Month: July 2020

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.The three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston issued the decision more than six months after arguments were heard in the case.The April 15, 2013, attack killed three people and injured more than 260.Tsarnaev’s lawyers had argued that intense media coverage made it impossible to have a fair trial in Boston. They also pointed to social media posts from two jurors suggesting they harbored strong opinions even before the 2015 trial started.The appeals judges, in a hearing on the case in early December, devoted a significant number of questions to the juror bias argument.They asked why the two jurors had not been dismissed, or at least why the trial judge had not asked them follow-up questions after the posts came to light on the eve of the trial.The judges noted that the Boston court has a long-standing rule obligating such an inquiry.Tsarnaev’s lawyers said one of the jurors, who would go on to become the jury’s foreperson, published two dozen tweets in the wake of the bombings. One post after Tsarnaev’s capture called him a “piece of garbage.”Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction. He’s been serving his sentence in a high-security supermax prison in Colorado.His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a gunbattle with police days after the two brothers detonated two pressure cooker bombs near the marathon finish line. 
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Canada’s attorney general says the requirements for extraditing Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to the United States on charges of bank fraud have been met, documents submitted in a British Columbia court show.Meng, 48, was arrested in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States, which alleges that she misled the bank HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.Meng has been under house arrest in Vancouver since then, fighting extradition, and has said she is innocent. Her case has caused a diplomatic row between Canada and China, which has demanded that Meng be released. China detained two Canadians after Meng’s arrest.The documents, which were filed last week and released to media Friday, are a precursor to the formal hearing on committal, or whether Meng should be extradited to the United States. Those hearings will take place in April 2021.The documents outline the evidence in support of Meng’s custody and conclude that the test for committal has been met.Assessment of charges’ potentialThe extradition hearings are not a full trial on the charges laid by the United States, the documents state, only whether there is the potential for those charges to be found valid.”The evidence demonstrates that Ms. Meng deliberately made dishonest representations to HSBC in an attempt to preserve Huawei’s relationship with the bank,” lawyers for the Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti wrote.”Since Ms. Meng concedes that she is the person sought for prosecution for the conduct set out in the extradition request, all of the formal requirements for committal are established.”Huawei declined to comment and pointed instead to its past legal submissions on its arguments.In May, a judge in British Columbia’s Superior Court found that the legal standard of double criminality — meaning that Meng’s actions could be considered a crime in both Canada and the United States — had been met, dealing a blow to hopes for a quick end to the trial.The next hearings, scheduled for August 17-21 in Vancouver, will discuss whether the attorney general’s assertion of privilege in declining to release some documents requested by Huawei relating to Meng’s initial arrest is valid.Hearings for the trial are scheduled to wrap up in April 2021, although the potential for appeals of the decision from either side means the case could drag out over several years.
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The United States is preparing to pull more troops from Germany, days after President Donald Trump criticized the country for being “delinquent” on defense spending.U.S. Africa Command confirmed Friday it is in the early stages of moving its headquarters from the city of Stuttgart, where it has been located since the command was first stood up in 2008.“U.S. Africa Command has been told to plan to move,” its commander, Gen. Stephen Townsend, said in a statement. “While it will likely take several months to develop options, consider locations, and come to a decision, the command has started the process.”U.S. military officials have been looking for months at reducing the approximately 6,000 troops stationed in Africa.  FILE – U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend watches during a tour north of Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 8, 2017.“It is important our African partners understand our commitment to them remains strong,” Townsend said in Friday’s statement, adding his command “will continue to work with our African and other partners to address mutual interests.”While a new site for the command headquarters has not yet been chosen, an AFRICOM official told VOA that planners will be looking first to other European countries, and then at moving the command to the U.S.“The team will look at available infrastructure, housing, access to transportation, adequate medical care, and a range of other consideration factors,” said AFRICOM spokesman Col. Chris Karns.“It will be a deliberate and orderly approach and process,” he added, noting, “It was important to let partners as well as personnel and families know that planning is under way.”Africa itself, where the U.S. has long tried to maintain a small military footprint, is not under consideration, officials said.Just how much moving AFRICOM’s headquarters from Stuttgart will cost, and how much money could be saved by using another location, has yet to be determined.Reaction to changesWhile U.S. military officials argue the changes are strategically necessary and will give them more flexibility, German officials have expressed disappointment at the U.S. decision to pull some 12,000 troops from the country.FILE – Norbert Roettgen, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, speaks during a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 18, 2020.”Instead of strengthening NATO, the troop withdrawal will weaken the alliance,” Norbert Roettgen, a senior ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.U.S. lawmakers, including some Republicans who often side with Trump, have also raised concerns about the changes, though Sen. Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called the moves “sound.”Trump defended the decision to pull troops out of Germany earlier this week, suggesting the U.S. could move troops based with other NATO allies if those countries do not increase defense spending.”We don’t want to be the suckers anymore,” he told reporters Wednesday.But some analysts have raised concerns that moving troops and critical commands from Germany will hurt overall operations.“We get huge benefits from our U.S. military posture in Germany,” said Bradley Bowman, a former adviser to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.“We are able to project U.S. military power into North Africa and the Middle East much more effectively because of our military posture in Germany,” said Bowman, now with the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. 
 
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GOP activists want to trigger a constitutional convention with the goal of enacting a federal balanced budget amendment, potentially requiring massive cuts to government spending.  
 
Critics warned a convention could decide to take on topics beyond a balanced budget and propose other big constitutional changes, though 38 states still would have to ratify any proposed amendments.  
 
Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker outlined a legal strategy to a gathering of state lawmakers and corporate lobbyists earlier this month designed to force a convention to consider the amendment even though only 28 states have still-pending resolutions calling for one, well short of the 34 required.  
 
The event was part of the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed group that facilitates conservative and pro-business legislation, which was held online due to the risk posed by COVID-19.  
 
In a video of the July 21 session led by Walker and posted by ALEC, Walker lamented the ballooning federal debt of more than $26.5 trillion, conceding the figure has continued to grow under both Democratic and Republican administrations.  
 
“It’s just more and more spending,” said Walker, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for president in 2016. “We’ve got to do something about that. That’s why we need a balanced budget amendment. We need it now more than ever, and we need it before it’s too late.”  
 
It’s unclear how many state legislators listened to Walker’s presentation or support the idea. But Ohio Senate Majority Leader Matt Huffman, a Republican who participated in the discussion, said he would work to build support in his state for a lawsuit seeking to convene a constitutional convention.  
 
Walker is the latest in a long line of Republicans pressing for a constitutional amendment requiring the federal budget be in balance. In 2018, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives voted 233 to 184 in favor of it but failed to reach the two-thirds margin required to send an amendment for potential ratification by three-quarters of the states.  
 
“What we see is that politicians in Washington are incapable, regardless of party, of ultimately getting the job done when it comes to a balanced budget amendment,” Walker said. “So, thankfully, our founders presented another way to do this, and that is through the states.”  
 
The new plan, presented during the ALEC workshop with a PowerPoint presentation from conservative activist David Biddulph, is to take the 28 state resolutions seeking a balanced budget amendment and combine them with six state resolutions passed over the last two centuries generally seeking a constitutional convention. The oldest of those was a resolution passed by New York in 1789, according to a 2018 article on the conservative Federalist Society’s website by constitutional scholar Robert G. Natelson.  
 
