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A little-known nonprofit organization backed by the U.S. government has become the center of a maelstrom as the Trump administration changes its leadership.The Open Technology Fund, an independent, private nonprofit corporation, receives funding from the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the agency that oversees Voice of America. Since its founding in 2012, OTF has helped fund some of the most important digital tools available to dissidents, activists and others as repressive governments worldwide beef up their ability to surveil and block their own citizens.But the future of the organization, which has a 2020 annual budget of about $21 million, may be at stake, according to digital rights groups worldwide.A change of leadership at USAGM that removed its chief executive, president and board threatens to upend the organization that rights groups say has become the backbone of the internet freedom community. They fear a new OTF will move away from supporting “open-source” projects — apps, software and technology made with code that all can see and test — and instead turn to “closed-source” technologies, making it harder for activists, journalists and others to know whether they can trust it.In June, Michael Pack, the new chief executive of USAGM, fired several of the heads of organizations that report to him. Pack removed Libby Liu, the chief executive and co-founder of OTF, and Laura Cunningham, the president of the corporation, and replaced the OTF board. Funding was frozen during the restructure.Four former board members, including two former U.S. ambassadors, attempted to block the changes via a lawsuit against USAGM, but the suit was denied by a federal judge. They are appealing that decision.More than 500 organizations, including the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation and Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox internet browser, have signed a petition asking the U.S. Congress to look at recent changes at OTF.“There are serious concerns that the new leadership within the USAGM will seek to dismantle OTF and re-allocate all of its U.S. government funding to support a narrow set of anti-censorship tools without a transparent and open review process,” the petition reads.USAGM declined multiple requests for comment.A tech arms raceOTF was created as a program in Radio Free Asia to finance early-stage digital tools, before becoming an independent nonprofit corporation in September 2019. In addition to the $21 million annual grant from USAGM, OTF also receives private funds.Digital rights groups, activists and tech startups can apply for funding for projects via OTF’s website. For example, more than 50 organizations received money from its Internet Freedom Fund, which awards contracts between $50,000 and $200,000.In addition to providing rapid-response funding for activists facing immediate censorship threats, OTF trains people worldwide on digital safety, sponsors yearlong fellowships, runs several laboratories on technology, legal and other internet freedom areas, performs security audits of technology tools, and translates new apps and software into more than 200 languages.Some of OTF’s awardees are among the most widely used technologies among dissidents and activists. Between 2013 and 2016, OTF awarded more than $3 million to help fund Signal technology, which provides end-to-end encryption for communications. The same technology is now part of the foundation of WhatsApp, the Facebook messaging app.During the same time frame, OTF awarded $3 million to Tor, which allows people to anonymously access news and information blocked by their governments.Other projects included Let’s Encrypt, which allows organizations and small businesses to protect websites against hackers and cyber criminals, and WireGuard, a virtual private network (VPN) code that closed vulnerabilities that could be exploited by repressive regimes, according to technologists.Question of ScaleOTF is not without its critics. Competing visions both inside and outside of the organization, including on what OTF should be doing, predate the arrival of Pack and the new leadership team.These include whether it should focus on financing circumvention tools that help USAGM’s TV, radio and digital programming and news circumvent government firewalls to reach more than 300 million people worldwide, a mission some argue is aligned with a federally funded international broadcast agency. Or whether OTF should continue handing out financial grants to people building anti-surveillance tools to help activists on the ground communicate and evade government detection.While OTF has accomplished a lot, it can do more, said Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation, a human rights organization named after her father, Rep. Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California. She is also a past chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.