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The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed economic sanctions on a Chinese company that operates in Cambodia, citing its land seizure and displacement of families to make way for a $3.8 billion luxury gambling and lifestyle project.The Dara Sakor Seashore Resort, developed by the Chinese company Union Development Group (UDG) in unspoiled Koh Kong province, includes an international airport and a port for cruise ships that “credible reports” suggested could be used by the Chinese military.The company describes the undertaking as part of FILE – The airport construction site is seen in the area developed by China company Union Development Group at Botum Sakor in Koh Kong province, Cambodia, in 2018.The U.S. has alleged that UDG operated as a Cambodian entity under the aegis of Gen. Kun Kim, a close ally of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen. He allegedly used the military’s right to seize land for its needs to move local people off the area UDG wanted for its resort project.In its statement to Fresh News, the company defended Kun Kim, saying “During the relocation, UDG respected and followed Cambodian law and lease terms by working with inter-ministerial commission without committing any wrongdoings through General Kun Kim.”The U.S. sanctioned the senior general, his wife and two children on December 9, 2019, for “his involvement in corruption,” according to the Treasury. Kim was allegedly using his influence and network to benefit Chinese companies in Cambodia.“After falsely registering as a Cambodian-owned entity in order to receive land for the Dara Sakor development project, UDG reverted to its true ownership and continued to operate without repercussions,”  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday.“We will not tolerate these actions against innocent people and will always stand with the Cambodian people,” Pompeo tweeted soon after the sanction announcement.On Wednesday, the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh posted FILE – Baby clouded leopards, born early in March 2015, at the Olmense Zoo in Olmen, Belgium, April 16, 2015. Clouded leopards are among the animals that reside in Botum Sakor National Park in Cambodia.“This is a partial justice,” said Mu Sochua, vice president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party. “The real justice is to give our farmers and fishermen their land, but at least they’ve received partial justice now. At the same time, this demonstrated that the U.S. joins us in demanding an end to impunity, which means taking those perpetrators to face justice, if not in our court system, but under the U.S. system.”The U.S. alleges that Cambodia uses development project such as UDG to expand its sphere of influence in the world, especially through its Belt and Road Initiative. The U.S. raised the alarm last year after media reports quoted the Cambodian government spokesperson, Phay Siphan, as saying that Dara Sakor could be converted to host military assets.“A permanent PRC military presence in Cambodia could threaten regional stability and undermine the prospects for the peaceful settlement of disputes, the promotion of maritime safety and security, and the freedom of navigation and overflight,” the statement from the Treasury Department said.Phay Siphan said he never acknowledged that the UDG project could be retooled as a Chinese military base.“I reject the report that implicated my name in it,” Phay Siphan told VOA Khmer. “It’s shameful because I’ve never said that.”  In July 2019, he told Bloomberg, “Dara Sakor is civilian ⁠— there is no base at all. It could be converted, yes, but you could convert anything.”Expanding influenceCPP spokesperson Sok Eysan also asserted that the government wanted to create an economic zone in the Dara Sakor area, and had no intention of the facilities becoming a military base for any superpower.“Cambodia does not seek to be a military power,” Sok Eysan said. “We only want to ensure a sustainable economy to feed 16 million people. … Therefore, we’re trying our best to develop the country. We do not want war to come to Cambodia.”Cambodia has allied with China as Beijing is expanding its sphere of influence in the region without many challenges from competing powers other than the U.S.Under President Xi Jinping, China has sought to expand its political, military, cultural, and economic dominance through bilateral aid and mega development projects like the Belt and Road Initiative that includes the Dara Sakor Seashore Resort.Ro Vannak, a geopolitical expert and the co-founder of the Cambodia Institute of Democracy, believes that a U.S. sanction on a Chinese company in Cambodia is part of Washington’s strategy to curb China’s emergence as a regional power.