Category: Aktualności

Supported by the United States, Syrian Kurdish groups last week announced the first step toward uniting efforts to run the northeastern part of Syria. Since 2012, the Kurdish-majority region has largely been controlled by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The YPG is the main element within the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF has been a major U.S. partner in the fight against Islamic State (IS) in Syria. In addition to these groups, the Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS) is another major bloc that includes several political parties. The ENKS has opposed the PYD and its autonomous administration in northeast Syria. ‘Significant progress’ U.S. officials hope the two sides put their differences aside and focus on improving the local administration in the war-torn country.   “We are here tonight to celebrate the progress that has been made, which is significant,” Ambassador William Roebuck, deputy special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, told reporters last Wednesday in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka.  For months, the U.S. has been mediating negotiations between the two Kurdish sides to obtain agreement on a political framework that will allow them to participate in a joint administration for northeast Syria. Following the announcement, the U.S. Embassy in Syria issued a statement, saying the initial agreement will cover governance, administrative cooperation and protection. “The United States welcomes this as an important step towards greater understanding and practical cooperation, which will benefit the Syrian Kurdish people, as well as Syrians of all components,” the embassy said in a statement last week. The U.S. Embassy in Damascus suspended its operations in 2012 following a Syrian government crackdown on protesters during the early days of the country’s civil war. But the embassy maintains contact with the Syrian public through social media.   Stabilizing NE Syria Nicholas Heras, a Middle East expert at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, says the U.S. wants to align the Syrian Kurdish parties in order to stabilize northeast Syria, as Washington continues its campaign against IS. “A major U.S. goal is to diversify the political actors in northeast Syria and to provide a Turkish-approved Syrian Kurdish party with the opportunity to participate in governance and security in northeast Syria,” he told VOA. “Uniting the Syrian Kurdish factions is a local move with geopolitical implications for U.S. policy on Syria and the U.S.-led effort to execute counter-ISIS operations,” Heras said, using another acronym for Islamic State. Considered close to Turkey, the ENKS has expressed willingness to participate in the local administration established by the PYD. “The success of this agreement depends on how much the U.S. can support it while investing in our region politically,” said Sulaiman Oso, an ENKS leader.  Other Kurdish officials say such unity efforts are important to protect the gains they have made against IS and other militant groups throughout the Syrian civil war. “Turkey and the Syrian regime are trying to damage our gains, but we have been able to create a consensus amongst ourselves, which will prevent these actors from exploiting our divisions,” Mazloum Abdi, general commander of SDF, told VOA.  Turkish objection Heras says the push by the U.S. for Syrian Kurdish unity “could also assuage Turkey’s concerns about a PYD-dominated order in northeast Syria sufficiently to forestall future Turkish military action against the SDF.” Turkey views the YPG and PYD as extensions of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a decades long war with Turkish armed forces for greater Kurdish rights. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and Washington. In the past two years, Turkey and its allied Syrian militias have seized several Kurdish towns in northern Syria that were previously held by the YPG. In what appeared to be a response to the recent Syrian Kurdish talks, Turkish officials said that any organizations that work with the PKK will be considered legitimate targets, including the ENKS. “Whatever their names are, those who are with the YPG-PKK are not different in our eyes from the YPG-PKK, and they are legitimate targets,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with CNN Turk television last week. Two days after the Syrian Kurdish unity announcement, the Turkish military launched a campaign against what Turkey calls elements of the PKK militant group in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Ilhan Tanir, an editor with the Turkish website Ahval News, believes Turkey will focus its efforts on spoiling the unity talks.  “We have already seen that Ankara, both by threatening ENKS and bombing Iraqi Kurdistan, has shown it is unhappy with the talks and will do more to halt such a joint administration,” Tanir told VOA. But Kurdish officials believe a solid partnership between the different factions in Syria would strengthen their political status at the regional level.   “It will ultimately protect our region from threats by other states who accuse the PYD of being a PKK affiliate,” Oso said of the ENKS.   VOA’s Namo Abdulla contributed to this report from Washington. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser says China is trying to “remake the world’ in its image.Speaking Wednesday before a group of business leaders in Phoenix, Arizona, Robert O’Brien said U.S. policymakers had naively believed for decades that the Chinese Commnunist Party would move steadily towards democracy as it grew economically, while at the same time downplaying Beijing’s numerous human rights abuses.O’Brien said China has launched a massive effort to influence opinion within the United States, claiming that people in more than a dozen American cities listen to FM radio stations that broadcast “subtle pro-Beijing propaganda.”  One example he cited was a false assertion that the novel coronavirus that was first detected in Wuhan late last year was brought into the country by a U.S. soldier.O’Brien also cited China’s efforts to collect personal data on millions of Americans through cyberhacking of credit bureaus, health insurers, hotel chains and even dating websites.“The Chinese Communist Party wants to know just about everything about you,” he said.O’Brien said the Trump administration has imposed restrictions on Chinese companies that are closely allied with the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence and security apparatus from accessing U.S. data, including tech giant Huawei, which the administration contends will use its new 5G network to spy on Americans.O’Brien’s speech is part of the administration’s increasingly hardline stance towards China over economic and diplomatic issues, including trade, restrictions on tech giant Huawei from accessing U.S. semiconductor technology, and Beijing’s tightening grip on semiautonomous Hong Kong.Other high-ranking senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, are expected to deliver similar speeches challenging China in the immediate future.O’Brien’s harsh criticism towards China stands in sharp contrast to recent allegations made in a new book by his predecessor, John Bolton, that Trump directly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to increase China’s purchase of American agricultural products to help Trump secure votes in farm states in the November 2020 U.S. election, in return for a more favorable tariff rate on Chinese goods.Bolton also alleges that Trump approved of Xi’s explanation for building internment camps for as many as one million Uighur Muslims, an ethnic minority in Xinjiang 
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Major victories against terror groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida have so far failed to stem their spread across the world, part of a worrisome trend identified in a new U.S. government report on terrorism. The State Department’s annual terror assessment, released Wednesday, hailed “major strides” in Washington’s ongoing effort to curb terrorism, pointing to the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) caliphate in Iraq and Syria, the killing of former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the killing of Hamza bin Laden, the son of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden. Only the report found none of that was enough. “Despite these successes, dangerous terrorist threats persisted,” it concluded. Top U.S. officials argue part of the challenge is the wide array of threats — what the report describes as a “diverse and dynamic threat landscape,” from jihadist groups to white supremacists — and the world’s reliance on Washington to take the lead. “This administration has taken on terrorist threats that other administration simply downplayed,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Wednesday. “But we’re undaunted in our pursuit of bringing terrorists to justice.” Other officials warn another problem is that terror groups are adapting, finding ways to persist and expand despite efforts to root them out, especially in the case of IS. “We have to be mindful of the need to keep up the pressure,” State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator Nathan Sales told reporters. “We’re seeing a continued evolution in ISIS from an entity that purported to control territory to one that is instead a network, a global network that reaches every inhabited continent,” he said, using an acronym for the terror group. As part of its effort, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program Wednesday doubled the reward for current IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (aka Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla) to $10 million. NEW: @StateDept poster advertising new $10 million reward for #ISIS leader bu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al #Qurashi, aka Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla pic.twitter.com/xyCoU3Wgq2
