Author: CensorBiz

In his third run for the White House, Joe Biden has finally won a presidential primary in his home state.Biden, the last man standing from a Democratic field that once numbered more than 24 candidates, won Delaware’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, beating Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.Sanders and Warren both suspended their campaigns months ago, but their names remained on Tuesday’s ballot because they did not officially withdraw as candidates in Delaware by the March 6 deadline. Warren suspended her campaign just one day before the deadline, while Sanders didn’t stop campaigning until April.Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer also had filed for Delaware’s primary but withdrew their names in early March.Biden also won New Jersey’s mostly mail-in Democratic presidential primary.Biden faced Sanders on the ballot Tuesday, even though Biden has accumulated enough delegates to become the party’s presumptive nominee.New Jersey’s already-late primary got pushed a month later because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy mandated that the election take place mostly by mail-in ballots.New Jersey’s 14 electoral votes have gone to Democrats in every presidential election since 1988.Tuesday’s victories give Biden another notch in his Democratic delegate belt, although the former vice president became his party’s presumptive nominee months ago after Sanders dropped out of the race.Biden first ran for president in 1987 but dropped out before the first contests of the 1988 primary campaign amid reports of plagiarism in political speeches and while he was in law school at Syracuse University. Jesse Jackson went on to win Delaware’s Democratic caucus.Biden also sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out of the race after finishing fifth in the Iowa caucus with only 1 percent of the vote. He nevertheless remained on the Democratic primary ballot in Delaware and garnered almost 3 percent of the vote, well behind future boss Barack Obama and runner-up Hillary Clinton.Meanwhile Tuesday, President Donald Trump won Delaware’s GOP presidential primary over Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente, a California businessman and perennial gadfly candidate.The primary elections were open only to registered Democrats and Republicans.Tuesday’s election was the first in Delaware to feature universal absentee voting, with absentee ballots having been sent to every registered Democrat and Republican in the state. Under Democratic Gov. John Carney’s emergency coronavirus declarations, any voter could choose “sick or temporarily or permanently physically disabled” and be eligible to vote absentee.Because of the coronavirus, Delaware election officials also limited the number of polling places for Tuesday’s primary. Kent County, with more than 94,000 eligible voters, had only 12 locations where people could cast ballots in person. Sussex County, with more than 133,000 registered Democrats and Republicans, had 24. New Castle County had 46 polling locations available for more than 315,000 voters. In the 2016 presidential primary, Delaware voters cast ballots at 313 precincts. 
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Many sports events, including horse racing, have been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. One of them was the annual Gold Cup steeplechase in The Plains, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. But instead of scrapping the entire event, the organizers decided to hold the race without spectators. As we hear from VOA’s Deborah Block, this year’s Gold Cup was offered virtually to anyone who wanted to watch it.  
Produced By: Deborah Block
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted Tuesday, “If you’re traveling to New York from the following states you must self-quarantine for 14 days:” and it was followed by a list of 19 U.S. states. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut already put out a joint travel advisory requiring people from 17 states to self-quarantine when entering the so-called tri-state area.The tweet Tuesday confirmed the addition of Delaware, Kansas, and Oklahoma to the list.Under this new quarantine order, individuals entering New York from any of the specified states are required to self-isolate for two weeks. Although the death toll is rising in the United States as a whole, New York reported only 10 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday.”As states around the country experience increasing community spread, New York is taking action to ensure the continued safety of our phased reopening,” Cuomo said. “Our entire response to this pandemic has been by the numbers, and we’ve set metrics for community spread just as we set metrics for everything.”The new self-quarantine rules already had included states such as Florida, Texas, and California, all of which have seen drastic increases in COVID-19 cases.Much of the United States has seen a surge in cases, as efforts to stem the rise fail.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hypothesized the death rate could be as high as 160,000 by the end of July.Many states were forced to halt their respective reopenings, shutting down plans to allow the public back into restaurants, bars, and other establishments. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump has formally started the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization, making good on threats over the U.N. body’s response to the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. The United States is the largest financial contributor to the WHO – which leads the fight on global maladies from polio to measles to mental health – but it has increasingly been in Trump’s crosshairs as the coronavirus takes a heavy toll. After threatening to suspend the $400 million in annual U.S. contributions and then announcing a withdrawal, Trump has formally informed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that he has started the U.S. pullout, a State Department spokesperson said. The withdrawal is effective in one year – July 6, 2021 – and Joe Biden, Trump’s presumptive Democratic opponent, is virtually certain to stop it and stay in the WHO if he defeats Trump in the November election. Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for Guterres, confirmed that the United States gave its notice. Under conditions set when the United States entered the World Health Organization in 1948, Washington has to give a one-year notice to pull out – and meet its remaining assessed financial obligations, Dujarric said. “To call Trump’s response to COVID chaotic and incoherent doesn’t do it justice,” said Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, who said that Congress was notified. “This won’t protect American lives or interests – it leaves Americans sick & America alone,” he said. Trump has accused the World Health Organization of bias toward China, saying it ignored early signs of human-to-human transmission of the deadly virus. While many public health advocates share some criticism of the WHO, they question what other powers the world body had other than to work with China, where COVID-19 was first detected late last year. Critics say Trump is seeking to deflect criticism from his own handling of the pandemic in the United States, which has suffered by far the highest death toll of any nation.  