“The sanction on a Chinese company in Cambodia is a sign that makes Cambodia uneasy,” said Ro Vannak. “This means that once superpowers start to compete, push, and splash water at each other, smaller countries that rely on them economically, especially on China, would find their reputation and economic growth is affected.”This report originated with VOA’s Khmer Service. Men Kimseng reported from Washington, D.C., Hul Reaksmey and Aun Chhengpor reported from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Two weeks after a federal judge prohibited the U.S. Census Bureau from winding down the 2020 census, a manager in Illinois instructed employees to get started with layoffs, according to an audio of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.During a conference call Thursday, the Chicago area manager told supervisors who report to him that they should track down census takers who don’t currently have any cases, collect the iPhones they use to record information, and bid them goodbye. The manager did not respond to an email from the AP.“I would really like to get a head start on terminating these people,” he said. “All of these inactives that we have, we need to get rid of them. So, hunt down your inactives, collect their devices, get them terminated and off of our lists.”It was unclear whether such actions would violate U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh’s temporary restraining order prohibiting the Census Bureau from winding down field operations while she considers a request to extend the head count by a month.Earlier this week, the judge, who is in San Jose, California, held a hearing on other possible violations of the order, but no action was taken after a Census Bureau official said in a declaration that they were unsubstantiated or the result of miscommunication. The judge extended the order for another week on Thursday.Government attorneys told the judge earlier this month that the Census Bureau would refrain from laying off workers who were in the later stages of door knocking at the homes of residents who hadn’t yet answered the census questionnaire. They said workers could still be terminated for performance reasons, however.While the Chicago area manager told his supervisors they couldn’t lay people off for lack of work, he suggested they could encourage census takers who haven’t had an assignment in a while to resign or fire them for poor performance.“It doesn’t have to be their performance is poor. It just means it’s not good enough,” he said. “If you are going to terminate someone for performance, I want you to consult me first. But I’m pretty much going to be on your side, no matter what.”The census manager also suggested that supervisors should unofficially plan on wrapping up their work by Saturday, 11 days short of the September 30 deadline for ending the 2020 census.Census Bureau spokesman Michael Cook said in a statement Friday that the agency was investigating.“In the meantime, the U.S. Census Bureau continues to focus on conducting a complete 2020 Census count while instructing field personnel of their continuing obligation to comply with court orders,” Cook said.The once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident helps determine how $1.5 trillion in federal funding is distributed annually and how many congressional seats each state gets — a process known as apportionment. The census takers are sent out to knock on the doors of homes that have not yet responded to the census on their own, either online, by phone or by mail.Before the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, the bureau had planned to complete the 2020 census by the end of July. In response to the pandemic, it extended the deadline to the end of October. That changed to the end of September after the Republican-controlled Senate failed to take up a request from the Census Bureau to extend the deadline for turning over the numbers used for apportionment. As a result, government attorneys told the judge, the Census Bureau has no choice but to finish the count by September 30.The temporary restraining order was requested by a coalition of cities, counties and civil rights groups that had sued the Census Bureau, demanding it restore the October deadline. The coalition had argued the earlier deadline would cause the Census Bureau to overlook minority communities in the census, leading to an inaccurate count.“The idea is, if you have less time and less people, there’s going to be less counting,” Melissa Sherry, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said during a virtual hearing Friday.Attorneys for the coalition said Friday that they didn’t want to comment on the Chicago case.Meanwhile, the state of Louisiana on Friday said it was being harmed by the judge’s order preventing the Census Bureau from winding down operations. In a court filing asking to intervene in the coalition’s lawsuit, the state said if census officials were allowed to shutter operations in places where they had completed their work, they could redirect resources to states like Louisiana that are lagging behind in the count.“That status quo has been upended,” the filing said. 