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 24, 2020Critics of Washington’s counterterrorism strategy worry that doing more of the same — going after key leaders like al-Qurashi — is not likely to yield better results. “I don’t think taking him off the battlefield ends the Islamic State threat at all, especially when a lot of that threat now is based outside of Iraq and Syria,” American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow Katherine Zimmerman said. “If [former IS leader] Baghdadi were still alive today, would the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, would the Islamic State branches globally look significantly different? I don’t think so,” she added. And some experts and former officials caution there is a temptation to rely too heavily on military action as a quick fix. “Terrorist groups are very easy to degrade. Once you get the intel and once you get the military assets in the right place, they’re extraordinarily easy to degrade,” former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell told lawmakers Wednesday. “But they are also very easy to rebuild.” According to some, the U.S. must address the conditions that give rise to terrorism in the first place — factors like poverty, ineffective governance and long-standing local grievances that make people feel disaffected. “We need to think about how do we play a role in getting at the disease rather than just dealing with the symptoms,” Morell said. Perhaps nowhere, of late, have terror groups been more successful at taking advantage of conditions that allow terrorism to thrive than in Africa’s Sahel region, where according to State Department data, terrorist attacks have increased 250% since 2018. French-led efforts there have made a dent, most recently with a strike that killed the leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), but sustained success has been harder to come by. The G5 Sahel Joint Force, which formed in 2017 and includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, “is not yet capable of disrupting the growing terrorist footprint,” the State Department report said. The report also said efforts by Nigeria and neighboring countries has so far “proved unable to stop ISIS-WA’s [Islamic State-West Africa’s] advance in the region.” Al-Qaida-aligned al-Shabab has also further entrenched itself in Somalia, retaining “de facto control over significant portions of the country, particularly in south-central Somalia,” the State Department found. There is also growing fear about the spread of remnants of the IS caliphate across Asia, and in Southeast Asia in particular. “Southeast Asian governments remained concerned about foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) returning from Iraq or Syria and using their operational skills, connections, and experience to launch domestic attacks,” the report said. Despite a series of losses, IS’s affiliate in the Philippines continued to draw both foreign fighters and new recruits, some from as far away as Europe, often transiting through Malaysia and Indonesia. There is also mounting evidence that both IS and al-Qaida continue to reach out to the Americas, with State Department officials taking note of connections to Trinidad and Tobago, and of attempts by both “to exploit the region.” At the same time, the report cites indications that both terror groups seem to be solidifying their presence in Syria, Iraq and even Afghanistan, while still finding ways to inspire attacks in Europe. “There’s still counterterrorism work to do,” Pompeo said.
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A prosecutor on Wednesday announced that three men have been indicted on murder charges in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in coastal Georgia.Speaking to reporters outside the Glynn County courthouse, prosecutor Joyette Holmes said a grand jury had indicted Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. on charges including malice and felony murder in the death of the African American man.”This is another positive step, another great step for finding justice for Ahmaud, for finding justice for this family and the community beyond,” Holmes said.Lawyers for the McMichaels have cautioned against a rush to judgment and have said the full story will come out in court. A lawyer for Bryan has maintained that his client was merely a witness.Arbery was killed February 23 when the Greg and Travis McMichael, a white father and son, armed themselves and pursued the 25-year-old Black man running in their neighborhood. Greg McMichael told police he suspected Arbery was a burglar and that Arbery attacked his son before being shot.Bryan lives in the same subdivision. Bryan said he saw the McMichaels driving by and joined the chase, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified earlier this month.It wasn’t until May 7 — two days after Bryan’s cellphone video leaked online and stirred a national outcry — that the McMichaels were arrested. Bryan was arrested on May 22, and an arrest warrant said he tried “to confine and detain” Arbery without legal authority by “utilizing his vehicle on multiple occasions” before Arbery was shot.In addition to malice murder and felony murder charges, the McMichaels and Bryan each are charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.Court functions in Georgia have been severely limited in recent months because of a statewide judicial emergency declared by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court in response to the coronavirus pandemic.Holmes said they were able to call in a grand jury that had been impaneled prior to the judicial emergency. They followed public guidelines, providing hand sanitizer to the grand jurors and allowing them to sit far apart, she said.Because of the uncertainty caused by the virus, the Arbery family didn’t know when the next steps would be taken after a probable cause hearing held earlier this month, Holmes said. But they were notified as soon as the grand jury returned an indictment, she said.”The family was ecstatic to hear that it had happened this morning,” she said.Bob Rubin, a lawyer for Travis McMichael, said in an email that prosecutors choose the facts they want to present to a grand jury when seeking an indictment. The defense team has found other facts “that are an integral part of the case,” he wrote.”To this indictment, Travis McMichael will plead not guilty, and we look forward to presenting all of the facts regarding this tragic death in a court of law,” Rubin wrote.Attorney Kevin Gough, who represents Bryan, spoke to reporters at the county courthouse right after Holmes announced the indictment.”We welcome the action of the grand jury today,” Gough said. “While we disagree with it, it’s an important step in the process to moving this case closer to the speedy trial that Roddie has demanded.”He said his client has committed no crime and has cooperated with law enforcement officers from the beginning.Lawyers for Greg McMichael did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.
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A U.S. Justice Department spokesman said Wednesday U.S. Attorney General William Barr has agreed to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee next month as the panel probes the alleged politicization of the department. The Democratic-led panel has been conducting hearings regarding how Barr and his Justice department have interfered with investigations into possible wrongdoing by U.S. President Donald Trump or issued rulings favorable to the president. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Policing Practices and Law Enforcement Accountability on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 10, 2020.In his opening remarks, Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler said Barr’s “work at the Department of Justice has nothing to do with correcting injustice. He is the president’s fixer. He has shown us that there is one set of rules for the president’s friends, and another set of rules for the rest of us.” Republicans on the Committee spoke out in defense of Barr. When Barr testifies, one case the committee will no doubt question him about concerns Former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.   Last month, Barr issued a decision to drop charges against Flynn, who had been convicted of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador. Earlier Wednesday a U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the justice department’s decision after a judge chose not to immediately act on the decision. Barr was named attorney general last year, replacing Jeff Sessions. 
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the state is facing a “massive outbreak” in the coronavirus pandemic and that some new local restrictions may be needed to protect hospital space for new patients. In a series of midday interviews with television stations, Abbott said Texas would again pass 5,000 new coronavirus cases and more than 4,000 hospital patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Texas passed both thresholds for the first time Tuesday. “There is a massive outbreak of COVID-19 across the state of Texas,” Abbott said in an interview with KFDA-TV in Amarillo. FILE – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a news conference at city hall in Dallas, June 20, 2020.Abbott, who aggressively pushed to reopen the state in May, acknowledged state officials are closely watching hospital space. One of the first measures Abbott took in March when the pandemic emerged in the state was to order hospitals to suspend nonessential surgeries to help ensure they weren’t overwhelmed. That ban was later rescinded. With new cases and the number of COVID-19 patients rising rapidly, “We are looking at greater restrictions and some could be localized,” Abbott said Wednesday without detailing what those would be or where.  “There are some regions in the state of Texas that are running tight on hospital capacity that may necessitate a localized strategy to make sure that hospital beds will be available,” he said. Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, the largest pediatric hospital in the U.S., said Tuesday that it was admitting adult patients across its campuses to free up more hospital bed space in the Houston area. The number of COVID-19-positive hospital patients in Harris County, which encompasses Houston, has nearly tripled since May 31. Even with the hint of new restrictions to protect hospital space, Abbott said in a separate interview with KDFM-TV in Beaumont that hospital executives have assured him that they will be able to handle the rising numbers of patients. “If there are more people coming in with COVID-19, they will ensure that beds are available,” Abbott said. 
 
