EFTA00135667.pdf

From: Bulletin Intelligence Subject: (EXTERNAL EMAIL] - FBI Public Affairs News Briefing Wednesday, July 29, 2020 To: FBI@BulletinIntelligence.com Sent: July 29, 2020 6:26 AM (UTC-04:00) Mobile version and searchable archives available at fbi.bulletinintellicience.com. x TO : THE DIRECTOR AND SENIOR STAFF DATE : WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2020 6 : 30 AM EDT TODAY'S TABLE OF CONTENTS LEADING THE NEWS • Barr Spars With Democrats At Contentious House Hearing. • Barr Says Democrats Have Tried To "Discredit" Him. EFTA00135667 • Barr Says Bash Investigating "High Number Of Unmaskings" During Obama Administration. PROTESTS • Memo Reveals Federal Agents Sought Role In Suppressing Protests Since Start. • New Mexico Governor Addresses Concerns About Federal Agents In Albuquerque. • Report: US, Oregon In Talks About Pulling Agents From Portland. • Portland Fines Federal Government For Unpermitted Fence Outside Courthouse. • US Park Police Head: Decision To Clear Protesters Not Linked To Trump "Photo Op." • Hundreds Of Cases Involving LAPD Officers Accused Of Corruption Under Review. • Minneapolis Police Link Protest Figure To White Supremacy Group. • Austin Police Release Video Of Deadly Shooting Of Latino Man. • Suspect Arrested In Shooting Of Two Protesters In Colorado. • Biden Calls For Violent Protesters To Be "Found, Arrested And Tried." • Hoyer Denies Democrats Support Violent Rioters, Appears To Liken Trump To Fascists. • WPost Analysis: Civilian Militia Groups Surge Amid Protests. • Miami Journalist: Latinos Should Stand Up For Their Black Neighbors. • Free Beacon: Criticisms A "Calculated Attempt To Tar Cotton's Character." COUNTER-TERRORISM • California Man Charged With Leading Online White Supremacist Group Devoted To Dylann Roof. • Pentagon Admits To Civilian Casualties In Somalia. COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE • Former FBI Agent Strzok Publishing Book In September About Trump, Russia. • Declassified Senate Intelligence Report Highlights Doubts About Steele Dossier. • Valerie Jarrett Pressed On Obama's Role In Russia Probe. • Eisen Says In New Book Mueller Refused To Admit Trump Committed "At Least Five Chargeable Crimes." • US Seeks To Dismiss Charges Against Ex-Twitter Employees Accused Of Spying For Saudi Arabia. • Lawmakers Aim To Deny Visas To Chinese Spies And Their Families. • Report: US To Order Drastic Reduction In Chinese Diplomats. • Op-Ed: The New "Cold War" Between The US And China Is A Dangerous Myth. • Singapore Spy Case Stirs Fears China Recruiting On Island State. • Revised Missile Pact With US To Facilitate South Korean Spy Satellite. • University Of Texas Says Researchers Will Be Contacted By FBI About China Contacts. • Rubio Doubts IC Global Threats Hearing Will Happen This Year. • Russian Intelligence Services Spreading Coronavirus Disinformation. CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS • Kansas City Man Charged In Beating Death. • Federal Prosecutors Oppose Maxwell's Effort To Name Epstein Victims. • Illinois Woman Pleads Guilty To Forced Labor. • FBI Agent Shoots Suspect In Arkansas. • Continuing Coverage: Colorado Police Officers Shot In Line Of Duty. • Ohio Man Faces Murder Charges. • Utah Sex Offender Arrested. • FBI Agents Searching Home Of Tennessee State Senator. • South Carolina Man Sentenced Over Firearms Charge. • FBI Investigating Murder Of Illinois Teenager. • Oklahoma Man Arrested Over Fatal Shooting. • Kansas Men Charged In Connection To Kidnapping. • Continuing Coverage: Colorado Man Charged With Assault. EFTA00135668 • Investigation In Kentucky Results In Drug Charges For 14 Individuals. • Multi-State Drug Investigation Operation Leads To 17 Arrests. • Georgia Man Arrested For Methamphetamine Trafficking. • New York Man Sentenced For Drug Trafficking. • Police Investigating 2011 Disappearance Of North Carolina Man. • Michigan Police Reopening Investigation Into 1967 Cold Case. • FBI Investigating Illinois Bank Robbery. • New Mexico Man Arrested In Connection To Bank Robbery. • Continuing Coverage: Ohio Man Accused Of Carjacking. • Washington Drug Investigation Leads To 19 Indictments. • Multiple New York Defendants Plead Guilty To Conspiring To Distribute Meth. FINANCIAL CRIME & CORPORATE SCANDALS • Florida Man Charged With PPP Fraud. • HSI Has Seized More Than $7M In COVID-19 Fraud Proceeds. • Former Ohio Candidate Says He Was FBI Informant In Householder Probe. • Former New Jersey Mayor Sentencing Delayed. • College Admissions Scheme Mastermind Was Working On His Own Degree Until Last Week. • Watchdog At SBA Reports Having Seen Indications Of Extensive Fraud In Emergency Loan Program. CYBER DIVISION • Republicans Raise Concerns TikTok Could Be Used By Chinese Government Interfere In Elections. • Op-Ed: The Cyberattack On Garmin Poses A Complicated Question For The US Government. • Chinese Hackers Infiltrated Vatican Network. • Foreign Hackers Exploit Pandemic. • Op-Ed: In An Evaporating OODA Loop, Time Is Of The Essence. • Langevin Calls Hill Oversight On Cyber "Absolutely Essential." • US Government Issues Warning To Critical Infrastructure Providers. • US Army Cyber Chief Outlines Ten-year Plan For Information Warfare. • Lindy Cameron Named New Head Of GCHQ Cyber Security Agency. LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES • Democrats Investigating Administration Decision To Lift Ban On Some Firearm Silencer Sales. • WPost: Federal Consent Decree Needed To Fix Alabama's "Grotesque" Prisons. OTHER FBI NEWS • Lawmakers Object To FBI HQ Funding In Coronavirus Bill. • Judge Says Finicum Lawsuit Against Oregon Authorities May Proceed, But Not Against FBI. OTHER WASHINGTON NEWS • White House Task Force Now Lists 21 States In "Red Zone." • Pence Credits