Biddulph proposed recruiting state attorneys general to file a legal order demanding that Congress recognize the 36 state resolutions and convene a constitutional convention. If Congress refuses, the AGs would sue in federal court.  
 
Walker declined an interview request from AP, referring questions to Biddulph.  
 
Biddulph, co-founder of a Florida-based group called Let Us Vote for a Balanced Budget Amendment, said Wednesday the lawsuit to trigger a constitutional convention could be the best shot of advancing his signature issue.  
 
“We think that the shortest path to actually getting a date for an Article V convention is through the Supreme Court,” he said. “That is definitely not through Congress.”  
 
David Super, a Georgetown University Law professor who has studied efforts to convene a constitutional convention, said it would overturn decades of legal precedents on the separation of powers for the federal judiciary to order the Congress to convene a convention. But he said it was not outside the realm of possibility, given the pace at which President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have been putting conservative judges on the federal bench.  
 
“I think we’re going to be seeing more and more lawsuits of this kind that in normal times would be laughed out of court and perhaps the lawyers fined for bringing them,” Super said in an interview. “But given who is now sitting, there’s a fair chance that they will win, at least at the trial stage and very possibly at the court of appeals.”  
 
Every U.S. state but Vermont has a form of balanced budget requirement, but state governments typically rely on federal financial assistance during hard times, such as the current fiscal crisis caused by COVID-19. If enacted, critics contend that a federal balanced budget amendment would necessitate draconian spending cuts, steep tax increases, or both – potentially causing a prolonged national recession.  
 
Super said Walker, in his presentation, ignored the role the $2 trillion tax cut passed by a GOP-controlled Congress at the end of 2017 played in deepening federal deficits.  
 
He also warned that convening a constitutional convention could have unintended consequences. He pointed to the 1787 convention that was called to amend the Articles of Confederation but resulted in a whole new national constitution.  
 
“Once you have the convention, it is subject to nobody’s control,” Super said. “It makes its own agenda. It makes its own voting rules that decides how long it lasts and how far it goes.”  
 
Arn Pearson, executive director of the progressive watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, also warned that a so-called runaway convention could be called to consider one subject but then decide to make other big constitutional changes.  
 
Republicans control 60 percent of the state legislative chambers, potentially giving them a numerical advantage in selecting who would be delegates.  
 
