Paris is now getting a mandatory mask requirement following an 'undeniable resurgence' of coronavirus cases

French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced mask mandate for Parisians beginning Friday.

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• Masks will become mandatory for all pedestrians and cyclists in Paris starting on Friday.
• On Wednesday, France reported 5,429 new daily infections, a level not seen since April.
• "The spread of the epidemic could become exponential if we do not react quickly," French Prime Minister Jean Castex said.
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On Thursday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex encouraged local authorities to impose new restrictions to address the net increase coronavirus cases in France, including a compulsory mask mandate for all Parisians.

The virus is circulating in nearly 20% of France's regions, with the number of "red zones" rising from two to 21, BBC News reported. Being categorized as a red zone allows local authorities to impose additional restrictions if necessary. 

Beginning on Friday morning, all pedestrians in the city and its inner ring of suburbs will be required to wear face-coverings when in public areas. The mask mandate has been extended to all bicyclists and people on motorcycles and scooters as well. 

"The deterioration of the health situation…has led the prefect to take this strong measure in interest of the population," Paris police prefecture said in a statement.

The mandatory mask requirement for Paris, one of the 21 red zones, follows one for Marseilles, France's third-largest city. Marseilles, which has been categorized as a red zone for several days, also imposed a curfew for all bars and restaurants Wednesday evening to limit the spread of the virus.

"The spread of the epidemic could become exponential if we do not react quickly," Castex said, adding that there was an "undeniable resurgence of the epidemic." 

Nearly 300,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in France since February, with over 30,000 deaths from the virus.

France reported 5,429 new daily infections on Wednesday, a level not seen since lockdowns were imposed in April, Reuters reported.

Despite the surge in cases of the virus, schools across the country are opening up for in-person instruction. 

In his statement, Castex said that infections were surging in young people and told grandparents not to pick up their grandchildren from school. He said the country needed to "do everything" to get people back into school and work. 

Labs in France are currently testing 830,000 people each week and aim to reach 1 million tests weekly by September, when schools reopen, Castex said. 

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Trump got hit with another lawsuit over his executive order targeting social media companies — this time from voting rights groups who say he's suppressing accurate election info

US presdient Donald Trump and the Twitter logo are seen in this photo illustration on December 1, 2017.

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• Voting rights groups sued Trump on Thursday over his executive order targeting social media companies' legal protections, which he issued after Twitter fact-checked his false tweets about mail-in voting.
• The groups argue that the order deprives voters of their First Amendment right to receive accurate information about elections.
• They also argue that Trump is violating social media companies' First Amendment rights by retaliating against them for disagreeing with him.
• Trump is already facing another lawsuit over the order, which legal and tech policy scholars predicted wouldn't hold up in court.
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President Donald Trump's controversial executive order taking aim social media companies is facing another legal challenge after voting rights advocates and watchdog groups took the president to court on Thursday.

Trump issued the order last month, just days after Twitter fact-checked two of his tweets pushing false information about voting by mail, in an attempt to chip away tech companies' legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The order seeks to empower federal regulators to amend Section 230 such that it would eliminate tech companies' legal immunity if they "discriminate" against users or restrict their access without giving them a fair hearing. It also directs federal agencies to review their ad spending on social media platforms

In their lawsuit, the groups claim that the order not only violates tech companies' rights to ensure the accuracy of information on their platforms by retaliating against them, but also voters' rights to receive accurate information, particularly about elections.

"Online platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (all targeted by name in the Executive Order) have First Amendment rights to ensure that accurate information — including about how to register to vote and successfully cast a ballot by Election Day — is not undermined by misinformation on their platforms," the groups argue in the complaint.

"The Executive Order is fundamentally incompatible with the First Amendment. It deprives users of their right to receive information curated by online platforms, including information critical of President Trump or corrective of his falsehoods," they added.

The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California by Rock the Vote, Voto Latino, Common Cause, Free Press, and MapLight against Trump, Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and Douglas Kinkoph, who holds various tech policy roles within the Commerce Department.

The groups accuse Trump of using federal agencies to threaten legal action against tech companies that moderate content in ways he disagrees with and by threatening to withhold government ad spending on their platforms.