Trump For Vaccine Progress. • Azar Says US Performing 800K Tests Per Day. • Wilkie: VA Nursing Homes Have Just Two Current COVID Cases. • Birx Meets With Virginia Officials About Coronavirus Mitigation. • Kodak Lands $765M Federal Loan For Pharmaceutical Manufacture. • Twitter Removes Trump Retweet Of Video With Controversial COVID Claims. • Politico Analysis: Trump Reverts To "Typical Behavior" After Briefly Staying On Message. • WPost Analysis: Trump One Factor In Nation's "Fraught Relationship With Masks." • Politico Analysis: Pandemic Is Pushing Biden, Democrats To Left On Healthcare. • Third Church Will Take Challenge To State Worship Restrictions To Supreme Court. • Future Of MLB Season In Doubt Amid COVID Outbreak. EFTA00135669 • Many Colleges Changing Plans For Fall. • CES 2021 To Be A Digital-Only Event. • New York Paramedic Describes Impact Working During Pandemic Has Had On Him. • WSJournal Responds To Senators' Criticism Of Meat Processing Facilities. • Administration To Reject All New DACA Applications. • Trump Calls Senate GOP Coronavirus Bill "Sort Of Semi-Irrelevant." • House Panel Expected To Question Tech CEOs On Antitrust Issues, Social Media Accountability. • VA IG: Breakdown At DC Hospital Preceded Veteran's Suicide. • Senate Democrats Assail Pompeo's Management Of State Department. • DO) Issues Guidance On Awarding Grants To Religious Groups. • Census Officials Worry White House Is Pushing To Complete Count Early. INTERNATIONAL NEWS • Pfizer CEO: Other Countries Will Not Pay Less Than US For Vaccine. • UN Report: Virus-Linked Hunger Causing 10,000 Children To Die Every Month. • China Continues To Report Rise In New Cases. • Defector Who Returned To North Korea Suspected Of Bringing COVID To Nation. • European Countries See "Worrying Rise" In New Coronavirus Cases. • WSJournal: Global Increases Show Lockdowns Won't Stop Virus' Spread. • Iranian Military Exercise Includes Attack On Mock US Aircraft Carrier. • Former Iranian President Reached Out To Saudi Crown Prince. • Iran Moves Imprisoned British-Australian Woman To "Notorious" Prison. • Taliban Declares Temporary Cease-Fire To Mark Eid Al-Adha. • US, Australia Vow To Pursue United Front Against China. • Report: US, Russia Space Security Talks End. • US Sanctions Two Former Venezuelan Officials. • Gallup Poll: Global View Of US Leadership Remains Weak. THE BIG PICTURE • Headlines From Today's Front Pages. WASHINGTON'S SCHEDULE • Today's Events In Washington. LEADING THE NEWS Barr Spars With Democrats At Contentious House Hearing. Media coverage of Attorney General Barr's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee highlighted the contentious exchanges between Barr and Democratic lawmakers, with ABC World News Tonight (7/28, story 4, 3:00, Muir, 7.32M) and NBC Nightly News (7/28, story 6, 2:00, Holt, 6.05M) describing the hearing as "heated," Politico (7/28, Cheney, Swan, 4.29M) as "disjointed and testy," and the New York Timec (7/28, Fandos, Savage, Lafraniere, Qiu, 18.61M) as "increasingly combative as the hours wore on." "Democrat after Democrat," adds the Times, posed "questions to Mr. Barr...only to cut him off when he tried to reply, substituting their own replies for his." The Times further recounts that "clearly frustrated, Mr. Barr complained at one point: 'This is a hearing. I thought I was the one who was supposed to be heard.' At another point, after being reminded he was under oath," Barr "insisted, 'I'm going to answer the damn question." Reports also highlight the AG's forceful defense of the government's efforts to quell what he cast as violent protests across the country. The AP (7/28, Tucker, Jalonick, Balsamo), for example, quotes Barr as saying that "violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests. ... Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to EFTA00135670 connect their actions to George Floyd's death or any legitimate call for reform." The Washington Timec (7/28, Al, Mordock, 492K) reports Barr also "called out Democrats' refusal to condemn the violence that has swept across Portland, Oregon, and other American cities," saying, "What makes me concerned for the country is this is the first time in my memory the leaders of one of our great two political parties, the Democratic Party, are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts." There was, however, a marked ideological split on the focus of the reporting, with conservative publications highlighting Barr's description of the protesters' violence and most mainstream media outlets building their accounts around Democratic accusations against Barr, which described this way by politico (7/28, Cheney, Swan, 4.29M), "Democrats went into the hearing intending to highlight a single theme: That Barr distorted the Justice Department in service of [President] Trump's political agenda." NBC Nightly News' (7/28, story 6, 2:00, Holt, 6.05M) reported, for example, that "Democrats said the federal deployments are intended to give the President footage for campaign ads." Nadler was shown saying, "You are projecting fear and violence nationwide in pursuit of obvious political objectives. Shame on you, Mr. Barr." Barr replied that "attackers at the Portland courthouse have set fires." Without attributing the charge to Democrats, the New York Times (7/28, Fandos, Savage, Lafraniere, Qiu, 18.61M) asserts it its report that "the federal intervention...appears to be a critical campaign strategy by Mr. Trump who is trying to stoke a sense that Democrats are leading the country into chaos." The CBS Evening News' (7/28, story 3, 2:20, O'Donnell, 4.37M) also led its report indicating "Democrats accused...Barr of doing...Trump's political bidding and of a double standard by using federal agents against protesters in Portland, while