“If their ploy succeeds, the field will be thrown wide open for constitutional rewrites,” Pearson said. “Right-wing mega donors will spend millions to advance a sweeping agenda to limit federal powers. It’s not going to be an exercise in popular democracy.”
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Dr. Anthony Fauci returns to Capitol Hill on Friday to testify before a special House panel investigating the coronavirus pandemic. His testimony comes at a time when early progress on combating the virus seems to have been lost and uncertainty clouds the nation’s path forward.The government’s top infectious disease expert is testifying alongside Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Admiral Brett Giroir, a Health and Human Services official and physician serving as the “testing czar.”The panel, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, is divided about how to reopen schools and businesses, mirroring divisions among Americans.A rebound of cases across the South and West has dashed hopes for a quick return to normal life. Problems with the availability and timeliness of testing continue to be reported. And the race for a vaccine, though progressing rapidly, has yet to deliver a breakthrough.Fauci’s public message in recent days has been that Americans can’t afford a devil-may-care attitude toward COVID-19, and individuals need to double down on basic measures such as wearing masks in public, keeping their distance from others, and avoiding crowds and indoor spaces such as bars. That’s echoed by Redfield and Giroir, though they are far less prominent.Fauci’s dogged persistence has drawn the ire of some of President Donald Trump’s supporters and prompted a new round of calls for his firing. But the veteran of battles against AIDS and Ebola has stuck to his message, while carefully avoiding open confrontations with the Trump White House.In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Fauci said he was “disturbed” by the flat-out opposition in parts of the country to wearing masks as a public health protective measure.”There are certain fundamentals,” he said, “the staples of what you need to do … one is universal wearing of masks.”Public health experts say masks help prevent an infected person who has yet to develop symptoms from passing the virus to others. For the mask wearer, there’s also some evidence that they can offer a degree of protection from an infected person nearby.Fauci said in his AP interview that he’s concerned because the U.S. has not followed the track of Asian and European nations also hit hard by the coronavirus.Other countries that shut down their economies knocked back uncontrolled spread and settled into a pattern of relatively few new cases, although they continued to experience local outbreaks.The U.S. also knocked back the initial spread, but never got the background level of new cases quite as low. And the resurgence of COVID-19 in the Sunbelt in recent weeks has driven the number of new daily cases back up into the 60,000-70,000 range. It coincided with economic reopening and a return to social gatherings, particularly among younger adults. Growing numbers of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths have followed as grim consequences.Nearly 4.5 million Americans have been sickened since the start of the pandemic, and more than 150,000 have died.Fauci said there’s evidence the surge across the South may be peaking, but upticks in the Midwest are now a concern.”They’ve really got to jump all over that because if they don’t then you might see the surge we saw in some of the Southern states,” he told AP.Though Fauci gets push-back from White House officials, other medical experts in the administration are on the same page when it comes to the public health message.Giroir, the testing czar, told reporters Thursday: “I think it’s very important to make sure that we all spread the public health message that we can control all the outbreaks occurring right now.”He said controlling the outbreaks will require people to wear masks, avoid crowded indoor spaces and wash their hands frequently.  
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As the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the U.S. continues to climb, three of the nation’s top public health officials are scheduled to testify Friday before a House committee investigating the White House’s response to the pandemic. The three officials are: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the county’s top infectious disease expert; the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield; and the Assistant Secretary of Health Admiral Brett Giroir, the Trump administration’s coronavirus testing chief. The U.S. has almost 4.5 million COVID-19 cases and more than 152,000 people have died from the contagion, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center statistics.There are 17.3 million COVID-19 cases worldwide. Children carry more viral load than adults
The results of a small study published Thursday in a major U.S. pediatric journal says that young children carry more coronavirus genetic material in their noses than older children and adults.  The study, however, did not measure the rate at which the children transmit the virus to others.   The resurgence of COVID-19 in many countries is “driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the Northern Hemisphere summer,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.  Young adults, many without masks, are ignoring social distancing recommendations to pack bars, nightclubs, and beaches that have been reopened since authorities lifted coronavirus restrictions.  “The majority of young people infected tend to have more mild disease. But that’s not always consistent,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who called nightclubs “amplifiers of transmission.” Young people who show mild or no symptoms can spread the virus to more vulnerable older people. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who is infected with COVID-19, wears a protective face mask as he attends a Brazilian flag retreat ceremony outside his official residence the Alvorada Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, July 22, 2020…Brazil’s president still struggling 
In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, who tested positive for the coronavirus on July 7 and then negative last Saturday, said that after 20 days indoors he had mold on his lungs. He is being treated with antibiotics. He had repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as “a little flu.”  Brazil, as of Thursday evening, had 2.6 million confirmed cases and 91,263 deaths, People gather in Soho, as restrictions are eased following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Britain July 4, 2020. REUTERS/Henry NichollsBritain ponders new lockdown amid surge
Britain is reporting its highest number of new COVID cases since late June, with officials warning that more quarantines may be necessary. British health officials registered 846 new cases Thursday and Minister for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said a second wave of the virus is rolling across Europe and that Britain must defend against it. “It is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and our discipline, and that we don’t delude ourselves that somehow we are out of the woods or that that is all over, because it isn’t all over,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday. British authorities added Luxembourg to the country’s quarantine list, meaning travelers from there must isolate for 14 days after entering Britain. Spain, which had been dropped from the list, has been reinstated and other countries may be added. Botswana lockdown
Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, reimposed a two-week lockdown on Thursday after a surge in new confirmed COVID-19 cases. The increase came as the WHO warned against easing coronavirus restrictions throughout Africa. The WHO says the number of infections on the continent has doubled in the past month. “We are concerned that … we will see an increase in cases as we have seen in [other] countries” where restrictions have been eased too soon,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said She said more than 20 African countries have recorded more new cases than in the previous weeks, with South Africa accounting for the most but increases also reported in Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Moeti said Uganda, Seychelles and Mauritius are doing well in controlling the virus. Cuba reports new cases
Cuba reported nine new cases Thursday, and 37 new cases earlier this week. Just 10 days ago, Cuba reported no new cases for the first time since the outbreak began in March. However, it has reported no deaths for more than two weeks. Cuba has so far been relatively successful in fighting COVID-19, but the island’s top epidemiologist, Francisco Duran, said Thursday Cubans are getting careless.  “People are holding different types of gatherings without taking into account distancing and often without even using a face mask,” he said. “Each small peak underscores a lack of discipline … prompting stricter measures.” In Florida, Key West police arrested a couple who tested positive for COVID-19 for being in public in defiance of a quarantine order. Neighbors who videotaped the couple strolling and shopping gave the tapes to police. The couple’s arrest is among the first in the state for violating a quarantine. Florida, with 461,000 coronavirus cases and 6,600 deaths, is second only to California, which has 492,000 confirmed cases and 8,965 deaths, among U.S. states. Dog dies of coronavirus
National Geographic magazine is reporting that the first dog in the United States sickened by COVID-19 has died. Buddy, a 7-year-old German shepherd in New York became ill in April while his owner was recovering from the coronavirus. Buddy had the same symptoms as human patients, including difficulty breathing. He was euthanized earlier this month after he started vomiting and urinating blood and could no longer walk.  Buddy’s doctors said he was also suffering from cancer. Doctors say humans with pre-existing conditions are more susceptible to COVID-19.  The WHO says pet-to-people transmission of the coronavirus is unlikely.  National Geographic says 12 dogs and 10 cats have tested positive for coronavirus in the U.S.   
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Meteorologists say Tropical Storm Isaias could strengthen into a hurricane and threaten the East Coast of the U.S., after causing power outages and small landslides across Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.The U.S. National Hurricane Center said late Thursday that Isaias is moving with maximum sustained winds of 95 kph.The Associated Press reports that the storm’s powerful winds in Puerto Rico, still recovering from other hurricanes and earthquakes, has transformed “several streets into fast-flowing rivers and toppled trees and some telephone and electrical cables.”More than 100,000 people are without fresh water.According to AP, 14 percent of Puerto Rico’s cell towers are out.Emergency workers had to rescue several families who were reluctant to leave their homes for public shelters because of fear of being exposed to the coronavirus at the shelters.Isaias also blew down trees in the Dominican Republic. Police arrested surfers who refused to heed warnings to find shelter. The U.S. National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm watch for parts of Florida’s east coast, and the government of the Bahamas issued a similar warning for swaths of its territory.Other areas under a tropical storm watch or warning include parts of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands.A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours. A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours.The latest forecast map shows Isaias striking the Florida coast as a hurricane Saturday afternoon and working its way up the Atlantic seaboard.U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico, which has yet to fully recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria and a recent series of earthquakes.Isaias is the ninth named storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season. This is the earliest date a storm beginning with the letter “I” has formed.  