The lawsuit claims that the order "is unlawfully retaliatory and coercive, sending a clear and chilling message: question President Trump and face retribution from the entire Executive Branch."

The first legal challenge against Trump's order, filed last month by the Center for Democracy and Technology, an industry-backed think tank, similarly argued that the order is unlawfully retaliatory against tech platforms and violates their First Amendment rights.

Legal scholars and tech policy experts immediately cast doubt on the legality of Trump's order when it was announced last month.

"This is not how the Constitution works," Ashkhen Kazaryan, the director of civil liberties at TechFreedom, a libertarian technology policy think tank, previously told Business Insider. "The First Amendment protects Twitter from Trump. It does not protect Trump from Twitter."

Social media companies have gradually ramped up their efforts to fact-check misinformation pushed by Trump in the past few months, particularly around elections and the coronavirus pandemic.

In response, Trump has lashed out at them in various public attacks as well as his attempts to revoke Section 230, which prevents companies from being held legally liable for content published on their platforms by third parties as well as gives them broad discretion to moderate content on their platform as they see fit.

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The Justice Department opened a federal civil rights investigation into police shooting of Jacob Blake

Family members of Jacob Blake are seen as they hold press conference in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States on August 25, 2020.

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• The US Department of Justice announced Wednesday that its Civil Rights Division had opened an investigation in the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
• Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back in front of his children in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
• Eyewitnesses previously told Insider that Blake appeared to be checking to make sure his kids were safe.
• The Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, which is investigating Blake's shooting, said in an initial account of the incident officers attempted to arrest Blake and deployed a Taser before he was shot. 
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A federal investigation has been launched into the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the US Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The investigation will be conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Wisconsin state authorities, the department said in an August 26 press release, and will be overseen by prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office and the criminal section of DOJ's Civil Rights Division.

Blake, a 29-year-old Black man and father of three, was shot in the back by a Kenosha police officer seven times on Sunday as he tried to get into his car. Eyewitnesses told Insider that he appeared to be checking on the well-being of his three sons in the backseat.

"His kids are his priority," one eyewitness, neighbor Dan Stone, said in an interview. "He wanted to make his kids safe."

An attorney for Blake's family said he is now paralyzed and that it would "take a miracle" for him to ever walk again, the Associated Press reported.

The officer who shot Blake was identified Wednesday as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha police force. Police encountered Blake after they initially responded to a woman calling to report that her boyfriend was present but "wasn't supposed to be on the premises," according to a press release from the department.

The release described an initial account of the incident that said officers attempted to arrest Blake and deployed a Taser on him before Sheskey shot him in the back seven times. In the initial investigation after the incident, authorities recovered a knife from the car.

Neighbors told Business Insider that Blake appeared to be a peacemaker, seeking to deescalate the situation.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

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Kellyanne Conway says Trump has supported her and calls for his reelection at the Republican convention

White House Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway pre-records her address to the Republican National Convention from inside an empty Mellon Auditorium August 26, 2020 in Washington, DC.

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• Kellyanne Conway, a top counselor to President Donald Trump, made a forceful case for the president's reelection in a speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night. 
• One of the president's fiercest and longest-serving advisers, Conway attempted to humanize Trump. 
• "President trump and Vice President Pence have lifted Americans, provided them with dignity, opportunity and results," Conway said in her remarks. "[Trump] has stood by me, and he will stand up for you." 
• Conway's speech comes just days after she announced she'll be leaving White House post this week, citing a need to focus on her family.
• Her husband is an outspoken critic of the president. 
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Kellyanne Conway, a top counselor to President Donald Trump, made a forceful case for the president's reelection in a speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night. 

One of the president's fiercest and longest-serving advisers, Conway attempted to humanize Trump, arguing that he's surrounded himself with women like herself and regularly provides emotional support to struggling Americans. 

"President trump and Vice President Pence have lifted Americans, provided them with dignity, opportunity and results," Conway said in her pre-recorded remarks. "[Trump] has stood by me, and he will stand up for you." 

Conway's speech comes just days after she announced she'll be leaving White House post this week, citing a need to focus on her family. 

