| U.N. Calls on Police to Limit Use-of-Force Tactics Posted: 29 Jul 2020 05:11 PM PDT  As thousands continue to protest over racial injustice across the U.S., the United Nations is weighing in on how authorities are handling the situation. The U.N.'s human rights office called on law enforcement and governments to limit use of force tactics on protesters, saying it is their obligation to facilitate peaceful demonstrations. The office said states are required to allow peaceful protests and can't obstruct them "without compelling justification."
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| U.N. Calls On Police To Limit Use-Of-Force Tactics At Protests Posted: 29 Jul 2020 05:11 PM PDT As thousands continue to protest over racial injustice across the U.S., the United Nations is weighing in on how authorities are handling the situation. The U.N.'s human rights office called on law enforcement and governments to limit use of force tactics on protesters, saying it is their obligation to facilitate peaceful demonstrations. The office said states are required to allow peaceful protests and can't obstruct them "without compelling justification."
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| U.S. Warns Russia on Bounties While Trump Cries ‘Fake News’ Posted: 29 Jul 2020 04:42 PM PDT  The U.S. State Department has issued warnings to Russia that there will be repercussions if Moscow pays bounties to the Taliban for successfully killing American soldiers, according to two senior American officials and another individual with knowledge of the matter.The warnings were issued through the department's diplomatic channels after public news reports in June that the U.S. had gathered intelligence about the Russian bounties, those officials said. One official described the communications as "serious." Another said that Moscow responded by denying the reports it had set up or funded a bounty program to kill U.S. troops.These secret warnings stand in contrast to what President Trump has said about the intelligence in question. In an interview earlier this week, Trump said he did not believe the bounties were worth raising in a recent conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "That was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly that's an issue that many people said was fake news," Trump said in a recent interview.Trump Gives Putin a Pass on Bounties So He Can Target Leakers Instead The New York Times reported June 26 that Russia had covertly offered the Taliban cash in exchange for killing U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan and that the intelligence had been included in a presidential daily briefing packet in February. White House officials have consistently said that the bounty intelligence has not been "verified." Officials previously told The Daily Beast that there was disagreement in the intelligence and national security communities over the intelligence and the methods used to gather it. Multiple U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, have publicly disputed the reports. In a July 9 congressional hearing, Esper said the U.S. did not have any evidence that suggested there were direct linkages between the Russian bounties and Americans getting killed in the field.The warnings to the Russians highlight the seriousness with which officials in the Trump administration have responded to reports of the bounties. They also raise questions about the extent to which officials' understanding of the validity of the bounty intelligence diverges from that of President Donald Trump.It is unclear to what extent, if at all, the president has been briefed on these warnings. The White House and National Security Council did not immediately provide comment to The Daily Beast. The State Department did not respond on the record to a request for comment. Pompeo recently said during a Fox News interview that the U.S. would "respond to any threat, whether that's Iranians using the Taliban or the Russians," he said. "We'll make sure they know." In his interview with Axios this week, Trump insisted that the intelligence "never reached my desk," though it has been widely reported that the intel had been included in the President's Daily Brief.During that interview, when Trump was asked about Russia's years-long efforts to provide weapons to Taliban forces, the president responded, "Well, we supplied weapons when they were fighting Russia, too. The Taliban, in Afghanistan…I'm just saying, we did that, too."Russian Bounties for Killing Americans Go Back Five Years, Ex-Taliban ClaimsIn Moscow's Afghan Bazaar, Searching for a Bagman Who Pays Bounties for Dead AmericansU.S. representatives are currently in Vienna, Austria meeting with the Russians on arms control—an area national security officials say could be a path toward cooperation, though Russia recently launched an anti-satellite weapon into space. According to interviews with three former officials, past efforts at cooperating with Russia have failed, including the sharing of counterterrorism intelligence, and engaging in talks on space could be beneficial for safeguarding American interests there. But multiple current and former senior officials say they are unsure if there's any issue on which the U.S. can cooperate with Russia given recent attempts by a Moscow-linked group to hack U.S. coronavirus vaccine research and the country disseminating disinformation on the coronaivurs.In a hearing last week in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, State Department Deputy Secretary Biegun said years of malign actions by the Russians "have made it virtually impossible to make progress … in any way, shape or form." Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Nile dam row: Egypt fumes as Ethiopia celebrates Posted: 29 Jul 2020 04:34 PM PDT  Concerns grow as Nile River nations fail to reach a deal on how to share the vital waters.
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| UK car production slumps to lowest level since 1954 Posted: 29 Jul 2020 04:15 PM PDT  The SMMT trade group warns Brexit tariffs could deepen woes for a sector already in crisis.
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| Senator, union leader: Postal Service considers downsizing Posted: 29 Jul 2020 04:01 PM PDT  The U.S. Postal Service is considering closing post offices across the country, sparking concerns ahead of an anticipated surge of mail-in ballots in the 2020 elections, U.S. Sen Joe Manchin and a union leader said Wednesday. Manchin said he has received numerous reports from post offices and colleagues about service cuts or looming closures in West Virginia and elsewhere, prompting him to send a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy asking for an explanation. The possible cutbacks come as DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump who took control of the agency last month, moves to eliminate overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers, potentially causing a delay in mail deliveries.