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St. Louis County’s prosecutor announced Thursday that he will not charge the former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a dramatic decision that could reopen old wounds amid a renewed and intense national conversation about racial injustice and the police treatment of people of color.Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s decision marked the third time prosecutors investigated and opted not to charge Darren Wilson, the white officer who fatally shot Brown, a Black 18-year-old, on August 9, 2014. A St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Wilson in November 2014, and the U.S. Department of Justice also declined to charge him in March 2015.Civil rights leaders and Brown’s parents had hoped that Bell, the county’s first Black prosecutor who took office in January 2019, would see things differently.“My heart breaks” for Brown’s parents, a somber Bell said during a news conference. “I know this is not the result they were looking for and that their pain will continue forever.”Describing the announcement as “one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do,” Bell said that his office conducted a five-month, unannounced, review of witness statements, forensic reports and other evidence.“The question for this office was a simple one: Could we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that when Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown he committed murder or manslaughter under Missouri law? After an independent and in-depth review of the evidence, we cannot prove that he did,” Bell said.But, he said, “our investigation does not exonerate Darren Wilson.”Wilson’s attorney, Jim Towey, said it was clear after three investigations that Wilson did nothing wrong.“We all had the same conclusion: There was no crime,” Towey said.“I am just hoping that everybody gets to have some closure, particularly the Brown family,” he said.The shooting touched off months of unrest in Ferguson and made the St. Louis suburb synonymous with a national debate about police treatment of minority people. The Ferguson unrest helped solidify the national Black Lives Matter movement that began after Trayvon Martin, a Black 17-year-old, was shot to death by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida in 2012.The issue has taken on new life since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in May after a white police officer pressed his knee into the handcuffed Black man’s neck for nearly eight minutes. Ferguson is among the cities around the world that has seen protests since Floyd’s death.“This is a time for us to reflect on Michael’s life, to support Michael’s family and to honor a transformative movement that will forever be linked to his name,” Bell said.Brittany Packnett Cunningham, a Ferguson protester and educator who has become a national voice in the Black Lives Matter movement, said she is pained “that there is still a gaping wound” for Brown’s family. She said she knows that the system must change.“I’m not disappointed — I’m fed up and ever more committed, truth be told,” Cunningham said.The Rev. Darryl Gray, a leading St. Louis activist, agreed that the system is at fault, not Bell’s investigation.“What came out of this is a recognition that the system is set up to protect police officers. We now need to begin to address the legislation the police hide behind,” Gray said.Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal justice campaigns at Color Of Change, a national racial justice organization, said in a statement that Bell’s announcement “perpetuates a criminal justice system that fails Black communities by allowing police to operate with impunity.”Bell — who ran as a reform-minded prosecutor promising to eliminate cash bail for nonviolent offenders and to increase the use of programs that allow defendants to avoid jail time — faced no restrictions in re-examining Brown’s death. Wilson was never charged and tried, so double jeopardy was not an issue. There is no statute of limitations on filing murder charges.As the news conference drew to a close, an activist who said he is a friend of Brown’s father erupted in anger.“It’s over! One term!” Tory Russell, 36, of St. Louis, screamed at the prosecuting attorney. Police officers gently led him from the room.Russell later told The Associated Press that he had just spoken with Michael Brown Sr. “He is hurting, and he’s not accepting of this.”The shooting happened after Wilson told Brown and a friend to get out of the street as they walked down the middle of Canfield Drive. A scuffle between Wilson and Brown ensued, ending with the fatal shot. Wilson said Brown, who was not armed, came at him menacingly, forcing him to fire his gun in self-defense.Brown’s body remained in the street for four hours, angering his family and nearby residents.Bell’s predecessor, longtime prosecutor Bob McCulloch, was accused by critics of swaying the grand jury to its decision not to indict Wilson — an accusation he emphatically denied. Wilson resigned days after McCulloch’s November 24, 2014, announcement that the grand jury would not indict the officer.The Justice Department also declined to charge Wilson, but issued a scathing report citing racial bias in Ferguson’s police and courts. A consent agreement calls for sweeping reforms that are still being implemented.Bell, a former Ferguson councilman, upset McCulloch, a staunch law-and-order prosecutor, in the 2018 Democratic primary and ran unopposed that November.Bell, who, like McCulloch, is the son of a police officer, formed a special unit to look into officer-involved shootings like the one in Ferguson, as well as cases of potential wrongful convictions.Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, asked Republican Gov. Mike Parson to reopen the investigation of Wilson in 2018, but Parson’s office said it had no legal authority to appoint a special prosecutor. 
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The U.S. Agency for Global Media is investigating whether a video posted by Voice of America’s Urdu language service is in violation of the U.S. broadcaster’s editorial standards and federal laws that govern political activities of government employees.The video, containing VOA logos and subtitles in Urdu, features clips of Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden speaking at a July 20 Million Muslim Votes event that was organized by nonprofit Emgage Action, and a campaign ad by the same political group.It was shared on the Urdu service website and social media platforms earlier this month before being removed by senior journalists at VOA concerned about its content.USAGM, the agency that oversees VOA, said Thursday that the investigation would look into who was responsible for the video and whether it violated laws including the Hatch Act. That law, which applies to federal employees, limits political activities to ensure nonpartisanship.“USAGM staff members who attempt to influence American elections will be held accountable,” Michael Pack, the agency’s chief executive, said in the statement.Journalists at VOA are expected to adhere to strict journalistic standards on balance and objectivity. Federal employees and some contractors are also barred by the Hatch Act from participating in partisan political activity while on duty. Those found in violation of the act can lose their jobs, be demoted or face fines of up to $1,000.In the two-minute video, the former vice president is seen telling American Muslims that a Biden administration would address issues of concern to them and rejecting a Trump administration policy sometimes referred to as “the Muslim ban.” That policy banned immigration for 90 days from seven Muslim-majority countries but applied to all citizens of those countries and did not ban Muslims from other countries.The U.S. Supreme Court in June 2018 upheld the immigration policy.Nearly 3.5 million people globally follow the VOA Urdu Facebook page, and it has more than 184,000 Twitter followers. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed there were 397,500 Urdu speakers in the U.S. between 2009 and 2013. In his statement, Pack said, “Our networks comprise the U.S.’s megaphone to the world, and this invaluable instrument is generously funded by the American people. To safeguard our agency’s reputation and the integrity of our content, I will continue to ensure that violations of journalistic standards and principles are dealt with swiftly and fairly.”VOA broadcasts in Urdu and 46 other languages as part of its mission to provide independent, unbiased news to some of the most restricted countries in the world.
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Tropical Storm Isaias could strengthen into a hurricane and threaten the East Coast after battering Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, according to U.S. forecasters. The A man guides a tow truck under a downed power line pole after Tropical Storm Isaias hit the area in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, July 30, 2020.President Donald Trump has signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico, which has yet to fully recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria and a recent series of earthquakes. Tropical Storm Isaias knocked out power across Puerto Rico and caused widespread flooding and a number of small landslides. More than 100,000 people were in need of fresh water. Emergency workers had to rescue several families who were reluctant to leave their homes for public shelters because of the coronavirus.  Isaias also blew down trees in the Dominican Republic. Police arrested surfers who refused to heed warnings to find shelter. Isaias is the ninth named storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season. This is the earliest date a storm beginning with the letter “I” has formed. 
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Herman Cain, a maverick conservative Republican businessman who briefly led the race for the U.S. party’s 2012 presidential nomination, died Thursday from the coronavirus. He was 74.Cain had been hospitalized for a month in the southern city of Atlanta and initially appeared to regain strength but faltered again in recent days.Cain attended President Donald Trump’s political rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20 that led to numerous coronavirus infections. But Cain, who was seen not wearing a mask during the rally, said he had traveled extensively elsewhere about the same time.  It is not known where he contracted the virus that has now killed more than 150,000 Americans.At his death, Cain was chairman of Black Voices for Trump. Last year, the president nominated Cain to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. central bank, but Cain withdrew after opposition mounted against him.“Because I ran as a Republican for president and the United States Senate, and because I am an outspoken voice of conservatism, an outspoken voice of the Constitution and the laws, I’m being attacked,” Cain said.Cain held a string of corporate executive positions throughout his life, most prominently from 1986 to 1996 as president and chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, a national chain that he transformed into a success after it had been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.In 2011, as he campaigned for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, he pushed for sweeping tax reform that he called his “9-9-9 Plan” — a 9% business transactions tax, a 9% personal income tax, and a 9% federal sales tax.Cain briefly pulled ahead of eventual Republican nominee Mitt Romney in political surveys a year ahead of the election, but he withdrew from the race in December 2011, after two women accused him of sexual harassment while he was chief executive of the National Restaurant Association from 1996 to 1999.Cain denied the charges, and his wife Gloria stood by him, saying, “He totally respects women.”In a tweet, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said, “Herman Cain embodied the American Dream and represented the very best of the American spirit.” She also added, “Our hearts grieve for his loved ones, and they will remain in our prayers at this time. We will never forget his legacy of grace, patriotism, and faith.” 
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A U.S. appeals court on Thursday agreed to rehear arguments over whether the judge assigned to the criminal case against Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, must grant a request to dismiss it.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it would hold an oral argument in the politically charged criminal case on Aug. 11.
In a 2-1 decision on June 24, a three-judge panel of the same court ruled in favor of Flynn and the Trump administration and said U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington had to grant the Justice Department’s motion to clear Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Sullivan asked the full court to reconsider the three-judge panel’s ruling, saying the Justice Department’s dropping of the Flynn case was unprecedented and had to be carefully scrutinized.
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The U.S. House of Representatives begins a new mandated face mask policy Thursday, following an order from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was facing increasing pressure to address safety concerns in one of the nation’s most high-profile office complexes.  Pelosi issued the order late Wednesday after U.S. FILE – Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert studies notes during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, July 28, 2020.Gohmert said in an interview with CNN last month he did not wear a mask because he was being tested regularly for the coronavirus.  “I don’t have the coronavirus, turns out as of yesterday I’ve never had it,” Gohmert said. “But if I get it, you’ll never see me without a mask.”  The 66-year-old Republican lawmaker attended a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday with Attorney General William Barr, during which chairman Jerry Nadler scolded several other Republicans for not wearing masks.  Politico also reported Gohmert returned to his Capitol Hill office after receiving the diagnosis at the White House so that he could inform his staff in person. Responding to news of the positive test, House Majority leader Steny Hoyer criticized Gohmert and many other Republicans for not consistently donning a mask.  “Too many Republicans have continued to act extraordinarily irresponsibly, including Louis Gohmert. Louie Gohmert ought to quarantine himself right now. He had this test, as I understand it prior to the Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, he was in the committee room. He put on his mask when he sat down in his chair.  He came into the room without a mask on,” Hoyer told reporters.  Under the new mask policy in the House, all members of Congress and staff are required to wear a mask at all times in the Capitol and office buildings.  The policy instituted under the direction of the U.S. Capitol’s attending physician says, “Any person not wearing a face cover will be asked to put on a face cover or leave the building. This requirement will remain in effect until a determination is made that such a requirement is no longer necessary.”   
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For the first time, U.S. President Donald Trump is suggesting delaying this year’s election.  
 
