Month: July 2020

A modernized U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact took effect Wednesday, ensuring continuity for manufacturers and agriculture, but the threat of disputes is exposing cracks in what was meant to be a stronger North American fortress of competitiveness.As the deal kicks in, the Trump administration is threatening Canada with new aluminum tariffs, and a prominent Mexican labor activist has been jailed, underscoring concerns about crucial labor reforms in the replacement for the 26-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement includes tighter North American content rules for autos, new protections for intellectual property, prohibitions against currency manipulation and new rules on digital commerce that did not exist when NAFTA launched in 1994.Trump had lambasted NAFTA as the “worst trade deal ever made” and repeatedly threatened to end it.Virus-related recessionsUSMCA launches as the coronavirus has all three countries mired in a deep recession, cutting their April goods trade flows — normally about $1.2 trillion annually — to the lowest monthly level in a decade.”The champagne isn’t quite as fizzy as we might have expected — even under the best of circumstances — and there’s trouble coming from all sides,” said Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economics professor and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “This could be a trade agreement that quickly ends up in dispute and higher trade barriers.”FILE – Workers check screens for faults at an LG flat screen TV assembly plant in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas, March 23, 2017.Issues dogging USMCA include hundreds of legal challenges to Mexico’s new labor law, seeking to ensure that workers can freely organize and unions are granted full collective bargaining rights.A ruling against the law would harm Mexico’s ability to deliver on provisions aimed at ending labor contracts agreed upon without worker consent that are stacked in favor of companies and have kept wages chronically low in Mexico.Tougher labor provisionsDemocrats in the U.S. Congress had insisted on the stronger labor provisions last year before granting approval, prompting a substantial renegotiation of terms first agreed upon in October 2018. The arrest of Mexican labor lawyer Susana Prieto in early June has fueled U.S. unions’ arguments that Mexican workers’ rights are not being sufficiently protected.”I remain very concerned that Mexico is falling short of its commitments to implement the legislative reforms that are the foundation in Mexico for effectively protecting labor rights,” U.S. Representative Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Tuesday, adding that USMCA’s success “truly hinges” on its new labor enforcement mechanism.On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a FILE – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 18, 2019.But Lighthizer has also said he will file dispute cases “early and often” to enforce USMCA provisions, citing Mexico’s failure to approve U.S. biotech products.That could lead to increased tariffs on offending goods, such as products from individual factories where labor violations are found. Former USTR general counsel Stephen Vaughn, a legal architect of the Trump administration’s “Section 301″ tariffs on Chinese goods, was appointed on Wednesday to a U.S. roster of panelists to settle state-to-state dispute cases under USMCA.Carlos Vejar, a former Mexican trade negotiator, said it was in the country’s interest to uphold pledges made to strengthen unions and end child labor.”If Mexico isn’t mindful of this, there will be cases against Mexico, and Mexico will lose them,” Vejar said.U.S. national security tariffs on imported steel and aluminum — including from Canada and Mexico — were a major irritant during USMCA negotiations until a deal for exemptions was reached last year. But now, USTR is considering domestic producers’ request to restore the 10% duty on Canadian aluminum to combat a “surge” of imports.Energy sectorAnother source of disputes may be the energy sector, where the main U.S. oil and gas lobby has complained that recent actions by Mexico favoring state oil company Pemex already violate USMCA’s protections for private investors.Canada has also complained about new Mexican rules formally threatening investment in renewable energy.USMCA will put new compliance burdens on the region’s automotive manufacturers as the coronavirus craters consumer spending and auto production. Within three to five years, vehicles’ minimum North American content rises to 75% from 62.5%. Automakers must also produce 40% of their vehicles’ content in “high wage” areas — effectively the United States and Canada.A U.S. International Trade Commission study found this would draw more auto parts production to the United States, but may curb U.S. vehicle assembly and raise prices, limiting consumer choice in cars. The same panel found that after 15 years, the deal would add $68.5 billion annually to U.S. economic output and create 176,000 jobs compared with a NAFTA baseline.
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Two U.S. Republican senators are calling for adoption of Juneteenth as a national holiday to remember the 1865 emancipation of slaves in the United States. Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and James Lankford of Oklahoma are not the first U.S. lawmakers to propose making the FILE – Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., speaks on Capitol Hill, June 25, 2020.FILE – Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. speaks on Capitol Hill, June 25, 2020.But on Wednesday they offered a possible compromise to keep from adding to the list of 10 national holidays already designated by the federal government in the U.S. They suggested ending the designation of the lightly celebrated Columbus Day in October as a holiday honoring the arrival in the Americas of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus on Oct. 12, 1492, while adding the June 19 holiday each year. “Juneteenth is a day in our history that redefined the meaning of freedom and equality in America,” Lankford said. “Throughout our history, we have strived to become a more perfect union and Juneteenth was a huge step attaining that goal. “We should celebrate these strides on the federal level while remaining cognizant of the impact the existing 10 federal holidays have on federal services and local businesses,” he said. Johnson said that swapping one holiday for another would be least disruptive to Americans’ work schedules.   
 
