promoearn: How to save 33,000 lives

Thursday, June 25

An Emergency room doctor paints a mural outside of Zuni restaurant to honor medical workers during coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic on June 22, 2020 in San Francisco, California. Doctors and medical workers helped paint a mural honoring healthcare workers on boarded up windows in a project spearheaded by San Francisco General Hospital Foundation and Paint the Void.

Coronavirus cases are surging across the United States. And the Supreme Court is upholding the quick removal of asylum-seekers. It's Thursday's news.

The Pentagon may ban Confederate imagery. NASCAR has some explaining to do. And this is how you can save a life.

But first, hey neighbors! A "nearby" star is home to at least two, and perhaps three, super-Earth-sized exoplanets.

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Coronavirus is back. (It never really left.)

Experts forecast 180,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States by Oct. 1, according to a model released Wednesday by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation . But if you wear a face mask? As many as 33,000 lives could be saved. This means you, too, young people. While "we're still in the first wave," Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the pandemic today looks markedly different from the outbreak two or three months ago. "It's in younger individuals. Fewer of those individuals are requiring hospitalization ... but that is not to minimize it," Redfield said.

A new phase of the pandemic

The surge in COVID-19 cases reflects a potentially dangerous new phase of the pandemic, infectious disease and public health experts say. More than 36,000 new infections were reported Wednesday by state health departments, passing the previous record of 34,203 single-day infections set on April 25. And those numbers represent only about 1 in every 10 cases, Redfield said.

•	Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that he is pausing the state's reopening plans and suspending elective surgeries. The state is in its third phase to reopen the economy.

Every day is important

Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday that "the next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges we are seeing in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and other states." President Donald Trump has blamed the rising number of COVID-19 cases on increased testing and suggested case counts would drop with fewer tests.

•	CDC urges Americans to socially distance this Independence Day, saying that they are "concerned" about the rise in coronavirus cases.

Let's talk numbers

Global infections have surpassed 9.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, with 2.4 million in the United States. More than 484,000 people have died worldwide.

NASCAR shares picture of noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage

Garage stalls searched: 1,684. Ropes found: 11. Number of nooses: one, in Bubba Wallace's garage, according to NASCAR president Steve Phelps . The FBI may have concluded that Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series, was not the target of a hate crime. But the agency did not dispute that there was a noose in the No. 4 garage at Talladega Superspeedway. Pictures of the noose, released by NASCAR on Thursday, further confirm that conclusion.

Bubba Wallace wears a shirt in support of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter before Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Brynn Anderson, Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network

What everyone's talking about

•	It has been one month since George Floyd died. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, the hard work is just beginning.
•	Disney's Splash Mountain to get new theme based on "The Princess and the Frog" amid calls to ditch racist history.
•	Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell will give up their roles on "Big Mouth" and "Central Park" respectively, saying it's inappropriate for them to voice biracial characters.
•	The Dixie Chicks are changing their name to The Chicks: "We want to meet this moment."
•	Are contact tracing apps doomed to fail in America? Many are skeptical about privacy with Google and Apple COVID-19 tracing apps with tech that already knows too much about us.
•	Pregnant women with COVID-19 are 5 times more likely to be hospitalized compared with non-pregnant women.

Confederate symbols may be banned by the Pentagon

The Pentagon is considering a ban on Confederate imagery across the military, Army Sec. Ryan McCarthy said Thursday, following prohibitions already enacted by the Navy, Marine Corps . Congress has also proposed legislation that would strip the names of Confederate officers from 10 Army posts and buildings. President Trump has been outspoken against such changes, arguing the names honor history, not racism. The Army has made its recommendation on Confederate symbolism to Defense Secretary Mark Esper. McCarthy declined to indicate the Army's position but said Esper is seeking a uniform policy for all the military.

FILE - In this April 2, 2019, file photo, Secretary of the Army Mark Esper speaks during a House Armed Services Committee budget hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Donald Trump on June 18, named Esper as acting Defense Secretary. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) ORG XMIT: WX106

Andrew Harnik, AP

Supreme Court OKs fast removal of asylum-seekers

Asylum-seekers claiming fear of persecution abroad do not have to be given a federal court hearing before quick removal from the United States, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday . The decision, written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, represented a crucial test of the Trump administration's effort to speed up the removal of thousands of migrants without granting federal court hearings. The fast-track process is allowed under a law passed by Congress in 1996. Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.

Real quick

•	Trump is trailing the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in six crucial swing states in a new poll – all of which he won in 2016.
•	Is July 15 still tax day? Treasury may consider delaying deadline to Sept. 15.
•	60 games in 66 days: How MLB's shortened 2020 schedule came together.
•	Mount Rushmore should be "removed," tribal president says ahead of Trump's visit: What's behind the site's controversial history.
•	Vince Carter announces retirement after 22-year NBA career: "I'm officially done."
•	John Bolton wants to help Republicans keep the Senate. No thanks, strategists say.
•	The Eiffel Tower reopened to visitors Thursday after its longest-ever closure in peacetime: 104 days. One thing to note: People have to take the stairs.

Read the fine print on that CARES Act money

The confusion lies in the fine print. Many out-of-work Americans counting on receiving an extra $600 a week through the end of July may be surprised to discover it will disappear a week earlier than they expected . The additional $600 in weekly jobless benefits provided by the federal government is set to officially end July 31. But states will pay it only through the week ending July 25 or July 26, a significant blow to unemployed workers counting on that money to bolster state benefits that average just $370 a week.

This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for The Short List newsletter here.