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This week the Republican Party is hoping to pave the way for a repeat of President Donald Trump’s 2016 win by energizing the party faithful and wooing undecided voters. Public opinion polls show the president trailing Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden. At the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, VOA’s Carolyn Presutti spoke with several voters who said they did not back Trump in 2016, but they will this year.Camera: Mary Cieslak 
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In claiming that the 2020 election could be “rigged” by the Democrats, U.S. President Donald Trump recently hinted he may deploy federal authorities to polling places around the country on Election Day to root out corrupt practices that would impact the presidential election. Asked during a Fox News interview last week if he planned to deploy federal monitors to polling stations Nov. 3 to prevent fraudulent voting, Trump replied, “We’re going to have everything.” “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys. And we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals,” he told conservative host Sean Hannity. “But it’s very hard.”   Trump has steadily stepped up his largely groundless assertions that the U.S. voting system — especially the surge in voting by mail in the face of the coronavirus pandemic — is rife with corruption and needs a watchful federal eye. FILE – Voters drop off ballots in the Washington State primary, in Seattle, March 10, 2020.While it was not clear if Trump was engaging in idle speculation or if he was serious, some observers took his latest remarks to suggest he not only wants “poll watchers” but law enforcement officers posted at voting precincts. Poll watchers, often appointed by political party committees, are deployed by the tens of thousands every election cycle. Their job is to monitor voting irregularities and to challenge the qualifications of a voter if they have suspicions.  FILE – A poll watcher watches as voters sign in at the Martha O’Bryan Center community building in Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 8, 2016.But law enforcement presence at U.S. polling places is uncommon. Federal laws prohibit the deployment of troops and armed agents to the polls, while a number of states restrict their presence. Here is a look at the legality of deploying law enforcement officers at the polls. Can Trump send local sheriffs to the polls?   The United States has a system of limited government. While the national government is “supreme” under the U.S. Constitution’s “Supremacy Clause,” states are accorded broader “police powers” under the Tenth Amendment.   In a landmark decision in 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court “interpreted the Tenth Amendment to specifically mean that the federal government cannot directly order state and local law enforcement officials as if they were agents of the federal government,” said Edward Foley, a constitutional law professor and director of the election law program at Ohio State University.  Can the president send armed federal agents to the polls?  A FILE – Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf testifies in Washington, March 3, 2020.Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a recent interview with CNN that the Department of Homeland Security lacks the authority to deploy agents to the polls.  Hans von Spakovsky, a former federal prosecutor, said it is highly unlikely that Trump will order the deployment of troops and agents to polling places.  However, “if the president ordered someone at DHS or DOJ to do something that violated the statute, I don’t think they would follow the (order),” said von Spakovsky, now a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.   Is there any precedent for sending law enforcement officers to the polls?  During the 1981 gubernatorial campaign in New Jersey, the Republican Party posted off-duty sheriffs and police officers at polling places in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. The Democratic National Committee sued, claiming the “ballot security program” was part of a broader voter intimidation effort. Under public pressure, the Republicans agreed to settle the following year by entering a “consent decree.”    The decree, in force for 35 years, prohibited the Republican Party from undertaking “ballot security” at polling places in heavily minority communities.    Von Spakovsky said that while political parties cannot post armed personnel inside polling places, they should be allowed to hire former law enforcement officers as poll watchers.    What do state laws say about police presence at polls?  A patchwork of state laws governs law enforcement presence at polling stations, Foley said. While some states such as Iowa allow police officers to provide security on Election Day, others such as Pennsylvania and Florida explicitly prohibit their presence, unless they are there to cast ballots.   “There is a sense that sometimes the presence of local police officers carrying their firearms could be an intimidating factor,” Foley said. “The idea is to try to make voting as less of a hostile environment as possible.”  Conservatives say they do not object to local jurisdictions using police officers to guard polling stations.  “I don’t have a problem if states want to do it. If they simply want to post an officer at the polls to make sure there is no violence, there is no violation,” von Spakovsky said. 