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| Group: Egypt executes 7 convicted of killing police officer Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:40 PM PDT |
| Millions heading to "the brink of starvation": U.N. food chief Posted: 29 Jul 2020 03:17 PM PDT  "The COVID-19 pandemic has just been devastating in Latin America, where the economic storm clouds were already gathering," the U.N.'s food agency chief warned.
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| Wait, What Does Biden Really Think About Kamala Harris? Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:02 PM PDT  Voters are eagerly awaiting the announcement of who will be presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's running mate and the race is heating up. It is believed that Biden will announce his pick sometime between August 1 and the start of the Democratic National Convention on August 17. Other than pledging to choose a woman as his vice president, Biden has been tight-lipped about his final decision; however, a photo of his notes sheds some light on what he thinks of one of the top choices: Sen. Kamala Harris. While taking questions from reporters on Tuesday, Biden left his notes in clear view, which were deftly documented by an Associated Press photographer. Harris' name can be seen written across the top followed by five talking points which read: "Do not hold grudges," "Campaigned with me & Jill," "Talented," "Great help to campaign," and "Great respect for her."These are all observations Biden has made about Harris before, but they take on new meaning after Politico reportedly posted and deleted a possibly huge hint: a graphic that reads Biden chose Harris as his running mate on August 1. Politico issued an apology, explaining that they usually use placeholder text and the accidental leak was a pre-write in the event that she was chosen. Some still see it as a not-so-hidden clue for who will be on the ballot this November.At the top of his notes, Biden mentions what some might still perceive as a point of contention between the two politicians. During a Democratic primary debate in June 2019, Harris criticized Biden for touting his working relationship with segregationist senators, attacking his opposition to federally mandated school desegregation busing. While the move stunned Biden at the time, his notes indicate that there is no ill will between them. Biden has publicly praised Harris multiple times, adding that he's thought highly of her personally and professionally ever since she became close with his late son Beau Biden when they were both state attorneys general over 10 years ago. It is not uncommon for politicians to refer to notes during speeches to stay on message and remember important pieces of information. In other instances, these notes are altered or ignored. President Donald Trump often takes notes up to the podium, which has also been photographed on occasion. One such instance was in March, early in the coronavirus pandemic. A photo of Trump's notes shows "Chinese" written over "corona" in what became a common blame-shifting tactic of his to place the focus on China. On a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, Trump ignored notes from advisers which read "do not congratulate" in reference to Putin's recent election victory.Harris dropped out of the presidential race before the Iowa caucus, but since then, she has become an asset to Biden's campaign. She appeared with the former vice president in online fundraisers and even headlined her own event for him focusing on Raleigh, NC.Current polling surveys suggest that Harris is one of Biden's most recognizable picks for VP. She and Sen. Elizabeth Warren represent the two candidates with the highest approval ratings, with 23% of Democratic voters supporting Harris and 22% Warren, reports the Hill. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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| UN says over 100 civilians killed in 2nd quarter in Libya Posted: 29 Jul 2020 02:00 PM PDT |
| Trump nominee for Pentagon faces Senate grilling after Islamophobia claims Posted: 29 Jul 2020 01:47 PM PDT |
| In pulling troops, Trump doesn't hide spite for Merkel Posted: 29 Jul 2020 01:32 PM PDT  In pulling 12,000 US troops from Germany, President Donald Trump is laying bare what has long been clear -- there is no love lost between him and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Trump has clashed with plenty of US allies but he has appeared to have special enmity for Merkel, whose liberal, technocratic approach on issues from the coronavirus to immigration is at stark odds with the New York mogul's in-your-face populism. After the Pentagon made the cuts official, Trump said he was acting because Germany had failed to meet the NATO goal of spending two percent of GDP on defense -- although Italy and Belgium, which will take some of the US troops, spend even less.
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| Bolivian coca cultivation jumped by 10% in 2019, UN says Posted: 29 Jul 2020 01:22 PM PDT  Coca cultivation jumped 10% in Bolivia in 2019, the final year of President Evo Morales' government, partly because of reduced eradication efforts amid rising social and political conflicts, a U.N. agency said Wednesday. Growth in the Andean nation increased from 23,100 hectares in 2018 to 25,500 hectares last year, said a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
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| Six months and 150,000 deaths: the defining Covid-19 moments in the US – timeline Posted: 29 Jul 2020 01:22 PM PDT  From grim milestones to record unemployment rates and protests against stay-at-home orders, the pandemic has upended life across the US * Coronavirus – live US updates * Live global updates * See all our coronavirus coverageSince the start of the year, Covid-19 has upended life in the US, ravaging cities and businesses and overwhelming woefully unprepared hospitals. What started as a single infection in Washington state ballooned until the US became the global hotspot for Covid-19, with exponentially more confirmed cases than any other nation.Mixed messages from Donald Trump and his administration have caused confusion . Squabbles between the president, governors and mayors have inspired headlines as critics assail missed chances to contain the virus.Now, the US has passed another bleak milestone, 150,000 Covid-related deaths, while there are more than 4.2 million confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.These are the defining moments from the US under Covid-19 so far. 21 JanuaryThe US confirms its first case of Covid-19, after a 35-year-old man who lives north of Seattle returns from Wuhan, China. A day later, Trump tells CNBC: "It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control." 29 JanuaryThe White House announces a taskforce to "monitor, contain and mitigate the spread of the virus". 