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An Iranian political prisoner who has been beaten multiple times by security agents to the point of needing to use a wheelchair has been beaten again for complaining about his treatment, according to his lawyer.Speaking to VOA Persian from Iran on Monday, lawyer Ali Sharifzadeh said his client Khaled Pirzadeh had been beaten earlier in the day by an officer of Greater Tehran Penitentiary, where Pirzadeh has been serving a sentence for alleged national security offenses.Sharifzadeh said Pirzadeh had complained about a plan by security guards to transfer him to another part of the prison, prompting a guard to retaliate by striking the dissident on the knee.The lawyer said his client had not yet fully recovered from a recent knee surgery to repair damage from a previous beating and had accused the guard of striking the repaired knee deliberately.Authorities had allowed Pirzadeh to have the knee surgery at a private hospital outside prison last month but forced him to pay for the procedure himself.Sharifzadeh said his client now needs additional medical treatment for the reinjured knee. He also posted a Twitter message about the latest beating, saying he advised Pirzadeh to file a complaint about it.خالد پیرزاده امروز در زندان تهران بزرگ بشدت توسط افسر نگهبان بنام شاملی مورد ضرب و شتم قرار گرفت ، البته توصیه کردم حتما شکایت کند .— alisharifzadeh (@alisharifzade16) September 14, 2020Speaking to VOA, Sharifzadeh said the security officer who carried out the apparent beating must be disciplined. “He has no right to assault prisoners,” the lawyer said.VOA could not independently verify the lawyer’s account.Iranian state media have been silent about Pirzadeh’s case.Pirzadeh was arrested in early 2019, accused of writing anti-government slogans, according to Sharifzadeh. After a trial in which the dissident had no access to a lawyer, he was sentenced in May 2019 to five years in prison on charges of assembly and collusion against national security and insulting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Iranian human rights activists previously reported that Pirzadeh was beaten while being detained in 2019 and beaten again in July this year while authorities transferred him from Tehran’s Evin prison to Greater Tehran Penitentiary. Sharifzadeh said the prison transfer was an additional form punishment against his client.A relative of Pirzadeh also previously told VOA Persian that the July beating caused the dissident to suffer a loss of bladder control and to need a wheelchair for using the bathroom.Sharifzadeh said it appears some prison officers are trying to intimidate political prisoners through beatings.“Lawyers of such prisoners also are under pressure in Iran,” he said. “When they publicize information about their clients, security organizations can cause problems for them.”Iran has detained several human rights defenders in recent years and charged them with national security offenses in relation to their legal work.One of Iran’s most prominent jailed lawyers is Nasrin Sotoudeh, who began her second hunger strike of this year on August 11 to protest Iran’s treatment of political prisoners, according to her husband. She has been jailed at Evin prison since June 2018 for defending Iranian women who were detained for removing their compulsory hijabs in public defiance of Iran’s ruling clerics.This article originated in VOA’s Persian service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story. 
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The Trump administration issued a sweeping ban Friday that will begin barring downloads and use of the Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from U.S. app stores as of midnight Sunday. The announcement is the latest escalation in America’s tech fight with China.Officials from the U.S. Commerce Department cited national security and data privacy concerns over the move to ban the two popular internet platforms that serve more than 100 million people in the United States.Starting Monday, both apps will be removed from app stores and users will not be able to download the apps to their phones. For users who have the apps already installed, they will not be able to receive updates to the platforms. This restriction will quickly make the app obsolete on smartphones, as the inability to update will make it incompatible with Apple and Google smartphone software, which currently dominate the tech market.The order includes moves to render WeChat useless within the United States by banning American companies from hosting internet traffic or processing transactions from within the app as of midnight Sunday.WeChat serves millions of U.S. users who predominantly rely on the app to stay in touch and conduct business with people and companies in China.Like most social networking sites, both TikTok and WeChat collect user data, including location and messages to track what kind of targeted ad content is most applicable to them.As of now, TikTok will escape the most drastic sanctions until similar restrictions go into effect November 12 unless the company is able to resolve the administration’s national security concerns by the deadline. The order follows weeks of wrangling with the company, which recently struck a deal with U.S.-based software maker Oracle, the details of which have yet to be announced.The app, which has become especially popular among younger users, has proved useful in some political contexts, including for mischief.TikTok users made headlines earlier this year by working to inflate the expected turnout for a rally President Donald Trump held in Tulsa, Oklahoma — and making the actual attendance seem especially low by comparison.The deadline to comply with restrictions falls just after the November 3 presidential election in the United States.Prior to striking the deal, representatives of TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, were in talks with Microsoft. The partnership between Microsoft and ByteDance fell through earlier this month after reports estimated that the company would shell out up to $30 billion for the acquisition of the app.“We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,” Microsoft said in a blog post Sunday. “We would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety and combating disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement.”The move to ban the use of the apps in the United States follows an August 6 executive order by Trump, in which he argued that TikTok and WeChat collect data from American users that could be accessed by the Chinese government. Over the past several weeks, Trump has pressured the app’s owner to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a domestic company to satisfy these concerns.TikTok spokesman John Gartner said in a statement that the company is “disappointed” by the move and that it would continue to challenge the “unjust executive order.”The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the move as well, saying that the order is an infringement on Americans’ rights to free expression.While the Trump administration has accused the apps of collecting data used by the Chinese government to surveil Americans, the government has not provided specific evidence to support the allegations.ByteDance has repeatedly denied that it has partnered with the Chinese government to siphon U.S. user information. 
