail as businesses overall during the current pandemic, according to a study released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
More people are throwing plant-based burgers on the grill this summer.
NEW YORK (AP) — Virgin Atlantic, the airline founded by British businessman Richard Branson, filed Tuesday for protection in U.S. bankruptcy court as it tries to survive the virus pandemic that is hammering the airline industry.
American Airlines has reached a deal with its pilots' union designed to reduce the number of job losses in October as the airline shrinks because fewer people are flying during the pandemic.
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday reported that its net income fell dramatically in the three-month period that ended in June when it most of its theme parks were shuttered and theatrical movie releases were postponed.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Wednesday there is no indication the massive explosion in Lebanon that killed at least 100 people was an attack, contradicting President Donald Trump who said American generals told him it was likely caused by a bomb.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department's acting inspector general resigned abruptly on Wednesday following the firing of his predecessor in circumstances now being investigated by Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fiona Hill, a key witness in President Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry, is going to be sharing her views about the future of a polarized America.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel viewers are usually a loyal bunch, but thousands looked for the "off" switch during last week's telecast of civil rights icon John Lewis' funeral.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have signed their top draft pick Isaiah Wilson and moved the rookie from the Reserve/COVID-19 list to the active roster.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee says he no longer believes the state will get permission to use federal funding to help address anticipated revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee on Monday announced he's calling lawmakers back to the Capitol to address legislation that would provide health care providers, schools and businesses broad protections against coronavirus lawsuits.
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A co-founder of Clayton Homes, a national home-building company, was killed when a helicopter crashed into the Tennessee River, relatives said Tuesday.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee education officials are offering 20 grants of $100,000 apiece to form or expand programs that help train new teachers at no cost to them.
TRANSPORTATION
Federal regulators on Monday outlined a list of design changes they will require in the Boeing 737 Max to fix safety issues that were discovered after two deadly crashes that led to the worldwide grounding of the plane.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators say they're opening an in-depth investigation into U.S. tech giant Google's plan to buy fitness tracking device maker Fitbit
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Google has started selling a long-delayed budget smartphone boasting the same high-quality camera and several other features available in fancier Pixel models that cost hundreds of dollars more.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Former United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger is denying claims by General Motors that he took bribes paid into foreign bank accounts by Fiat Chrysler in order to stick GM with higher labor costs.
DETROIT (AP) — Jim Farley will lead Ford Motor Co. into the future as the global auto industry faces a new era of autonomous and electric vehicles.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed legislation Tuesday that will devote nearly $3 billion a year to conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands following its overwhelming approval by both parties in Congress.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Booking.com is laying off a quarter of its workforce — more than 4,000 people — with the global pandemic snuffing out travel.
NEW YORK (AP) — For Michelle Lynn England, back-to-school shopping always meant heading to Target and the local mall with her two girls and dropping about $500 on each of them for trendy outfits.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration's plan to provide every nursing home with a fast COVID-19 testing machine comes with an asterisk: The government won't supply enough test kits to check staff and residents beyond an initial couple of rounds.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted higher Tuesday as Wall Street's big rally eased off the accelerator.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key Senate Republican said Tuesday that he supports an increase in the food stamp benefit as part of a huge coronavirus relief bill, adding that an agreement on that issue could lead to further overall progress on the legislation, which remains stalled despite days of Capitol negotiations.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. said Tuesday that its April-June profit jumped 53% as its video game and other online businesses thrived with people staying home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
ELECTION 2020
NASHVILLE (AP) — Attack ads in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Tennessee are clogging TV airwaves with claims about candidates' positions on guns, education and health care ahead of Thursday's election for retiring GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander's seat.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump claimed Monday that he has the authority to issue an executive order on mail-in ballots, whose increasing use, he argues, could increase election fraud and uncertainty, though it is unclear what he could do to curtail the practice.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is awarding more than $35 million in Justice Department grants to organizations that provide safe housing for survivors of human trafficking.
MONDAY, AUGUST 3
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — To no one's surprise, Taylor Swift's surprise album "folklore" is dominating the music charts.