Trump, on Twitter on Thursday morning, alleged, without evidence, that mail-in balloting would be make the 2020 presidential balloting the “most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.”
 
The president added: “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020The president does not have the power to delay the election, which is to be held November 3rd. The date is set by Congress under the Constitution.  Bipartisan condemnation
During a hearing on Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked by Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia about Trump’s tweet. Pompeo, who is fourth in the line of succession to the presidency, said that he did not want to make a legal judgment on the fly about whether it is possible to delay the election, but “in the end, the Department of Justice and others will make that legal determination.”Trump’s tweet quickly prompted bipartisan condemnation. This is not an idea anyone, especially the president, should float, said Ari Fleischer, who was a White House press secretary in the administration of President George W. Bush, a Republican.  “I would quickly delete this tweet,” if he were president, Fleischer said.Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico said the fact that the president “is even suggesting it is a serious, chilling attack on the democratic process. All members of Congress — and the administration— should speak out.” Election officials, civil rights groups and historians also are criticizing the president’s suggestion. “No, Mr. President. No. You don’t have the power to move the election. Nor should it be moved,” tweeted Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic appointee. “States and localities are asking you and Congress for funds so they can properly run the safe and secure elections all Americans want. Why don’t you work on that?” No, Mr. President. No. You don’t have the power to move the election. Nor should it be moved. States and localities are asking you and Congress for funds so they can properly run the safe and secure elections all Americans want. Why don’t you work on that?— Ellen L 😷 Weintraub (@EllenLWeintraub) July 30, 2020“This is America. We are a democracy, not a dictatorship,” said Dale Ho, director of the voting rights project of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The Constitution sets the date for the election in November. Nothing President Trump says, does, or tweets can change that fact.”
Delaying the election would violate American law, wrote presidential historian Michael Beschloss on Twitter.  
 