 
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This week, Valdya Baraputri had been scheduled to broadcast live from the Republican National Convention. Instead, she and a colleague were on a flight home to Indonesia on Monday, after the U.S. Agency for Global Media did not renew the J-1 visas that allowed them to work for Voice of America.  Baraputri is one of at least 15 VOA language service journalists due to return to their country of origin in coming weeks. Their J-1 visa renewals came up as USAGM’s new leadership initiated a review into the specialized entry permits for individuals with unique skills. Another 20 journalists, including some who are from repressive countries, have visas expiring by the end of the year.  FILE – The facade of the Voice of America building is seen in Washington, June 15, 2020.VOA, which broadcasts in 47 languages, relies on the specialized regional knowledge, contacts and language skills provided by its journalists from around the world.  USAGM, which oversees Voice of America and four other networks, announced last month it was conducting a case-by-case assessment of J-1 renewal applications. The chief executive is responsible for giving the final approval of visa renewals submitted by the broadcasters.  Visa review The review was aimed at improving agency management, protecting U.S. national security and ensuring that hiring authorities are not misused, a USAGM spokesperson said in a July statement.FILE – Congressman Eliot Engel addresses the media in the Riverdale section of New York, June 23, 2020.In a statement Friday, Rep. Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said USAGM has failed to provide answers to Congress about the visa renewal process.  “It’s unconscionable that a U.S. government agency would create such fear and uncertainty for people whom we asked to do a job,” Engel said. “Congress’ attempts to seek answers from USAGM on this matter have been met with silence. It’s clear that the agency is just trying to run out the clock until these journalists are forced to leave.”Pack is scheduled to testify before the House committee on Sept. 24.Engel, a Democrat Party representative for New York, warned that some VOA journalists were at risk, especially those returning to repressive countries that regularly jail or harass the media. US Media Agency Reports Years-long Problems With Vetting Employees Report published by USAGM’s new CEO says problems with vetting employees, including some foreign nationals, go back almost a decade Grant Turner, a former CEO and chief financial officer for the agency, who is one of at least seven staff the USAGM placed on administrative leave on August 12 over investigations into security issues, said the security review and the J-1 visa issue are part of a pattern of mismanagement in recent months.  Turner told VOA the loss of staff in VOA’s language divisions could lose VOA vital audiences in countries such as Iran, China and Venezuela, where citizens have very limited access to independent news. He added that not renewing visas was “a betrayal of promises” the agency made to foreign reporters who came to work for VOA.  The USAGM said Turner and others were placed on leave to restore “respect for the rule of law in our work.” Turner said he rejects the reasons given for his being placed on leave.  J1 visa status  Since 1961, the Exchange Visitor Program, which includes J-1 visas, has provided short-term work opportunities in the United States for professionals, teachers and foreign students. This April, Trump issued a proclamation suspending some economic immigration as part of measures aimed at assisting the domestic job market during the coronavirus pandemic.  A lawsuit challenging the legality of the order is pending.  Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School and co-author of “J Visa Guidebook,” told VOA that J-1 and other work-based visa holders bring “substantial economic benefits” to the U.S.  “Many of these jobs are specialized and, depending on the nature of the job, it may not be feasible for an employer to find a U.S. worker to replace them,” he added. Yale-Loehr said that while visa sponsors do not have legal obligations to renew visas of employees, “They may have a moral obligation if they’re sending J-1 workers back to harm’s way.”  Visas holders fearing persecution if they return to their home countries have a right to seek asylum, Yale-Loehr said.  Baraputri, who co-hosts a weekly news program for the VOA Indonesian service, said it is much easier to cover issues deemed sensitive in Indonesia from the U.S.  As well as losing their jobs, the journalists are forced to return on flights during the coronavirus pandemic. In Baraputri’s case, she will have to pay for two weeks in a hotel as a quarantine measure before returning to her multigenerational home in Jakarta.  
 
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All of Africa has reached a very important milestone. The World Health Organization has declared that the entire continent is now free of the wild polio virus. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports that this is a time for celebration but not a time to rest.
Produced by: Bronwyn Benito 
 
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: Study finds that children are “silent super-spreaders” of coronavirus.Verdict: Not proved by this study.Read the full story at: A cursor moves over Google’s search engine page on Aug. 28, 2018, in Portland, Ore.Circulating on social media: Claim that Google search results are evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Reuters Factual Reads on CoronavirusLockdown Let the Earth Breathe. What Do We Do Next?
COVID-19 could be a turning point in climate activism—but only if we play it right.