ignoring armed militias who took over Michigan's capital building earlier this year." ABC World News Tonight (7/28, story 4, 3:00, Muir, 7.32M) said, meanwhile, that Barr was "under attack," with "Republicans helping" him to "make his case." USA Today (7/28, Phillips, Johnson, 10.31M) similarly casts Barr as "countering Democratic lawmakers who have characterized federal officers' actions against protesters as unconstitutional, politically charged fearmongering," and adds that the AG's "long-sought testimony comes as House Democrats investigate alleged political interference at the Justice Department, claiming that the attorney general has turned it into a political annex of the Trump White House." Fox News (7/28, Blitzer, 27.59M) reports Barr "did not shy away from Democrats' accusations against him," and the New York Times (7/28, Fandos, Savage, Lafraniere, Qiu, 18.61M) that he "came out swinging." Bloomberg (7/28, Strohm, House, 4.73M) also says Barr "offered a combative defense of his independence from...Trump," and quotes him as saying, "The president has not attempted to interfere. On the contrary, he has told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call I think is right." The Los Angeles Times (7/28, Wilber, 4.64M), meanwhile, was one of the few mainstream outlets to quote Barr as saying, "Every night for the past two months, a mob of hundreds of rioters has laid siege to the federal courthouse and other nearby federal property. ... The rioters arrive equipped for a fight, armed with powerful slingshots, tasers, sledgehammers, saws, knives, rifles and explosive devices. Inside the courthouse are a relatively small number of federal law enforcement personnel charged with a defensive mission: to protect the courthouse. ... Since when is it OK to try to burn down a federal court?" The Times adds that "local officials in Portland say that the presence of federal law enforcement agencies in the city has been inflaming the situation, making the violence worse, not better." The Federalist (7/28, Gottschalk, 126K) reports Barr also said yesterday, "To state what should be obvious, peaceful protesters do not throw explosives into federal courthouses, tear down plywood with crowbars, or launch fecal matter at federal officers. Such acts are in fact federal crimes under statutes enacted by this Congress." Breitbart (7/28, Pollak, 673K) recounts Barr also asked Democrats, "Why can't we just say: `Violence against federal courts has to stop?' Could we hear something like that?" National Review (7/28, Bernstein, 731K) notes Barr went on to say, "We should all be able to agree that there is no place in this country for armed mobs that seek to establish autonomous EFTA00135671 zones beyond government control, or tear down statues and monuments that law-abiding communities chose to erect, or to destroy the property and livelihoods of innocent business owners." The New Ynrk Pnst (7/28, Bowden, 4.57M) reports, meanwhile, that Barr also said he "is concerned that Antifa-led violence will grow and spread across the country if state officials allow riots to continue rocking their cities." Barr stated, "I don't think it's a myth," and that "the violent far-left radical group was 'heavily represented in the recent riots." Added Barr, "It's a national organization that moves nationally. ... We are concerned about this problem metastasizing around the country." Along those lines, the President tweeted yesterday, "'Nadler calls ANTIFA violence a MYTH.' @foxandfriends They are Anarchists with miles of 'tape' showing their illegal activity. Jerry, blame it on Russia, Russia, Russia!" Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said on Fox News' Hannity (7/28, 535K), "I think at the end of the day, this is really a lost opportunity for the American people. There are many Americans who want to know more about why the Attorney General has made certain decisions that he's made and taken some of the actions that he's taken, and the Attorney General was prepared to answer those questions today. He's been preparing for weeks. But instead, the Democrats...would ask him questions and then they would refuse to let him answer those questions. The only conclusion that I can draw at least from that is perhaps maybe they realize there is no there, there. There are no buried bodies. There really aren't any scandals like the ones that the media has been drumming u[ for some time." In an editorial, USA Today (7/28, 10.31M) calls the federal government's approach to the protests "corrosive to democracy and contemptuous of conservative principles," and concludes "the American people can spot a ploy to change the subject from the ravages of COVID-19 and the Trump administration's horrible job in combating it." USA Today (7/28, 10.31M) runs its editorial side by side with Barr's opening statement to the Committee. Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, meanwhile, writes in the New Ynrk Times (7/28, 18.61M) that "the Trump administration's deliberate decision to intervene in the Portland protests with a heavy hand, unconventional means and inflammatory political rhetoric has contributed to growing public distrust - particularly of the Department of Homeland Security," whose "critics...are now rightly worried that its law enforcement agents might be increasingly deployed by...Trump to score political points, or even interfere with the November election." McClatchv (7/28, Wilner, Nozicka, 19K), the Wall Street Journal (7/28, Al, Gurman, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) and Daily Caller (7/28, Kruta, 716K), among other news outlets, have more on Barr's testimony. Barr Defends Decision To Drop Flynn Prosecution. The Hill (7/28, Beavers, Neidig, 2.98M) reports that Barr "defended