30 JanuaryThe World Health Organization (WHO) labels the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. But Trump continues to downplay it, telling a crowd in Iowa: "We only have five people. Hopefully, everything's going to be great." 31 JanuaryAlex Azar, secretary of health and human services, declares a public health emergency. Trump restricts travel from China, a decision that he later claims, erroneously, saved hundreds of thousands of lives. 5 FebruaryAfter becoming the third president to be impeached, Trump is acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate. 6 FebruaryThe federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ships coronavirus testing kits to labs, but early tests are contaminated, handicapping the response. The US experiences its first known death from Covid-19, in California, though it will not be identified and reported as such for months. 24 FebruaryThe economy shows signs of freefall, even as Trump tweets: "Stock Market starting to look very good to me!" His administration asks Congress for $2.5bn to pay for vaccine development and protective equipment. 26 FebruaryThe CDC announces that a patient in California has tested positive for Covid-19, potentially the first US case where the source of infection is unknown. At Life Care Center, a nursing home outside Seattle, two residents contract the virus. Dozens will succumb. Trump taps Mike Pence to lead the coronavirus response. 29 FebruaryThe US makes public what is then believed to be its first Covid-related death, a man in his 50s. The case is in Washington state, ground zero for the virus. Trump restricts travel from Iran. 6 MarchTrump signs an $8.3bn aid bill that receives near-unanimous support in Congress. He says: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test," an unfounded claim that confuses Americans and hamstrings healthcare workers. 11 MarchThe WHO redefines the outbreak as a pandemic. Trump restricts travel from Europe, excluding the UK. Days later, he announces a bar on travel from the UK and Ireland. 12 MarchBroadway closes and the NCAA cancels March Madness. The US has more than 1,600 confirmed coronavirus cases, across almost every state. 13 MarchTrump declares a national emergency, the same day Washington state orders its schools closed. 18 MarchTrump signs a second coronavirus relief bill. 19 MarchCalifornians must stay at home to curtail the spread of the virus. A day later, New York issues a similar order, beginning a war of words between Trump and a number of governors. 24 MarchTrump tells Fox News he "would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter", 12 April. He faces immediate criticism. 26 MarchThe US reports its first 1,000 deaths. The next day, Trump signs a $2.2tn stimulus package that includes a $1,200 check for many Americans. Trump later takes heat for making sure the checks, intended to help struggling workers during catastrophic levels of unemployment, bear his signature during an election year. 28 MarchThe US death toll doubles, to more than 2,000, in just two days. 31 MarchIn a significant shift in tone, exactly a week after he floated the idea of reopening the country by Easter, Trump says "our country is in the midst of a great national trial, unlike any we have ever faced before". 3 AprilThe CDC recommends all Americans wear face coverings in public – after weeks of suggesting otherwise. New York's mayor warns that D-day is looming as hospitals struggle to find personal protective equipment, ventilators, beds and staff. 13 AprilTrump claims total authority over the states, saying: "The president of the United States calls the shots." He is challenged by governors, who say he does not have the constitutional right to reopen the country without their involvement. 17 AprilTwo days after thousands of protesters in Michigan gathered to decry their state's stay-at-home order, Trump tweets to "LIBERATE MINNESOTA", "LIBERATE MICHIGAN" and "LIBERATE VIRGINIA". Protesters in other states follow suit. 23 AprilThe House of Representatives approves another relief bill to help small businesses and hospitals, after previous funds for small businesses fell into the hands of large companies such as Shake Shack and Potbelly. At a press briefing, Trump seems to suggest people might inject disinfectant as a way to fight the virus. 24 AprilTrump claims he was being sarcastic about the disinfectant. The US surpasses 50,000 Covid-related deaths. 27 AprilTrump says his administration is conducting "serious investigations" into China's handling of the disease outbreak, and would most likely seek "very substantial" damages from Beijing over the pandemic. 28 AprilThe number of Americans who have tested positive for coronavirus is now more than 1 million, while almost 60,000 people are confirmed to have died with the disease in the US.At least 68 people have died at a veterans' home in Massachusetts after contracting Covid-19, with dozens more infected. 30 AprilAmazon announces revenues of $74.5bn in the first quarter of 2020, 26% higher than the same period last year and equivalent to more than $33m an hour. 3 MayTrump tells Fox News on Sunday that he's "very confident" of a vaccine being developed by the end of 2020. 5 MayThe White House coronavirus taskforce could be wound down as soon as June with responsibility handed back to federal agencies, the taskforce chief, Mike Pence, says. The US death toll tops 70,000. 6 MayTrump says a growing coronavirus death toll is simply the price that must be paid for reopening the economy. "We have to be warriors," he tells Fox News. "We can't keep our country closed down for years." He reverses his plan to disband the White House coronavirus taskforce. 7 MayThe Trump administration shelved a document created by the nation's top disease investigators, it emerges, with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging coronavirus pandemic. 9 MayThree members of the White House coronavirus taskforce – including Dr Anthony Fauci – place themselves in self-quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. 13 MayDespite Trump's claims that the spread of coronavirus is dropping around the US, new infection hotspots are cropping up across Republican heartlands, including in Texas and Alabama. 18 MayThe president says he is taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a defense against Covid-19, despite FDA warnings about its risks. Trump also threatened to cut US funding to the WHO permanently. 21 MayTrump defies requests by going without a face mask in public during his tour of a Ford factory in Michigan, though pictures emerged of him wearing one earlier. Obama administration scientists warn the US must rebuild its emergency medical stockpile before fall. 22 MayChurches, mosques and synagogues are "essential services", Trump declares, and threatens to override governors who refuse to reopen them at the weekend – a power he does not possess. 