PREDATORS
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Oliver Ekman-Larsson fired a shot from near the blue line that caromed off one Nashville player's skate, another's body and into the net.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Logan Woodside is used to being written off as a quarterback, starting when he was forced to transfer to a different Kentucky high school to start and then being benched twice in college at Toledo.
REGION
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he had fired the chair of the Tennessee Valley Authority, criticizing the federally owned corporation for hiring foreign workers.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A church, a turnpike and two bridges are among seven Tennessee sites recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is asking a federal judge to reconsider his dismissal of a lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler based on new allegations that FCA bribed union and GM officials with millions stashed in secret foreign bank accounts.
MILAN (AP) — Italian sportscar maker Ferrari lowered its full year earnings guidance on Monday after reporting second-quarter profits were nearly wiped out by temporary halts in production and delivery due to the coronavirus.
REAL ESTATE
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — U.S. construction spending fell again in June, the fourth straight decline as the coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc on the economy.
TECHNOLOGY
Google is pairing its Nest smart home technology with ADT and buying a stake in the home security company.
BANKING
LONDON (AP) — Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, said Monday that its net profit plummeted 96% in the second quarter of this year as lower interest rates combined with the downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic tool hold.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Most of Tennessee's new reported COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are now outside of the Nashville and Memphis metro areas, according to a report released Monday.
Sales at Clorox jumped 22% in its most recent quarter with millions of people growing more vigilant about cleaning routines in the pandemic. The company also announced Monday that Linda Rendle will become its CEO in September.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Slow, grinding negotiations on a huge COVID-19 relief bill are set to resume Monday afternoon, but the path forward promises to be challenging and time is already growing short. Republicans are griping that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won't drop her expansive wish list even as concerns are mounting that the White House needs to be more sure-footed in the negotiations.
NEW YORK (AP) — The check has arrived and beleaguered restaurant owners across America are looking down on their empty wallets.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Norwegian cruise ship line halted all trips and apologized Monday for procedural errors after an outbreak of coronavirus on one ship infected at least 5 passengers and 36 crew. Health authorities fear the ship could have infected dozens of towns and villages along Norway's western coast.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making grandiose claims about slashing drug prices and the efficacy of a treatment for COVID-19 that don't hold up to reality.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks started August with more gains, and a worldwide rally on Monday sent Wall Street back to where it was just a couple days after it set its record earlier this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department is projecting government borrowing of $947 billion in the current July-September period, which would be a record for the quarter but down from the all-time high of $2.75 trillion in this year's second quarter .
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — The $21 billion sale of Speedway gas stations has bought Marathon Petroleum some breathing room as the global pandemic continues to quash travel and smother demand for gasoline and jet fuel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. manufacturing improved again in July with a key gauge of activity rising further into expansion territory.
NEW YORK (AP) — Lord & Taylor, America's oldest retailer, is seeking bankruptcy protection, as is the owner of Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Banks, lengthening the list of major retail chains that have faltered in the pandemic.
The dairy industry has a familiar question for you: "Got milk?"
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities say one of the gravest threats to the November election is a well-timed ransomware attack that could paralyze voting operations. The threat isn't just from foreign governments, but any fortune-seeking criminal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The vote to renominate President Donald Trump is set to be conducted in private later this month, without members of the press present, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Convention said on Saturday, citing the coronavirus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats have subpoenaed four top aides to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying that the Trump administration is stonewalling their investigation into the firing of the State Department's top independent watchdog earlier this year.
FRIDAY, JULY 31
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee defensive lineman Darel Middleton no longer faces charges of domestic assault and public intoxication for an incident with his girlfriend in February.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University's nearly 750 spring graduates are being honored this weekend with a virtual commencement.
STATE GOVERNMENT
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Tennessee state senator was indicted Thursday on dozens of counts of stealing more than $600,000 in federal funds received by a health care school she directed and using the money to pay for personal items and expenses.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — An attempt to get some people with out-of-state felony convictions permission to participate in Tennessee's upcoming Aug. 6 primary election came to a halt Friday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court has released a plan to reduce racial disparities in the state's judicial system.
MIAMI (AP) — A British man, a Florida man and a Florida teen hacked the Twitter accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls to scam people around globe out of more than $100,000 in Bitcoin, authorities said Friday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee judge on Thursday cast doubt on an attempt to allow people to participate in the state's upcoming primary election if they've had their voting rights restored after being convicted of a felony out of state.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump will order China's ByteDance to sell its hit video app TikTok because of national-security concerns, according to reports published Friday.