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As part of a new report on targeted killings using drones, a U.N. human rights investigator says a January U.S. strike that killed top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was an “arbitrary killing,” and that Iran’s retaliatory missile attack was not justified. “No evidence has been provided that General Soleimani specifically was planning an imminent attack against U.S. interests, particularly in Iraq, for which immediate action was necessary and would have been justified,” said Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in her report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The strike took place as Soleimani’s convoy was leaving the airport in Baghdad, and it also killed a senior Iraqi military official and four members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces. The United States said in a report to the U.N. Security Council that its forces carried out the strike in self-defense “in response to an escalating series of armed attacks in recent months” by Iran. But Callamard said the U.S. explanation “fails to describe even one ongoing attack” and that U.S. officials were “remarkably vague and inconsequential as far as a possible imminent threat is concerned.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said days after the strike that Soleimani had planned a “broad, large-scale attack against American interests, and those attacks were imminent.” Callamard said because the attack was carried out without Iraq’s consent, it amounted to a violation of the country’s sovereignty. “What is most telling is the failure of the U.S. to even address the rights of Iraq and explain, and provide evidence for, its use of force against the country and its citizens,” she wrote.  “Until such an explanation is made, the conclusion must be that the strike is an act of aggression against Iraq, and the killing of its citizens and of non-citizens on its territory was unlawful and arbitrary under international law.” Callamard is due to go before the Human Rights Council to present her findings on Thursday.  The United States withdrew from the council in 2018. Iran responded to Soleimani’s killing by launching missiles at two Iraqi bases housing U.S. service members.  That attack injured more than 100 U.S. military personnel. As with the U.S. strike, Callamard cited Iran’s filing to the Security Council in which it claimed to have acted in self-defense. She said Iran “made no reference to an imminent or ongoing armed attack by the U.S.” and that the strike against Soleimani “did not justify Iran’s subsequent actions.” Callamard expressed concerns more broadly about the use of drones possessed by dozens of countries and that “the vast majority of targeted killings by drones are subjected to little public scrutiny at either national or international levels.” She said “mistakes are inevitable” in identifying and accurately striking intended targets, and that even when missiles hit their target, “the evidence shows that frequently many more people die.”  Callamard writes that those casualties may amount to violations of international humanitarian law. She calls for the United Nations and member countries to develop strong standards for transparency, oversight and accountability, to use arms control measures to control the proliferation of drones around the world, and to investigate allegations of unlawful deaths in drone strikes. Callamard also suggested the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights produce a yearly report that tracks drone strikes and casualties for members to debate at the Human Rights Council. 
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TikTok, the popular short-form video app, says it will exit the Hong Kong market in response to the new national security law for the semi-autonomous city recently enacted by Beijing. A spokesman for the company issued a statement Tuesday saying it was ending operations in Hong Kong “in light of recent events.”   TikTok’s announcement it would cease operating in Hong Kong coincides with the decisions by U.S. tech giants Facebook, Google and Twitter that they will suspend processing requests by the central government in Beijing for user data in Hong Kong following passage of the new law.  The companies are blocked in mainland China due to the autocratic government’s so-called “Great Firewall,” but operate freely in semi-autonomous Hong Kong.  TikTok is owned and operated by China-based ByteDance.  ByteDance owns a similar app called Douyin which is available on mainland China, where TikTok is unavailable.  TikTok has long denied that its data can be accessed by the Chinese government, as its servers are located entirely outside of China. But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday the United States is considering banning TikTok and other Chinese social media apps due to privacy concerns. The law, which went into effect last week, calls for the central government to establish a national security office in Hong Kong aimed at confronting subversion of state power, terrorism, separatism and collusion with foreign forces.  The new law was a response to the massive and often violent pro-democracy demonstrations that engulfed the financial hub in the latter half of 2019.   Critics say the measure effectively ends the “One Country, Two Systems” policy under which Hong Kong was promised a high degree of autonomy after the handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997. Hong Kong is a former British colony.     
