WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - An attempt by a county government in the US state of Maryland to force all private and religious schools to remain closed prompted an emergency order that returns the decision to schools themselves, Governor Larry Hogan said in a press release on Monday.

The campaign added that the former vice president has already agreed to participate in the three upcoming debates, while the US president has yet to do so.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Treasury Department factored expectations that Congress will approve a new COVID-19 relief bill for at least $1 trillion into its borrowing estimates for the final six months of the year, which are expected to exceed $2 trillion, according to a press release.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - King Emeritus Juan Carlos de Borbon will remain at the disposal of Spanish prosecutors despite his decision to leave the country amid a corruption scandal, his lawyer Javier Sanchez-Junco said on Monday.

US President Donald Trump dismissed the ongoing investigation into his personal finances, calling it part of a continuing "witch hunt" by the Democrats.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The defence team of Russian citizen Viktor Bout, who is imprisoned in the United States, has been unable to contact their client for two weeks, lawyer Alexey Tarasov said on Monday.

A Chicago, Illinois, Dunkin’ Donuts location recently fired an employee shortly after he was arrested and slapped with several charges for allegedly adding saliva to an Illinois State Police (ISP) District Chicago trooper’s coffee order.

Syrian air defenses intercepted "hostile" targets late Monday over the capital city of Damascus following airstrikes by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), according to state media reports from the Syrian Arab News Agency.

American pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company announced Monday that it has started a third-phase trial of its COVID-19 antiviral drug known as LY-CoV555.

Tropical Storm Isaias isn’t the only tempest bearing down on New York: court filings by state prosecutors on Monday revealed their investigation into the finances of US President Donald Trump includes probes into other possible financial crimes, such as insurance fraud and bank fraud, and not just hush money payments.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Militants tried to break through the positions of the Syrian army in the area of ​​the village of Hamrat in Idlib de-escalation zone, the head of the Russian centre for Syrian reconciliation, Rear Adm. Alexander Shcherbitsky, said at a daily briefing on Monday.

The development comes as last month British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab claimed that Russian actors tried to interfere in the country’s parliamentary elections, which were held in December of 2019. The Kremlin has categorically denied the accusation.

The military has been forced to make tough choices on which programmes should be slashed in order to keep others, while the country's powerful spy agency has seemingly ignored the issue of its extensive spending.

The August full moon is often called the Sturgeon Moon because of the great number of large freshwater fish that were easily caught during this time of summer.

US Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) officials have launched an investigation into a recently republished video that went viral over the weekend and depicted military working dogs attacking a kneeling man wearing a Colin Kaepernick jersey.

Federal US Judge Esther Salas made her very first public statement Monday, weeks after a gunman disguised as a FedEx deliveryman killed her son and severely wounded her husband.

US-China tensions are nowhere near a decrement, as Washington has yet again poked the Dragon by clamping down on the popular Chinese app TikTok over national security concerns. American observers have discussed the string of US anti-Beijing measures, the risks these steps are fraught with, and whether the countries will return to working relations.

Numerous vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are currently being developed across the world, with more than 20 entering the final stages of trials. The World Health Organisation has warned, however, that there may never be a “silver bullet” for the disease, which has infected 18.2 million people worldwide and killed almost 700,000.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Trump administration will remain wary of popular video sharing app TikTok even if Microsoft and other US tech companies bought into the Chinese firm, White House adviser Peter Navarro said on Monday.

New Delhi (Sputnik): Young Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case has turned into a deepening mystery, with an ongoing media trial and police in two Indian states at odds with each other. Six, including prime accused Rhea Chakraborty, the ex-girlfriend of Sushant, have been charged under criminal conspiracy.