the stunning move" by the DOJ to drop charges against Michael Flynn. Barr "said that the FBI investigation that led to Flynn's questioning had been plagued with problems and that he no longer believed that the prosecution was supported by the facts." Meanwhile, the Austin (TX) American Statesman (7/28, Recio, Subscription Publication, 343K) reports that Barr "disclosed Tuesday that he has directed John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, to investigate the 'unmasking"' of Flynn. The "new inquiry, which is on top of another one ordered earlier this year by Barr to examine the FBI's Trump campaign-Russia surveillance, marks an escalation of the Trump administration's attacks on federal officials and the Obama administration in advance of the presidential election." CNN (7/28, Shortell, Herb, 83.16M) reports that that Barr also sparred with Rep. Hank Johnson (D) over the sentencing of Roger Stone "as Johnson repeatedly refused to let Barr respond while the Georgia Democrat recounted the episode." More broadly, CNBC (7/28, Breuninger, Macias, 3.62M) says on its website that Barr "offered a full-throated defense of his much-criticized conduct in the federal probe of Russian election interference." CNBC also reports that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the committee's ranking member, "launched into his opening statement by decrying the Russia probe as a coordinated effort by Democrats to undermine Trump." Jordan said to Barr, "Spying. That one word, that's why they're after you." A Wall Street Journal. (7/28, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) editorial lauds the investigation EFTA00135672 and argues that Americans deserve a full accounting of the FBI and Justice Department's intervention in the 2016 election. Barr Doesn't Rule Out Release Of Durham Report During Election. Politico (7/28, Gerstein, 4.29M) reports that a "highly anticipated forthcoming report from U.S. Attorney John Durham on the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation won't trigger a Justice Department policy against interference in the 2020 presidential race, so the review could be released in the weeks leading up to the November election," Barr said Tuesday. Barr said, "I will be very careful. I know what Justice Department policy is. Any report will be, in my judgment, not one that is covered by the policy and would disrupt the election." McEnany: Democrats' Criticism Of Barr Is Rooted In His Probe Of "Russia-gate." White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News' Fox Re Friends (7/28, 831K), "The real problem that Democrats have with Attorney General Barr is he's actually taking Russia- gate seriously, this bogus sham effort that was launched against President Trump when he was just a candidate and went into his Administration. The fact that Bill Barr is looking into why Obama Administration spied on Trump campaign is their real problem." Barn "Possible" Pelosi's Comments Put Law Enforcement In Danger. politico (7/28, Forgey, 4.29M) reports "Barr on Tuesday accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of potentially endangering America's law enforcement community by likening the federal officers occupying Portland, Ore., to the 'stormtroopers' of Nazi Germany." Asked "whether Pelosi's comparison "encourages the violence that we're seeing" and 'participation against the police' at anti-racism protests," Barr Replied, "I think that's possible, and I think it's irresponsible to call these federal law enforcement officers 'stormtroopers." Pelosi: Barr "Despicable." Pelosi said on MSNBC The Beat' (7/28, 1.44M) that Barr's testimony "demonstrated to the American people the contempt that he has for our democracy. ... I just thought he was despicable and so beneath the dignity of an Attorney General." Pelosi added that Barr "is there to support the President, Donald Trump, no matter what. He's not the President's lawyer. ... He is the Attorney General of the United States of America. Too bad he doesn't care or realize that." Richmond Accuses Barr, Sessions, Whitaker Of Racism. ABC World News Tonight (7/28, story 4, 3:00, Muir, 7.32M) reported that during his testimony, Barr said he" had paid his respects to the late Rep. John Lewis." ABC added that "later, Congressman Cedric Richmond [D- LA] had this to say." Richmond was shown saying, "The one thing that you have in common with your two predecessors, both Attorney General Sessions and Attorney General Whitaker, is that when you all came here and brought your top staff, you brought no black people. That, sir, is systematic racism. That is exactly what John Lewis spent his life fighting. And so, I would just suggest that actions speak louder than words. And, you should really keep the name of the honorable John Lewis out of the Department of Justice's mouth." Pence Criticizes Democrats, Says Violence "Has Got To Stop." Vice President Pence said on Fox News The Stone' (7/28), "It was clear that the Democrats on the Committee wanted to be heard more than they wanted to listen. Bill Barr is leading the Justice Department in this country with great integrity. ... It was clear that the Democrats wanted to hear themselves talk more than they wanted to hear from the Attorney General of the United States." Pence also said on Fox News The Story' (7/28), "The violence in Portland has got to stop." The President "has made it clear, we will have law and order in our streets. With Joe Biden and the radical Democrats, they want to defund the police. While what we are going to do is find a law enforcement, stand up for 'law & order' and that begins right in Portland." Pence also said, "The reality is that the Mayor of Portland and the local community has allowed violent protesters to overrun that