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When he first ran for office in 1994, they scrawled the N-word on his lawn signs. By the time he came to Congress, he had to unplug the phone lines because callers brought the staff to tears. Even after he became a U.S. senator, the Capitol quickly became just another place where he would be stopped by the police.
Initially reluctant to focus on race, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina  is now a leading Republican voice, teaching his party what it’s like to be a Black man in America when the police lights are flashing in the rearview mirror.
He has been pulled over by law enforcement “more than 18 times,” Scott said in an interview with The Associated Press.  
“I’m thinking to myself how blessed and lucky I am to have 18 different encounters and to have walked away from each encounter.”
As the only Black Republican in the Senate, Scott’s role is heavy with a certain weight. He is leading a task force of GOP senators drafting the Justice Act, law enforcement changes set for a test vote this week. But it’s also a historic opportunity to speak to Republicans about race — as a conservative, a Christian and a Southerner from the state where the Civil War began.
He rejects the concept of systemic racism, which puts him at odds with many Black Democrats who demand a broader police overhaul than his proposed bill. Instead, he places his faith where he says he has seen the change, in people’s hearts. He shares his experience as a Black American in the 21st century, including this year when he was pulled over for failing to signal early enough for a lane change — or, as he called it, stopped for “driving while Black.”
“I just can’t imagine the pressure he must be under, though, as the only African American Republican,” Rep. Karen Bass, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in an interview.  
“That he has to sit there with those senators and go through his experiences and hope that they have some measure of empathy,” said Bass, who is leading Democrats’ policing bill  and working with Scott, whom she has known for years.  
“It’s exhausting,” she said. “Racism is exhausting.”
As massive demonstrations over the May 25 killing of George Floyd  in Minnesota spilled into a worldwide reckoning over police tactics and racial injustice, Scott quietly approached Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the GOP senators’ weekly private luncheon.  
Scott whispered in McConnell’s ear that he wanted a seat at the table drafting legislation.
“I’m the guy that actually has the experience,” he told McConnell. The leader agreed.  
Broaching law enforcement changes is a new priority for the GOP, which proudly calls itself the party of Lincoln but has wrestled with race in the modern era, becoming more aligned with the “law and order” approach now embraced by President Donald Trump than a civil rights platform.  
“He’s been working for this moment his whole life,” said House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.
Scott’s family — the grandfather who picked cotton as a child and grandmother who cleaned homes, and his own parents who separated when he was young, his father in the military, his mother working double shifts as a nursing assistant to provide for him and his brother — taught him to stay steady amid hardship. He acknowledges in his memoir that he almost flunked his freshman year of high school, before going on to become senior class president and attend college.
He is among a generation of Capitol Hill Republicans — along with McCarthy and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., both of whom he counts as friends — who came of age during the Reagan years, carrying a conservative’s belief in the wellspring of opportunity awaiting hard work. Elected to the House on the 2010 Tea Party wave, Scott was tapped for a vacant Senate seat in 2012 and went on to win it outright in 2014.  
“He found his political legs and political wings at a unique time in this country,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist in South Carolina. “He was able to tap into something that was not known, so he made the unknown known, a Black Republican.”
And yet, Scott can speak with authenticity about experiences of racism that transcend party. “I am going to be black for the rest of my life,” he writes in his biography.
With the 2014 Missouri death of Michael Brown, and the 2015 South Carolina killing of Walter Scott, no relation, he wrote, “It was becoming harder and harder not to speak out.”
What started as a series of Senate speeches about his experiences has led to this defining moment, drafting legislation at a time of history.
“He’s been able to diversify the conversation in America about the African American community … and how we fit into this larger pulse of what we call America,” said Stephen Gilchrist, the chairman and CEO of the South Carolina African American Chamber of Commerce. “And yeah, that does draw criticism because, in many respects, it does not toe the line.”
If anything, Scott objects not to those in his party learning the toll of racism, but critics from the left who question his policy decisions as a Black man. He publicly spoke out against Trump’s 2017 comments of fine people on “both sides” of the neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, and has since blocked some of the president’s judicial nominees over their views. He notes there are only two Black Democratic senators.
During an interview at his Washington office, Scott explained that he believes there’s value in having the person who has “gone through the pain and the misery” of bias writing the policing bills that could become law.
“Esther 4:14 says, ‘For such a time as this,'” he told the AP.  
“I think it is important that, in the history of eternity, that I had the good fortune of being born in the place where the Civil War started, being elected in the seat that Strom Thurmond used to hold, to be in a position to have this serious conversation that confronts racial outcomes in this nation,” he said.  
“I think it’s a blessing from God.” 
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A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the dismissal of the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said in a 2-1 ruling that the Justice Department’s decision to abandon the case against Flynn settles the matter, even though Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan had declined to immediately dismiss the case, seeking instead to evaluate on his own the department’s unusual dismissal request. He appointed a retired federal judge to argue against the Justice Department’s position and to consider whether Flynn could be held in criminal contempt for perjury.Flynn was the only White House official charged in Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI days after the president’s January 2017 inauguration about conversations he had had during the presidential transition period with the Russian ambassador.The Justice Department moved to dismiss the case in May as part of a broader effort by Attorney General William Barr to scrutinize, and even undo, some of the decisions reached during the Russia investigation, which he has increasingly disparaged.In its motion, the department argued that Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador — in which they discussed sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russia for election interference — were appropriate and not material to the underlying counterintelligence investigation. The department also noted that weeks before the interview, the FBI had prepared to close its investigation into Flynn after not finding evidence of a crime.But the retired judge appointed by Sullivan, John Gleeson, called the Justice Department’s request a “gross abuse” of prosecutorial power and accused the government of creating a pretext to benefit an ally of the president.Wednesday’s 2-1 opinion was authored by Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, and joined by Karen LeCraft Henderson, who had asked skeptical questions of lawyers for Flynn and the Justice Department during arguments earlier this month. 
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 The federal office that led the prosecution of President Donald Trump’s friend Roger Stone received “heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice” to ease its sentencing recommendation, career prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky plans to tell Congress, according to his prepared remarks.Zelinsky, who withdrew from the Roger Stone case in protest, will testify on Wednesday before the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives Judiciary Committee about political pressures that he said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia faced.He will add that Tim Shea, the acting U.S. attorney at the time who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr, ultimately caved into the pressure because he was “afraid of the President.”Zelinsky’s testimony never explicitly says who pressured Shea, but he said he was told that Shea “was receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break.””I was explicitly told that the motivation for changing the sentencing memo was political, and because the U.S. Attorney was ‘afraid of the President,'” Zelinsky said.Republicans are expected to push back on his testimony, saying he is confusing politicization with policy disagreements.Zelinsky said career prosecutors never got to see the draft of the revised memo, which Shea filed after Trump blasted the office on Twitter for its original recommendation of a seven-to-nine-year term.The Republican president called the recommendation “horrible” and a “miscarriage of justice.” Stone’s friendshipwith Trump dates back decades.Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement that Zelinsky had not had any discussion about the sentencing with Barr or other members of the department’s political leadership and his allegations were based on his own interpretation and hearsay.Barr had not discussed Stone’s sentencing with Trump or anyone else at the White House, and had made the decision to revise the filing before Trump’s tweet, Kupec said.Stone, 67, who was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, is due to report to prison later this month to begin serving his three years-and-four-month sentence. He is seeking an extension due to concerns about contracting COVID-19.