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Surveillance footage showed the moment a utility pole fell on a passing motorcyclist amid tropical storm Noul in Vietnam, Friday, September 18, before the motorcyclist got up and ran to safety. (REUTERS)
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U.S. health officials dropped a controversial piece of coronavirus guidance Friday and said anyone who has been in close contact with an infected person should get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially returned to its previous testing guidance, getting rid of language posted last month that said people didn’t need to get tested if they didn’t feel sick. That change had set off a rash of criticism from health experts who couldn’t fathom why the nation’s top public health agency would say such a thing amid the pandemic. It was “not consistent with the basic principles of controlling an epidemic,” said Dr. Silvia Chiang, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Brown University who applauded the change announced Friday. The CDC now says anyone who has been within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes should get a test. In a statement, the agency called the changes a “clarification” that was needed “due to the significance of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission.” CDC Relaxes COVID Testing Guidelines, Alarming Some Health Providers Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who come in close contact with infected people ‘do not necessarily need a test’     Agency officials declined additional comment. Health officials were evasive about why they had made the change in August, and some outside observers speculated it was forced on the CDC by political appointees within the Trump administration. At the time, administration officials said the language originated at the CDC, but the decision came out of meetings of the White House coronavirus task force. Dr. Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said many federal leaders outside the agency were involved in “lots of editing, lots of input.” He said it was difficult to attribute the final language to any one source. The New York Times, citing internal federal documents and unnamed sources, on Thursday reported that the August change in guidance was placed on the CDC’s website over the objections of agency scientists. Public health experts have noted that testing the contacts of infected people is a core element of efforts to keep outbreaks in check, and that a large percentage of those infected with the coronavirus exhibit no COVID-19 symptoms. The CDC’s chief, Dr. Robert Redfield, issued a statement shortly after the controversy erupted that did little to clarify why the change was deemed necessary. The main intent seemed to be to assure state health officials that they could continue to recommend that all close contacts be tested if they felt that was wisest, despite the website language that said it was not necessary. During a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday, Redfield continued to defend the language that was dropped Friday. He said the August changes had been misinterpreted and were part of an effort to increase engagement by doctors and local health officials in the handling of potential illness clusters.
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Three women, two of them from Africa, advanced to the second round of selection to become the next director-general of the World Trade Organization as the field was cut from eight to five, the Geneva-based body said Friday.  The WTO is looking for a new director-general to replace Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, who stepped down a year earlier than expected at the end of August.  The 25-year-old trade body has never had a leader who is female or from Africa.  The five to go through to the next round are Kenyan minister Amina Mohamed, former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Al-Tuwaijri and British ex-minister Liam Fox.  This confirms Reuters’ reporting on Thursday that Mexico’s Jesus Seade, Egypt’s Hamid Mamdouh and Moldovan Tudor Ulianovschi were eliminated.  Azevedo’s successor will face a considerable challenge with rising global tensions and protectionism during a COVID-induced slowdown, most obviously between Beijing and President Donald Trump’s U.S. administration, and pressure to drive reform.  Round two, in which the WTO’s 164 members will give their preferences from Sept 24 to Oct 6, will whittle the candidates down to two. The WTO has said it wants to select the winner by early November.Trade experts and former WTO officials say that the U.S. presidential election, on Nov. 3. could extend the process, even if that goes against the WTO’s prescribed deadline.  However, the WTO said the process had gone well so far and that all members had taken part.  “The objective is to have this process completed within 2 months – it began on 7 September so on or about 7 November, so we are on track for this. The process has gone smoothly,” WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters.