community. That community was looking the other way on groups like Antifa a long time ago, and now they are paying a price." Jordan Airs Video Of Violent Protests And Media Calling Them "Peaceful." Townhal( (7/28, O'Brien, 177K) reports Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) "asked for a video to be shown" at hearing. The ViCIP41 "began with clips of different media outlets referring to the riots we've seen these past few months as 'peaceful protests," then "cut to a presser about the death of retired black police EFTA00135673 captain David Dorn, who was killed during a riot in St. Louis as he was helping protect a local business." The video "proceeded to show other footage of rioters toppling statues, looting local businesses, and running over police officers. It was scary, scary stuff." Townhall "included the video here but be warned it does have some graphic and disturbing footage." Fox News (7/28, Flood, 27.59M) recounts "a variety of MSNBC and CNN hosts made cameos" in the video, including "everyone from CNN's Don Lemon to NBC News' Chuck Todd dismissing violence amid images of burning buildings and attacks on law enforcement." The video, "which irked...Nadler," also "featured MSNBC host Ali Velshi famously declaring he was covering a 'mostly a protest' despite a building burning right behind him," and adding, "It is not, generally speaking, unruly." The Washington Examiner (7/28, Dibble, 448K) reports Jordan also "condemned Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee for what became a pattern of asking questions of...Barr only to interrupt and not allow him to answer." Jordan, who is "the top Republican on the panel, noted hours into the hearing that Democratic members had repeatedly cut off Barr while shouting that they were 'reclaiming my time," and "asked why Democrats even invited Barr to testify if they were not going to allow him to fully answer their queries." Barr Says Democrats Have Tried To "Discredit" Him. The Washington Post (7/28, Al, Zapotosky, Demirjian, Wagner, 14.2M) reports that in a written statement to the House Judiciary Committee, before which he testified on Tuesday, Attorney General Barr "alleged that Democrats have tried to 'discredit' him since he vowed to investigate the 2016 FBI probe of possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign and that the media has been unfair in covering the unrest." Reuters (7/28, Lynch, Wolfe) reports that Barr also "den[ied] accusations he is doing...Trump's bidding by intervening in high-profile cases." Reuters says that as Tuesday's hearing opened, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler told Barr, "Your tenure is marked by a persistent war against the Department's professional core in an apparent effort to secure favors for the President." Barr "denied taking actions to help Trump associates, saying they do not deserve special breaks but also should not be treated more harshly than other defendants." Reuters says Barr "also incited Democrats' fury by saying a report being drafted by federal prosecutor John Durham that is expected to highlight missteps by US intelligence agencies during their 2016 probe into collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia could be made public before the 2020 presidential election." CNRC' (7/28, Breuninger, Macias, 3.62M) says on its website that Barr "offered a full-throated defense of his much-criticized conduct in the federal probe of Russian election interference." CNBC also reports that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the committee's ranking member, "launched into his opening statement by decrying the Russia probe as a coordinated effort by Democrats to undermine Trump." Jordan said to Barr, "Spying. That one word, that's why they're after you." The New York Times (7/28, Fandos, Savage, Lafraniere, Qiu, 18.61M) reports that Barr also "accused Democrats of demonizing him because he believed the Trump-Russia investigation was misguided." The Times says Democrats "attacked Mr. Barr's intervention to recommend a shorter prison sentence for Mr. Trump's longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr. on seven felony crimes," but Barr "defended his extraordinary decision to overrule career prosecutors, saying that they were trying to treat Mr. Stone more harshly than other defendants." Barr said, "The prosecutors were trying to advocate for a sentence that was more than twice what anyone else in a similar position had ever served. ... This is a 67-year-old man, first-time offender, no violence, they were trying to put them in jail for seven to nine years. I was not going to advocate that. That is not the rule of law." The Washington Examiner (7/28, Mastrangelo, 448K) says Barr "struggled to offer a response during a round of questioning" from Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), who "peppered the attorney general with questions about the Roger Stone sentencing, President Trump's Twitter feed, and Barr's role as head of the Justice Department and handling of the case." Johnson said, "You filed a sentencing recommendation hours after President Trump tweeted his dissatisfaction with the Stone recommendation." Barr said, "No, the night before," to which Johnson replied, "I know your story." EFTA00135674 The Examiner says Barr "shot back," "I'm telling my story, that's what I'm here to do ... That's why I'm here," and Johnson replied, "You're here to answer my questions." The Examiner said the exchange was "one of several instances on Tuesday during which Democrats asked Barr probing questions about his conversations with Trump and conduct as attorney general but did not allow Barr to offer a response." Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said on Fox News' Hannity (7/28, 535K) that she found it "particularly ironic" that "the Democrats were hurling their usual allegations at the attorney general, insisting that he was helping President Trump and helping President Trump's friends when in fact the only political pressure that I saw today was that from the Democrats towards the Attorney General as they berated him for not going harsher on Roger Stone, a first- time nonviolent offender, which as we saw when the Attorney General made the recommendation that he did, the judge in that case who is no friend of this Administration, ultimately agreed with the AG. So, if we are going to talk about political pressure that's where it was at." McEnany: Democrats' Criticism Of Barr Is Rooted In His Probe Of "Russia-gate." White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News' Fox & Friends (7/28, 831K), "The real problem that Democrats have with Attorney General Barr is he's actually taking Russia- gate seriously, this bogus sham effort that was launched against President Trump when he was just a candidate and went into his Administration. The fact that Bill Barr is looking into why Obama Administration spied on Trump campaign is their real problem." Barr Says Bash Investigating "High Number Of Unmaskings" During Obama Administration. The Washington Times (7/28, Mordock, 492K) reports that in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday, Attorney General Barr "revealed...that he's appointed another U.S. attorney to investigate requests by top Obama officials to 'unmask' President Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn." Barr "said he's asked John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, to look into the unmasking requests." Barr told the panel, "I've asked another US attorney to look into the issue of unmasking because of the high number of unmaskings and some that do not readily appear in the line of normal business." Barr "said that review will be independent of Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Russia-collusion investigation." Townhall. (7/28, Pavlich, 177K) reports that Barr "reconfirmed" that Bash is investigating the unmaskings. A Wall Street Journal. (7/28, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) editorial lauds the investigation and argues that Americans deserve a full accounting of the FBI and Justice Department's intervention in the 2016 election. PROTESTS Memo Reveals Federal Agents Sought Role In Suppressing Protests Since Start. The New Ynrk Times (7/28, Al, Kanno-Youngs, Olmos, Baker, Goldman, 18.61M) reports that "from the earliest days of the recent protests against police brutality and racism, some top federal law enforcement officials viewed the demonstrators with alarm and called for an aggressive federal response that two months later continues to escalate." A memo from FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich dated June 2 "demanded an immediate mobilization," declaring the situation "a national crisis," and said that in addition to investigating "violent protesters, instigators" and "inciters," bureau leaders should collect information with "robust social media exploitation teams" and examine what appeared to be "highly organized behavior." Poll: Nearly Two-Thirds Of Americans Support Protests Against Racial Injustice. USA Today (7/28, Behrmann, 10.31M) reports, "Nearly two-thirds of Americans support the recent protests against racial injustice, a new Gallup poll released Tuesday revealed." The poll found that "65% of US adults support the protests." Additionally, "53% said the protests 'will help' public support for equality and racial justice versus 34% who said they would 'hurt' and 13% who said they will 'make no difference.'" In terms of support for the protests, "92% of Black Americans said EFTA00135675 they support the protests, while 89% of Asian Americans, 70% of Hispanics and 59% of white respondents said they do." New Mexico Governor Addresses Concerns About Federal Agents In Albuquerque. KOR-TV Albuquerque, NM (7/26, 51K) reports, "Gov. Lujan Grisham said there's been a dialogue and cooperation with federal agents, but she's still pushing back against the plan to add about 35 more." Grisham "also said she talked to the U.S. attorney assigned to this operation and explained her expectations when it comes to the federal agents. 'They will integrate into the operations that we already have. He certainly gave me every indication that he's willing to do that,' she said." Grisham "mentioned the claim that there's still nearly $10 million that New Mexico hasn't received from the federal government. 'They have not provided the federal funding that was promised to Albuquerque for police and crime interventions,' she said." Report: US, Oregon In Talks About Pulling Agents From Portland. The AP (7/28) reports the Administration has "started talks with the Oregon governor's office and indicated that it would begin to draw down the presence of federal agents sent to quell two months of chaotic protests in Portland if the state stepped up its own enforcement, a senior White House official said Tuesday." The official, however, stressed that the talks with the office of Gov. Kate Brown (D) "are in the early stages and there is no agreement." Brown didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. ACLU Seeks Contempt Findings, Sanctions Against Federal Officers In Portland. The Oregonian (7/28, Bernstein, 1M) reports the ACLU of Oregon is "asking a federal judge to find federal law enforcement operating in Portland in contempt of his order that barred the officers from assaulting or threatening to assault journalists or legal observers during declared riots or unlawful assemblies." The group also is asking US District Judge Michael H. Simon "to