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With the death toll surpassing 100,000 deaths, Latin America has emerged as the world’s newest epicenter for the novel coronavirus pandemic. Brazil leads the region with 1,145,906 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 52,645 deaths, making it the world’s second-highest number of cases in both categories after the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University. The nation recorded 39,436 new confirmed cases over the last 24-hour period on Tuesday, including more than 1,300 deaths.   The pandemic has reached such a crisis that a federal judge ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a face mask in public or pay a fine of nearly $400 a day.  A man, wearing a protective face mask walks past a mural depicting a tug-of-war between health workers and President Bolsonaro, with a message that reads in Portuguese: “Which side are you on?”, Sao Paulo, June 19, 2020.The judge said Bolsonaro is violating local law in Brasilia aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. Bolsonaro has so far refused to cover his mouth at large political rallies where he comes in close contact with voters and children.  Bolsonaro has shrugged off the pandemic as just a “flu” and said anyone worried about the virus is just being neurotic.  Analysts attribute the rise in confirmed cases and deaths in the Latin American region to a combination of widespread poverty, widespread distrust of the government, and leaders, such as Bolsonaro and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who have either downplayed or dismissed the true risk of the virus and failed to impose stringent lockdowns.   With the rising death toll in Latin America, the total number of deaths around the world now stands at more than 477,000, part of a combined 9.2 million cases.  Wearing face coverings, John Williams, right, and Jeff Lee play chess, June 23, 2020, in Santa Monica, Calif.US has most cases, deaths
The United States continues to lead the world in both categories with 2.3 million confirmed cases and 121,228 deaths.  According to The Washington Post, seven states — Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — have reported their highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic.   Its top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told a congressional panel Tuesday there will be more testing, not less, even after President Donald Trump asked health officials to slow down testing.   The White House has said the president wasn’t serious when he said more testing is the reason there are so many cases in the U.S. But Trump said Tuesday that he wasn’t joking.  From left to right, Dr. Robert Redfield, Dr. Anthony Fauci, ADM Brett P. Giroir and Dr. Stephen M. Hahn testify before a House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, June 23, 2020.Fauci also said he is cautiously optimistic a coronavirus vaccine will be available as early as the end of 2020. But he has previously said even if a vaccine is ready, there is no guarantee it will work or give any long-term protection.  Ban on American travelers The New York Times reports that European Union nations plan to stop U.S. citizens from crossing its borders because of what officials call the U.S. failure to control the virus.  The newspaper is basing its story on what it says are draft lists of who will be allowed to travel to the EU starting July 1. It says it confirmed the lists with two EU officials in Brussels, but the Times says none of the 27 EU members are obligated to adopt it.  The World Health Organization says the coronavirus pandemic is still growing even as countries start to ease lockdowns and other restrictions.    “The epidemic is now peaking or moving towards a peak in a number of large countries,” WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said.  People wait in a queue for the COVID-19 rapid antigen test in New Delhi, India, June 24, 2020.Several nations, including Germany, South Africa and India — which reports about 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day — are looking at reimposing lockdowns and preparing to treat an influx of new cases.   WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it took three months for the world to confirm its first 1 million cases, but just eight days for the most recent 1 million to be identified.  “The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself. It’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership,” Tedros said without naming any specific country or leader he believes has failed.   Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns the ball during an exhibition tournament in Zadar, Croatia, June 21, 2020.Tennis star, wife test positive
Meanwhile, tennis star Novak Djokovic said Tuesday he and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19 after he hosted a series of exhibition events he organized in his native Serbia and Croatia.  Three other players who participated in the matches also tested positive for the virus, which could threaten professional tennis’s hopes of resuming play this year. 
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Top U.S. health officials told lawmakers Tuesday the nation’s coronavirus response is improving – even as 26 U.S. states are now reporting a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases. Those numbers have increasingly become the focus of a political debate after President Donald Trump said at a rally Saturday, he had asked for slower coronavirus testing. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.
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U.S. President Donald Trump was at the southwestern state of Arizona Tuesday to inspect the border wall with Mexico and deliver a campaign speech to highlight his achievements on immigration. This week, his administration is suspending certain temporary work visas for foreigners, saying it would ease the economic impact of the pandemic. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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In a stunning decision that could test the legal framework of #MeToo cases, Pennsylvania’s highest court will review the trial decision to let five other accusers testify at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial in 2018, which ended with the longtime TV star’s conviction. Cosby, 82, has been imprisoned in suburban Philadelphia for nearly two years after a jury convicted him of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in 2004. He’s serving a three- to 10-year sentence. The Supreme Court has agreed to review two aspects of the case, including the judge’s decision to let prosecutors call the other accusers to testify about long-ago encounters with the actor and comedian. Cosby’s lawyers have long complained the testimony is remote and unreliable.  The court will also consider, as it weighs the scope of the evidence allowed, whether the jury should have heard Cosby’s own deposition testimony about getting quaaludes to give women in the past. Secondly, the court will examine Cosby’s argument that he had an agreement with a former prosecutor that he would never be charged in the case. Cosby has said he relied on the alleged promise before agreeing to give the deposition in trial accuser Andrea Constand’s lawsuit. Those issues have been at the heart of the case since Cosby was charged in December 2015, days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.  Prosecutors in suburban Philadelphia had reopened the case that year after The Associated Press fought to unseal portions of Cosby’s decade-old deposition in Constand’s sex assault and defamation lawsuit. Cosby paid $3.4 million to settle the lawsuit in 2006. Cosby, in the deposition, acknowledged a string of extramarital relationships. He called them consensual, but many of the women say they were drugged and molested. Dozens came forward in the years that followed to accuse Cosby, long beloved as “America’s Dad” because of his hit 1980s sitcom, of sexual misconduct. Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill allowed just one of them to testify at Cosby’s first trial in 2017, which ended with an acquittal. But a year later, after the #MeToo movement exploded in the wake of reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men, the judge allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial. The jury convicted Cosby on all three felony sex-assault counts. Lawyer Brian W. Perry argued in the appeal that letting other accusers testify in #MeToo cases “flips constitutional jurisprudence on its head, and the ‘presumption of guilt,’ rather than the presumption of innocence, becomes the premise.” However, the judge said he found “striking similarities” in the women’s descriptions of their encounters with Cosby, and said the testimony was therefore permissible to show evidence of a “signature crime.” “In each instance, (he) met a substantially younger woman, gained her trust, invited her to a place where he was alone with her, provided her with a drink or drug, and sexually assaulted her once she was rendered incapacitated,” O’Neill wrote in a post-trial opinion. “These chilling similarities rendered (their) testimony admissible.” Spokesman Andrew Wyatt on Tuesday said the decision comes as demonstrators across the nation protest the death of Black people at the hands of police and expose the “corruption that lies within the criminal justice system.” “The false conviction of Bill Cosby is so much bigger than him — it’s about the destruction of ALL Black people and people of color in America,” Wyatt said in a statement. Constand, a former professional basketball player who now does outreach to sex assault victims, asked the appeals court Tuesday to not allow “Cosby’s wealth, fame and fortune to win an escape from his maleficent, malignant and downright criminal past.” Questioned about the encounter with her in the 2006 deposition, Cosby described being on his couch and putting his hand down her pants after giving her three pills he identified as Benadryl. Constand said they made her pass out. “I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped,” he said. Legal experts said the appellate review could help clarify when judges should allow “prior bad act” testimony from other accusers in sex crime cases, at least in Pennsylvania, and whether a supposed verbal promise from one prosecutor should bind their successor. “I think that Cosby still has an uphill battle. The good news is the state Supreme Court will look at the appeal,” said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. The AP typically does not name people who say they have been victims of sexual assault without their permission, which Constand has granted.   
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Equal treatment. That’s the idea behind the Civil Rights Act. One part of the legislation, called Title VII deals with the workplace. What does that mean for American workers? VOA explains.
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Twitter Inc. said on Tuesday it had placed a warning notice on a tweet from U.S. President Donald Trump for violating its policy against abusive behavior.
 