27 MayThe United States records more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past the milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.Protests begin in cities across the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by a white police officer on 25 May. In the coming weeks, hundreds of thousands of people will protest on the streets for racial justice. Though experts said the huge turnout at protests could lead to an increase in Covid-19 infections, an uptick in cases due to the protests was not seen. 28 MayUnemployment claims in the US filed during the pandemic surpass 40 million. 1 JuneFauci says that he has not been in contact with Trump for two weeks, sparking fears that he has been frozen out of the White House's Covid-19 response. 8 JuneAfter months of mandated shutdowns as the virus raged through the city, New York City begins its first phase of reopening businesses, allowing most retail stores to open for delivery and pick-up. In April, the city was seeing as many as 500 Covid-19-related deaths a day. By early June, the number was in the single digits. "This is a triumph for all New Yorkers that we've gotten to this point," said Mayor Bill de Blasio. 10 JuneThe US hits another dark milestone: 2 million confirmed cases of Covid-19. 20 JuneTrump holds a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with underwhelming attendance. Despite boldly defying public health experts who criticized the campaign for planning a large gathering during the pandemic, thousands of seats in the arena remained empty. 24 JuneThe US records 34,700 Covid-19 cases in a single day, the highest increase in new cases since April, wiping out two months of progress and marking a turning point in new surges of cases as southern and western states begin to see huge increases. 25 JuneThe CDC reveals that as many as 20 million Americans could have contracted Covid-19 – 10 times more than official counts. Officials at the agency note that many who have contracted the virus, especially young people, have not exhibited symptoms and do not know that they had the virus. 6 JulyAfter announcing his intention to pull out of WHO in May, Trump officially withdraws the US as a member of the organization. Without evidence, Trump accused WHO of withholding information and being too close to China. 12 JulyFlorida breaks the national record for largest daily increase of new Covid-19 cases with 15,299 new infections. Just the day before, Disney had reopened its huge park in Florida to visitors. 13 JulyCalifornia's governor, Gavin Newsom, reverses reopening measures, ordering bars to close completely and restaurants, museums and movie theaters to halt indoor operations once again after the state started reporting record-high numbers of cases. 16 JulyGeorgia's governor, Brian Kemp, sues Atlanta's mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, for enforcing a mask mandate in her city. Under an executive order from Kemp, local officials are not allowed to enforce mandates stricter than the state's. 21 JulyTrump, for the first time, endorses face masks, telling reporters that they are "patriotic". The CDC has been telling the American public that face masks are crucial to prevent the spread of the virus, yet early on in the pandemic, Trump rebuked masks, suggesting that wearing one is a political statement against him and mocking people for wearing them in public. 22 JulyThe US daily death toll surpasses 1,000 for the first time since the start of June as cases surge dramatically in southern states. 23 JulyThe US surpasses 4m confirmed cases of Covid-19. More than 915,000 cases were confirmed in the span of two weeks. 29 JulyThe US reaches 150,000 deaths due to Covid-19 – the most deaths of any country. * This article was updated on 29 July 2020
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| 2020's final Mars mission poised for blastoff from Florida Posted: 29 Jul 2020 12:51 PM PDT  The summer's third and final mission to Mars — featuring NASA's most elaborate life-hunting rover — is on the verge of liftoff. The rover Perseverance will follow China's rover-orbiter combo and a United Arab Emirates orbiter, both launched last week. It will take the spacecraft seven months to reach Mars after traveling 300 million miles.
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| Jordanian police beat and arrest protesting teachers Posted: 29 Jul 2020 12:11 PM PDT |
| US agents to pull back in Portland but will stay on standby Posted: 29 Jul 2020 12:02 PM PDT  Some federal officers guarding a U.S. courthouse that's been targeted during violent protests in Portland will leave in the next 24 hours, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Wednesday. Many demonstrators are peaceful, but smaller numbers have thrown fireworks, flares and rocks at federal agents, used lasers to blind them and sprayed graffiti across the downtown Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse. President Donald Trump earlier this month sent agents to the city from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service as protests against racial injustice increasingly targeted federal property.
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| Emmanuel ‘Toto’ Constant must not be allowed to escape justice, U.N. tells Haiti Posted: 29 Jul 2020 11:16 AM PDT  Former Chilean president and current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is joining the call for Haiti to hold death squad leader Emmanuel "Toto" Constant accountable for countless human rights violations he and his paramilitary group committed in the 1990s.
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| Trump dismisses report of Russian 'bounties' on US soldiers Posted: 29 Jul 2020 11:14 AM PDT  President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed reports that Russia has been paying the Taliban bounties to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan and said he'd not raised the issue with President Vladimir Putin. "I have never discussed it with him," he told Axios in an interview. In all, he has spoken with the Kremlin leader at least eight times since late February, when intelligence flagging alleged Russian bounties was included in the secret daily presidential briefing, Axios reported.
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| Global Submersible Pumps Industry Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:58 AM PDT |
| Guatemala burying dozens of unidentified COVID-19 dead Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:45 AM PDT  Guatemalan hospitals say they have had to bury dozens of COVID-19 victims who have never been identified, and one hospital is creating archives in hopes that once the pandemic passes, their relatives will come looking for them. The hospital started using a refrigerated trailer to hold bodies if relatives can't arrive in the six hours the protocols allow for claiming a body after death.