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A group of former George W. Bush administration and campaign officials have launched a new super PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the latest in a growing number of Republican groups to come out in support of Biden over President Donald Trump.The group, 43 Alumni for Biden, has recruited at least 200 former White House officials, campaign aides and Cabinet secretaries who worked under Bush to join the push against the Republican incumbent. They’re planning to roll out supportive testimonial videos featuring high-profile Republicans and launch a voter turnout effort in key states, aimed at turning out disaffected Republican voters. News of the group was first reported by Reuters.Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Office of Communications in the White House and in the State Department during the Bush administration, said many of the members of the group still consider themselves Republicans but see the need to defeat Trump as beyond their personal politics.”You don’t have to agree with a president on all of his policy decisions or agenda. We ask them to go to the White House and do what they think is in the best interest of the country. That’s what we as alumni of George W. Bush did, and we think Joe Biden will deliver that as well,” he said.The group has been in touch with the Biden campaign and other Republican groups opposed to Trump to coordinate some of its activities going forward, and it’s alerted Bush’s office of their activities, though it remains unaffiliated with the former president directly.In a statement, Erin Perrine, the Trump campaign’s director of press communications, said “this is the swamp — yet again — trying to take down the duly elected president.””President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94% of Republican votes during the primaries – something any former president of any party could only dream of,” she said.Still, this is just the latest group of Republicans supporting Biden to come out publicly amid criticism of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and race relations in the country.Two groups, Republican Voters Against Trump and the Lincoln Project, have already been airing ads in key states boosting Biden and attacking Trump. And last month, a group of Republican operatives opposed to Trump launched Right Side PAC, which is aimed at turning out disenchanted Republican voters. 
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Seattle police early Wednesday showed up in force at the city’s “occupied” protest zone, tore down demonstrators’ tents and used bicycles to herd the protesters so the officers could carry out an executive order from the mayor for the area to be vacated.
Television images showed no immediate signs of clashes between the police, many dressed in riot gear, and dozens of protesters at the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone that was set up near downtown following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Police moved in to the zone known as CHOP at about 5 a.m. and a loud bang was heard at about 6:15 a.m. followed by a cloud of smoke. KUOW radio reported police had made at least 10 arrests by 5:30 a.m.
The protesters have occupied several blocks around a park for about two weeks and police had abandoned a precinct station following standoffs and clashes with the protesters, who called for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
Police on Wednesday said they moved in to protect the public after Mayor Jenny Durkan issued the order for protesters to leave.
“Since demonstrations at the East Precinct area began on June 8th, two teenagers have been killed and three people have been seriously wounded in late-night shootings,” Seattle police said on Twitter. “Police have also documented robberies, assaults, and other violent crimes.
The tweet added that “suspects in recent shootings may still be in the area, and because numerous people in the area are in possession of firearms.”  
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said in statement that she supports peaceful demonstrations but that “enough is enough.”
“The CHOP has become lawless and brutal. Four shootings–-two fatal—robberies, assaults, violence and countless property crimes have occurred in this several block area,” she said.
There had been mounting calls by critics, including President Donald Trump, to remove protesters following the fatal shootings.
Protesters have said they should not be blamed for the violence in the area. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump is dismissing reports suggesting Russia may have offered a bounty to Taliban-linked militants for attacks on U.S. forces after top aides said he was fully briefed on the intelligence. In a series of early morning tweets Wednesday, the president called the reports “just another HOAX!” and said the source for the original report in The New York Times “probably does not even exist.” Trump also cited a statement from the Pentagon that military officials have “no corroborating evidence.” UPDATE: @ChiefPentSpox statement from 11:26pm Monday on alleged #Russia|n bounties for US,coalition forces in #Afghanistan@DeptofDefense “continues to evaluate intelligence that Russian GRU operatives were engaged in malign activity …To date DoD has no corroborating evidence” pic.twitter.com/tbSSUOXLLY
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 30, 2020″Do people still not understand that this is all a made up Fake News Media Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party” the president wrote on Twitter. “I was never briefed because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level.” “No corroborating evidence to back reports.” Department of Defense. Do people still not understand that this is all a made up Fake News Media Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party. I was never briefed because any info that they may have had did not rise to that level
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Feb. 12, 2020.”If this does not count as treason, I don’t know what does,” Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton said during a call with reporters Wednesday. “If the most junior officer in the United States military ignores an intelligence report delivered to him or her, as we know this intelligence report was delivered to the commander-in-chief, then that junior officer would absolutely be in prison.” “This is undebatable dereliction of duty,” he added. Trump’s likely opponent in November’s presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden, expressed similar sentiments while talking to reporters Tuesday. “The idea that somehow he didn’t know or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty if that is the case,” Biden said after a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. Americans should “conclude that this man isn’t fit to be president of the United States of America,” he added. ‘Confusion’ over intelligence reportBut key Republican lawmakers have defended the president and the White House, saying the unverified intelligence was handled properly. FILE – Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill, June 30, 2020.”There’s some confusion as far as our own intelligence, and it just didn’t rise to the level of the president at that time,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in comments on the senate floor Tuesday. “Our intelligence agencies aren’t in complete agreement on this, even now.” Despite the lack of agreement on the intelligence about the alleged Russian plot to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack and kill U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, U.S. officials insist the threat was not taken lightly, and that precautions were put in place. Officials have also said the intelligence was shared across the U.S. intelligence community and with allies whose troops were potentially at risk. MORE: @CIA “will continue to pursue every lead; analyze the information we collect with critical, objective eyes; and brief reliable intelligence to protect US forces deployed around the world” per Haspel
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 30, 2020On Tuesday, the White House blamed intelligence officials who leaked information about the alleged bounty program in Afghanistan for potentially blowing almost any chance of coming to a consensus on whether the threat was real. Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany criticized “rogue intelligence officers” for putting the lives of U.S. troops in danger, saying the leaks, and the attention being given to the unproven allegations, is weakening the country. “There is no good scenario as a result of this,” she told reporters. “Who’s going to want to cooperate with the United States intelligence community? Who’s going to want to be a source or an asset if they know that their identity could be disclosed?” “This level of controversy and discord plays directly into the hands of Russia, and unfortunately, serves their interests,” she added. Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson and White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report.
 