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China said Friday it was conducting military exercises near the Taiwan Strait, as a top U.S. diplomat visits the self-ruled island in a move that has angered Beijing.Relations between the United States and China are at their lowest point in decades, with the two sides clashing over a range of trade, military and security issues, as well as the coronavirus pandemic.Keith Krach, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, landed in Taipei Thursday for a three-day visit, the highest-ranking State Department official to visit in 40 years.At a press conference on Friday, a Chinese defense ministry spokesman said Beijing was “holding actual combat exercises near the Taiwan Strait” when asked how it would respond to the visit.”This is a legitimate and necessary action taken to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in response to the current situation in the Taiwan Strait,” Ren Guoqiang told reporters.Ren also warned that the Chinese military had “sufficient ability” to counter any external threat or challenge from Taiwan separatists.Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory, to be absorbed into the Chinese mainland — by force if necessary.China’s Communist leadership baulks at any recognition of Taiwan — which has been ruled separately from China since the end of a civil war in 1949 — and has pursued a decades-long policy of marginalizing the democratic island.Ren accused the United States of “frequently causing trouble” over Taiwan, which he said “is purely China’s internal affairs, and we won’t tolerate any external interference”.According to Taipei’s defense ministry, 18 Chinese aircraft — including bombers and fighters — entered Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Friday and also crossed the so-called median line that divides the Taiwan Strait.The ministry said Taiwan’s military “scrambled fighters, and deployed air defense missile system to monitor the activities”.”We hope the other side can exercise restraint and not… heighten conflicts between the two sides. These military intimidations have caused resentment among the Taiwanese people,” it said in a statement.In recent weeks, Taiwan has reported a sharp rise in incursions by Chinese warplanes into its ADIZ.Chinese jets also made a brief incursion across the midline of the strait separating the two sides in August, as US health chief Alex Azar made his country’s highest-level visit to Taiwan since 1979 — the year Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing.Washington’s increased outreach to Taiwan under President Donald Trump has become yet another U.S.-China flashpoint.The U.S. said Krach was visiting Taiwan to attend Saturday’s memorial service for late president Lee Teng-hui, who died in July aged 97.  On Friday, Krach met with foreign minister Joseph Wu to discuss various bilateral issues and exchange view on future collaborations, according to Taipei authorities. He is also scheduled to join President Tsai Ing-wen for dinner at her official residence.China has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since Tsai came to power in 2016, as she refuses to acknowledge its idea that the democratic island is part of “one China”.
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Peruvian lawmakers will hold an impeachment hearing Friday, a day after the country’s top court rejected a request by President Martin Vizcarra to stop the proceedings.Congress voted last week to begin impeachment hearings against Vizcarra on grounds of moral incompetence, following allegations he tried to interfere in a probe into government contracts given to a singer.The move by Congress was fueled by opposition legislators airing secretly recorded audio that appears to show Vizcarra orchestrating a strategy with his aides to answer questions about his meetings with singer Richard Cisneros.Media reports say Cisneros claims the $50,000 worth of contracts were legal.On Thursday, the president did not comment on the allegations while touring a banana plantation in the region of Piura, but a day earlier Vizcarra seemed to lash out at his detractors for attempting to create a political crisis in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. 
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FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned lawmakers that Russia is not letting up in its efforts to sway the outcome of the November presidential election by trying to hurt the campaign of Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden – testimony that appears not to be sitting well with U.S. President Donald Trump.Wray, testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee, described the Kremlin’s influence operations as “very, very active” on social media, on its own state-run media and through various proxies.The aim of these influence operations is “primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment,” he said.Wray’s public appraisal of the stepped-up Russian influence operations is his first since the U.S. presidential campaign entered its final stretch. It is also in line with a rare public assessment offered in early August by the nation’s top counterintelligence official, William Evanina.Evanina, though, also warned Russian-linked actors were “seeking to boost” Trump’s candidacy, something the FBI’s Wray did not say when asked about Russian meddling.Trump, who has been known to take top intelligence and law enforcement officials to task on social media, responded late Thursday, calling the FBI director by his first name.“But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump wrote, adding “They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out!”But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia. They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out! https://t.co/mH3vrHWvS8— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2020Despite the president’s allegations about mail-in ballots, allegations he has raised repeatedly, the FBI director told lawmakers just hours earlier such concerns were baseless.”We have not seen, to date, a coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election,” Wray said, echoing assurances given by senior U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity just last month.Instead, Wray said, his fears have centered on the barrage of disinformation, from Russia and others, targeting U.S. voters.“What concerns me the most is the steady drumbeat of misinformation and amplification of smaller cyber intrusions,” Wray said. “I worry they will contribute over time to a lack of confidence of (among) American voters.”