“Never in American history—not even during the Civil War and World War II–has there been a successful move to ‘Delay the Election’ for President,” said Beschloss, the author of ten books about American history.Never in American history—not even during the Civil War and World War II–has there been a successful move to “Delay the Election” for President.— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 30, 2020“It’s a desperate attempt to distract attention from the worsening COVID-19 crisis and an imploding economy,” said presidential historian David Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron. “Trump has attempted to destroy confidence in American institutions and norms from the very beginning, even right after the 2016 election — an election he won — by claiming falsely that millions of people voted illegally He knows he may well lose in 2020 but is trying to get his supporters not to believe the results. It’s right out of George Orwell’s “1984”: ‘The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears,’” Cohen told VOA. Polls indicate Trump is significantly trailing the presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden in key battleground states.  Biden previously suggested Trump will try to delay the election. “Mark my words — I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said at a virtual fundraiser on April 24. A spokesman for the Trump reelection campaign, Hogan Gidley, explained that the president “is just raising a question about the chaos Democrats have created with their insistence on all mail-in voting. They are using coronavirus as their means to try to institute universal mail-in voting, which means sending every registered voter a ballot whether they asked for one or not.”In a statement to VOA, Gidley added that “voter rolls are notoriously full of bad addresses for people who have moved, are non-citizens, or are even deceased. Universal mail-in voting invites chaos and severe delays in results, as proven by the New York congressional primary, where we still don’t know who won after more than a month.”Both the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State told VOA on Thursday that they are unaware of any developments that could have an impact on the security of this year’s election.The director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs, told the Brookings Institution on July 17th, “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The 2020 election will be the most secure election in modern history.”US Officials Promising ‘Most Secure Election in Modern History’The officials say while the November presidential election will not be risk free, defense and back-up systems should guarantee a free and fair resultKrebs said that said at least 92% of U.S. states now have systems in place to ensure there is a paper record of every vote cast, making it easier to audit election results to make sure no one is able to tamper with the tally. And that number could rise as a growing number of states are expected to turn to mail-in ballots instead of in-person voting because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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The National Basketball Association is resuming its season Thursday, 20 weeks after suspending play when a player tested positive for the coronavirus.The regular season was nearing its end at the time of the shutdown, so the league is finishing with an eight-game schedule for 22 teams that have either already qualified for the playoffs or have a chance to do so.All games are being played at three arenas at the Disney complex in Orlando, Florida, where players and staff have been living for several weeks.The league employing a “bubble” strategy with no travel, mandatory quarantines for anyone who leaves the site, no unauthorized visitors and no fans in order to try to prevent coronavirus infections.NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he is anxious about the league’s return, but that everyone on the campus is being tested daily and that officials are ready to act if cases emerge.“Probably if we had any significant spread at all, we’d immediately stop and one thing we’d do is try to track those cases to determine where they’re coming from and whether there had been spread on the campus,” Silver said Wednesday. “I would say, ultimately, we would cease completely if we thought that this was spreading around the campus and something more than an isolated case was happening.”A league statement Wednesday said there were no confirmed positive tests among 344 players who were tested since July 20.Thursday’s first game is between the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz, with a second matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers.Of those four teams, only the Pelicans have yet to clinch a playoff spot.The playoffs begin August 17, and will conclude with the final round in October.Across the state in Bradenton, Florida, the Women’s National Basketball Association began its season last week in its own bubble with similar rules and no fans at its games. The league typically starts in late May or early June, and this year will begin its playoffs in September.Saturday brings the beginning of the National Hockey League season, employing a similar bubble strategy using two Canadian cities – Toronto and Edmonton – to host players and games for 24 teams. The league announced Monday it also had no positive coronavirus tests during the past week.Major League Baseball began its season last week. It is not using a bubble but rather relying on limiting team travel to geographic regions to try to minimize risks. But already there have been setbacks, with multiple games postponed after members of the Miami Marlins tested positive.
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NASA’s next-generation Mars rover Perseverance is set for liftoff from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Thursday on a mission to search for traces of potential past life on Earth’s planetary neighbor.The U.S. space agency’s $2.4 billion mission is scheduled for launch at 7:50 a.m. ET and is expected to reach Mars in February.LIVE NOW: The #CountdownToMars begins. We are launching a historic mission to the Red Planet. Tune in to watch @NASAPersevere liftoff and begin her mission to search for signs of ancient life on another world: https://t.co/JxyRCol01i— NASA (@NASA) July 30, 2020The car-sized six-wheeled robotic rover, which will launch atop an Atlas 5 rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, also is scheduled to deploy a mini helicopter on Mars and test out equipment for future human missions to the fourth planet from the sun.The weather forecast from the Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron put chances of an undisturbed liftoff at 80 percent, reporting a slim chance that thick clouds would form over the launchpad and delay the launch.”This is the ninth time we’ve landed on Mars, so we do have experience with it,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.Perseverance is due to land at the base of a 250-meter-deep crater called Jezero, a former lake from 3.5 billion years ago that scientists suspect could bear evidence of potential past microbial life on Mars. Scientists have long debated whether Mars — once a much more hospitable place than it is today — ever harbored life.One of the most complex maneuvers in Perseverance’s journey will be what mission engineers call the “seven minutes of terror,” when the robot endures extreme heat and speeds during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, deploying a set of supersonic parachutes before igniting mini rocket engines to gently touch down on the planet’s surface.It’s the latest launch from Earth to Mars during a busy month of July, following probes sent by the United Arab Emirates and China.Aboard Perseverance is a 1.8-kilogram autonomous helicopter named Ingenuity that is due to test powered flight on Mars for the first time.Since NASA’s first Mars rover Sojourner landed in 1997, the agency has sent two others — Spirit and Opportunity — that have explored the geology of expansive Martian plains and detected signs of past water formations, among other discoveries. NASA also has successfully sent three landers: Pathfinder, Phoenix and InSight.The United States has plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s under a program that envisions using a return to the moon as a testing platform for human missions before making the more ambitious crewed journey to Mars.Perseverance will conduct an experiment to convert elements of the carbon dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere into propellant for future rockets launching off the planet’s surface, or to produce breathable oxygen for future astronauts.  
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Tropical Storm Isaias is churning across the Caribbean after forming near Puerto Rico on Wednesday night.Isaias became the earliest ninth named storm on record in the Atlantic, eclipsing a nearly 15-year record set by Irene, which formed on August 7, 2005.Tropical storm warnings are in place for much of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, U.S. and British Virgin Islands, St. Martin, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Turks and Caicos, and part of the Bahamas.Heavy rains, flash flooding and strong winds are expected for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Thursday.The current path of Tropical Storm Isaias could move the storm towards Florida by this weekend.
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Gov. Kate Brown of the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon said federal officers would begin leaving the city of Portland on Thursday after an agreement between local and federal officials.The federal government said the deployment to Portland was necessary to restore order and faulted local leaders for allowing ongoing protests that they said endangered federal property, including a courthouse.Brown was among the leaders who criticized the presence of the federal agents, saying Wednesday they “acted as an occupying force and brought violence.”  Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said “their presence has led to increased violence and vandalism in our downtown core.”Chad Wolf, acting secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, did not give a timeline on the withdrawal but said state and local law enforcement would begin to take over securing streets and properties around federal properties.“The Department will continue to maintain our current, augmented federal law enforcement personnel in Portland until we are assured that the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked and that the seat of justice in Portland will remain secure. This has been our mission and objective since the violent, criminal activity began,” Wolf said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 42 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 76 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe federal forces were sent to Oregon’s largest city to protect a federal courthouse after weeks of demonstrations, some turning violent, sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.Over time the protests escalated with some demonstrators targeting the courthouse with rocks, fireworks and laser pointers. Federal agents responded with tear gas, batons, and arrests.The federal government has announced it is sending federal agents to the cities of Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee as part of an effort to combat surges in violent crime.  That program has already involved sending agents to Chicago, Kansas City, Missouri; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, this month.Leaders in some cities have objected to the federal presence, pointing to the example of Portland, while others have welcomed them in partnership with their local law enforcement.Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said Wednesday that his city has seen a rise in violent crime, particularly involving guns, “and we do need the assistance of our federal partners in order to help us bring that under control.”Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said his city did not ask for the federal help, but that Detroit police are ready to continue working with the agents on enforcing federal laws targeting gun trafficking and gang violence.“We believe there is no lawful basis for Homeland Security intervention in the Detroit protests today, or for any increased presence of Homeland Security agents in our community. Today’s announcement appears to respect that position,” Duggan said.Local and state leaders took a similar position regarding Milwaukee, with members of congress, Wisconsin’s governor and the city’s mayor sending a joint letter seeking more clarity on the duration of the deployment, how many agents would be involved, what accountability measures are in place and who is responsible for supervising their actions.”While we appreciate your statements to press that this action is not in response to protests or civil unrest, the recent conduct of federal agents in Portland, Oregon, has caused great concern in Milwaukee and Wisconsin about the purpose and scope of any expanded federal law enforcement mission in our city and state,” the leaders wrote Tuesday to Matthew Krueger, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin.  “We want to make it very clear that we do not support anything similar to what we have seen in Portland, Oregon, here in Wisconsin.” 
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The summer’s third and final mission to Mars — featuring NASA’s most elaborate life-hunting rover — is on the verge of liftoff.The rover Perseverance will follow China’s rover-orbiter combo and a United Arab Emirates orbiter, both launched last week. It will take the spacecraft seven months to reach Mars after traveling 300 million miles.Once on the surface, Perseverance will scrounge for evidence of past microscopic life in an ancient lakebed, and gather the most promising rock samples for future pickup. NASA is teaming up with the European Space Agency to return the samples to Earth around 2031.This unprecedented effort will involve multiple launches and spacecraft — and cost more than $8 billion.”We don’t know if life existed there or not. But we do know that Mars at one point in its history was habitable,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said on the eve of launch.The U.S. remains the only country to land successfully at Mars. If all goes well next February, Perseverance will become the ninth U.S. spacecraft to operate on the Martian surface.First things first, though: Good flying weather is forecast for United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. The Denver-based rocket maker and its heritage companies have launched all of NASA’s Mars missions, beginning with the Mariners in 1964.ULA chief executive Tory Bruno said Perseverance is arguably the most sophisticated and most exciting of all the Mars missions.”We are literally chomping at the bit to take this nuclear-powered dune buggy out to Mars,” he said earlier this week.
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The looming expiration of federal assistance tied to the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to cut a financial lifeline for tens of millions of Americans. With time running out, Republicans and Democrats reportedly remain far apart on a possible extension of benefits. VOA’s Mariama Diallo has the story of a COVID survivor struggling to pay medical bills who desperately needs federal relief to continue.
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The Trump administration on Wednesday named a special envoy for the Arctic, filling a post that had been vacant for more than three years as the administration seeks a greater role in the region and tries to blunt growing Russian and Chinese influence there. The State Department’s appointment of veteran career diplomat Jim DeHart to be U.S. coordinator for the Arctic came just a week after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed enhanced U.S. engagement in the Arctic on a visit to Denmark. The U.S. opened a consulate in the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland earlier this year as part of its new Arctic strategy. Jim DeHart, seen in this undated photo from the U.S. Department of State website, was named special envoy for the Arctic.Pompeo has spoken in the past about the Trump administration’s determination to prevent Russia and China from playing a dominant role in the Arctic, which is heavily affected by climate change. Environmentalists criticized Pompeo last year when he spoke at an Arctic Council event in Finland and said the U.S. and others should exploit changes, including the reduction in ocean ice, for economic benefit. DeHart’s appointment fills an empty slot in the department’s senior ranks that had been created during the Obama administration but remained vacant since President Donald Trump took office and the previous coordinator, retired Coast Guard Adm. Robert Papp, stepped down. “The United States plays a critical leadership role on Arctic issues within the international community and remains committed to ensuring a peaceful region where U.S. interests are safeguarded, the U.S. homeland is protected, and Arctic states work cooperatively to address shared challenges,” the State Department said in a statement. DeHart is 28-year foreign service officer and was most recently senior adviser for security negotiations and agreements. He had been leading discussions with South Korea over the continued presence of U.S. troops there. He has also served as the No. 2 diplomat in Norway, which has extensive Arctic interests. 
 