“There will never be an “Autonomous Zone” in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!” the president’s tweet read.There will never be an “Autonomous Zone” in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020In a tweet, the company said it had hidden Trump’s tweet behind its “public interest” notice because there was a threat of harm against an identifiable group.
 
Anti-racism protesters on Monday declared a Black House Autonomous Zone – referencing a Seattle area known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone or the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone – near the White House in front of St. John’s Church.
 
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The United States has strongly condemned Monday’s assassination of a team of five Afghan government employees, including two prosecutors, and demanded that authorities investigate the attack.
 
The slain men were said to be part of a team working to facilitate the release of Taliban prisoners from government custody as part of a landmark U.S. agreement with the Islamist insurgent group aimed at ending nearly two decades of Afghan war.  
 
“This attack, carried out by enemies of peace, took the lives of five civilians. We offer our condolences,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the American special envoy for Afghan reconciliation, said in a series of tweets. “We call for a full investigation to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”
 Afghan Security Forces Suffer Bloodiest Week in 19 YearsTaliban carried out hundreds of attacks in dozens of provincesAfghan officials said the victims were traveling to the Bagram prison, north of the capital, Kabul, when gunmen sprayed their car with bullets during an ambush. The prison facility hosts a large number of insurgent prisoners.  
 
While the Taliban has denied its involvement in Monday’s attack, the government has pointed the finger at the insurgents.
 High-Profile Killings  
 
The attack is the latest in a series of high-profile assassinations in and round Kabul in recent weeks that remain unclaimed. They include killings earlier this month of two highly respected Afghan clerics and the May 12 raid on a maternity ward in the city, run by Doctors Without Borders.The hospital attack killed 25 people, including 16 women,  five of them just minutes or hours away from giving birth. 
Khalilzad negotiated and signed the pact with the Taliban in February, which requires Kabul to free 5,000 insurgent prisoners in exchange for 1,000 Afghan security personnel being held by the Taliban before peace talks between Afghan parties to the war could begin.
 
The Kabul government says it has so far released 3,600 insurgent prisoners while the Taliban says it has freed around 600 detainees.
 
Khalilzad suggested that Monday’s attack could be the work of domestic and foreign “spoilers” trying to disrupt and delay Afghan peace efforts. He encouraged Afghan rivals to remain committed to the peace process.  
 
“Both sides should not be deterred and push forward to take the steps necessary to reach intra-Afghan negotiations, where a comprehensive ceasefire & a political settlement can be negotiated as quickly as possible,” Khalilzad tweeted.  
 Plot To Kill Khalilzad  
 
The Afghan-American envoy has repeatedly warned in his previous statements that Islamic State terrorists in Afghanistan could attempt to subvert the U.S.-Taliban deal.  
 
Khalilzad’s own security has lately come under scrutiny, however.
 
Last week, U.S. officials confirmed they were investigating Taliban claims that Islamic State was plotting to assassinate Khalilzad with the help of former and current officers within the Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).
 
The Taliban shared with media outlets a video of two blindfolded men in their custody earlier this month, saying they were recruited by Islamic State for the would-be suicide mission aimed at killing Khalilzad.   
 
The two alleged IS militants claimed in their purported video confession that the plot to eliminate the American envoy was facilitated by Rahmatullah Nabil, a former NDS chief, with a mission to sabotage the Afghan peace process. They also owned other high-profile killings in Kabul, a prominent analyst who frequently and publicly spoke for peace with the Taliban.  
 
Nabil, a presidential candidate in last year’s election in Afghanistan, has vehemently denied the charges and denounced the video as fake.
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Friends and relatives of Rayshard Brooks began arriving at the historic Atlanta church that was once the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s pulpit for a funeral Tuesday for the Black man whose killing by a white police officer in a fast-food parking lot stoked protests across the U.S. over racial injustice.
King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, planned to deliver remarks at the private service, along with a friend of Brooks, his mother-in-law and the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Rev. Raphael Warnock.
“Rayshard Brooks wasn’t just running from the police. He was running from a system that makes slaves out of people. A system that doesn’t give ordinary people who’ve made mistakes a second chance, a real shot at redemption,” Warnock, a Democratic candidate for Senate, said in an excerpt released ahead of the service.
Brooks, 27, was shot twice in the back June 12 by Officer Garrett Rolfe after a struggle that erupted when police tried to handcuff him for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car at a Wendy’s drive-thru. Video showed Brooks snatching a police Taser and firing it at Brooks while running away.
Rolfe, 27, was charged with murder and jailed without bail. A second officer, Devin Brosnan, 26, was charged with aggravated assault, accused of stepping on Brooks’ shoulder as he lay dying on the pavement. Lawyers for both men said their clients’ actions were justified.  
The killing unfolded amid protests and scattered violence set off around the country by the case of George Floyd, the Black man who was pronounced dead May 25 after a white Minneapolis put his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes.
Atlanta’s police chief stepped down less than 24 hours after Brooks’ death, and the Wendy’s was burned by protesters.
While Brooks was not a member of Ebenezer Baptist, the church where King preached is a “sanctuary for those who suffer,” Warnock said in a statement announcing the funeral plans. Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry offered financial help for the service, according to the statement.
An afternoon bail hearing for Rolfe that would have conflicted with the funeral was canceled by a judge. Under the law, crime victims and their families are entitled to be heard at such proceedings.
Meanwhile,  a new poll that finds nearly all Americans favor at least some change to the nation’s criminal justice system, and they overwhelmingly want to see clear standards on when police officers may use force and consequences for those who cross the line.
The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research said 29% think the criminal justice system needs “a complete overhaul,” 40% say it needs “major changes,” and 25% say it needs “minor changes.” Just 5% believe no changes are necessary.
  