“We believe there is a potential to bring down the Great Firewalls, writ large, and that we should also be funding large-scale circumvention tools with the ability to free vast numbers of people from what are, essentially, digital prisons,” Lantos Swett said. “It’s not an either/or scenario – open-source versus circumvention tools – but I believe a little bit of funding for the latter could yield tremendous results. China is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up its firewall, so we should be willing to spend tens of millions to punch holes in it.”OTF has not previously funded large-scale projects but was looking into it, said people familiar with its operations. An additional issue, they say, is that some of the circumvention technology that the Lantos Foundation and others are promoting come with “closed-source technology,” which makes it harder for people to audit, test and trust.Chris Riley, director of government relations at Mozilla and an early advisory council member of OTF, said the group’s promotion of open-sourced technology has been critical.“OTF’s focus on open-source tools and the open-source developer community has been particularly valuable for the security and availability of these tools, for those who most need them,” Riley said. “A change in strategy for OTF away from open source would put significant parts of the secure, open internet, and the human rights and lives that depend on it, at greater risk.”In a July 2 interview with the site RealClearPolitics, Pack declined to discuss OTF but said he is still evaluating OTF’s role and has no plans to dismantle the organization.The interim head of OTF, James Miles, 78, is a former secretary of state of South Carolina. An attorney, Miles practiced labor and employment law but doesn’t appear to have technology or media experience. Miles did not respond to a VOA interview request about his new role.The tools for digital securityFor digital activists, OTF’s turmoil comes at a time when protesters in places such as Hong Kong face new crackdowns and surveillance.There is “an arms race” of digital tools between repressive regimes and dissidents and activists who are operating inside of them, said Bill Marczak, a research fellow at Citizen Lab, which is based at the University of Toronto, and one of the signatories of the petition.“There’s a benefit to make sure people have access to digital security when they need it,” said Marczak, who in 2014 received a one-year fellowship from OTF focusing on technology to detect servers used in hacking attacks.Raphael Mimoun, founder of Horizontal, is currently under contract with OTF for work improving Tella, a free app that encrypts photos, videos and other content on mobile devices.Despite the changes at OTF, Mimoun said he expects the organization will honor his firm’s contract for $53,000.But it’s the future he worries about. The Tella app is available on Android phones but not iPhones, a project that Mimoun might turn to OTF for funding.“In the long run, it will be a disaster if OTF was taken in a direction and hollowed out in what it does so well,” he said.  
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With the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States nearing 3.5 million and rising, more states, local jurisdictions and businesses are mandating facial coverings for residents and customers.Gov. Kay Ivey of the southern state of Alabama ordered all residents to begin wearing masks effective Thursday, as the state reported nearly 50 new deaths on Wednesday.  Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has imposed mandatory masks at all indoor public settings in counties where four more people have tested positive for COVID-19.The nation’s largest retailer, Walmart, is the latest to require customers to wear masks at all of its more than 5,000 outlet stores, joining the likes of tech giant Apple, coffeehouse chain Starbucks, electronics retailer Best Buy, and discount retailer Costco.But a handful of state leaders have refused to order mandatory face coverings despite an average of more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases per day in the U.S. since early June.  One such governor is Oklahoma’s Kevin Stitt, who announced Wednesday that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Stitt, a Republican, attended President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa last month, which health experts believe likely contributed to a spike in COVID-19 cases there.Another governor who has declined to issue a statewide order requiring masks is Ron DeSantis of Florida, which has surpassed 300,000 confirmed cases and where the number of new infections reached a crisis point, as hospitals are near or at full capacity.Florida is one of several states across the southern and western U.S. undergoing a surge of coronavirus infections and deaths, including Arizona, Texas and California.  Organizers of the annual Tournament of Roses Parade, held on New Year’s Day in the southern California city of Pasadena, announced Wednesday that it has canceled the 2021 edition due to the pandemic.With the death toll in the United States now well above 137,000, a new model developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington is now projecting the number of people to die from COVID-19 will reach 224,000 people by November 1, an increase of 16,000 from a prior forecast. 