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| US to pull 12,000 troops out of Germany as Trump blasts 'delinquent' Berlin Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:45 AM PDT  Pentagon insists move is about long-term strategy but Trump says: 'We're reducing the force because they're not paying their bills'The US is planning to pull nearly 12,000 troops out of Germany in a move the Pentagon insisted was about long-term strategy but which Donald Trump said was to punish Berlin for low defence spending.Of a total of 11,900 personnel that will be leaving Germany under the proposal, 6,400 will be returning to the US, from where they could be used for rotational deployments in eastern Europe and around the world, while 5,600 will be repositioned within other Nato countries, particularly Belgium and Italy.The defence secretary, Mark Esper, said the move would begin within weeks, but also stressed that planning for the redeployment was in its early stages and it would cost several billion dollars.He repeatedly denied that the decision was motivated by Trump's frequently expressed desire to move troops out of Germany to teach Berlin a lesson for not spending enough on defence. The Pentagon put out a statement saying the withdrawal would "strengthen Nato, enhance the deterrence of Russia" and boost the flexibility of the US military.Minutes later, the president told journalists at the White House he had ordered the troop withdrawal because Berlin was being "delinquent" by not spending enough on defence."[US troops] are there to protect Germany, right? And Germany is supposed to pay for it," Trump said. "Germany's not paying for it. We don't want to be the suckers any more. The United States has been taken advantage of for 25 years, both on trade and on the military. So we're reducing the force because they're not paying their bills."Trump wrongly claimed, as he has many times in the past, that Germany was not paying its "Nato fees". In fact, the friction between the US and Germany, as well as other European allies, is about national defence spending. The allies agreed in 2014 to spend 2% of their GDP on defence by 2024. Germany is currently on 1.5%, but Belgium, where the US will move some of its European Command (Eucom) headquarters, spends less than 1%, and Italy, to where the US will move an F-16 fighter squadron and two army battalions from Germany, spends 1.2%.Diplomats and former US officials have described Trump as fixated on Germany and its chancellor, Angela Merkel."He's obsessed with the idea that Germany is taking advantage of the US, over defence, but on trade, selling too many cars to the US for example. He has always been particularly rude to Merkel," a former White House official said.Emily Haber, the German ambassador to Washington, said US troops "have become neighbors, partners and friends while protecting transatlantic security and projecting American power and interests globally"."We have been and are proud to host US troops," Haber wrote on Twitter. "A strong, and united Nato is crucial for deterrence and power projection. Germany is a steadfast Nato ally and third largest contributor to its budget."Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow at the center on the US and Europe at the Brookings Institution, said: "I have sympathy for the criticism of Germany's low defense spending, which does set a bad example for other member states who spend even less – it's against Europe's and our own interest."Moving Eucom to Belgium actually makes sense, but I find the strategic rationale for the other movements much less persuasive."Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said: "Champagne must be flowing freely this evening at the Kremlin. The Trump administration's decision to withdraw forces from Germany is not only an affront to one of our closest allies, but will ultimately weaken US efforts to counter Kremlin aggression in Europe."Trump's relationship with Moscow, the issue that triggered his impeachment, came under renewed scrutiny earlier on Wednesday morning, when he admitted he had not confronted Vladimir Putin with intelligence suggesting Russia was paying Taliban fighters bounties for killing US soldiers in Afghanistan."I have never discussed it with him," the president told Axios on HBO. "That was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly that's an issue that many people said was fake news."Esper argued the redeployments would make troops available to rotate in and out of the Baltic states, Poland and the Black Sea region. The defence secretary said: "it enhances deterrence, strengthens the allies, reassures." He claimed he had received "very positive feedback" from the Nato countries affected.He said US Africa Command, currently in Stuttgart, would be moved out, to a new headquarters yet to be decided.Critics of the move have said it would be very expensive, time-consuming and would damage Nato cohesion and deterrence against Russia. Rotating troops eastwards would be more expensive and build less trust in the host countries, they argue, while at the same time undermining morale by making soldiers spend more time away from their families.But retired Lt Col Daniel Davis, senior fellow at the Defense Priorities thinktank, argued that whatever the short-term justifications, pulling troops out of Germany made strategic sense."We don't have a need for that many troops," Lt Col Davis said. "Because there's no security threat that those troops actually help with, in my view. Russia is already deterred. If you took all the American troops out of Europe … that's not going to change the deterrent factor for Russia because the Nato combined militaries are far more powerful than Russia, plus they have nuclear weapons."
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| Misinformation on coronavirus is proving highly contagious Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:37 AM PDT  As the world races to find a vaccine and a treatment for COVID-19, there is seemingly no antidote in sight for the burgeoning outbreak of coronavirus conspiracy theories, hoaxes, anti-mask myths and sham cures. The phenomenon, unfolding largely on social media, escalated this week when President Donald Trump retweeted a false video about an anti-malaria drug being a cure for the virus and it was revealed that Russian intelligence is spreading disinformation about the crisis through English-language websites. Experts worry the torrent of bad information is dangerously undermining efforts to slow the virus, whose death toll in the U.S. hit 150,000 Wednesday, by far the highest in the world, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
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| Stella Immanuel - the doctor behind unproven coronavirus cure claim Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:20 AM PDT  Stella Immanuel has caught the US president's attention for claiming hydroxychloroquine cures Covid-19.