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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is due to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump on his first official visit to Washington Wednesday, pending the results of his coronavirus test. Lopez Obrador said, he will announce the results of his test on Tuesday and will undergo another test when arriving in the U.S. if it’s part of the protocol. The White House said in a statement that both leaders will recognize the historic United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which took effect on July 1. The Mexican leader said, his visit to Washington is important because the agreement aims to create jobs in North America at a time when the pandemic has crippled many of the world’s economies. Some political observers urged Lopez Obrador to reject the White House invitation, citing Trump’s characterization of some Mexicans as criminals during his 2016 campaign and his promotion of a border wall. Meantime, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned down the White House invitation, but Lopez Obrador said, Trudeau has agreed to visit him in Mexico. 
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The murder of a female US Army soldier and the subsequent suicide of the chief suspect has put a spotlight on sexual harassment in the US military. Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old U.S. Army specialist at Fort Hood in Texas, went missing more than two months ago. After a weekslong search, a lawyer for the Guillen family confirmed that human remains found on June 30 near her former base were those of the missing soldier. The main suspect in the case, a fellow U.S. Army specialist named Aaron Robinson who was also based at Fort Hood, committed suicide last Wednesday as police closed in on him.  Another suspect, Cecily Aguilar, Robinson’s girlfriend, was charged last Thursday with “conspiracy to tamper with evidence.” Since Guillen’s disappearance on April 22, her loved ones have said repeatedly that she was sexually harassed at the military base. “She was afraid to report it,” her sister Lupe told ABC News. “She reported it to her friends. She reported it to her family. She even reported to other soldiers on base,” she said.  “But she didn’t want to do a formal report because she was afraid of retaliation and being blackballed, and she, like most victims, just tried to deal with it herself.” Guillen’s case has been taken up by several prominent public figures, including the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Joe Biden.  “We owe it to those who put on the uniform, and to their families, to put an end to sexual harassment and assault in the military, and hold perpetrators accountable,” Biden said. ‘Dignity and respect’ According to the Justice Department, Robinson told Aguilar he had killed Guillen with a hammer blow to the head, and the pair took her body to a remote site to dispose of it. According to Guillen family attorney Natalie Khawam, Guillen had planned to file a sexual harassment complaint against Robinson. “We believe he murdered her because she was going to report the sexual harassment,” Khawam said. Guillen said Robinson had followed her into the shower and watched her, her attorney said. Khawam said sexual harassment was “epidemic” in the military and called for Congress to investigate. “You can’t turn a blind eye anymore,” she said. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, called for the Pentagon inspector general to conduct an investigation. Guillen’s case “raises serious and alarming questions about the Army’s ability to prevent sexual harassment and assault, respond to criminal acts and provide justice for victims and their families,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “There must be a full and thorough investigation into Guillen’s disappearance, both to deliver justice and to initiate change in the Army’s approach to sexual assault in the military and the culture that enables it.” Damon Phelps, the official in charge of the Army-led investigation, told a news conference last week that for the time being, there was no “credible information” to support the harassment allegation.   But on Monday, Fort Hood Senior Commander Major General Scott Efflandt pledged to “complete the ongoing investigation in sexual harassment and take actions against those findings.”  “Every person who raises their right hand to serve their family and their country in uniform deserves to be safe and treated with dignity and respect,” Efflandt said. “To the victims of sexual harassment and assault. We hear you.” 