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A suspected hacking attack caused the site of North Macedonia’s electoral commission to crash for hours after polls closed in national elections Wednesday, delaying preliminary results that showed the pro-Western Social Democrats narrowly leading the center-right opposition. The commission said early Thursday that with nearly 94% of the vote counted the Social Democrats have 36% and VMRO-DPMNE follow at more than 34%. The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration was third at 11%, while a coalition of two smaller ethnic Albanian parties followed at nearly 9%. The Commission gave no projections on how many seats each party stood to win in the 120-member parliament. Shortly afterwards, Social Democrats leader Zoran Zaev declared victory. Addressing cheering supporters in the capital Skopje, he promised fast reforms to help the country’s European Union accession hopes end revive the battered economy. Electoral commission head Oliver Derkoski said the suspected hack affected the official website designed to give fast online results. Vote counting was proceeding normally as the commission’s central server was not affected, he said. Derkovski added that police have been informed and will investigate the attack and who might be behind it. Another official told The Associated Press that “an outside hacker attack spread a virus … so the public cannot see the results online.” “Our technical team is working to solve the problem,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. The election — delayed for months due to the pandemic — was held amid a resurgence of the coronavirus in the small Balkan country, with voters donning obligatory masks. Polling stations closed later than usual to encourage turnout, and authorities also organized two days of advance voting to allow people in quarantine or at greater risk from the virus to cast their ballots from home. North Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic with a population of around 2 million, reported more than 8,500 cases, including 393 deaths, as of Wednesday, with 198 new cases and four deaths reported over the previous 24 hours. The country saw new cases rise in recent weeks after infection-control restrictions were lifted. Election authorities said turnout had reached 50.8% half an hour before polls closed, which is lower than in previous elections. Zaev’s governing Social Democrats called the early parliamentary election when he resigned as prime minister in January after the European Union failed to give North Macedonia a start date for EU membership talks. Zaev faced a strong challenge from VMRO’s Hristijan Mickoski. The party has softened its earlier opposition to a landmark 2018 deal with Greece that saw the country change its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia, clearing objections for it to join NATO earlier this year. Zaev, 45, ran much of his campaign on the accomplishment of securing the agreement with Greece that ended a dispute of nearly 30 years. “I believe our positive campaign has won over citizens,” Zaev said after voting. North Macedonia has had a caretaker government since his resignation as prime minister in January. Election campaigns were limited by social distancing rules and calmer than in past elections, which produced vitriolic animosity between the two main parties. The Social Democrats have governed since 2016 after beating populist conservative Nikola Gruevski of VMRO-DPMNE, who fled to Hungary to avoid serving a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power and corruption. Gruevski’s successor, Hristijan Mickoski, moved the party toward the center-right but aimed his campaign at voters are still disappointed by the country’s name change. “People are going to the polls in large numbers from what we can see,” Mickoski said. “They are ready for a big change.” If neither party can achieve an outright victory, the winner will most likely have to seek a power-sharing deal with parties representing the country’s large ethnic Albanian minority. The election is being monitored by a team of international observers.  
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President Donald Trump shook up his campaign staff Wednesday amid sinking poll numbers, replacing campaign manager Brad Parscale with veteran GOP operative Bill Stepien.The relationship between Trump and Parscale had been strained since a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally last month that drew an unexpectedly low crowd, infuriating the president. Trump has been struggling in his reelection campaign against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as the country faces health and economic crises during a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.Trump announced the move on Facebook late Wednesday. “I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager,” he said. “Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign.”The shakeup injected familiar turmoil to Trump’s 2020 campaign, which had so far largely avoided the regular staff churn that dominated the president’s 2016 campaign and his White House. But the staff change was not expected to alter the day-to-day running of the campaign.FILE – Brad Parscale, then-campaign manager for President Donald Trump, speaks to supporters during a panel discussion, Oct. 15, 2019, in San Antonio.Parscale, a political novice, ran Trump’s digital advertising in 2016 and was credited with helping bring about his surprise victory that year. Stepien has been in politics for years, working for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and serving as Trump’s national field director in 2016.Parscale had been increasingly sidelined in the weeks since the Tulsa rally and as the president’s public and private poll numbers have taken a hit amid the coronavirus pandemic. Speculation had been rampant about who might be promoted to lead the operation, with names like former Trump strategist Steve Bannon floated.Parscale is a close ally of Trump son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, who wields ultimate control over the campaign.Trump has been pressed by allies in recent months to expand his political circle and more forcefully define his run against Biden. On Tuesday, he relented to weeks of lobbying by his political advisers, delivering a broadside against the former vice president from the Rose Garden and framing the November election as the starkest choice in the nation’s history.Biden’s changesBiden also shuffled his campaign team amid a disastrous stretch in his campaign, albeit much earlier in the cycle. For Biden, the moves marked genuine shakeups that expanded and changed how his campaign operated.Biden elevated Anita Dunn, effectively displacing his first campaign manager, Greg Schultz, after a fourth-place Iowa finish and after he was already headed for a second embarrassing finish in New Hampshire. Dunn had joined Biden at the outset of his campaign after having served President Barack Obama as a top communications adviser.With Dunn’s urging, Biden hired his current campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, in March after Dunn and others helped resurrect Biden in Nevada and South Carolina and put him on the path to the nomination. Schultz is now at the Democratic National Committee, helping lead the joint battleground strategy among the national party, the Biden campaign and state parties.