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U.S. President Donald Trump says he will veto an annual bill appropriating money for the Defense Department if the measure includes a requirement for renaming U.S. military installations that honor the Confederate States of America. His latest rejection of the move came in a late Tuesday tweet in which he repeated his frequent slur against Senator Elizabeth Warren. “I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!”I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2020Bipartisan approval
The Senate Armed Services Committee gave bipartisan approval in a 25-2 vote on Warren’s amendment last month. It calls for the Pentagon to act within three years to identify and rename any base, street, aircraft, weapon or other “asset” commemorating the Confederacy, a group of states that wanted to preserve slavery and seceded from the country before losing the 1860s Civil War. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy have all signaled they are open to renaming the bases. Among the installations named after Confederate military figures are Fort Benning, Fort Bragg, Fort Hood and Fort Pickett. People gather around the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., June 20, 2020. The global civil unrest ignited by Floyd’s death has left many Americans questioning their country’s racist past.Confederate monuments removed
The issue re-emerged amid nationwide protests following the death in police custody of African-American George Floyd.  Protests in multiple cities have targeted monuments to Confederate figures and led to some being removed, including one of Jefferson Davis, the president of the confederacy, in Richmond, Virginia, and one honoring top general Robert E. Lee in Montgomery, Alabama. The popular NASCAR racing series also banned the display of the Confederate flag at its events. 
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The United States marked another grim milestone Tuesday as it posted a record  47,000 new COVID-19 cases, the biggest one day increase in new infections since the start of the pandemic.  The bulk of the new infections stretches from the southwestern states of Arizona and Texas over into the western state of California, with high numbers of infections also reported in the southeastern states of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.   The rising number of COVID-19 infections across the United States prompted Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to tell a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday that the current rate of new infections could more than double to 100,000 a day if the current surge is not contained.  “Clearly we are not in total control right now,” Dr. Fauci testified. He warned the committee that just focusing on the states undergoing the biggest surges of new infections “puts the entire country at risk.” WATCH: Dr. Fauci responds to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s question about US COVID surgeSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
The new surge of COVID-19 infections have prompted governors in Florida, Texas and California to slow down plans to reopen their economies, ordering bars and restaurants to close and mandating that all its citizens wear masks. With the United States leading the world in total number of coronavirus cases with well over 2.6 million, including over 127,000 deaths, American travelers have been excluded from a list of nations whose citizens are once again allowed to enter the European Union. EU lifts travel restrictions
The EU lifted travel restrictions Tuesday for people from Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.    But travelers from nations where COVID-19 cases have been surging, including the United States, Brazil and India, may not enter at this time.  Chinese citizens will be able to enter the bloc, as long as China removes restrictions on European citizens traveling there. Other countries on the list are expected to end any of their own travel bans on Europeans. Countries will be added or dropped from the list every two weeks, according to their respective COVID-19 outbreaks, but it’s unlikely the United States will land a spot for a while.     The EU’s criteria stipulate that countries’ new case numbers in the last 14 days be close to or under its own average and that case numbers as a whole be stabilizing or dropping. Nearly 10.5 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 since the virus was first detected in China late last year and began spreading across the globe, with over 500,000 deaths.  
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With a stroke of the governor’s pen, the Southern state of Mississippi is retiring the last state flag in the United States with the Confederate battle emblem — a symbol that’s widely condemned as racist. Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed the historic bill Tuesday at the Governor’s Mansion, immediately removing official status for the 126-year-old banner that has been a source of division forgenerations. “This is not a political moment to me but a solemn occasion to lead our Mississippi family to come together, to be reconciled and to move on,” Reeves said on live TV just before the signing. “We are a resilient people defined by our hospitality. We are a people of great faith. Now, more than ever, we must lean on that faith, put our divisions behind us, and unite for a greater good.” Mississippi has faced increasing pressure to change its flag since protests against racial injustice have focused attention on Confederate symbols in recent weeks. A broad coalition of legislators on Sunday passed the landmark legislation to change the flag, capping a weekend of emotional debate and decades of effort by Black lawmakers and others who see the rebel emblem as a symbol of hatred. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signs the bill retiring the last state flag in the United States with the Confederate battle emblem, during a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Mississippi, June 30, 2020.Among the small group of dignitaries witnessing the bill signing were Reuben Anderson, who was the first African American justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court, serving from 1985 to 1991; Willie Simmons, a current state Transportation Commissioner who is the first African American elected to that job; and Reena Evers-Everette, daughter of civil rights icons Medgar and Myrlie Evers. Medgar Evers, a Mississippi NAACP leader, was assassinated in the family’s driveway in 1963. Myrlie Evers was national chairwoman of the NAACP in the mid-1990s and is still living.  “That Confederate symbol is not who Mississippi is now. It’s not what it was in 1894, either, inclusive of all Mississippians,” Evers-Everette said after the ceremony. “But now we’re going to a place of total inclusion and unity with our hearts along with our thoughts and in our actions.” Reeves used several pens to sign the bill. As he completed the process, a cheer could be heard from people outside the Governor’s Mansion who were watching the livestream broadcast on their phones. Reeves handed the pens to lawmakers and others who had worked on the issue. The Confederate battle emblem has a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars. White supremacist legislators put it on the upper-left corner of the Mississippi flag in 1894, as white people were squelching political power that African Americans had gained after the Civil War. Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration employees Willie Townsend, left, and Joe Brown, attach Mississippi state flags to a harness before raising them over the Capitol grounds in Jackson, Mississippi, June 30, 2020.Critics have said for generations that it’s wrong for a state where 38% of the people are Black to have a flag marked by the Confederacy, particularly since the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups have used the symbol to promote racist agendas.  Mississippi voters chose to keep the flag in a 2001 statewide election, with supporters saying they saw it as a symbol of Southern heritage. But since then, a growing number of cities and all the state’s public universities have abandoned it. Several Black legislators, and a few white ones, kept pushing for years to change it. After a white gunman who had posed with the Confederate flag killed Black worshipers at a South Carolina church in 2015, Mississippi’s Republican speaker of the House, Philip Gunn, said his religious faith compelled him to say that Mississippi must purge the symbol from its flag. The issue was still broadly considered too volatile for legislators to touch, until the death of George Floyd, an African American man in police custody in Minneapolis, set off weeks of sustained protests against racial injustice, followed by calls to take down Confederate symbols. A groundswell of young activists, college athletes and leaders from business, religion, education and sports called on Mississippi to make this change, finally providing the momentum for legislators to vote. Before the bill signing Tuesday, state employees raised and lowered several of the flags on a pole outside the Capitol. The secretary of state’s office sells flags for $20 each, and a spokeswoman said there has been a recent increase in requests. During recent news conferences, Reeves refused to say whether he thought the Confederate-themed flag properly represents present-day Mississippi, sticking to a position he ran on last year, when he promised that if the flag design was going to be reconsidered, it would be done in another statewide election. Now, a commission will design a new flag that cannot include the Confederate symbol and must have the words “In God We Trust.” Voters will be asked to approve it in the Nov. 3 election. If they reject it, the commission will draft a different design using the same guidelines, to be sent to voters later. Reeves said before signing off on the flag’s demise, “We are all Mississippians and we must all come together. What better way to do that than include ‘In God We Trust’ on our new state banner.” He added: “The people of Mississippi, black and white, and young and old, can be proud of a banner that puts our faith front and center. We can unite under it. We can move forward — together.”   
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Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper won the Democratic primary for Senate on Tuesday, setting up a November matchup with incumbent Republican Senator Cory Gardner. Hickenlooper, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, captured 60% of the vote to defeat Andrew Romanoff. The contest between Hickenlooper and Gardner will be one of the most closely watched as Democrats try to take control of the Senate from Republicans. In another Colorado race, Lauren Boebert, a businesswoman who advocates strong gun rights and who opened her restaurant in defiance of state coronavirus restrictions, defeated five-term incumbent Congressman Scott Tipton in the Republican primary for the 3rd congressional district.   Tipton had the endorsement of President Donald Trump, but after the race was called Tuesday night the president tweeted congratulations to Boebert on a “really great win!” Former state lawmaker Diane Mitsch Bush will be Boebert’s opponent in November, after defeating James Iacino in the Democratic primary Tuesday. In Oklahoma, Republican Senator Jim Inhofe easily won his primary Tuesday.  