— The Walrus. August 24
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An independent report into Australia’s Black Summer bushfires has recommended sweeping changes to land clearing practices and the creation of an international research center to investigate extreme fire behavior. The 2019-2020 disaster was unprecedented in scale. The Gospers Mountain fire north of Sydney was the largest forest fire ever recorded in Australia, burning more than 500,000 hectares. More aggressive hazard reduction, or controlled burn-offs that can reduce the severity of future bushfires, would make Australia safer, according to an independent panel.However, previous research has shown that as conditions get hotter and drier, it becomes less effective.  But the report wants landowners in high-risk areas to increase prescribed burning.  It also said that climate change was one of many factors that made last summer “so extraordinary”. The fires were fueled by record-breaking temperatures and a long drought across southern and eastern Australia. New South Wales state premier Gladys Berejiklian says global warming is making the country more vulnerable. “The next fire season is already upon us, so the government has taken every action we can already in response to the recommendations that we received.  We do also have to also accept that in addition to the issues that have been canvassed this morning, our climate is changing and those who wrote the report actually acknowledge that our climate is changing,” Berejiklian said.  The New South Wales state government has accepted each of the panel’s 76 recommendations. The report has called for more scientific research into fighting fires, including the use of artificial intelligence and drones to help put them out quickly.   It said the answer was not more fire trucks or firefighters.  Critics of the inquiry have reportedly said it was lackluster and contained no significant recommendations.  The Black Summer fires killed more than 30 people and destroyed thousands of homes. For the first time ever catastrophic fire conditions had been forecast for Australia’s biggest city, Sydney.    Ominously, the panel warned that Australia should expect to see similar conditions, or worse, to happen again.  
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Arsonists set buildings  ablaze and torched much of the Black business district in a  second night of unrest in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin,  triggered by the wounding of a Black man shot in the back by  officers as his three young sons looked on.
Smoke billowed over central Kenosha after police in riot gear clashed with protesters who defied a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Monday night and into Tuesday morning, blocks away from where  police gunned down Jacob Blake on Sunday.
Blake, 29, survived the shooting, which was captured on  video, and was in stable condition following surgery, his father  said.
But the incident, the latest in a litany of cases to focus  attention on police treatment of African Americans, unleashed  outrage in the lakefront city of Kenosha about 40 miles (65 km)  south of Milwaukee.
The shooting occurred three months after the death of George  Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who was pinned to the street  under the knee of a white police officer, sparking nationwide  protests against police brutality and racism in the United  States.
Unrest flared again elsewhere in the country on Monday.  Police in Portland, Oregon, the scene of weeks of protests that have sometimes turned violent, declared a riot late on Monday and arrested many demonstrators after fires were lit at the offices of the police association.
President Donald Trump’s administration last month deployed federal forces to Portland to crack down on the protests.
 Fires, Baseball bats
Black Lives Matter activists are demanding the immediate firing or arrest of the Kenosha officers, who have been placed  on administrative leave.
Hours into the curfew, the mostly peaceful demonstration turned violent. Commercial and government buildings were set ablaze, along with vehicles in car dealership lots.
Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and smoke bombs to disperse the crowd, which grew to several hundred, according to  protester Porche Bennett, 31, of Kenosha.
Fires destroyed much of the Black business district, Bennett said, adding that the instigators she saw were white.
“It’s people from out of town doing this. We’ve been shopping there since we were kids and they set it on fire,” Bennett said.
Social media images showed both white and Black agitators.  Black men swinging baseball bats broke traffic signals and street lamps. White and Black men with bats bashed in the headlights and windshields of a row of cars.
One white man riding a skateboard doused a government truck  with an accelerant and set it on fire. Heavily armed white civilians stood guard in front of one business to protect it from vandals.
Kenosha, a city of 100,000 people, is nearly 12 percent Black and about 67 percent white, according to U.S. Census data.
One large group of protesters skirmished in front of the courthouse with sheriff’s deputies firing tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd. Demonstrators hurled water bottles and firecrackers at the police.
At least one man was injured, shown on social media bleeding from the head as civilians administered aid.  The first night of clashes on Sunday prompted Governor Tony Evers to order in National Guard troops to help maintain order. Evers has condemned excessive use of police force and called for a special legislative session next week to consider police reforms, saying: “We must offer our empathy. We must see the trauma, fear and exhaustion of being Black in our state and our country.”
Video of the shooting taken by an onlooker showed Blake walking toward the driver’s side of a gray SUV followed by two officers with their guns drawn at his back. Seven gunshots are heard as Blake, who appears unarmed, opens the car door, one officer tugging at his shirt.
It was not known whether officers saw something inside the vehicle that prompted them to shoot.
His three young sons were inside the car, family attorney Ben Crump said.
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