“That would be a perception, not reality. I think Americans can and should have confidence in our election system and certainly in our democracy,” he added.Antifa & US protestsThe FBI director also clashed with Trump, over antifa, a left-wing protest movement that has been increasingly visible in demonstrations that have spread across the country.“We look as antifa as more of an ideology or a movement than an organization,” Wray told lawmakers, adding there is no evidence that antifa is behind any sort of coordinated campaign to incite violence at protests that have gripped parts of the country.In another tweet late Thursday, Trump chastised both Wray and the entire FBI for allowing antifa, “to get away with “‘murder.’”“I look at them as a bunch of well-funded ANARCHISTS & THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source,” the president said….And I look at them as a bunch of well funded ANARCHISTS & THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source, and allows them to get away with “murder”. LAW & ORDER! https://t.co/yHLzB0RQ8e— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2020But during his testimony before lawmakers, Wray said that while the FBI does have “quite a number of properly predicated investigations into violent anarchist extremists, any number of whom self-identify with the antifa movement,” the evidence does not support claims of a larger conspiracy.“Much of the violence that we’re seeing does not appear to be organized or attributed to any one particular group or movement,” the FBI director said.Instead, he described attempts by antifa and other movements, like the right-wing Boogaloo Boys, to organize in order to instigate violence as ad hoc.”We are seeing, in certain pockets, more kind of regionally organized folks coalescing, often coordinating on the ground in the middle of protests,” Wray said, adding that such attempts can even cross ideological lines, such as in one incident earlier this month in which two self-described Boogaloo Boys attempted to join with the Palestinian terror group Hamas.ICYMI: Self-described “Boogaloo Bois” charged w/attempting to provide #Hamas firearms/parts Per @FBI 30yo Michael Solomon of Minnesota & 22yo Benjamin Teeter of #NorthCarolina are part of a sub-group called the “Boojahideen” & felt their anti-US gvt views aligned w/Hamas— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) September 4, 2020Republican pushbackWray’s explanations, however, did not impress some Republican lawmakers, including Representative Dan Crenshaw, from Texas, who has been supportive of the president.“It seems strange to me that we can’t call it a group,” Crenshaw told Wray.“This is an ideology that organizes locally. It coordinates regionally and nationally. It wears a standardized uniform. It collects funds to buy high powered lasers to blind federal officers,” Crenshaw said. “It just seems to be more than an ideology.”US-based extremistsWray also told lawmakers the FBI sees U.S.-based violent extremists, whether influenced by jihadist ideology or ideology emanating domestically, as the biggest threat to the country.“Racially motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group,” he said, noting there have been a total of 120 arrests for domestic terrorism so far this year.  
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President Donald Trump has threatened a US ban on TikTok could happen as early as next week
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Federal prosecutors brought new wire fraud charges Thursday against an associate of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani who was involved in attempts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Lev Parnas and his business partner, David Correia, were charged with defrauding investors in a business called Fraud Guarantee. A superseding indictment also charged them with additional campaign finance violations. FILE – David Correia, center, leaves federal court in New York, Oct. 17, 2019.Prosecutors said the company “purported to insure investors against corporate fraud while in fact, as alleged, they misled investors as to what would be done with their money.” The indictment said the men misled investors about the strength of the company and their business model and in some cases used the invested money for personal expenses. “We couldn’t say it better ourselves – the behavior alleged today is indeed fraudulent – guaranteed,” FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said in a statement.  Parnas defense attorney Joseph Bondy said that the new indictment “contains no surprises” and that his client has been on “strict home confinement for nearly one year.” “We are pleased that the matter can now move forward,” Bondy said, “for both Mr. Parnas and the public interest.”  Correia’s attorney declined to comment.  Previous chargesBoth men had previously faced charges of using foreign money to make illegal campaign contributions to U.S. politicians to aid their political and business interests. Parnas and Correia had been charged along with two other men, Igor Fruman and Andrew Kukushkin, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen, in a scheme to make illegal campaign donations to local and federal politicians in New York, Nevada and other states to try to win support for a new recreational marijuana business. FILE – Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks in Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 1, 2018.Parnas and Fruman also made sizable contributions while trying to get Americans interested in investigating Biden’s son in Ukraine. Giuliani, a Republican, has said he knew nothing about the donations. Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine for an investigation of the Bidens led the House to impeach Trump, though he was acquitted by the Senate earlier this year. Parnas and Fruman were arrested almost a year ago at an airport outside Washington carrying one-way tickets to Europe. They made hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to Republicans while facing lawsuits from disgruntled investors over unpaid debts. Parnas and Correia also hired Giuliani to consult with Fraud Guarantee. Giuliani has said he was promised $500,000 to work with the company.  That money was ultimately paid to Giuliani’s company by Charles Gucciardo, a Long Island lawyer and supporter of President Donald Trump. Gucciardo’s attorney previously said that the $500,000 was intended to be an investment in Fraud Guarantee. The indictment did not name the defrauded investors. 
 
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