sanction the agents for violating the order and urges the judge to make" Acting DHS Secretary Wolf and Acting DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli "personally appear before him court." In the motion filed Tuesday, federal officers are accused of firing pepper spray "into the faces of multiple marked legal observers 'at point blank range," and shooting "another legal observer in the chest with a rubber bullet from four feet away." Portland Fines Federal Government For Unpermitted Fence Outside Courthouse. The Oregonian (7/28, Theen, 1M) reports Portland Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said Tuesday the city is "fining the federal government $500 every 15 minutes - the maximum charge allowed - until it removes an unpermitted fence blocking a bike lane" outside the federal courthouse in the city. Eudaly "said the government hasn't responded to her demand to remove the fence," and the fine is now $192,000 "and counting." Protesters Attack Courthouse, Burn American Flag. NBC Nightly NPWS (7/28, story 7, 1:40, Holt, 6.05M) reported, "In Portland, there was new violence around that federal courthouse." NBC (McLaughlin) added, "It's 9:00 at night. Protestors marched towards Portland's federal courthouse" and "burn a bonfire outside the courthouse fence, including an American flag. Near midnight, hundreds have gathered. Some protestors begin launching fireworks at the courthouse. Flames can be seen. There's a large blast inside the fence. Federal agents later respond with flash bangs and tear gas." Then, "just past 1:00 am, protestors confront federal agents in the streets." DHS "officials tell us they're there because Portland officials won't protect federal property." Acting DHS Secretary Wolf was shown saying, "This has nothing to do with nonviolent or peaceful demonstrations. This has to do with violence against law enforcement officials on federal property." However, added NBC, "state and local officials say they want them gone." In an interview with Sinclair Broadcasting Group (7/28, 38K), Wolf was asked about claims that the presence of federal officers in Portland has made matters worse. Wolf said, "I dismiss that. The Mayor is on record before we arrived saying that the city has been experiencing over a month of violence and is pleading with his city to stop. What we know it was violent before DHS EFTA00135676 arrived and it continues to be violent." Asked about the Mayor's call for a "cease fire," Wolf said, "That term is objectionable. It is wrong. It is inaccurate. It is not a cease fire. Federal law enforcement is there doing their job day in and day out, the same job that we have done for decades there. If the Mayor and the Portland Police Department want to step up and do the job that they should do, we can end the violence in a matter of days." Acting CBP Commissioner Morgan said on the Brian Kilmeade Show (7/28), "The violence was there in Portland well before we put additional resources there. We had actual, credible intelligence that the federal building was going to be attacked by anarchists. That is why we put additional resources and lo and behold, that is exactly what has happened and it has been happening for the last four and a half weeks every single night, destroying the building and harming, potentially harming federal agents and officers. That is the truth. That is the facts." US Park Police Head: Decision To Clear Protesters Not Linked To Trump "Photo Op." The AR (7/28, Knickmeyer) reports that in testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday, Gregory Monahan, the head of US Park Police, "insisted...that the forceful routing of protesters from the square in front of the White House last month had 'zero correlation' with President Donald Trump's staged photo event minutes later." However, Monahan "was unable to point to any immediate threat that justified his officers' sudden, violent drive against the hundreds gathered there." Attorney General Barr, "testifying separately on Trump's deployment of hundreds of federal officers and agents against nationwide protests this spring and summer, also distanced Trump's photo event from the decision to drive demonstrators from Lafayette Square that night." Barr is quoted as saying, "This was something conceived of long before and didn't turn on the nature of the crowd." Politico (7/28, Adragna, 4.29M) reports Monahan's testimony "claiming officers followed all rules in a volatile situation paints a far different image than the prepared testimony from a major in the D.C. National Guard who later told the panel the protestors' removal was 'deeply disturbing' and appeared to be an infringement of their First Amendment rights." Monahan "committed to providing documentation to the committee chronicling what he called a 'sustained level of violence,' and said the days of demonstrations were 'one of the most violent' protests he'd experienced over the course of his decades-long career." The New York Times (7/28, Edmondson, 18.61M) reports when "pressed repeatedly to square his remarks with evidence captured during the demonstrations that his officers attacked protesters, Mr. Monahan demurred." Monahan, the Washington Post (7/28, Jackman, 14.2M) reports, acknowledged that he was informed that President Trump "would be visiting Lafayette Square later that day, but that the decision to forcefully clear protesters from the park at 6:30 that evening was unrelated to Trump's visit soon after." The two events, he said, were a coincidence. USA Today (7/28, Wu, 10.31M) reports House Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva "said what he heard from the Trump administration on its response to protests were 'outright lies' and warned of 'creeping authoritarianism' in its heavy-handed