His November opponent will be Democrat Abby Broyles, an attorney and former television reporter, who defeated three primary challengers.Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., speaks to reporters following a GOP policy meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 30, 2020, in Washington.In House races, Democrat Kojo Asamoa-Caesar won his primary and will face incumbent Republican Congressman Kevin Hern. Republican Congressman Markwayne Mullin easily defeated two challengers to set up a November race with Democratic challenger Danyell Lanier. Republican Congressman Tom Cole handily won a four-way race and will next go up against Democrat Mary Brannon. Democratic Congresswoman Kendra Horn won her primary Tuesday, but will have to wait until a late August runoff election to find out her opponent.  There were nine Republicans competing in that party’s primary, and with no candidate earning the necessary 50% of the vote, candidates Terry Neese and Stephanie Bice advanced to the runoff. Voters in Oklahoma also narrowly approved an expansion of the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income residents over the opposition of state leaders who expressed concerns about future costs for the state.  The expansion will bring coverage to tens of thousand of people who meet the eligibility requirements of single incomes up to $17,200 or $35,500 for a family of four. In Utah, former Governor and U.S. ambassador to China and Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. was locked in a tight battle with Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox and two other candidates for the Republican nomination to be the state’s next governor.  The winner will face Democrat Chris Peterson in November. With 75% of precincts reporting, Cox had a lead of 37% to Huntsman’s 34%. There were close battles Tuesday in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the 1st congressional district, with candidates vying to fill the seat of retiring Republican Congressman Rob Bishop. Darren Parry led Jamie Cheek 53% to 48% with 60% of precincts reporting in the Democratic race.  Republicans Blake Moore and Bob Stevenson were both at 30% of the vote with 80% of precincts reporting. In the 4th congressional district, Republican Burgess Owens defeated three challengers in a primary battle for the right to go up against incumbent Democratic Congressman Ben McAdams. Earlier Tuesday, election officials in Kentucky announced results from last week’s elections after counting a huge number of mail-in ballots. Former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath won the Senate Democratic nomination, setting up a November contest against one of the most powerful political figures in the country, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.  McGrath, who lost a bid for a House of Representatives seat in 2018, faces an uphill fight against McConnell, a long-standing political fixture in the mid-South state and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda in Washington. But numerous national Democratic leaders, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, are supporting her.  In many U.S. elections, voters have come to expect results on the night of the election, but with concerns about in-person voting because of the coronavirus pandemic, states have seen an increase in mail-in votes.  Election experts have cautioned that could very much be the cast come November 3, when the nation votes for president, all 435 House seats and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats. New York voters are still waiting on some results from last week’s primaries as well, but election officials said mail-in ballots will not be counted until next week. Prominent outstanding races include the 16th congressional district in which former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman led Congressman Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, 61% to 36% before the mail-in votes. In the 12th district, congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, held a slight lead over lawyer and activist Suraj Patel before the mail-in ballots were counted in their race. 
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In a rare twist to Washington’s long-standing restrictions on the Chinese tech giant Huawei, the Commerce Department recently reversed its ban preventing U.S. firms from working with Huawei on developing new technical standards.The move was seen by many in China as an admission by President Donald Trump’s administration that it cannot ignore Huawei’s influential role in developing the technical standards critical for future technologies.  “America finally bowed its head” read a headline by Chinese network Phoenix TV.The new rule, announced by the Commerce Department on June 15, amends the Huawei “entity listing,” to allow American companies to collaborate with Huawei on setting standards that will determine the technical rules of the road for 5G and other emerging technologies.   “This action is meant to ensure Huawei’s placement on the entity list in May 2019 does not prevent American companies from contributing to important standards-developing activities despite Huawei’s pervasive participation in standards-development organizations,” the department said.  The situation with Huawei is no accident. For years, Beijing has focused on joining international standard-setting bodies, such as 3GPP and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which are little-known among the public, but make some of the most consequential decisions in modern telecommunications.
 3GPP and the future of your smartphone
 