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Social media platforms and messaging apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Google and Twitter will deny law enforcement requests for user data in Hong Kong as they assess the effect of a new national security law enacted last week.Facebook and its messaging app WhatsApp said in separate statements Monday that they would freeze the review of government requests for user data in Hong Kong, “pending further assessment of the National Security Law, including formal human rights due diligence and consultations with international human rights experts.”The policy changes follow the rollout last week of laws that prohibit what Beijing views as secessionist, subversive or terrorist activities, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s internal affairs. The legislation criminalizes some pro-democracy slogans like the widely used “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time,” which the Hong Kong government has deemed has separatist connotations.The fear is that the new law erodes the freedoms of the semi-autonomous city, which operates under a “one country, two systems” framework after Britain handed it over to China in 1997. That framework gives Hong Kong and its people freedoms not found in mainland China, such as unrestricted internet access.Spokesman Mike Ravdonikas said Monday that Telegram understands “the importance of protecting the right to privacy of our Hong Kong users.” Telegram has been used broadly to spread pro-democracy messages and information about the protests in Hong Kong.”Telegram has never shared any data with the Hong Kong authorities in the past and does not intend to process any data requests related to its Hong Kong users until an international consensus is reached in relation to the ongoing political changes in the city,” he said.Twitter also paused all data and information requests from Hong Kong authorities after the law went into effect last week, the company said. It is reviewing the national security law to assess its implications.”Like many public interest organizations, civil society leaders and entities, and industry peers, we have grave concerns regarding both the developing process and the full intention of this law,” the company said in a statement.Twitter emphasized that it was “committed to protecting the people using our service and their freedom of expression.” Likewise, Google said in a statement that it too had “paused production on any new data requests from Hong Kong authorities” and will continue reviewing details of the new law.Social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp have operated freely in Hong Kong, while they are blocked in the mainland under China’s “Great Firewall.” Though social platforms have yet to be blocked in Hong Kong, users have begun scrubbing their accounts and deleting pro-democracy posts out of fear of retribution. That retreat has extended to the streets of Hong Kong as well. Many of the shops and stores that publicly stood in solidarity with protesters have removed the pro-democracy sticky notes and artwork that adorned their walls. Hong Kong’s government late Monday issued implementation rules of Article 43 of the national security law, which give the city’s police force sweeping powers in enforcing the legislation and come into effect Tuesday.Under the rules, platforms and publishers, as well as internet service providers, may be ordered to take down electronic messages published that are “likely to constitute an offence endangering national security or is likely to cause the occurrence of an offence endangering national security.”Service providers who do not comply with such requests could face fines of up to 100,000 Hong Kong dollars ($12,903) and receive jail terms of six months.
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There were the two-hour, unpaid waits outside supermarkets when San Francisco first started to lock down, on top of the heavy shopping bags that had to be lugged up countless flights of stairs.  And yet even after signing up for several apps, 39-year-old Saori Okawa still wasn’t making as much money delivering meals and groceries as she did driving for ride-hailing giant Uber before the pandemic struck. “I started to juggle three apps to make ends meet,” said Okawa, who recently reduced her work hours after receiving unemployment benefits. “It was really hard, because at that time, I could not afford to stay home because I had to pay rent.” Okawa is one of an estimated 1.5 million so-called gig workers who make a living driving people to airports, picking out produce at grocery stores or providing child care for working parents. Theirs had already been a precarious situation, largely without safeguards such as minimum wage, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and health and safety protections. But with the pandemic pummeling the global economy and U.S. unemployment reaching heights not seen since the Great Depression, gig workers are clamoring for jobs that often pay less while facing stiff competition from a crush of newly unemployed workers also attempting to patch together a livelihood – all while trying to avoid contracting the coronavirus themselves. U.S. unemployment fell to 11.1% in June, a Depression-era level that, while lower than last month, could worsen after a surge in coronavirus cases has led states to close restaurants and bars. Marisa Martin, a law school student in California, turned to Instacart when a state government summer job as paralegal fell through after a hiring freeze. She said she enjoys the flexibility of choosing her own hours but hopes not to have to turn to gig work in the future. The pay is too volatile — with tips varying wildly and work sometimes slow — to be worth the risk of exposure to the virus.  “We are not getting paid nearly enough when we’re on the front lines interacting with multiple people daily,” said Martin, 24, who moved in with her parents temporarily to save money.  Alexandra Lopez-Djurovic checks her shopping list as she shops for a client in an Acme supermarket, in Bronxville, N.Y., July 1, 2020.Alexandra Lopez-Djurovic, 26, was a full-time nanny in a New York City suburb when one of the parents she works for lost her job while the other saw his hours cut. “All of a sudden, as much as they want me to stay, they can’t afford to pay me,” she said. Her own hours were reduced to about eight per week. To make up lost wages, Lopez-Djurovic placed an ad offering grocery delivery on a local Facebook group. Overnight, she got 50 responses.  Lopez-Djurovic charges $30 an hour and coordinates shopping lists over email, offering perks the app companies don’t such as checking the milk’s expiration date before choosing which size to buy. Still, it doesn’t replace the salary she lost. “One week I might have seven, eight, 10 families I was shopping for,” Lopez-Djurovic said. “I had a week when I had no money. That’s definitely a challenge.” Upwork, a website that connects skilled freelance workers with jobs, has seen a 50% increase in signups by both workers and employers since the pandemic began, including spikes in jobs related to ecommerce and customer service, said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork. “When you need to make big changes fast, a flexible workforce helps you,” he said. Maya Pinto, a researcher at the National Employment Law Project, said temporary and contract work grew during Great Recession and she expects that many workers will seek such jobs again amid the current crisis.  But increased reliance on temporary and contract work will have negative implications on job quality and security because it “is a way of saving costs and shifting risk onto the worker,” Pinto said. It’s difficult to assess the overall picture of the gig economy during the pandemic since some parts are expanding while others are contracting. Grocery delivery giant Instacart, for instance, has brought on 300,000 new contracted shoppers since March, more than doubling its workforce to 500,000. Meanwhile, Uber’s business fell 80% in April compared with last year while Lyft’s tumbled 75% in the same period. For food delivery apps, it’s been a mixed bag. Although they are getting a bump from restaurants offering more takeout options, those gains are being offset by the restaurant industry’s overall decline during the pandemic.  Gig workers are also jockeying for those jobs from all fronts. DoorDash launched an initiative to help out-of-work restaurant workers sign up for delivery work. Uber’s food delivery service, Uber Eats, grew 53% in the first quarter and around 200,000 people have signed up for the app per month since March — about 50% more than usual.  “Drivers are definitely exploring other options, but the issue is that there’s 20 or 30 million people looking for work right now,” said Harry Campbell, founder of The Rideshare Guy. “Sometimes I joke all you need is a pulse and a car to get approved. But what that means is it’s easy for other people to get approved too, so you have to compete for shifts.” Delivery jobs typically pay less than ride-hailing jobs. Single mom Luz Laguna used to earn about $25 in a half-hour driving passengers to Los Angeles International Airport. When those trips evaporated, Laguna began delivering meals through Uber Eats, working longer hours but making less cash. The base pay is around $6 per delivery, and most people tip around $2, she said. To avoid shelling out more for childcare, she sometimes brings her 3-year-old son along on deliveries. “This is our only way out right now,” Laguna said. “It’s hard managing, but that’s the only job that I can be able to perform as a single mother.” Other drivers find it makes more sense to stay home and collect unemployment — a benefit they and other gig workers hadn’t qualified for before the pandemic. They are also eligible to receive an additional $600 weekly check from the federal government, a benefit that became available to workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic. Taken together, that’s more than what many ride-hailing drivers were making before the pandemic, Campbell said. But that $600 benefit will expire at the end of July, and the $2 trillion government relief package that extended unemployment benefits to gig workers expires at the end of the year.  “So many drivers are going to have to sit down and decide, do I want to put myself at risk and my family at risk once I’m not getting the government assistance?” Campbell said.  
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A white woman walking her dog who called the police during a videotaped dispute with a Black man in Central Park was charged Monday with filing a false report.In May, Amy Cooper drew widespread condemnation for calling 911 to report she was being threatened by “an African-American man” when bird watcher Christian Cooper appeared to keep his distance as he recorded her rant on his phone.District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement on Monday that his office had charged Amy Cooper with falsely reporting the confrontation, a misdemeanor. She was ordered to appear in court on Oct. 14.After the backlash, Amy Cooper released an apology through a public relations service, saying she “reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions.””He had every right to request that I leash my dog in an area where it was required,” she said in the written statement. “I am well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause and would never have imagined that I would be involved in the type of incident that occurred with Chris.” 