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Several New York City police officers were attacked and injured Wednesday as pro-police and anti-police protesters clashed on the Brooklyn Bridge. At least four officers were hurt, including Chief of Department Terence Monahan, and 37 people were arrested, police said. Information on charges was not immediately available. Surveillance video posted on social media by the police department showed a man on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway rushing toward a group of officers and reaching over a fence to bash their heads with a cane. A Black Lives Matter protester and NYPD officers scuffle on the Brooklyn Bridge during a demonstration, in New York, July 15, 2020.Police photos of the aftermath showed a lieutenant with a bloodied face, a detective holding a bandage to his head, and a bicycle officer helping a fellow officer dress a head wound. Monahan, who last month knelt in a show of solidarity with protesters, sustained injuries to his hand. He and the other injured officers were marching with a pro-police group led by local clergy when they were met on the bridge by anti-police activists, some of whom have been camping outside City Hall in recent weeks to demand severe cuts to police funding. Some people in the pro-police group marched with a banner that said, “We Support the NYPD.” The leader of that group said they were calling for an end to a recent spate of violence, including the shooting death of a 1-year-old boy in Brooklyn. Wednesday’s demonstrations were the latest in a wave of protest activity across the country since George Floyd was killed May 25 by Minneapolis police. The first few nights of protests in New York City were marred by stealing, unrest and violence inflicted both by and on police officers. Since then, protests have largely been peaceful. 
 
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The Trump administration is prepared to terminate a 2013 agreement between U.S. and Chinese auditing authorities in a move aimed at increasing pressure on Chinese-listed companies in the United States to comply with U.S. auditing standards.The Reuters news agency cited Keith Krach, undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment at the State Department, who said a lack of transparency has prompted officials to lay the groundwork to exit the 2013 memorandum of understanding.“This is a national security issue because we cannot continue to afford to put American shareholders at risk, to put American companies at a disadvantage and allow our preeminence of being the gold standard for financial markets to erode,” Krach told Reuters.The development follows years of tension between American auditors and Chinese companies over the financial documentation required of companies that list shares on U.S. exchanges, especially the technology-oriented Nasdaq exchange.Legislative responseReuters said termination of the 2013 agreement would not immediately threaten the listed status of those companies. Legislation currently moving through the U.S. Congress, however, eventually could force the delisting of Chinese companies that fail to comply with certain terms of the agreement.Under the agreement, procedures were established for an agency known as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to seek documents in enforcement cases against Chinese auditors. But the PCAOB says it still cannot get the access to audits that it needs to ensure that listed Chinese companies have accurate financial and corporate records.FILE – Tao Sang Tong, center, chairman of Tencent Music Entertainment; Cussion Kar Shun Pang, right, the company’s CEO; and Guomin Xie, its co-president, are pictured at the New York Stock Exchange prior to the Chinese company’s IPO, Dec. 12, 2018.William Duhnke, chairman of the PCAOB, said last week that there had been discussions with his Chinese counterparts on improving oversight of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, though little progress had been made.“From our perspective, any further discussions about access are unlikely to be productive unless and until the Chinese authorities are willing to embrace certain principles that ensure our fundamental ability to accomplish our mission,” Duhnke said at a virtual round-table discussion organized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).’State secrets’The PCAOB was established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to oversee the audits of public companies traded on U.S. exchanges. China is one of the only countries in the world that have failed since then to reach an agreement with the board.