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| U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Germany Is a Mistake Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:15 AM PDT |
| The 11-carrier US Navy is mocking Iran as 'experts' at making a dummy aircraft carrier to shoot at Posted: 29 Jul 2020 10:10 AM PDT  The US Navy posted a photo on social media ridiculing Iran after it fired missiles on a mock-up of a US flattop on Wednesday.
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| Vatican Hacked By Chinese Spies: Report Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:43 AM PDT  ROME—The offices that house the Vatican's computer network system were one of the few allowed to stay minimally staffed during the pandemic to ensure that God's work—as it were—continued unfettered. But in early May, weeks before Italy and the Vatican emerged from a draconian COVID-19 lockdown, a series of cyber intrusions reportedly took place, masterminded by Chinese hackers keen on eavesdropping on the Pope's plans for the controversial Catholic Church in China, according to the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future and reported in The New York Times. Is Pope Francis Selling Out the Chinese Underground Church to Its Government?One of the hacks used a fairly standard Trojan malware called PlugX Payload, which was woven into the coding on a cable sent from the office of the Vatican's secretary of state to Monsignor Javier Corona Herrera in Hong Kong. The letter expressed condolences from the pope over the death of a bishop, fairly standard practice in an institution built on rituals and traditions. But when the office in Hong Kong opened the cable, it unleashed the malware.The breach into the Vatican system allowed the deviants to then access the receiving computer network—in the case of the condolence letter, the Catholic Church's China Study Mission in Hong Kong. By sending what looked like a legitimate cable from behind the Vatican's secure firewall, the hackers could be sure the entity opening it would do so without suspicion, and unwittingly grant access. The act is called spear phishing which, unlike regular phishing, is highly targeted. The Diocese of Hong Kong was also targeted and the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Milan was also singled out. Recorded Future's report states that additional hacks were found using the same malware. "The first sample included a lure document spoofing a news bulletin from the Union of Catholic Asian News regarding the impending introduction of the new Hong Kong national security law," the report states. Another hack refers to the Vatican and uses a document called, "QUM, IL VATICANO DELL'ISLAM.doc" as the decoy. The document refers to the Shi'ite city of Qom and includes writings from an Italian Catholic academic living in Iran. "Although the direct target of these two lures are unclear, both relate to the Catholic church," Recorded Future states in the report. A source who worked in the Vatican's security office before being furloughed over the pandemic told The Daily Beast that one of the biggest fears the Vatican had was exactly what happened: being hacked by Chinese government operatives looking to derail important talks set for September intended to bolster the tenuous relationship between the Vatican and the Chinese Catholic Church. In 2018, Pope Francis broke a 60-year-stalemate between the Roman Catholic Church and the Chinese Catholic Church that grew from an attempt in 1960 for Beijing to set up its own Holy See, and shut the real one out. The Chinese Holy See was called the Catholic Patriotic Association and instead of accepting bishops chosen by Rome, as in nearly every other diocese in the world, they chose their own political appointees. During those 60 years, Chinese Catholics were only allowed to worship openly if they adhered to the Chinese Church's rules, which spawned an underground Catholic Church that instead followed Rome's orders. Those bishops have now been sidelined as part of the 2018 deal.The conflict is far from over, but the 2018 agreement between Beijing and Rome, which has never been published but is hailed as landmark, was set to be renewed and expanded next month. The most contentious aspects of the ongoing negotiations were being discussed between Rome and Hong Kong separately, so they could strategize about how to deal with China's insistence that they still choose politically appointed bishops and give the pope the opportunity to "bless" them but not remove or replace them. Those preparatory meetings between Rome and Hong Kong would have normally taken place in person to avoid exactly what happened but thanks to the pandemic, many exist in the form of secret cables. The Vatican has made no public statement on the matter, but an official told the Catholic website Asia News, "To say that China spies on the Vatican is like discovering hot water. By now espionage and hackers have become an international problem we have to live with."What happens next is worrying for the Vatican. The hack, now discovered, will likely stop here. But that might also mean the same thing happens to this crucial step forward for Chinese Catholics. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| US slaps sanctions on Syrian president's eldest son Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:42 AM PDT  The U.S. State Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions on President Bashar Assad's eldest son, Hafez, keeping up pressure on the Syrian leader and his inner circle. Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it had imposed sanctions on prominent Syrian businessman Wassim al-Qattan and nine entities for "enriching the Syrian regime through construction of luxury real estate." The Treasury sanctions are the result of legislation known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, named after the pseudonym of a Syrian policeman who turned over photographs of thousands of victims of torture by the Assad government.
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| Barr Makes Excuses for Election Sabotage. Again. Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:30 AM PDT |
| Trump Says He Didn't Talk to Putin About Claims of Russian Bounties on US Troops Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:27 AM PDT  President Trump said he has never spoken to Putin about reports that bounties might be connected to deaths of U.S. troops.
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| Plush toys, jewelry, dance lessons — Broadway's side hustles Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:24 AM PDT  Broadway seamstress Amy Micallef hasn't put her talent on hold while theaters are shut. Micallef, who has worked in the wardrobe departments of "Hamilton," "Waitress" and "Frozen," makes gleeful representations of COVID-19, complete with a pair of eyes and faux fur. "Here is here is your chance for sweet, sweet vengeance."
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| Global Synthetic Gypsum Industry Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:18 AM PDT |
| Pelosi orders masks for voting after Gohmert tests positive Posted: 29 Jul 2020 09:10 AM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will require that masks be worn on the House floor after a Republican member of Congress tested positive for the coronavirus. The member, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, often shunned wearing masks and was known to vote without one. Pelosi announced on the House floor Wednesday evening that all members will be required to wear a mask and one will be provided if they forget.