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U.S. officials say that Americans who are reporting receiving unsolicited packages containing seeds purportedly sent from China could be the victims of a fraudulent internet retail scheme known as a “brushing scam.”  Residents of about a dozen U.S. states have reported receiving mysterious packages containing dozens of seeds that appeared to have been mailed from China. The seeds are of unknown origin, and state agencies are warning recipients not to plant them if they are invasive species.     “At this time, we don’t have any evidence indicating this is something other than a ‘brushing scam’ where people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false customer reviews to boost sales,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture wrote on its website, adding that the agency is investigating the packages from China.  Mystery seeds  In recent days, residents all over the country have been reporting on social media that they received mystery packages containing seeds that they did not order. With either white or yellow packaging, the packages appear to have been shipped via China’s state-run postal agency and contain Chinese characters on the outside. At least 30 states are urging its residents to report these unsolicited packages of seeds, warning they could be harmful.  “Anyone receiving seeds that they did not order should not open the packets or plant the seeds,” Michael Wallace, director of communications at Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, told VOA.  “Residents should be cautious because planting seeds that are non-native to the United States could potentially be an invasive species that would be a detriment to the environment,” warned Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Mike Strain.He told VOA the state is also concerned about the introduction of seed-borne pathogens into the environment.  USDA Urges Residents to Avoid Planting ‘China Seeds’ Seeds of unknown origin pose serious threats to agriculture and the environment, officials sayDavid Miller, a soybean farmer from Iowa, said farmers like him are taking this seriously.  “Well, if you ordered them, it’s one thing. If they came unsolicited, I think it’s concerning. You don’t know what these seeds are, and from whom, you don’t know if they contain or carry seed diseases, insect and all sorts of things can come in,” Miller told VOA.  Brushing scam?  Although investigators are still looking into the suspicious mailings, the USDA and Better Business Bureau said it appears to bear the hallmarks of an international “brushing scam.”  According to the BBB, a brushing scam starts with a company sending a consumer an unsolicited order or merchandise. The company then uses the consumer’s information and address to write a fake review for the company to boost its online reputation.   “A fake, positive review improves their products’ ratings, which means more sales for them. The payoff is highly profitable from their perspective,” the BBB wrote in a newsletter.  Most of the sellers involved are foreign third-party vendors on Amazon. According to Liz Johnson, an identity protection specialist and owner of Digital Bodyguard Co. LLC, brush scams are the new identity theft scam individuals should be on the lookout for.  “Once a package has been received, the sender gets a notification. This lets the criminal know that not only do you have an Amazon account but that I can easily locate, find and take over your Amazon account by doing a simple search to get your email address,” Johnson said.  She added that the worst part about brushing scams is that the individual receiving the merchandise has no idea or way to verify that they have not been tampered with. Even more so, individuals receiving these packages have no way to stop the services.   BBB says the fact that a scammer was able to send items to a person indicates they have some of that person’s Amazon account information, such as a name, address, and possibly a phone number or password.  According to the consumer protection agency, anyone who receives unsolicited packages should change their Amazon password and monitor their credit report and bank accounts.  Amazon did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.  In a previous statement regarding brushing scams, the internet giant said they investigate every report of customers receiving unsolicited packages and ban all vendors and reviewers who abuse the reviews system.  
 
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The United States is pulling almost 12,000 troops from Germany, following through on President Donald Trump’s call to reduce the U.S. military footprint in a country he described as “delinquent” in defense spending. Under the plan, 5,600 U.S. troops will be redeployed from Germany to other NATO allies, including Belgium and Italy. Another 6,400 will return to the United States, though most of the forces will then embark on what the Pentagon is describing as “continuous rotations” to the Black Sea region. “These changes will achieve the core principles of enhancing U.S. and NATO deterrence of Russia, strengthening NATO, reassuring allies and improving U.S. strategic flexibility,” U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Wednesday. FILE – A woman takes a picture with U.S. soldiers, who are part of a NATO multinational battalion on their way from Germany to Orzysz, northeastern Poland, during a military picnic with NATO troops in Wroclaw, Poland, March 27, 2017.”This is something we want to do. We feel very good about [it],” Esper added. “We want to get there as quickly as possible because of the importance it has to the [NATO] alliance and to deterring Russia.” Esper and other Pentagon officials say the redeployments will begin in “a matter of weeks,” though they admit numerous details have yet to be worked out. The exact cost of making the changes has also not been determined, with officials saying the price tag will likely be several billion dollars, though they described that as just “rough estimates.” FILE – The flags of the United States and Germany fly behind a sign at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, July 30, 2014.The U.S. currently has 36,000 troops stationed in Germany at numerous installations, such as Ramstein Air. In addition, Stuttgart, Germany, is home to both the U.S. European Command and the U.S. Africa Command.   Under the new plan, though, the U.S. will relocate U.S. European Command [EUCOM] headquarters, along with U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, from Stuttgart to Belgium, along with about 2,000 troops. U.S. Africa Command could also leave Stuttgart, though officials said they have yet to formulate any concrete plans. In addition, 2,500 airmen who had been scheduled to redeploy to Germany from an airbase in Britain will now stay in Britain. Additional troops could also be sent to Poland once an agreement, currently under discussion, is finalized. Top U.S. defense officials say they have been in contact with the U.S. State Department and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to help facilitate the changes. “It requires diplomacy,” Esper said.  “I had a good conversation last week with the German defense minister and laid out some of these in detail,” he added. “We will obviously be engaging the defense ministry in the coming days and weeks with more detail.” German officials had been pushing for U.S. troops to remain in Germany, saying it would be regrettable if those forces were to leave. “We are an important base for US troops” #Germany Defense Minister @akk Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer tells #EUDefense in prerecorded interview when asked about impending US pullout”We on German soil are also contributing to American security”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) July 8, 2020″What we are discussing is the security of the [NATO] alliance,” German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told a virtual forum earlier this month. “America needs allies. America needs like-minded allies based on the same values and those are especially the states in Europe,” she said. Trump publicly called for cutting the number of troops in Germany during a White House news conference with the Polish prime minister last month. “Germany is paying a very small fraction of what they’re supposed to be paying,” Trump said of Germany’s defense spending.  “They really owe a lot of money in NATO, and this has been going on for many years,” he said. “That’s not treating NATO fairly, but it really isn’t treating the United States fairly.” 
 