When asked to disclose financial information to U.S. auditors, many Chinese companies with significant government links refuse on the ground that they would be revealing “state secrets.”Yet these companies are often embroiled in accounting scandals and accused of inflating their financial records to attract more capital. The latest scandal involves the Xiamen-based coffee chain Luckin, which overstated the company’s 2019 sales by about $310 million. The company’s share value fell by 80% after the disclosure.The U.S. Senate in early May passed a bill that could bar many Chinese companies from listing shares on U.S. exchanges unless they abide by U.S. auditing rules.The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act would require Chinese companies to demonstrate they are neither owned nor controlled by a foreign government. It would also require the companies to submit to an audit that can be reviewed by the PCAOB, or face delisting from U.S. exchanges.FILE – Financial market information is displayed on a big screen inside the London Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015.Not all American investors welcome the move. Some have voiced concerns that the bill, if it becomes law, could shut them out of high-yield investment opportunities that would remain open to investors in other countries.Guo Yafu, CEO of TJ Capital Management, told VOA the efforts of Congress and the Trump administration could be a double-edged sword. He said the new rules could greatly limit the growth of these Chinese companies, but “it will also hurt Wall Street.”“These Chinese companies might seek secondary listings in Hong Kong, London or Singapore,’ he told VOA.Guo said both London and Singapore were trying to attract these companies by offering to cover part of their listing fees. “For example, the Singapore government says they will cover 20% of listing fees for foreign companies willing to list in its exchange, and 75% in the case of high-tech companies,” he said.Hong KongHong Kong also is a hot destination for secondary listings for Chinese firms. Alibaba, the e-commerce giant based in China, already has a secondary listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange.New doubts have arisen about the safety of capital invested in Hong Kong, however, with the passing by Beijing of a controversial new national security law. U.S. President Donald Trump responded to that law Tuesday by signing an executive order that ended America’s special trade treatment of Hong Kong.“Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China — no special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies,” Trump said at a press conference.These new developments have many companies rethinking their choice of secondary listing destinations.Yet Alicia Gracia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at French investment bank Natixis, told VOA that Hong Kong remains a viable choice for Chinese companies.“Hong Kong is still an option since the bulk of the funds there are not U.S.-related but China/Asia-related. Subsidiaries of major Chinese companies and financial institutions are major investors in Hong Kong and they are bound to stay, the more so if they are [partially] state-owned,” she told VOA.According to an analysis by the Harvard Business Review, China is still very dependent on Hong Kong for trade, foreign direct investment, equity and debt capital, and foreign currency exchange. “That self-interest should keep its leaders from going too far with implementing the security law,” it said.Nevertheless, Gracia-Herrero said America’s Nasdaq exchange remains unequaled as a platform for high-tech companies to secure U.S. dollar financing.
 
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Chilean President Sebastian Piñera is hoping his second economic stimulus package proposal to help middle-class citizens impacted by the coronavirus lockdown gets the full backing of the Congress.  His initial $1.5 billion proposal failed to generate enough support from the Chilean Congress last week. In a televised speech, Pinera said his latest proposal delivers financial contributions directly to the middle class. Piñera’s new stimulus package also has credit extensions, rent subsidies and loans to help pay for college.  Piñera hopes his proposal will counter an initiative by the opposition that would allow pensioners to withdraw 10 percent of their savings from a total of 200,000 dollars in Chile’s Pension Funds Administrator.  The opposition argues Piñera’s proposal is costly and would burden the middle class with unnecessary debt. 