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| Global Synthetic Latex Polymers Industry Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:58 AM PDT |
| Census head wasn't told about Trump district drawing order Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:57 AM PDT  U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham testified Wednesday that he wasn't informed ahead of time about President Donald Trump's order seeking to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from the process of redrawing congressional districts. Dillingham testified during an emergency congressional hearing that he was unaware of anyone from the Census Bureau playing a role in the order that civil rights groups have called unconstitutional. The bureau is collecting the head count data that will be used to redraw the districts.
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| Iran says fires missiles from underground in Gulf war games Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:19 AM PDT  Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they launched ballistic missiles from "the depths of the Earth" on Wednesday during the last day of military exercises near sensitive Gulf waters. The launches came a day after the Guards struck a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with volleys of missiles near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of world oil output. The Iranian manoeuvres were staged amid heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States.
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| Islamic holiday Eid comes as families grieve virus victims Posted: 29 Jul 2020 08:04 AM PDT  For Marwa Conelly, the upcoming Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday was supposed to be extra celebratory this year — she was looking forward to getting engaged around that time. Now the thought of spending Eid at their home without them fills Conelly with dread. "I will miss them," Conelly said.
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| Global Thermally Conductive Grease Industry Posted: 29 Jul 2020 07:58 AM PDT |
| Charity urges release of 200 migrant children held in Libya Posted: 29 Jul 2020 07:44 AM PDT |
| Gaps in federal oversight add to virus woes at vets homes Posted: 29 Jul 2020 07:18 AM PDT  Big gaps in federal oversight of long-term care facilities for aging veterans may have contributed to rampant coronavirus infections and more than 200 deaths at state-run homes, according to a congressional watchdog agency. The Government Accountability Office found the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs failed for years to require robust inspections at over 150 state-run veterans homes nationwide and to make sure all deficiencies were rectified, even as it regularly doled out federal dollars for the care.
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| Global Timber Decking Industry Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:58 AM PDT |
| Trump says he didn't discuss Russian bounties with Putin Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:54 AM PDT  President Donald Trump confirmed in an interview released Wednesday that he didn't discuss the intelligence about potential Russian bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they spoke by phone last week. "That was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly, that's an issue that many people said was fake news," Trump said in an interview with Axios. Asked who had said that the intelligence was fake news, Trump said, "I think a lot of people" including people from the Bush administration, some of whom he said are "not any friends of mine."
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| Trump says he didn't discuss Russian bounties with Putin Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:54 AM PDT  Trump said that on the phone call, he and Putin instead discussed "numerous things," including nuclear proliferation.
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| Global Timber Harvesting Equipment Industry Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:38 AM PDT |
| Trump says he didn't bring up Russian bounties in recent call with Putin Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:24 AM PDT  President Trump is claiming ignorance to defend his recent resistance to confront Russia.In a video interview aired Wednesday, Axios' Jonathan Swan asked Trump if he'd mentioned reports indicating Russia offered Taliban fighters bounties to kill U.S. troops in a recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "That was a phone call to discuss other things," Trump said, blowing off the whole issue as "fake news."Trump then claimed he didn't even know about the Russian bounties despite reports saying it was included in his intelligence briefings. "It never reached my desk," Trump said, prompting Swan to ask the president if he reads his written intelligence briefings. That turned into a defense of Trump's comprehensive abilities and his attendance at intelligence meetings.Regardless, Swan continued, Trump's former head of forces in Afghanistan John Nicholson has publicly said "Russia is supplying weapons to the Taliban." "Well, we supplied weapons when they were fighting Russia," Trump countered, spinning the question before saying that issue also "never reached my desk." Watch the whole clip below. More stories from theweek.com Pelosi to implement new order requiring all lawmakers wear masks on House floor Republicans' coronavirus aid bill is a joke. It might take a stock market crash to change their minds. The Pentagon wants a new nuke because it might fire off the old ones by mistake
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| Trump says he ‘never discussed’ Russian bounties on troops with Putin — despite speaking ‘at least eight times’ Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:18 AM PDT  Donald Trump said he has "never discussed" reports of alleged Russian bounties on US troops in Afghanistan with Vladimir Putin, despite having reportedly spoken with the Russian president on at least eight occasions since the intelligence was included in his daily briefing.The president received a daily briefing in February that said Russia was placing bounties on the heads of US troops, with payments costing up to $100,000, according to the New York Times.
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| US to bring 6,400 troops home from Germany, move 5,600 more Posted: 29 Jul 2020 06:02 AM PDT  Spurred on by President Donald Trump's demand to pull troops out of Germany, the U.S. will bring about 6,400 forces home and shift about 5,600 to other countries in Europe, American defense leaders said Wednesday, detailing a Pentagon plan that will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete. The decision fulfills Trump's announced desire to withdraw troops from Germany, largely because of its failure to spend enough on defense. A number of forces will go to Italy, and a major move would shift U.S. European Command headquarters and Special Operations Command Europe from Stuttgart, Germany, to Belgium.
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| Coronavirus: Seven Zimbabwe babies stillborn in one night at hospital Posted: 29 Jul 2020 05:35 AM PDT  Only one baby was born alive as urgent treatment was delayed over Covid-19-related staffing issues.