"This is completely my choice and my voice," she said in a statement posted to Twitter. "In time, I will announce future plans. For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama."

Conway's husband, conservative attorney George Conway, has become an outspoken anti-Trump activist in recent years and helped found the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, which has endorsed Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

—Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) August 24, 2020

George Conway's public attacks on Trump — he's called the president a "sociopath," a "malignant narcissist," and "a pathological liar," among many other descriptors — have attracted significant media attention. The president lashed out at him on Twitter last year, calling him a "a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!" and accused him of being "VERY jealous of his wife's success." 

Kellyanne called her husband's sharp criticism of her boss "disrespectful" in a 2018 interview with The Washington Post.

"It's a violation of basic decency, certainly, if not marital vows," she said. 

Last week, one of the Conways' daughters, Claudia, who is 15, publicly announced she is seeking "emancipation" from her parents after months of publicly criticizing their politics. 

George announced last Sunday that he would step back from his work with the Lincoln Project to deal with family issues.

In the announcement of her departure, Kellyanne said that she and her husband "disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids."

Kellyanne joined the Trump campaign as its manager in August 2016 and helped lead it to victory a few months later, becoming the first women to manage a winning presidential campaign — a fact she's repeated often, including in her speech on Wednesday night. 

—ABC News (@ABC) August 27, 2020

 

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Immigrants in Trump's RNC naturalization ceremony weren't warned it would be part of the convention and on TV

U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as five candidates for naturalization coming from five different countries recite the oath of allegiance during the largely virtual 2020 Republican National Convention broadcast from Washington, U.S. August 25, 2020.

Republican National Convention/Reuters Images

• Immigrants who were made US citizens in a naturalization process led by Trump on Tuesday did not know the president would be there.
• Some were also not aware that the ceremony would be aired as part of the Republican National Convention. 
• Trump has faced fierce criticism from Democrats and ethics groups over the ceremony and for turning the White House into a campaign venue. 
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Several of the immigrants who became US citizens in a naturalization process led by President Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention on Tuesday were not warned that the president would be there and that it would be aired as part of the convention, the New York Times reported.  

Sudha Narayanan, originally from India and one of five people sworn in at the White House on Tuesday, told the Times she only found out the ceremony was aired as part of the RNC after a friend called later and said she was on TV. 

"I was surprised and shocked and excited," Narayanan said.

She expressed positive sentiments about the event. 

"It was very warm and welcoming," Narayanan said. "I told him it was such an honor to meet him."

Neimat Abdelazim Awadelseid, originally from Sudan, found out only minutes before the ceremony that Trump would attend and also did not know it would be aired as part of the convention, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Awadelseid told the Journal she recalls signing a media release form but cannot remember being informed about the RNC.

Speaking with the Times on Trump's travel ban, which primarily targets predominantly Muslim nations and includes Sudan, Awadelseid said the restrictions make it "hard for my country." She also said it was an honor to be sworn in at the White House.

"It is a special moment, to get it from a president of the United States, to give me the citizenship," Awadelseid told the Times.

Salih Abdul Samad, a chef originally from Ghana, was also unaware the ceremony would be on primetime TV as part of the GOP convention. 

"When you call me, you have to go through security background checks because I'm a star," Samad said to the Times, jokingly. Samad told the Times he's grateful for the US and for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) because it saved his live when he faced kidney failure roughly half a decade ago. 

While these new US citizens did not seem to mind that their naturalization ceremony came with big surprises, the  setting of the event has sparked fierce criticism from Democrats and ethics groups.

Trump is perhaps the most anti-immigrant president in modern US history. Critics said Trump used the immigrants in the ceremony as props to sanitize his well-documented record of xenophobia and as part of a blatant effort to boost his reelection campaign. 

Acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf's participation in the ceremony also raised questions as to whether he violated the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits federal employees from participating in certain political activities while on the job. 

Reacting to the ceremony via Twitter, the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said, "This is so obviously, blatantly, insultingly a Hatch Act violation that it's starting to seem like the Trump administration is going out of its way to find new ways to violate the law." 

More broadly, the president has faced significant backlash for holding much of the RNC at the White House and turning what is perhaps the most iconic public building in the country into a campaign venue. 

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