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A federal judge in Washington has issued a preliminary injunction halting the planned execution Wednesday of the second person scheduled to die this week after the federal government resumed carrying out death sentences.Lawyers for 68-year-old Wesley Ira Purkey argued he is currently incompetent to be executed because he does not understand it is punishment for his capital crime, that he has a history of mental illness, and that dementia has caused his mental health to decline.District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said in her ruling that Purkey’s defense has “made a substantial showing of incompetence,” and that he is therefore “entitled to an opportunity to be heard, including a fair hearing.”In order to ensure such a hearing can take place, she ordered the government may not go through with the execution at this time. Purkey was sentenced to death for killing and dismembering a teenager in the state of Missouri in 1998.  He also pleaded guilty to the later killing of an 80-year-old woman. Wednesday’s injunction comes a day after Daniel Lewis Lee became the first person the federal government executed since 2003.US Executes 1st Federal Prisoner in 17 YearsSupreme Court ruling early Tuesday allows four executions to go forwardA Supreme Court ruling early Tuesday cleared the way for the execution of four people, and hours later Lee was put to death with a dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at a federal prison in Indiana. U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Lee “finally faced the justice he deserved. The American people have made the considered choice to permit capital punishment for the most egregious federal crimes, and justice was done today in implementing the sentence for Lee’s horrific offenses.” Lee was originally due to be executed Monday, but hours before that happened a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on the grounds that courts should have more time to review whether the method of execution violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Lawyers for the four men scheduled to die argued that pentobarbital could cause a type of respiratory distress with the sensation of drowning or suffocating. The Supreme Court’s 5-4 majority rejected that argument, saying the drug has been adopted by individual states that carry out their own executions and that more than 100 people have been put to death that way “without incident.” “The Government has produced competing expert testimony of its own, indicating that any pulmonary edema occurs only after the prisoner has died or been rendered fully insensate,” the majority wrote. “The plaintiffs in this case have not made the showing required to justify last-minute intervention by a Federal Court.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Elena Kagan, said in a dissenting opinion that the majority had accepted the government’s “artificial claim of urgency” and rushed the review process. “Today’s decision illustrates just how grave the consequences of such accelerated decision making can be,” Kagan said.  “The Court forever deprives respondents of their ability to press a constitutional challenge to their lethal injections and prevents lower courts from reviewing that challenge.”  Justice Stephen Breyer, also joined by Ginsburg, suggested in his dissent that the court may need to examine the constitutionality of the death penalty itself. The next federal inmate scheduled for execution is Dustin Lee Honken, who is set to be put to death Friday.  The execution of the fourth inmate involved in the legal challenges, Keith Dwayne Nelson, is scheduled for August 28. Before Tuesday, the federal government had executed three people since reinstating the death penalty in 1988. 
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Former college football coach Tommy Tuberville has defeated former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a Republican primary for a Senate seat representing the southern state of Alabama. Sessions held the seat for 20 years before stepping down to lead the Justice Department when President Donald Trump took office in 2017.  He fell out of favor with Trump when he recused himself from the investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and the president endorsed Tuberville in the primary. “Tommy Tuberville WON big against Jeff Sessions,” Trump tweeted late Tuesday.  “Will be a GREAT Senator for the incredible people of Alabama.” Tuberville moves on to the November general election to face Democratic Senator Doug Jones, who in a similar fashion to Sessions criticized Tuberville as lacking the experience necessary for the job.Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, joined by family members, delivers his concession speech Tuesday, July 14, 2020, in Mobile, Ala.“The choice before the voters is an unprepared hyper partisan that will add to the divide in Washington, or my proven track-record to find common ground and get things done,” Jones said in a statement. In Maine, state House Speaker Sara Gideon won a three-way Democratic Senate primary battle against attorney Bre Kidman and activist Betsy Sweet. Gideon’s November opponent is Republican Senator Susan Collins.  Democrats are targeting Collins as one of their top hopes in unseating a Republican and trying to gain the three seats necessary to flip the current slim Republican majority in the Senate. In Texas, combat veteran Mary Jennings Hegar won her primary runoff election against state senator Royce West and will be the Democrat going against Republican Senator John Cornyn in November. Cornyn has represented Texas for three terms, and polls ahead of Tuesday’s voting showed him leading Hegar by at least 8 points. There were also several House primaries in the three states Tuesday. In the 13th congressional district in Texas, Ronny Jackson, former White House physician during the Trump administration, won the Republican primary and in a strongly Republican district will likely win the seat in November. Former Congressman Pete Sessions won the Republican primary in the state’s 17th district, defeating Renee Swann, who was endorsed by retiring incumbent Congressman Bill Flores. 