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| Routine gas flaring is wasteful, polluting and undermeasured Posted: 29 Jul 2020 05:18 AM PDT  If you've driven through an area where companies extract oil and gas from shale formations, you've probably seen flames dancing at the tops of vertical pipes. That's flaring – the mostly uncontrolled practice of burning off a byproduct of oil and gas production. Over the past 10 years, the U.S. shale oil and gas boom has made this country one of the world's top five flaring nations, just behind Russia, Iran and Iraq. It's a dubious distinction. Routine flaring gives the industry a black eye. I am an atmospheric scientist studying trace gases – chemicals that make up a small fraction of Earth's atmosphere, but can have significant effects on the environment and human health. In several recent studies with graduate and undergraduate students, I have shown how routine flaring is inaccurately assessed and creates a sizable source of air pollution. Due to a rapid oil price drop in the spring of 2020, new oil exploration has plummeted and production is running at reduced levels. But the industry can rapidly resume activities as demand and prices recover. And so will flaring. Regulatory agencies, under pressure from environmental groups and parts of the industry, are finally considering rules to curb flaring. But can this wasteful and polluting practice be stopped? Economic expediencyEach operating shale oil well produces variable amounts of "associated" or "casinghead" gas, a raw gas mixture of highly volatile hydrocarbons, mostly methane. Producers often don't want this gas unless it can be collected through an existing network of pipelines. Even when that's possible, they may decide to dispose of the gas anyway because the cost of collecting and moving it can initially be higher than the value of the gas. This is where flaring comes in.Routine flaring is common in the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota, the Eagle Ford shale in south-central Texas and the Permian Basin in northwest Texas and New Mexico. Texas has flared about as much gas annually as all of its residential users consume. In the Permian Basin alone, about US$750 million worth of gas was wasted in 2018, without any public benefit. At the same time, gas flaring contributes approximately 1% of man-made atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions globally. That is when flares combust hydrocarbons efficiently, converting them to carbon dioxide. In contrast, when flares burn poorly or go out, they pollute the air with more harmful gases. Our studies in two regions of the Eagle Ford shale in Texas showed that flares may be the dominant source of nitrogen oxides, or NOx in these rural areas. NOx emissions contribute to acid rain, ozone and smog formation, and can irritate the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. We found that at the sites we studied, industrial combustion sources such as flares produced about 10 times more NOx than cars in the area. Although a single flare may be a relatively small source, the large number of flares and high variability of NOx production per flare can cause large-scale atmospheric impacts visible from space. Unauthorized venting may explain high flaring volumesAlmost all flares are open combustion sources. They can be detected from space as bright, fixed-location heat radiation sources. Scientists have developed algorithms to catalog this radiant heat and relate it to the reported volume of gas flared globally.With the help of undergraduate students, sociologist Kate Willyard and I evaluated data from the satellite-based Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer, or VIIRS. We calculated flaring volumes in the two Texas shale oil production regions, both on a per-wellpad and per-county basis. We then compared it to a database from the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas production, for the years 2012-2015, and found large discrepancies between the two datasets. In total, the volumes reported in the state database were only around half of what the satellite observed. Another, less detailed bulk analysis by the research firm S&P Global found similar discrepancies for shale regions in New Mexico and North Dakota. These large differences may be explained by reporting errors and by several flare operations that are simply exempted from volume reporting. But we suspect that there is an even more systemic, mundane explanation: venting – the direct release of raw gas to the atmosphere. Venting gas is allowed only for a small set of operations in the industry if it can be done safely. It is usually prohibited because it emits hydrocarbons, including air toxics such as benzene that can cause cancer, birth defects or other serious health problems.But venting mainly emits methane, which contributes to global warming and atmospheric ozone formation. Venting from flare stacks is illegal, since the flare is considered a waste treatment facility, but the practice apparently has increased over time. Recent, higher-resolution satellite measurements of atmospheric methane over the Permian basin reveal that its emissions must be significantly higher than what is routinely reported to the Environmental Protection Agency, exceeding 3% of production instead of the more typically assumed 1-2%. Extra methane illegally vented through flare stacks would end up in the Texas Railroad Commission's database, but satellites looking for heat radiation from combustion would not detect it. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]That heat radiation is converted into flaring volumes, using total reported volumes to agencies nationwide. But if a much smaller volume is actually flared, with some of the gas not combusted but vented, the satellite data would overestimate flaring. This is a problem because scientists and the World Bank's zero flaring initiative employ these satellite-based flaring estimates. Investors say flaring can be avoidedFor a decade conservation groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund have called on regulators to address the shale industry's methane emissions and the rapid increase in flaring. The Obama administration adopted a new rule in 2016 to curb methane leaks and reduce flaring on public and Indian lands. Now the Trump administration is trying to undo this action, albeit with limited success. Meanwhile, a new study commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund and involving investors concludes that there are feasible and cost-effective ways for oil and gas companies to minimize flaring even without much regulation. Nevertheless, given that much of the industry has already spent a decade without widely employing such best-practice measures, I expect that oil and gas companies are likely to keep wasting and polluting for the foreseeable future unless government agencies impose tighter regulations.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * The oil shock of 2020 appears to be here – and the pain could be wide and deep * How has the US fracking boom affected air pollution in shale areas?Gunnar W. Schade received funding from a crowd-funding activity to evaluate Permian basin air quality, and private funding from a rancher to measure air quality in southwest Texas.
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