Nestled in a quiet industrial park in southern France, a technology consortium with esoteric name, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, or 3GPP, sets the technical standards behind the world’s communication platforms, the fundamental building blocks for product development. As the primary global standard setting organization for the last 20 years, 3GPP helped create technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth as well as today’s 5G high-speed networks.
“Standards are not very sexy but extremely important,” Andrew Polk, partner at Beijing-based research and consultancy firm Trivium China, told VOA. “And it takes sustained long-term effort and attention. While western companies try to set standards, China has a long-term coordinated game plan to influence standards,” he said.FILE – A staff member holds a Huawei ‘Mate20 X 5G’ smartphone at the IFA 2019 tech fair in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 5, 2019.China’s leaders have long seen technology as a key to the country’s economic and military might, and have financially backed companies such as Huawei to become powerful global competitors that will help the country’s political and military goals. Critics say Beijing takes the same approach to setting technical standards.
 
“Beijing views standards as foundational to its goals to reshaping global governance and expand geostrategic power,” said Dr. J. Ray Bowen, analyst of Pointe Bello, a Washington, D.C.-based strategic intelligence firm.
 
Even though U.S. companies remain world leaders in most areas of technology, observers such as Dustin Daugherty, head of North America Business Development at Dezan Shira & Associates, a pan-Asia business consulting firm, say China’s strategy means “in the future the U.S. could fall behind a coordinated government effort in standard setting (such as from China).”
 China’s long-term plan
 
As of May, Chinese firms and government research institutes have accounted for the largest number of chairs or vice chairs in 3GPP, holding 16 of the 45 available leadership positions, according to VOA’s count based on the data release by 3GPP. By comparison, U.S. companies hold nine such leadership positions.
 
That’s up from a year ago, when 3GPP sent VOA a file showing that representatives from Chinese and U.S. companies each held 12 chair and vice chair positions.
While the 3GPP is the primary global group setting 5G standards, another major global organization, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), is now led by a formal Chinese government official Zhao Houlin.
 
Zhao, who began his career in China’s Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, was first elected as the secretary-general of ITU in 2014. He was reinstated in November 2018 for another four-year term.
 
Established in 1865, ITU is one of the oldest international organizations in the world and has historically avoided politics. However, Zhao publicly criticized Washington in its dispute with Huawei, the Chinese communications giant that U.S. officials say has deep links to the military. “I would encourage Huawei to be given equal opportunities to bid for business,” Zhao told reporters in Geneva earlier this year. “But if we don’t have anything then to put them on the blacklist – I think this is not fair.”FILE – Zhao Houlin, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, May 28, 2018.Under Zhao’s leadership, another Chinese national, Richard Li, serves as the chairman of a critical group with the ITU called Focus Group Technologies for Network 2030. Li, according to his LinkedIn Page, is still currently employed by Huawei as Chief Scientist and Vice-President of Network Technologies, is in charge of examining the world’s emerging technologies and 5G.
 
Doug Barry, the spokesperson for The US-China Business Council (USCBC), a private organization with the mission of promoting trade between the two countries, said there are companies that are concerned about the abuse of leadership positions by China, but so far he has not heard any examples of this happening in practice.
 
