5 national stories of the week

Editor’s Note: This listicle is part of a weekly series by The Ball State Daily News summarizing five stories from across the United States. All summaries are based on stories published by The Associated Press.

The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. poised for final testing, The Trump administration rescinding on its rule for international students, the first federal execution in 17 years, Ghislaine Maxwell being denied bail and the politics of reopening schools during a pandemic make up this week’s five national stories.

A subject receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine by Moderna for COVID-19 March 16, 2020, in Seattle. Early-stage testing showed the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people’s immune systems the way scientists had hoped. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

First COVID-19 vaccine tested in US poised for final testing

The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people’s immune systems just the way scientists had hoped, researchers reported Tuesday — as the shots are poised to begin key final testing. The experimental vaccine, developed by colleagues of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., will start its most important step around July 27.

Read More: Virus Outbreak

Natalia Afonso, 27, an international student from Brazil at Brooklyn College, speaks during an interview, July 9, 2020, in New York. Afonso said she has lived in the U.S. for 7 years and doesn't see herself moving back to Brazil at this point. **(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)**

Trump administration rescinds rule on foreign students

Facing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the coronavirus pandemic. The decision was announced at the start of a hearing in a federal lawsuit in Boston brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Read More: International students

Protesters against the death penalty gather July 13, 2020, in Terre Haute, Ind. Daniel Lewis Lee, a convicted killer, was scheduled to be executed at 4 p.m. in the federal prison in Terre Haute. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

First federal execution in 17 years; another set Wednesday

The federal government on Tuesday carried out its first execution in almost two decades, killing by lethal injection a man convicted of murdering an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. The execution of Daniel Lewis Lee came over the objection of the victims’ relatives and following days of legal delays, reviving the debate over capital punishment during a time of widespread social unrest.

Read more: Executions

Multimedia artist Katelyn Kopenhaver with help from her brother Brent Kopenhaver, unfurls a banner reading "Epstein is the worst kind of virus," outside federal court where a judge held a bail hearing by video for Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, July 14, 2020, in New York. **(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)**

Maxwell denied bail on Epstein-related sex abuse charges

Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, will remain behind bars until trial after she was denied bail Tuesday as a risk to flee rather than face charges she recruited girls for the financier to sexually abuse more than two decades ago. Two Epstein accusers implored the judge to keep the British socialite detained after she pleaded not guilty to the charges during a video court hearing in Manhattan.

Read More: Ghislaine Maxwell

Hillary Salway poses for a photo with her children, her friends and their children July 13, 2020, in San Clemente, Calif. Salway plans to send her children back to school in the fall. **(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)**

Masks for kids? Schools confront the politics of reopening

On one side are parents objecting to masks and social distancing in classrooms this fall — arguing both could hurt their children’s well-being — and want schools to reopen full time. On the other side are parents and teachers who call for safeguards that would have been unimaginable before the coronavirus pandemic. This has put educators in the middle of an increasingly politicized debate on how best to reopen schools this fall.

Read more: Understanding the Outbreak