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A day after a noose was found in the team garage of African-American race car driver Bubba Wallace, his fellow drivers staged a moving show of support for him Monday. Shortly before the start of a NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) race at Talladega Superspeedway in the southern state of Alabama, several drivers pushed Wallace’s number 43 car to the front of pit row, followed by a long procession of other drivers and members of their pit crews.  The procession moved past an area on the infield grass with the phrase “#IStandWithBubba” painted on it.   An emotional Wallace partially emerged from the car after it came to a stop and broke down in tears. Legendary NASCAR driver Richard Petty, who made the number 43 car a cultural icon and is co-owner of Wallace’s team, walked up to Wallace and put his hands on his shoulders.   Wallace is the lone African American driver in NASCAR’s top-level Cup Series.  He drew widespread support earlier this month when he successfully urged NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at its races in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis last month. The flag, which represented the slave-owning southern U.S. states that split from the North during the 1861-65 Civil War, remains a prominent symbol of southern culture, but many African Americans consider the flag a lasting symbol of slavery, racism and white supremacy.Driver Bubba Wallace, left, is overcome with emotion as team owner Richard Petty, comforts him as he arrives at his car in the pits of the Talladega Superspeedway prior to the start of the NASCAR Cup Series, June 22, 2020.Floyd’s death has sparked a backlash against other perceived symbols of white supremacy, including statues of Confederate generals and other historical figures.  Some statues have either been defaced or torn down by protesters, or removed by local officials.   NASCAR, which also has its roots in southern U.S. culture, said in a statement it will do everything it can to identify who was responsible for the noose “and eliminate them from our sport.” The FBI is also investigating the incident.   Wallace finished 14th in the race, which was scheduled to run Sunday but postponed because of rain. Protesters on Saturday and Sunday drove cars and trucks flying the Confederate flag on roads near the track.   Wallace said after the race that the incident “was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to witness in my life,” but called the support he received afterwards as “incredible.” 
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Elections are set for three U.S. states Tuesday, including a Senate Democratic primary contest in the mid-south state of Kentucky for a spot to face Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November and a tough Democratic primary challenge longtime Congressman Eliot Engel is facing in New York.In the Kentucky race, polls indicate a tight race between former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who narrowly lost a 2018 bid for a seat in the House of Representatives, and Charles Booker, a 35-year-old state lawmaker.McGrath was the early favorite in the race and raised $41 million in campaign funds while earning the endorsements of key Democratic figures such as Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.  But Booker, who raised less than $4 million, has closed the gap, getting his own endorsements from key newspapers in the state as well as national progressive figures including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill, in Washington, June 16, 2020.Tuesday’s winner faces a tough contest against the 78-year-old McConnell, a fixture in Kentucky and the Washington power structure. McConnell has been a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s legislative proposals and his appointment of conservative judges. Moreover, the president is popular in Kentucky, which he won by about 30 percentage points in 2016. New York In Tuesday’s other key race, the 73-year-old Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is also facing a late challenge from Jamaal Bowman, a 44-year-old middle school principal who had never run for office before.  Much like Booker in Kentucky, Bowman is advancing more leftist policies than Engel, hoping to unseat the 16-term congressman. Engel has the endorsements of key Washington figures, including Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump.  FILE – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., walks through the Hall of Columns at the Capitol.But New York progressives have lined up behind Bowman, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who herself won an upset primary election victory against an entrenched New York congressman in 2018. In a normally solid Republican congressional district in western New York state, Democrat Nate McMurray and Republican Chris Jacobs are vying to finish the last half year of the two-year term vacated when Republican Chris Collins resigned as he pleaded guilty to federal insider stock trading charges. No matter who wins, McMurray and Jacobs are likely to face each other again in November for a full two-year House term. There also are party primaries for six congressional seats in Kentucky and another 26 House primaries in New York besides the Engel-Bowman race. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington.Virginia
In the mid-Atlantic state of Virginia, there are seven party primaries for House seats, along with a Republican party primary for the Senate nomination to face two-term incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Warner in the November election. The three Republicans vying to face Warner are civics teacher Alissa Baldwin, Army intelligence officer Thomas Speciale and Daniel Gade, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who lost his right leg in a 2004 firefight in Iraq and now is a professor at American University in Washington.President Donald Trump exits Air Force One as he arrives at Tulsa International Airport on his way to his first re-election campaign rally in several months in the midst of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020Trump heads to Arizona
Trump is heading Tuesday to the southwestern state of Arizona where he is scheduled to inspect the under-construction border wall in Yuma, one of the nation’s hot spots for COVID-19. He is then scheduled to deliver a campaign speech to more than 3,000 people, most with the group “Students for Trump,” at a church in Phoenix.Arizona has seen its number of coronavirus cases double in the past two weeks.  Both Yuma County and the city of Phoenix have mandated the wearing of face masks in public.Trump’s reelection campaign faced criticism for holding a rally Saturday in the state of Oklahoma, another where the number of coronavirus cases has been surging.The political rally attracted far fewer supporters than the campaign had anticipated, filling only 6,200 out of the 19,199 seats in the Bank of Oklahoma Center, according to the Tulsa Fire Department.The Trump campaign had claimed it had received more than a million requests for tickets.
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Police in Washington forcefully pushed back a group of protesters late Monday who were trying to take down a statue of former President Andrew Jackson in a park across from the White House. The protesters had thrown ropes over the statue and were pulling from two sides as a crowd surrounding the site chanted against Jackson and in support of justice for victims of police violence. Police carrying shields confronted the protesters and used batons, pepper spray and pepper bullets to push the crowd away from the statue in Lafayette Square. The site is the same area where earlier this month police forcefully cleared out protesters a short time before President Donald Trump walked through the area for a photo opportunity at a nearby church. 
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Tech executives said Monday they were disappointed in the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily ban an array of work visas, including those used by the technology industry. Some vowed to open up or expand their operations overseas.  “Banning all H1B visas means CEOs like me have to open offices and hire more people in countries like Canada that allow immigration,” tweeted Anshu Sharma, chief executive of a data privacy firm in Silicon Valley.Banning all H1B visas means CEOs like me have to open offices and hire more people in countries like Canada that allow immigration. This visa ban is morally wrong, and economically stupid. What happened to being “for legal immigration”? https://t.co/R9O9Q1Ts0j— H1B immigrant Anshu Sharma 🌶 (@anshublog) June 22, 2020“Immigration has contributed immensely to America’s economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today,” Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, said on Twitter. “Disappointed by today’s proclamation.”Immigration has contributed immensely to America’s economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today. Disappointed by today’s proclamation – we’ll continue to stand with immigrants and work to expand opportunity for all.— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) June 22, 2020The executive order expanded on restrictions the White House rolled out in April. In its statement, the White House cited the current economic hardship in the U.S. where the unemployment rate is more than 13 percent.   “President Trump’s efforts will ensure businesses look to American workers first when hiring,” the White House said in a statement. “Many workers have been hurt through no fault of their own due to coronavirus and they should not remain on the sidelines while being replaced by new foreign labor.” Reliance on foreign workers  During periods of high growth, the technology industry has relied on the H-1B, a temporary work visa that brings as many as 85,000 skilled workers to the U.S. each year.  While tech companies have had layoffs during the pandemic, the labor market is still tight, said Russell Hancock, the chief executive and president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a nonprofit organization that studies the region.  “Tech is pretty much working at full employment,” he said. “The pandemic hasn’t hurt tech as it has hurt other sectors.” Silicon Valley’s foreign-born workers mostly hail from India and China. More than 60 percent of those working in computer, mathematics and engineering fields in Silicon Valley are foreign born, according to the 2020 Silicon Valley Index, produced by Joint Venture. Tech companies have argued that they need foreign-born workers – and an expansion of the temporary work visa program — because there are not enough U.S.-born workers with the skills for key roles. Opponents of the temporary visa say that the industry and large tech consultants turn to foreign workers to keep wages down.   Cutting off the ability of skilled workers to come to the U.S. will hurt the industry’s ability to stay competitive, Hancock said.  “If you talk to anyone, they will tell you we need talent and it’s not coming through our own pipelines,” he said.  It’s a point echoed by tech leaders.  “In the digital economy, you hire where the talent is,” tweeted Aaron Levie, the chief executive at Box, a tech firm. “When you restrict immigration, the jobs still get created, just somewhere else. And later down the road, when those individuals create the next Google, it won’t be here.” In the digital economy, you hire where the talent is. When you restrict immigration, the jobs still get created, just somewhere else. And later down the road, when those individuals create the next Google, it won’t be here.— Aaron Levie (@levie) June 22, 2020
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Outdoor clothing giant Patagonia announced it would pause all advertisements on Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram for at least the month of July, joining a growing ad boycott led by civil rights organizations. “For too long, Facebook has failed to take sufficient steps to stop the spread of hateful lies and dangerous propaganda on its platform,” said a FILE – Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, October 23, 2019.While Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the posts did not violate the social media giant’s rules against inciting violence, civil rights activists say the controversy is emblematic of how Facebook provides a platform for racist rhetoric.  Now, the company is facing widespread backlash, including from its own employees. Some have spoken out against company policy online, staged a virtual walkout and even resigned.  Facebook has come under fire in the past for failing to curb online abuse and election disinformation, and to protect user data. Civil rights groups including Color of Change, the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League launched the “Stop hate for profit” campaign on June 17, asking advertisers to pause promotions on all Facebook-owned platforms through the month of July. The boycott stems from a worldwide movement against racism and police brutality, sparked by the death of George Floyd last month in Minneapolis while he was in police custody. Advertising accounted for more than 98% of Facebook’s $17.74 billion in global revenue in the first quarter of 2020. Ad revenue growth has slowed, however, in part because of the pandemic-inflicted cash crunch many advertisers have faced, and because of Facebook’s own attempts to increase user data privacy.  In a statement to CNN Business, Carolyn Everson, vice president of Facebook’s Global Business Group, said, “We deeply respect any brand’s decision and remain focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information. Our conversations with marketers and civil rights organizations are about how, together, we can be a force for good.” Freelancing platform Upwork also joined the boycott, and Hypebeast, a men’s fashion publication, reported Sunday that brands including Vans and Timberland are considering joining.   
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U.S. President Donald Trump suspended the entry of certain foreign workers on Monday until the end of the year, a move the White House said would help the coronavirus-battered economy, but which business groups strongly oppose. The effects of the proclamation may not be immediately felt as the issuance of work visas had already dramatically declined due to the coronavirus pandemic. The following visa categories are affected: H-1B The United States grants 85,000 H-1B visas every year to “high-skilled” workers, often in the technology industry. They are generally valid for up to six years. In fiscal year 2019, the Department of State issued 188,123 H-1B visas for both new applicants and renewals. Some 131,549 were for Indian citizens, followed by 28,483 for mainland Chinese citizens. Only 143 H-1B visas were issued in May 2020, compared with 13,678 in May 2019, according to Department data. H-2B H-2B visas are for seasonal non-agricultural labor. The United States issues 66,000 per year, although it sometimes grants additional visas based on demand. They are generally valid for up to three years and are popular in industries like food processing, hotel work, and landscaping. In fiscal year 2019, the Department of State issued 97,623 H-2B visas for both new applicants and renewals. Some 72,339 were for Mexican citizens. H-4 H-4 visas are for the spouses and children of H-1B and H-2B holders. The proclamation does not explicitly address them, but does restrict entry for “any alien accompanying or following to join” restricted categories. They are valid for the duration of the H-1B visa. In fiscal year 2019, the Department of State issued 125,999 H-4 visas. Some 106,162 were for Indian citizens, followed by 5,701 for mainland Chinese citizens. J-1 J-1 visas are for cultural and educational exchange. The order applies to J-1 holders “participating in an intern, trainee, teacher, camp counselor, au pair, or summer work travel program.” They are valid for up to seven years, depending on program type, and there is no annual cap. In fiscal year 2019, the Department of State issued 353,279 J-1 visas for both new applicants and renewals. Some 39,920 were for mainland Chinese citizens, followed by 18,349 for citizens of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and 17,591 for German citizens. J-2 J-2 visas are for the spouses and dependents of J-1 holders. It is valid for the duration of the J-1 visa. The Department of State issued 38,282 J-2 visas in fiscal year 2019, with 10,228 going to mainland Chinese citizens. L-1L-1 visas are for high-level and specialized company employees. They are generally valid for up to seven years and there is no annual cap. In fiscal year 2019, the Department of State issued 76,988 L-1 visas. Some 18,354 were for Indian citizens, followed by 5,902 for citizens of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and 5,295 for Brazilian citizens. L-2L-2 visas are for the dependents of L-1 holders. They are valid for the duration of the associated L-1 visa. In fiscal year 2019, the Department of State issued 80,720 L-2 visas. Some 23,169 went to Indian citizens, followed by 7,143 for Brazilian citizens.
 