“Most international standards setting bodies have strong due process which makes it difficult for stakeholders to abuse leadership positions to force proposals through or block proposals,” said Barry.
 
Daugherty said because Chinese companies are among the most important international players in a variety of industries, including telecommunications, their presence in industry groups and standard setting bodies is logical. But he said there is an important difference between them and their counterparts from democratic countries.  
 
“Chinese companies (and by extension possibly their individual representatives on such bodies) may ultimately need to answer to Beijing’s priorities for strategically important issues,” said Daugherty.
 
In an interview with VOA, he said the politicization of such international bodies could conceivably lead to a decrease in legitimacy in international standard setting. “The damage could be immense,” he said.
 Flooded with proposals
 
Holding leadership positions is one part of Beijing’s strategy. Another part involves massive investments in submitting technical proposals to the international groups.
 
In a rare disclosure last September, Huawei said for one particular technical area alone, the company submitted 18,000 5G New Radio proposals. “If printed on A4 paper and piled up high, would stand a staggering 10 meters tall,” it said proudly on its official twitter account.FILE – A 5G logo is displayed on a screen outside the showroom at Huawei campus in Shenzhen city, in China’s Guangdong province, March 6, 2019.The U.S.-China Business Council said last February this is an issue of concern.  “Some companies and experts complained that Chinese stakeholders submit large numbers of proposals that are low-quality or irrelevant to market needs in some industries, including for products that China does not actually produce.”
 
The report titled “China in International Standards Setting” said this takes valuable time and resources away from considering serious proposals.
 
China also sends more people to attend international meetings that discuss, vote and make decisions on standards.
 
According to a report release last November by German intellectual property research firm Iplytics, Huawei dispatched over 3,000 engineers to participate in the 5G standard-setting process. American chipmaker Qualcomm sent 1,701 engineers to attend 3GPP meetings.
 
Dr. Melanie Hart, director for China Policy Center for American Progress, said the Chinese government is channeling state financial support to help Huawei and other Chinese firms send personnel to attend 3GPP meetings and flood the process with Chinese technical contributions.
 
“It is difficult for private companies from other nations to match that level of activity because sending engineers overseas to participate in 3GPP meetings and devoting R&D resources to develop 3GPP technical contributions are costly activities,” she testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission last March.   
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Former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath won the Senate Democratic nomination in the U.S. state of Kentucky Tuesday, setting up a November contest against one of the most powerful political figures in the country, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
 
A week after voting ended and with the extended vote count nearly completed, McGrath defeated state lawmaker Charles Booker by a margin of about 45% to 43%, with other minor candidates splitting the remainder of the ballots.
 
McGrath, who lost a bid for a House of Representatives seat in 2018, faces an uphill fight against McConnell, a long-standing political fixture in the mid-South state and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda in Washington. But numerous national Democratic leaders, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, are supporting her.
 
McGrath raised millions of dollars more than Booker, an African American, in campaign funds. But he drew close in the final weeks before the June 23 vote after national progressive Democratic politicians endorsed him in the wake of national protests against police abuse of minorities.  
 
McGrath and Booker had traded small leads since election day as local jurisdictions turned in their results from mail-in voting.
 
Kentucky received requests for nearly 900,000 such ballots, an unusually high number that came in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with voters opting to not risk their health by going to polling places.  
 
Some election experts are already saying that the extended vote counts in party primaries that have turned Election Nights into Election Weeks in the U.S. are a harbinger of what could happen in the Nov. 3 national election, when Trump is seeking reelection against his presumptive Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
 
Other slow vote counts because of mail-in ballots in the June 23 Democratic congressional primaries in New York have left the political fate of two longtime House members in doubt.
 
Before counting the mail-in votes, former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman, who had never run for office before, held a lead of 61% to 36% over Congressman Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  
 
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, held a slight lead over lawyer and activist Suraj Patel before the mail-in ballots were counted in their race.
 
Results in both of the New York races could be announced later Tuesday.
 
Voters are headed to the polls in three other states Tuesday, with party primary elections in Colorado, Utah and Oklahoma.
 