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A new Gallup poll showed Monday that 38% of Americans approve of President Donald Trump’s White House performance, a figure largely unchanged in the last month but off sharply from early May. Trump, facing a tough reelection contest in November against former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, tied his personal best approval rating of 49% two months ago. But his standing dropped sharply in late May and early June amid coast-to-coast demonstrations, some of them turning violent, against police abuse of minorities in the wake of the death of African American George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Trump expressed his support for peaceful protests, while saying Americans wanted law and order, and voiced continued backing for police.   FILE – Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., June 30, 2020.Four months ahead of the national vote, Trump’s approval rating now stands three percentage points above his personal low of 35% recorded on four separate occasions in 2017. A collection of national polls by the Real Clear Politics website shows Biden leading Trump by an average of nearly nine percentage points. The latest Gallup poll shows an unprecedented political divide in America.  The pollster said its June 8-30 survey showed Republican support of Trump increasing from 85% to 91%, with Democratic approval dropping from 5% to 2%. His support from self-described independent voters eroded from 39% to 33%. Gallup said the 89-point difference between the approval of Trump by Republican and Democratic voters was the largest it had ever recorded in decades of polling. Trump’s decline in approval was apparent across a range of voter subgroups, Gallup said. It said his standing is now less than a majority level among groups “that are typically more favorable to him, including non-Hispanic white Americans, men, older Americans, Southerners and those without a college degree.” The pollster said Trump retains a 57% approval rating among white Americans without a college degree, but the figure is off from 66% earlier in the year. Trump’s overall June standing in a reelection year is similar to that of the only two presidents who lost reelection bids in the last four decades — Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992. 
 
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A Russian court has found journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva guilty of “justifying terrorism” and ordered her to pay a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $6,950). The court in the western Russian city of Pskov announced its verdict on July 6 in a case that has drawn outrage from supporters of Prokopyeva and rights groups. Prosecutors had asked the Second Western District Military Court to sentence Prokopyeva to six years in prison for “justifying terrorism” in a commentary she wrote that linked a suicide bombing with the country’s political climate. Prosecutors had also sought to bar Prokopyeva from journalistic activities for four years. The charge carries a maximum sentence of up to seven years in prison. FILE – Svetlana Prokopyeva was added to the list of “terrorists and extremists” by Russian authorities following her commentary about the Arkhangelsk blast in October 2018.Prokopyeva, a freelance contributor to RFE/RL’s Russian Service, has maintained her innocence throughout the trial and described the case as an attempt to “assassinate freedom of speech” in Russia. “I am not afraid to criticize the government,” Prokopyeva said in her final statement to the court on July 3. “I am not afraid to criticize law enforcement or tell the security organs that they are wrong. Because I know how really horrific it will become if I don’t speak out — if no one speaks out.” She asked the court to take into consideration “the most basic principles that our society is built upon” when deciding her fate. “I mean freedom of speech, the status of a journalist, and the mission of the press,” she concluded. “I did my work. I did not do anything that was beyond the framework of my professional duty. And that is not a crime.” Prokopyeva was charged in connection with a commentary she wrote in November 2018, published by the Pskov affiliate of Ekho Moskvy radio. In the text, she discussed a bombing outside the Federal Security Service (FSB) offices in the northern city of Arkhangelsk. Russian media have reported that the suspected bomber, who died in the explosion, had posted statements on social media accusing the FSB of tampering with criminal cases. In her commentary, Prokopyeva linked the teenager’s statements to the political climate under President Vladimir Putin. She suggested that political activism in the country was severely restricted, leading people to despair. “We are dismayed that Russia would choose to move so ruthlessly against a highly recognized independent journalist who was doing the opposite of what prosecutors allege,” RFE/RL acting President Daisy Sindelar said in a statement on July 3. “Svetlana’s commentary was an effort to explain a tragedy; the portrayal of her words as ‘justifying terrorism’ is a deliberate and politically motivated distortion aimed at silencing her critical voice, and recalls the worst show trials of one of Russia’s darkest periods,” she added. More than 30 independent Russian journalists have also issued statements in support of Prokopyeva. In a July 3 statement, European Union spokesman Peter Stano called for the case against Prokopyeva to be dropped, saying it was an indication of “the ever-shrinking space for independent journalists and civil society” in Russia. “We expect the Russian Federation to uphold its international and domestic obligations and to guarantee human rights and fundamental freedoms and ensure that journalists are able to work in a safe environment without fear of reprisal,” he said. Human Rights Watch called Prokopyeva’s prosecution a violation of freedom of expression, “but not just hers.” “It sends yet another chilling message that in Russia, raising uncomfortable questions can have severe repercussions — a lesson the authorities have been giving the media for years,” the New York-based rights group said. The case has also drawn criticism from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and media rights groups like Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the European Federation of Journalists. 
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Forty lobbyists with ties to President Donald Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump’s own ethics policy, according to a report.
