Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Northam said last week that the statue should be taken down from its pedestal "as soon as possible", amid nationwide protests demanding racial equality following the death of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. After George Floyd's death, a groundswell of religious activism

George Floyd's death has triggered a groundswell of outrage and activism by religious leaders and faith-based groups across the United States, reminiscent of what occurred during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Conservative and mainstream religious leaders are joining with Black churches, progressive Catholics and Protestants, Jewish synagogues and other faith groups in calling for police reforms and efforts to dismantle racism. Virginia judge blocks governor's demand to pull down Confederate statue

A judge in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday issued a 10-day injunction against Governor Ralph Northam's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the city, according to the Washington Post. Northam said last week that the statue should be taken down from its pedestal "as soon as possible", amid nationwide protests demanding racial equality following the death of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. George Floyd to be buried Tuesday as global anti-racism protests spread

George Floyd will be buried in Houston on Tuesday two weeks after his death while being held by police in a Minneapolis street, and more anti-racism rallies inspired by his treatment were set to take place in the United States and in Europe. Thousands of mourners paid their respects on Monday, filing past his open coffin at the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston, Texas, where Floyd grew up. Billions in COVID relief go to biggest hospital chains as smaller rivals await aid

Spared the worst of COVID-19, the largest for-profit hospital chains in the United States are pursuing a speedy recovery backed by billions of dollars in federal aid, while other hospitals say they have been harder hit and left wanting. HCA Healthcare Inc, the biggest chain, has received $5.3 billion in loans and grants thus far from the federal government to offset lost business and higher expenses from the coronavirus pandemic. Tenet Healthcare Corp, the second-largest chain by revenue and beds, has disclosed more than $2 billion in similar loans and grants. Georgia Democrats vote on Senate challenger as five U.S. states hold primaries

Georgia Democrats will try to pick their challenger to Republican Senator David Perdue on Tuesday when voters in five U.S. states choose candidates for the White House and Congress as the nation navigates a trio of politically charged crises. U.S. cities over the past two weeks have seen large-scale protests against high-profile killings of black men including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, while coping with a pandemic that has killed more than 108,000 people and thrown tens of millions out of work. Trump's troop cut in Germany blindsided senior U.S. officials

President Donald Trump's decision to cut U.S. troop levels in Germany blindsided a number of senior national security officials, according to five sources familiar with the matter, and the Pentagon had yet to receive a formal order to carry it out, Reuters has learned. Trump decided to remove 9,500 troops from Germany, one of America's strongest allies, reducing the number there to 25,000 from 34,500, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. Trump insists no police defunding amid U.S.-wide clamor for reforms

President Donald Trump on Monday pledged to maintain funding for police departments in the United States amid growing calls for sweeping cuts to law enforcement budgets as protesters clamored for an end to police brutality following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last month. "There won't be defunding, there won't be dismantling of our police," Trump told a roundtable of state, federal, and local law enforcement officials at the White House on Monday. "We want to make sure we don't have any bad actors in there ... but 99 percent ... of them are great great people and have done jobs that are record setting." U.S. coronavirus cases surge in southwestern states

Twenty-one U.S. states reported weekly increases in new cases of COVID-19, with Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all posting rises of 40% or higher for the week ended June 7 compared with the prior seven days, according to a Reuters analysis. The three southwestern states joined hot spots in the South to help push the national number of new infections in the first week of June up 3%, the first increase after five weeks of declines, according to the analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak. Bon Appetit editor Adam Rapoport resigns after racially offensive photo resurfaces

Bon Appetit's editor-in-chief, Adam Rapoport, resigned late Monday after a 16-year-old picture of him with brownface resurfaced online and drew harsh criticism, coupled with a subsequent claim of discriminatory pay at the Conde Nast-owned U.S. food magazine by a staff editor. The picture, originally posted on the Instagram account of Rapoport's wife Simone Shubuck in 2013, showed him in brownface makeup with her, according to several media reports. Shubuck's Instagram account has since been taken private. Tropical depression Cristobal moving into Missouri, U.S. NHC says

Tropical depression Cristobal is moving into Missouri with some strengthening forecasted during the next 36 hours as it transitions into an extratropical cyclone, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday. Cristobal was located about 80 miles (130 km) east-southeast of Springfield, Missouri, packing a maximum sustained winds of 30 miles-per-hour (45 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said in its latest advisory.