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A 60-year-old U.K. citizen drove into a Detroit parking garage on a recent afternoon, lowered the window of her SUV to swear an oath, and left as a newly minted American.  It took less than 30 minutes.  Anita Rosenberger is among thousands of people around the country who have taken the final step to citizenship this month under COVID-19 social-distancing rules that have turned what has long been a patriotic rite of passage into something more like a visit to a fast-food restaurant.  “It was a nice experience in spite of the fact that I was in the car by myself with a mask on,” said Rosenberger, a sales manager for an electronics component company from suburban Detroit. “And I will say that I will remember this.”  Similar drive-thru ceremonies are being held around the country, but perhaps for not much longer. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says a budget crisis could force the agency to furlough nearly three-quarters of its workforce, severely curtailing operations as tens of thousands of people wait to become citizens. That could have potential political consequences, especially in states such as Michigan and Florida where the number of newly naturalized Americans already exceeds the narrow margin of victory for President Donald Trump in 2016. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you have several hundred thousand people who are not in a position to vote in this election but would have been if business had been progressing normally at USCIS,” said Randy Capps of the Migration Policy Institute. “That’s been everyone’s concern.”  In this June 26, 2020 photo, Vida Kazemi is sworn in as a U.S. citizen by Allen Chrysler, immigration services officer, during a drive-up naturalization ceremony in Laguna Niguel, Calif.The citizenship agency has not detailed publicly how it will operate if it doesn’t get $1.2 billion in emergency funding from Congress before Aug. 3. It said in a written response to questions that “all USCIS operations will be impacted by a furlough” that covers more than 13,000 workers. USCIS derives nearly all its $4.8 billion budget from fees it charges to people who apply to live or work in the country. Revenue was already in decline under Trump, whose administration has imposed a number of immigration restrictions. The agency says COVID-19 caused it to drop by half.  “The effects of the coronavirus pandemic are long reaching and pervasive, leaving few unscathed in its wake,” Acting Director Joseph Edlow said.  In written responses to questions, the agency says it would pay back the money it receives from Congress with a 10% surcharge on fees.  While the agency cites the pandemic for its budget woes, immigration experts and a USCIS employee union say other factors include administration policies of devoting more resources to vetting applications and searching for fraud. The administration has also halted a number of programs — including a recent freeze on H-1B visas for skilled workers — that provide an important source of revenue for USCIS.  “The agency has really moved away from its mission and become more of an enforcement agency that carries out the agenda of the Trump administration,” said Diego Iñiguez-Lopez, policy and campaigns manager for the National Partnership for New Americans, an immigrant advocacy organization. USCIS typically swears in 15,000 new citizens per week. The agency said there were about 110,000 people waiting to take the oath when they shut down in-person operations in March because of the virus. It said it expects to work through the backlog by the end of July, thanks in part to ceremonies like the one held at the federal building in Detroit or similar ones outside a minor league baseball stadium in Des Moines, Iowa, and a community recreation center near San Diego. Some in Congress have pushed to allow virtual swearing-in ceremonies, but the agency has refused. Behind those waiting for the ceremony are a long line of some 700,000 people who have submitted applications for naturalization, facing an average time to process that has risen to 10 months from six months in the last year of the Obama administration.  That backlog has a number of causes, including a surge in interest due to the election of a president who has made restricting immigration a centerpiece of his administration and the increased scrutiny of applications, said Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration Policy Institute. Acting Deputy Department of Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli presided over a naturalization ceremony Monday in Washington for 20 people, including an Afghan interpreter credited with saving five U.S. soldiers. “Welcome to you and your country from a grateful nation,” he said later on Twitter. In this June 26, 2020 photo, U.S. District Judge Laurie Michelson, left, administers the Oath of Citizenship to Hala Baqtar during a drive-thru naturalization service in Detroit.Others who are sworn in are as varied as the country. Rosenberger, whose father brought her to the U.S. in 1968 so he could work for an electronics manufacturer, put off applying for citizenship for years in part because she liked having a U.K. passport. Then, when she did attempt it, her paperwork was lost. She re-applied in November. “I thought, the way this country is going I better get my citizenship now.”  Others are more recent arrivals. Mulugeta Turuneh came to the United States as a refugee from Eritrea in 2011 and settled in Iowa City, where he works as a truck driver. He took the oath Friday in Des Moines after a delay of several months because of the outbreak.  “God bless America,” Turuneh said afterward. “I’m so happy here. Everything is nice. Everything is cool.” Iris Lapipan, who came to the U.S. from the Philippines as a child in the 1990s, was among those naturalizing at a recreation center in El Cajon, California. She said she is looking forward to being able to travel outside the United States and participate in the election. She said she was leaning toward former Vice President Joe Biden. “I’m excited that I can vote, especially with what is going on now,” she said. Rosenberger is leaning the other way, saying she is generally conservative and would most likely support Trump. “Now that I’m a citizen I’m very excited about voting,” she said. “You have the right now, so use it.”   
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