The lobbyists identified Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen either worked in the Trump executive branch, served on his campaign, were part of the committee that raised money for inaugural festivities or were part of his presidential transition. Many are donors to Trump’s campaigns, and some are prolific fundraisers for his reelection.  
They include Brian Ballard, who served on the transition, is the finance chair for the Republican National Committee and has bundled more than $1 million for Trump’s fundraising committees. He was hired in March by Laundrylux, a supplier of commercial laundry machines, after the Department of Homeland Security issued guidance that didn’t include laundromats as essential businesses that could stay open during the lockdown. A week later, the administration issued new guidance adding laundromats to the list.
Dave Urban, a Trump adviser and confidant, has collected more than $2.3 million in lobbying fees this year. The firm he leads, American Continental Group, represents 15 companies, including Walgreens and the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, on coronavirus issues.  
Trump pledged to clamp down on Washington’s influence peddling with a “drain the swamp” campaign mantra. But during his administration, the lobbying industry has flourished, a trend that intensified once Congress passed more than $3.6 trillion in coronavirus stimulus.
While the money is intended as a lifeline to a nation whose economy has been upended by the pandemic, it also jump-started a familiar lobbying bonanza.  
“The swamp is alive and well in Washington, D.C.,” said Mike Tanglis, one of the report’s authors. “These (lobbying) booms that these people are having, you can really attribute them to their connection to Trump.”  
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.  
Shortly after Trump took office, he issued an executive order prohibiting former administration officials from lobbying the agency or office where they were formerly employed, for a period of five years. Another section of the order forbids lobbying the administration by former political appointees for the remainder of Trump’s time in office.  
Yet five lobbyists who are former administration officials have potentially done just that during the coronavirus lobbying boom:  
— Courtney Lawrence was a former deputy assistant secretary for legislation in the Department of Health and Human Services in 2017 and 2018. She became a lobbyist for Cigna in 2018 and is listed as part of a team that has lobbied HHS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and at least two other agencies. Cigna did not respond to a request for comment.  
— Shannon McGahn, the wife of former White House counsel Don McGahn, worked in 2017 and 2018 as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. She then joined the National Association of Realtors as its top lobbyist and is listed on disclosures as part of a team that has lobbied both houses of Congress, plus six agencies, including the Treasury Department. The Realtors association did not respond to a request for comment.  
— Jordan Stoick is the vice president of government relations at the National Association of Manufacturers. Stoick’s biography on NAM’s website indicates that he is “NAM’s lead lobbyist in Washington,” where he started working after serving as a senior adviser in the Treasury Department. Disclosures indicate that Stoick and his colleagues lobbied both houses of Congress plus at least five executive branch agencies, including Treasury.  
“NAM carefully adheres to the legal and ethical rules regulating lobbying activity, including ensuring that its employees comply with all applicable prohibitions on contacting their former employers,” Linda Kelly, the organization’s general counsel, said in a statement.
— Geoffrey Burr joined the firm Brownstein Hyatt after serving as chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The firm’s lobbying disclosure for the first quarter of 2020 includes Burr on a list of lobbyists who contacted the White House and Congress on coronavirus-related matters on behalf of McDonald’s.
— Emily Felder joined Brownstein Hyatt after leaving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she worked in the legislative office. Felder is listed on a disclosure from the first quarter of 2020 that shows she was part of a team that lobbied Congress and the White House.
A spokeswoman for the firm said both Felder and Burr abide by the Trump administration’s ethics rules, which limit their lobbying to the House and the Senate.  
“We are confident that our lobbyists are in compliance with all lobbying rules and applicable prohibitions and did not violate their Trump Administration pledge,” spokeswoman Lara Day said in a statement.  
Public Citizen’s Craig Holman, who himself is a registered lobbyist, said the group intends to file ethics complaints with the White House. But he’s not optimistic that they will lead to anything. Last year, he filed more than 30 complaints, all of which were either ignored or rejected.
“There does not appear to be anyone who is enforcing the executive order,” Holman said.