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s self-isolation with the coronavirus does not appear to be affording him any sympathy from protesters calling for his resignation. Demonstrators, who are upset over Bolsonaro’s response to the outbreak, placed crosses representing COVID-19 victims outside the Brazilian Congress in the capital, Brasilia, on Tuesday. Protesters, including members of trade unions, Indigenous people and LGBT activists, delivered a petition to Congress calling for his impeachment.  Bolsonaro has been widely criticized for downplaying the impact of the pandemic.  Indigenous leader Kretan Kaingang said demonstrators also wanted to honor warriors who died during the pandemic.  Brazil has confirmed more than 74,000 deaths, the second-highest in the world behind the United States.  So far, nearly two million people have been infected with the coronavirus in Brazil.  
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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: “Bill Gates’ vaccine” against COVID-19 would modify human DNA.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Poynter.orgSocial Media DisinfoEUvsDisinfo”The Secret Labs Conspiracy: A Converging Narrative,” EUvsDisinfo, July 6 Factual Reads on CoronavirusLost on the Frontline
America’s health care workers are dying. … “Lost on the Frontline,” a collaboration between KHN and The Guardian, has identified 795 such workers who likely died of COVID-19 after helping patients during the pandemic.
— Kaiser Health News, July 14
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Growing threats imperil life in the world’s oceans and seas. Scientists say warming waters endanger young and unborn fish more than previously thought while a newly discovered species of seaweed suffocates life in Pacific waters. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports on threats to waters both local and global.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi 
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Charlie Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame best known for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” died last week after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. Border Crossings host, Larry London interviewed him in July of 2007.  Charlie had just Charlie had just released a new cd “The Charlie Daniels Band Live in Iraq” and a new book “Growing Up Country.”
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With the number of confirmed coronavirus infections around the world topping 13 million, including more than 570,000 deaths, the United States says it expects to start producing potential vaccine doses by the end of the summer, even as more and more governments are imposing, or re-imposing, strict quarantine and social distancing guidelines to blunt the spread of the disease.  The U.S.-based cable financial news channel CNBC reported Monday that a senior Trump administration official told reporters the manufacturing process is already underway even though they aren’t sure which vaccine – if any – will work.  The official is quoted as saying they are already buying equipment, securing manufacturing sites, and acquiring raw materials.CNBC says two companies involved in the development of a potential new vaccine, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are expected to begin late-stage human trials for potential vaccines by the end of the month.  Social distancing
A set of new social distancing measures that took effect Tuesday in Hong Kong includes mandatory face masks for people using public transportation, with violators subject to fines up to $645 ($5,000 in Hong Kong currency).  Restaurants are banned from offering indoor dining after 6 p.m., and gyms, movie theaters and karaoke bars are once again ordered to shut down, in response to a new order announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam that limits group gatherings from 50 people to four.The new guidelines have forced the closure of Hong Kong Disneyland, which had just reopened last month.  The Asian financial hub reported 52 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 41 that were locally transmitted, prompting authorities to issue a warning of a potential large-scale outbreak.  The city has reported more than 1,500 total coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.Women hold signs outside housing commission apartments under lockdown in Melbourne, Australia, July 6, 2020.New spikes
Over in Australia, the southern state of Victoria recorded 270 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, including two deaths, pushing the total number of cases nationwide to 10,251 and 110 deaths.  Victoria’s capital city, Melbourne, is in the first week of a six-week lockdown imposed due to an alarming spike of new COVID-19 cases. Residents have been ordered to stay home unless going to work, school, medical appointments or shopping for food. The neighboring state of New South Wales has imposed a strict new set of restrictions on bars in response to a cluster of 21 new COVID-19 cases traced to a popular bar in Sydney. The new restrictions limit group bookings to just 10 people and cap the number of patrons in large venues to 300.  Wearing face masks in supermarkets and stores in Britain will be mandatory starting next week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office announced Monday. Face coverings are already required on buses and subways in London and other English cities. Other European countries, including Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain already require face coverings in stores. Visitors crowd the beach July 12, 2020, in Santa Monica, Calif., amid the coronavirus pandemic.Surge in multiple US states
In the United States, which posted well over 60,000 new infections on Monday, more than three dozen states are seeing a dramatic rise in new coronavirus cases on a daily basis, forcing many of them to reverse plans to reopen their economies after shutting them down during the initial phase of the outbreak. California Governor Gavin Newsom extended Monday the closure of bars, restaurants, gyms, churches, and amusement centers from 19 counties to the entire state. The neighboring northwestern state of Oregon has banned gatherings of more than 10 people and mandated face masks for all Oregonians.  Across the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii Governor David Ige announced Monday the state is postponing plans to relax its quarantine requirements for some tourists from the U.S. mainland. The popular tourist destination has subjected all visitors to a mandatory 14-day quarantine since the start of the outbreak. The government had planned to make an exception for anyone who tested negative for COVID-19 in the 72 hours leading up to their departure, beginning August 1.Gov. Ige delayed the revised rules until September 1 because of the dramatic uptick of new cases in many states, which he said has also caused serious delays in testing.    