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Americans’ outlook on the national economy has improved somewhat from its lowest points during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, but a new poll suggests Democrats and Republicans are living in alternate economic realities amid the sharpest recession in the nation’s history. Eighty-five percent of Democrats call economic conditions “poor,” while 65% of Republicans describe them as “good” in a new survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. This divide reflects the deep polarization ahead of the 2020 presidential election, as well as a series of indicators that point toward a weakened but recovering U.S. economy. “The economy is in terrible shape and improving rapidly,” said Harvard University professor Jason Furman, formerly the top economist in the Obama White House. “Depending on which of the two halves you’re looking at, you’re going to have a very different interpretation of where we are.” FILE – Diners are seated in an outdoor dining area on a sidewalk at Limey’s Pub, in Norwood, Mass., June 18, 2020.Americans can see reasons for hope as well as doubt. They face a host of uncertainties about the path of COVID-19, the fate of small businesses with fewer customers and the status of additional government aid. Overall, 63% of the country says the economy is in poor shape, down somewhat from the 70% who felt that way in May. The change was driven by increasingly optimistic Republicans, only 43% of whom described the economy as good a month ago. Two-thirds of Republicans, but just 29% of Democrats, expect improvement over the next year. Thelma Ross, 78, of Granby, Missouri, believes the economy will recover if President Donald Trump can defeat Democratic challenger Joe Biden, the former vice president. “I think it’s going to come back, stronger than ever, if we get the right president in,” Ross said. “President Trump is a businessman.” Yet she is concerned by the protests after George Floyd, an African American, died in police custody in Minneapolis and the calls to remove statues that celebrate the Confederacy and Christopher Columbus. Ross views division as harmful for any economic recovery. Ross said of Trump: “I pray for divine revelation and divine guidance for that man because he needs that right now.” Job lossThe survey finds that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely than white Americans to say someone in their household has lost a job or other income. That inequality has added to the broader reckoning with structural racism amid nationwide protests over police brutality following Floyd’s death. Overall, 66% of Hispanic Americans and 53% of black Americans say they’ve experienced some form of household income loss, including layoffs, unpaid time off and cuts in hours or pay. Forty-two percent of white Americans say the same. Thirty-four percent of Hispanics, 29% of African Americans and 20% of white Americans said someone in their household has been laid off. The poll finds signs that some of those layoffs are becoming permanent. Among all those who experienced a layoff in their household, 55% say the job definitely or probably will return — and 8% say it already has. Still, 36% said the job will most likely not come back, which is significantly higher than the 20% who said that in April. The economy cratered in March and April as people sheltered in place in hopes of stopping the pandemic, and the unemployment rate spiked to at least 14.7%. Responses to government surveys suggested the true jobless rate may have been even higher. But it showed signs of reviving in May. Retail sales surged 17.7%, and 2.5 million jobs were added. The unemployment rate improved to 13.3%, a number that is still the second highest reading in records going back to 1948. Leah Avery, 54, lost her job driving a school bus in suburban Dallas. She said she checks her email daily to find out how schools will reopen. She applied for unemployment benefits a month ago, but the request has been under review. “It’s a struggle day by day for us to pay our bills, and I know others are going through the same thing,” she said. The job loss has only added to her stress. Her aunt died from COVID-19, and she needs to take care of her elderly mother and her husband, who has dialysis appointments three days a week. It’s a full-time job with no pay, she said. “I just have these moments where it makes me cry,” she said. “You don’t know this day from the next day what is going to happen.” Federal aidThe nearly $3 trillion in approved federal aid has shielded many people from the pain of the downturn. About two-thirds of Americans still call their personal financial situations good. A bipartisan group of economists proposed an additional $1 trillion to $2 trillion of aid to sustain any recovery, including targeted funds for state and local governments, subsidized loans for small businesses, more generous unemployment benefits and aid for low-wage workers. “It should be thought of as an investment in the economy,” said Melissa Kearney, a University of Maryland economics professor who helped lead the effort. The proposals are based on ideas shown to boost growth and provide traction for a recovery that is still in its early and fragile stages. 
 