LONDON (AP) — Twitter says the hackers responsible for a recent high-profile breach used the phone to fool the social media company's employees into giving them access.
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has been banned from Twitter for breaking the social media platform's site's rules forbidding hate speech.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — When the electric car revolution arrives, will there be enough places to plug in?
DETROIT (AP) — Fiat Chrysler overcame coronavirus-related factory shutdowns to post losses that were not as bad as feared, and the company predicted improving conditions for the remainder of 2020.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that he remains confident that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by early next year, telling lawmakers that a quarter-million Americans already have volunteered to take part in clinical trials.
NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus forced another change in Major League Baseball's schedule, bringing the league's total to eight teams affected in the first nine days of the season.
LONDON (AP) — Pharma giants GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur have announced they will supply 100 million doses of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine to the United States as governments buy up supplies in hopes something will work.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese state media reported on Friday the country's first ever death of a person with the coronavirus as it struggles with a renewed outbreak after 99 days without any cases.
ELECTION 2020
DETROIT (AP) — Despite fears that the coronavirus pandemic will worsen, Victor Gibson said he's not planning to take advantage of Michigan's expanded vote-by-mail system when he casts his ballot in November.
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump repeatedly tests the Republican Party's limits on issues including race, trade and immigration. Now he has struck a boundary.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A shift to mail voting is increasing the chances that Americans will not know the winner of November's presidential race on election night. But that doesn't mean the results will be flawed or fraudulent, despite President Donald Trump's continued insistence Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Big Tech continues to steamroll through the pandemic, and strong gains for some of the market's most influential companies on Friday helped Wall Street close out its fourth straight winning month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and its GOP allies appear to be retreating from their opposition to a $600-per-week supplemental unemployment benefit that has propped up the economy and family budgets but is expiring Friday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon.com is one step closer to space.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wages and benefits for U.S. workers rose at the slowest pace in three years in the April-June quarter, a sign that businesses are holding back on pay as well as cutting jobs in the coronavirus recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers increased their spending in June by a solid 5.6%, helping regain some of record plunge that occurred after the coronavirus struck hard in March and paralyzed the economy. But the virus' resurgence in much of the country could impede further gains.
NEW YORK (AP) — Two American oil giants lost more than $9 billion in the second quarter as the pandemic kept households on lockdown, cutting a gaping hole into a once-thriving business as the need for oil diminished around the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With aid expiring, the White House offered a short-term extension Thursday of a $600 weekly unemployment benefit that has helped keep families and the economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Democrats rejected it, saying President Donald Trump's team failed to grasp the severity of the crisis.
PARIS (AP) — The economy of the 19-country eurozone shrank by a devastating 12.1% percent during the second quarter from the quarter before as coronavirus lockdowns froze business and consumer activity. It was the largest drop on record.
AMSTELVEEN, The Netherlands (AP) — Dutch carrier KLM said Friday it will cut between 4,500 and 5,000 jobs because of the coronavirus crisis.
REIMS, France (AP) — Champagne is losing its fizz. For months, lockdown put the cork on weddings, dining out, parties and international travel — all key sales components for the French luxury wine marketed for decades as a sparkling must at any celebration.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Foreign Affairs Committee has subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for documents he turned over to a Senate panel that is investigating Hunter Biden, a son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — GOP activists want to trigger a constitutional convention with the goal of enacting a federal balanced budget amendment, potentially requiring massive cuts to government spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In shutting each other's consulates, the United States and China have done more than strike symbolic blows in their escalating feud. They've also dimmed each other's ability to observe — and to spy on — critical regions of their countries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations is going virtual this year for the first time in its 75-year history because of the COVID-19 pandemic — except for the likely personal appearance by President Donald Trump.
THURSDAY, JULY 30
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials are prepared to offer absentee ballots to voters who have health conditions or live with someone at risk for COVID-19, even if Tennessee's Supreme Court strikes down expanded mail voting in pandemic times, a state attorney said Thursday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville health officials said Thursday that they are concerned rising coronavirus cases in surrounding rural counties could overwhelm the city's hospitals.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The top women's indoor volleyball players in the U.S. will be calling Nashville home for their new professional league.