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India reported more than 23,000 new coronavirus cases Monday, pushing its total during the pandemic past Russia for third most in the world. India now trails only the United States and Brazil in terms of overall confirmed cases. The country is closed to international travel, but the government has been gradually lifting restrictions on local tourism to try to boost the economy. But in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, officials have extended lockdowns on businesses, monuments and other attractions in the city of Agra, including at the Taj Mahal, amid the continued spread of COVID-19. “In the interest of the public, it has been decided that opening monuments in Agra will not be advisable as of now,” the district authorities said in a notice published in Hindi.  The Taj Mahal and other tourist sites in Agra have been closed since March.   While governments in many countries grapple with how to respond to the coronavirus, a group of 239 scientists from 32 countries are calling on the World Health Organization to update guidance concerning the prospect airborne spread of the virus.A sign advising social distance is posted at a closed parking lot to Ocean Beach during the coronavirus outbreak, in San Francisco, Sunday, July 5, 2020.The scientists say there is evidence the virus can linger in the air and that smaller particles can infect people.   In Australia, officials announced Monday the closure of the border between Victoria and New South Wales, the country’s two most populous states, after a spike in new infections.  The closure is indefinite and marks the first such move in Australia since a flu pandemic 100 years ago. Greece said Monday it is banning travelers from Serbia until July 15 after the number of cases there rose. In Spain, a county in the northwestern part of the country is on lockdown all week because authorities fear a new COVID-19 outbreak.    Officials in La Marina in the Galicia region placed all 70,000 residents in a countywide quarantine after several bars in the area reported new cases.   Only essential travel in and out of the county is allowed and gatherings of more than 10 people are forbidden.   Spain has been one of Europe’s COVID-19 hotspots with more than 250,000 cases and 28,000 deaths. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has put the next phase of his country’s reopening on hold for two weeks because of a 50% jump in the number of coronavirus cases in the last several days. Buses were to have started running and some businesses and factories were to have started to reopen Tuesday.  Ahead of the start of the hajj pilgrimage that typically draws 2.5 million Muslims in Saudi Arabia, the government said it will limit the number of pilgrims to 1,000. Muslims from outside Saudi Arabia are not allowed this year, and according to new rules announced Monday, pilgrims will not be allowed to touch the Kaaba, and will have to maintain social distancing of at least 1.5 meters while performing rituals and prayers. 
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The top American diplomat in Hong Kong said Monday that it is a “tragedy” to use the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s new national security law to chip away at “fundamental freedoms” in the Asian financial hub and create an “atmosphere of coercion and self-censorship.” “Using the national security law to erode fundamental freedoms and to create an atmosphere of coercion and self-censorship is a tragedy for Hong Kong,” Hanscom Smith, U.S. consul general to Hong Kong and Macau, told reporters. “Hong Kong has been successful precisely because of its openness and we’ll do everything we can to maintain that.”         The law, imposed last week following anti-government protests in Hong Kong last year, makes secessionist, subversive, or terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s internal affairs. Any person taking part in activities such as shouting slogans or holding up banners and flags calling for the city’s independence is violating the law regardless of whether violence is used.         Critics see it as Beijing’s boldest step yet to erase the legal firewall between the former British colony and the mainland’s authoritarian Communist Party system.         Since the law went into effect, the government has also specified that popular protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time” has separatist connotations and is thus criminalized.         In Hong Kong’s public libraries, books by pro-democracy figures have been pulled from the shelves, including those authored by prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong and politician Tanya Chan. The authority that runs the libraries said it was reviewing the books in light of the new legislation. Many pro-democracy shops that publicly stood in solidarity with protesters have moved to remove pro-democracy sticky notes and artwork that adorned the walls of their stores, fearful that the content might violate the new law.         A 23-year-old man, Tong Ying-kit, has become the first person in Hong Kong to be charged under the new law, for allegedly driving into a group of policemen while bearing a flag with the “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time” slogan. 
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Britain will invest nearly $2 billion in cultural institutions and the arts to help a sector that has been crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday.
 
Theaters, opera houses and ballet companies have been left without a live audience for months.
 
Though English museums and cinemas can reopen with strict social distancing in the latest easing of the lockdown that began Saturday, guidelines still dictate no live performances at theaters or concert halls.
 
That has created an existential crisis for much of the sector, which has been vocal in calling on the government for support.
 
“This money will help safeguard the sector for future generations, ensuring arts groups and venues across the UK can stay afloat and support their staff whilst their doors remain closed and curtains remain down,” Johnson said in a statement.
 
The government said the 1.57 billion pound ($1.96 billion) investment was the biggest ever in Britain’s culture sector.
 
It said that Britain’s museums, art galleries, theaters, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues would be protected through emergency grants and loans.
 
The government will consult with figures from Arts Council England, the British Film Institute and other specialist bodies on awarding grants, while it said repayable finance would be issued on affordable terms.
 
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