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The Trump administration said Monday that it was extending a ban on green cards issued outside the United States until the end of the year and adding many temporary work visas to the freeze, including those used heavily by technology companies and multinational corporations.The administration cast the effort as a way to free up jobs in an economy reeling from the coronavirus. A senior official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity estimated the restrictions will free up to 525,000 jobs for Americans.The ban, while temporary, would amount to major restructuring of legal immigration if made permanent, a goal that had eluded the administration before the pandemic. Business groups had pressed hard to limit their reach, saying many of these workers are essential.The ban on new visas applies to H-1B visas, which are used by major American technology companies, and their immediate families, H-2B visas for nonagricultural seasonal workers, J-1 visas for exchange students and L-1 visas for managers of multinational corporations.There will be exemptions for food processing workers, which make up about 15% of H-2B visas, the official said. Health care workers assisting with the coronavirus fight will continue to be spared from the green-card freeze, though their exemption will be narrower.Trump imposed a 60-day ban on green cards issued abroad in April, which was set to expire Monday. That announcement, which largely targeted family members, drew a surprisingly chilly reception from immigration hardliners, who said the president didn’t go far enough.The new steps to include non-immigrant visas satisfy many, but not all, of the hardliners’ wishes. The freezes on visas issued abroad are designed to take effect immediately. Other changes, including restrictions on work permits for asylum-seekers, will go through a formal rule-making process that takes months.The administration is proposing a new way of awarding H-1B visas, which are capped at 85,000 a year and used by Indian technology giants as well as companies like Amazon Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., the official said. The administration wants to award them by highest salary instead of by lottery.
 
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The American Museum of Natural History will remove a prominent statue of Theodore Roosevelt from its entrance after years of objections that it symbolizes colonial expansion and racial discrimination, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.The bronze statue that has stood at the museum’s Central Park West entrance since 1940 depicts Roosevelt on horseback with a Native American man and an African man standing next to the horse.”The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior,” de Blasio said in a written statement. “The City supports the Museum’s request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue.”Taking to Twitter, President Donald Trump objected to the statue’s removal.”Ridiculous, don’t do it!” he tweeted.The museum’s president, Ellen Futter, told the New York Times that the museum’s “community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd.””We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism,” Futter told the Times.Officials said it hasn’t been determined when the Roosevelt statue will be removed and where it will go.”The composition of the Equestrian Statue does not reflect Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy,” Theodore Roosevelt IV, a great-grandson of the president, said in a statement to the Times. “It is time to move the statue and move forward.”Futter said the museum objects to the statue but not to Roosevelt, a pioneering conservationist whose father was a founding member of the institution and who served as New York’s governor before becoming the 26th president. She said the museum is naming its Hall of Biodiversity for Roosevelt “in recognition of his conservation legacy.”In 2017, protesters splashed red liquid on the statue’s base to represent blood and published a statement calling for its removal as an emblem of “patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.” 
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