LEBANON (AP) — Cumberland University baseball coach Woody Hunt has been given the Pat Summitt Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. on Thursday surprised Wall Street by posting a $1.12 billion second-quarter net profit due to gains on its stake in the Argo AI autonomous vehicle operation.
TOKYO (AP) — Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, who was arrested in connection with the financial scandal of his ex-boss Carlos Ghosn, will soon face trial in a Tokyo court. Both cases had been in limbo after Ghosn fled to Lebanon.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Carmaker Volkswagen recorded an after-tax loss of 1.54 billion euros ($1.81 billion) in the second quarter as the pandemic shut down auto plants and closed dealerships.
PARIS (AP) — French carmaker Renault reported a massive loss of 7.4 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in the first half of the year as the collapse in global auto sales due to the pandemic worsened troubles already brewing at the manufacturer.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — When historians look back on the top films at the box office in the summer of 2020, they may feel like they've slipped into a time warp, or maybe "Back to the Future."
LONDON (AP) — Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca repeated its promise not to profit from a COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic as it reported it was on track with late-stage trials for the treatment.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A deadlocked Senate on Thursday exited Washington for the weekend without acting to extend a $600 per-week expanded jobless benefit that has helped keep both families and the economy afloat as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the country.
NEW YORK (AP) — Most of Wall Street stumbled Thursday, but yet another rise for big technology stocks helped keep the market's losses in check.
Big Tech companies reported mixed quarterly earnings on Thursday, a day after their top executives faced a tough congressional grilling over their market power and alleged monopolistic practices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Frustrated negotiators of a massive coronavirus relief bill face heightened pressure with Thursday's brutal economic news and the rapidly approaching lapse in a $600 per-week expanded jobless benefit that has helped prop up consumer demand.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy plunging by a record-shattering 32.9% annual rate last quarter and is still inflicting damage across the country, squeezing already struggling businesses and forcing a wave of layoffs that shows no sign of abating.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, further evidence of the devastation the coronavirus outbreak has unleashed on the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government says the U.S economy grew a bit more slowly last year than it had previously estimated and slightly faster in 2018.
NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic took a toll on Comcast in the second quarter as movie theaters closed, theme parks shut down and advertisers cut back.
A boom in online shopping during the pandemic pushed revenue higher at United Parcel Service Inc., which reported a $1.77 billion profit for the second quarter.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
ATLANTA (AP) — John Lewis was celebrated as an American hero during his funeral Thursday as former President Barack Obama and others called on people to follow Lewis' example and fight injustice.
ATLANTA (AP) — John Lewis spent his whole life fighting for civil rights — and he wanted to make sure the cause lived on after his death.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI said Thursday that errors in more than two dozen applications for surveillance warrants were not as severe as the Justice Department inspector general made them out to be.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate committee abruptly canceled a confirmation hearing Thursday on a controversial former general's nomination to a top Pentagon post after a furor over offensive remarks he made about Islam and other inflammatory comments.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that he and his team have warned Russian officials about all threats that Russia poses to Americans and U.S. interests in various parts of the world. Pompeo also defended the Trump administration's tough line on China, saying the communist nation represents a potent threat to the U.S. and Western-style democracy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's suggestion of postponing the November election drew condemnation from Republican officials in the states and on Capitol Hill as they tried to bat away questions their own party leader had raised about the legitimacy of that upcoming vote.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, lagging in the polls and grappling with deepening economic and public health crises, on Thursday floated the startling idea of delaying the Nov. 3 presidential election. The notion drew immediate pushback from Democrats and Republicans alike in a nation that has held itself up as a beacon to the world for its history of peaceful transfer of power.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency this week hosted a three-day tabletop exercise aimed at helping local, state and federal officials prepare for and respond to worst-case scenarios on Election Day.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's apocalyptic views of voting by mail are baseless, according to research into election fraud and the record. Despite that, he's now floated the idea of delaying the election until it can be held "properly."
ATLANTA (AP) — Herman Cain, former Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of a major pizza chain who went on to become an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, has died of complications from the coronavirus. He was 74.