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U.S. President Donald Trump seems peeved that the American public likes and trusts his coronavirus infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, more than him.”It’s interesting. He’s got a very good approval rating, and I like that. It’s good,” Trump said Tuesday during one of his occasional coronavirus news briefings at the White House.”Because, remember, he’s working for this administration. He’s working with us,” the U.S. leader said. “We could’ve gotten other people. We could’ve gotten somebody else. It didn’t have to be Dr. Fauci. He’s working with our administration, and for the most part, we’ve done pretty much what he and others … recommended.”But Trump pondered, “He’s got this high approval rating, so why don’t I have a high approval rating … with respect to the virus?”It sort of is curious,” Trump said. “A man works for us, with us, very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. [Deborah] Birx, also highly thought of, and yet they’re highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. That’s all,” he said.White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx listens as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, left, speaks at the White House, April 29, 2020, in Washington.Poll after poll in the U.S. has shown those surveyed mostly trust Fauci’s wear-a-face-mask message to the American public, while giving Trump low marks for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.Trump has waffled on the importance of the coronavirus, saying earlier this year it would not amount to much and soon would be under control, before recently saying, as the U.S. death toll rose to a world high of nearly 150,000, that the pandemic in the U.S. would get worse before it got better.  A Quinnipiac University poll in mid-July, similar to other surveys, showed that 67% of those questioned say they do not trust Trump’s information on the virus, compared to 65% who say they believe the information Fauci delivers.According to the New York Times, the president was so bothered by Fauci being asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the much-delayed start of the baseball season in Washington last week that he announced he would be throwing out the first pitch at a New York Yankees game next month, even though plans had not been finalized. Then a couple of days later, Trump backtracked, saying he would throw out a first pitch at a Yankees game later in the abbreviated season.Dr. Anthony Fauci throws out a ceremonial first pitch before MLB Opening Day between the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees at Nationals Park, July 23, 2020, in Washington.Trump has said he has a good relationship with Fauci but also has said Fauci has made mistakes in his comments on the virus. Earlier this week, Trump retweeted a message saying Fauci “has misled the American public on many issues, but in particular, on dismissing #hydroxychloroquine and calling Remdesivir the new gold standard.”For his part, Fauci says he has not misled the public.“I don’t tweet. I don’t even read them, so I don’t really want to go there,” Fauci said. “I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it’s very important.” 
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They control the digital spaces where many around the world spend their time, shop, work, and talk to friends and family.  Together, the companies’ combined annual sales are roughly the same as the gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia, as Axios notes.Now the CEOs of four top U.S. technology companies — Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google – are set to answer questions Wednesday in front of the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust about how they wield their considerable market power. Deposition for the world The hearing comes as federal and state regulators are looking into whether the tech giants, through their dominance in some markets, stifle competition.  The joint appearance of Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sundar Pichai of Google and Jeff Bezos of Amazon is a sign of how high the stakes are for the future of their businesses, legal observers say. Critics, customers and regulators globally will be watching.  “This is a deposition for the whole world,” said William Kovacic, a former Federal Trade Commission member and now a law professor at George Washington University.  Asking the questions will be the 15 members of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, lawmakers from both political parties, who have spent the past year looking into antitrust and competition concerns with each firm.  The report on their probe is expected at the end of the summer, but the lawmakers’ questions will likely reveal what they have learned and some of their thinking about what they may do next, legal experts say.    A first for Amazon’s Bezos The hearing, in many ways, is unprecedented. Never before have these CEOs appeared together in front of a congressional hearing, albeit over video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic.  It will be the first time Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon and the richest person in the world, will testify before Congress.  “This is an important accountability exercise,” Kovacic said. “It does demonstrate that the branches of government responsible for high-level policymaking have the capacity to hold these powerful executives and their extraordinary companies to account. So that’s important. To remind them who does set larger policy.”  Daniel Crane, a law professor at the University of Michigan, said the hearing is an opportunity for the tech leaders to show they understand concerns about the power they have over people’s lives.  “That’s what I’m hoping to hear, these CEOs saying, ‘We hear you, we hear the concerns that are being expressed, and here is the way we come to the table to be part of the solution,’” Crane said.  Changed tone in Washington  The hearing also shines a spotlight on U.S. regulators and lawmakers, whose job it is to set policies and enforce laws that stop firms from using their market dominance to kill competition. They have been under increasing criticism from some antitrust experts that the government’s oversight of these giants has been weak, especially compared to stronger enforcement in Europe.  In recent years, the tone has changed in Washington from one of caution about taking on Big Tech to one of resolve that something has to be done, Kovacic said.  “U.S. agencies are also weary of watching the Europeans do everything and realizing that policy in a variety of areas — privacy, competition — is being set in Europe. And if the U.S. doesn’t play, it will continue to be set in Europe,” he said.  Sally Hubbard, director of enforcement strategy at the Open Markets Institute, a competition think tank, said she will watch the hearing for signs that lawmakers want to pursue “robust enforcement.” On her anti-monopoly wish list is “structural breakups” of the tech giants and blocking companies from buying smaller companies seen as threats.  “These problems are really deep and really widespread, and we need to really use the whole anti-monopoly tool kit to address them,” said Hubbard, a former assistant attorney general for antitrust enforcement in the New York attorney general’s office.    Lawmakers’ challenge    Lawmakers can’t charge the tech companies with antitrust violations or attempt to break them into smaller entities.  But what they can do is change the laws and put pressure on regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to do more to enforce existing regulations.  The Justice Department is reportedly likely to bring antitrust lawsuits against Google. State regulators may join the Justice Department or pursue their own cases, according to reports.Part of the challenge lawmakers face at the hearing will be that while Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon are the Who’s Who of internet firms, in fact their businesses are not really the same.  Still, the policies set by lawmakers in the months and years ahead will likely affect Big Tech for years to come.  
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The New York Times Wednesday said the Vatican’s computer networks have been breached by Chinese hackers since May, in an apparent espionage effort before the start of sensitive talks between the Roman Catholic Church and Communist China. The Times says the attack, discovered by private U.S.-based cybersecurity and monitoring firm Recorded Future, appears to be the first time hackers have been publicly caught directly hacking into the Vatican and a Hong Kong-based group of de facto Vatican representatives who have negotiated with China over the Church’s status on the mainland.  The newspaper says cybersecurity experts at Recorded Future have presumed the hackers are working for the Chinese government.   The Vatican and China are expected to begin talks in September over renewal of a provisional agreement they reached in 2018 that gives the pope the final say over bishops selected by the Communist Party for the state-sanctioned Catholic Church.  The Times says the revelations are certain to anger the Vatican and further complicate its relationship with the Chinese government.   The two sides cut off formal diplomatic ties in 1951.  The Vatican officially recognizes  Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims is a rogue breakaway territory that belongs under its control. If the Vatican and China restore diplomatic relations, Chinese officials are certain to demand that the Church cut off all ties with Taiwan.  China officially recognizes Catholicism and four other religions, but Communist Party officials often suspect religious groups and worshipers pose a threat to national security and are working to undermine the party’s grip on power.   Authorities have often used cyberattacks to gather information on groups such as Buddhist Tibetans, Muslim Uighurs and members of the outlawed Falun Gong who operate outside of China.   
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