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Kenyan doctors are continuing to treat scores of coronavirus patients, a day after paying final respects to the country’s first doctor to succumb to the virus. Health officials in protective clothing brought Dr. Doreen Adisa Lugaliki for burial Monday, in a service attended by a few relatives.  Chibanzi Mwachonda, deputy Secretary-General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union said 38-year-old Dr. Lugaliki’s death was so painful doctors labeled the day “Black Monday.” Lenny Lugaliki, Dr. Lugaliki’s brother, acknowledged she was a diabetic, but said her sudden death four days after being admitted to the hospital was a shock.  He said the family was looking ahead to bringing her home and caring for her so she could get on with her life. Nearly 200 people have died of the novel coronavirus in Kenya and more than 10,200 others have tested positive for the virus. 
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Mexico announced it’s considering an offer of $120 million in cash plus medical equipment from an unnamed entity to buy a luxury equipped presidential airplane. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been trying sell off the plane of his predecessor, former President Enrique Pena Nieto, since taking office in late 2018 on a campaign pledge of fugal spending.  López Obrador has been flying commercial airlines, citing the presidential plane to be an extravagance, with its presidential suite. Experts say the 787 Boeing jet, which initially cost $200 million, will be hard to off load because it would be difficult to reconfigure into a regular passenger jet. In an effort to boost the value of the presidential plane, the government is separately conducting a raffle, with winners getting cash prizes. 
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More than 930 employees of private contractors running U.S. immigration detention centers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to congressional testimony given by company executives on Monday. The heads of four companies — CoreCivic, The GEO Group, Management & Training Corp (MTC) and LaSalle Corrections — that detain immigrants on contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reported the infections among employees in response to questions from lawmakers. ICE has reported 45 cases of COVID-19 among its direct staff at detention facilities. Most of the employees at the privately run centers, however, work for private contractors and are not included in ICE’s count. Lawmakers have raised concerns about the spread of the virus inside nearly 70 centers across the country. More than 3,000 immigrants in ICE custody have tested positive for COVID-19, although some have recovered or been released. Two detainees have died of the disease. On Monday, a 51-year-old Mexican man who had tested positive for coronavirus died in ICE detention, although the agency said the cause of death was still undetermined. The chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Kathleen Rice, a Democrat from New York, said there had been reports among employees of rationing of personal protective equipment, inadequate medical care and delayed testing. CoreCivic said about 554 of its nearly 14,000 employees had tested positive. GEO Group said 167 of its 3,700 employees had come back with positive tests, with 69 recovered and one hospitalized. LaSalle said it had 144 employees with positive COVID-19 tests, out of the company’s some 3,000 employees, and MTC said 73 of its 1,200 employees had tested positive. ICE did not comment on the figures or the allegations raised at the hearing. There are currently nearly 22,580 detainees in ICE custody, a dramatic drop from the more than 50,000 migrants detained on average daily during the 2019 fiscal year. Arrests on the U.S.-Mexico border have declined in recent months, and courts have ordered releases, citing coronavirus risks. 
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