sponses to protests." Hundreds Of Cases Involving LAPD Officers Accused Of Corruption Under Review. The Los Angeles Times (7/28, Rector, Queally, Poston, 4.64M) reports that "hundreds of criminal cases involving three city police officers charged earlier this month with falsifying evidence are now under review by prosecutors after corruption allegations sparked questions about whether their past police work could be suspect." Prosecutors are "analyzing pending cases to determine if they can move forward on the strength of evidence other than the charged officers' testimony, but past cases and convictions - including those based on plea deals - could also be revisited, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said." Minneapolis Police Link Protest Figure To White Supremacy Group. The New York Times (7/28, Macfarquhar, 18.61M) reports that in "one of the first widely shared images of wanton destruction to emerge from the protests in Minneapolis" after George Floyd's death was a "tall man, dressed head to toe in black, including a black gas mask and a black umbrella." Given the nickname "Umbrella Man," Minneapolis police "unsuccessfully tried to identify EFTA00135677 the man," but "after receiving a tip about his identity, they used other photographs, including a driver's license, to zero in on a suspect who they say has ties to the Hells Angels and a prison biker gang." In a search warrant affidavit filed in Hennepin County District Court on Monday, police asserted the suspect "hoped to instigate racial unrest." Austin Police Release Video Of Deadly Shooting Of Latino Man. The CBS Evening News (7/28, story 4, 0:30, O'Donnell, 4.37M) reported, "A new policy in Austin, Texas, has forced the police there to release video of the deadly shooting of a Black and Latino man named Michael Ramos" back in April. The video shows Ramos "getting out of his car with his hands and shirt raised. Police first shoot Ramos with a bean bag round before he gets back in his car and starts driving. That's when Ramos was shot dead. He was later found to be unarmed. Two officers are now on administrative duty. The case won't go to a grand jury until next year." Suspect Arrested In Shooting Of Two Protesters In Colorado. The 82 (7/28) reports that a man "at a weekend Colorado protest who shot and wounded two demonstrators after he apparently aimed at a Jeep driving toward protesters has been arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide, authorities said." Police in Aurora "said Samuel Young, 23, was arrested on Monday after authorities made public a picture of a person of interest in the case and sought help from the public to identify him." The Daily Caller (7/28, Safi, 716K) reports "the driver of the Jeep has not been arrested or identified publicly, although police seized the vehicle as evidence." Police are "still trying to determine why the driver appeared to drive toward protesters." Biden Calls For Violent Protesters To Be "Found, Arrested And Tried." The New York Post (7/28, Nelson, 4.57M) reports Joe Biden on Tuesday "called for the arrest of violent protesters." Striking "a discordant tone with fellow liberals who insist protests against the May killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police are peaceful, and that authorities are to blame for any violence in Portland and other cities," Biden said, "I think we do need to hold those who violate the law accountable. We should never let what's done in a march for equal rights overcome what the reason for the march is. And that's what these folks are doing. And they should be arrested - found, arrested and tried." More Than 100 Police Agencies Pull Out Of Democratic Convention. The AE (7/28) reports that "more than 100 police agencies are withdrawing from agreements to send personnel to bolster security at next month's Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, in part because they're concerned about a recent directive ordering police in the city to stop using tear gas to control crowds." Since the Milwaukee order was issued last week, "more than 100 law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin and across the country decided against coming to Milwaukee." Hoyer Denies Democrats Support Violent Rioters, Appears To Liken Trump To Fascists. The Washington Examiner (7/28, Picket, 448K) reports House Majority Leader Hoyer "rejected President Trump's assertion that Democrats condone acts of violence and criminality committed by rioters in Portland and other cities across the country." Said Hoyer, "[He] posits that criminal behavior violence is happening with respect to the demonstrations. The assertion that any of us sanction the use of violence or the use criminal behavior in these demonstrations is absolutely untrue." Hoyer also said, "Frankly, we have seen down through history that fascist leaders and those would-be dictators try to scare the populace into thinking that they are under some mob assault." WPost Analysis: Civilian Militia Groups Surge Amid Protests. A 3,400-word Washington Post (7/28, Al, Partlow, 14.2M) report examines how this summer's protests against racial injustice has "energiz[ed] conservatives who are deploying to the front lines of the culture war. Across the country, conservative armed civilians have surged into public view - marching on statehouses, challenging Black Lives Matter protests, chasing Internet rumors - and EFTA00135678 bringing the threat of lethal force to local politics." Miami Journalist: Latinos Should Stand Up For Their Black Neighbors. Miami journalist Lizette Alvarez writes in a Washington Post (7/28, 14.2M) op-ed that "when the Black Lives Matter movement roared into South Florida," she "was caught off guard. I hadn't fully realized the subtle ways that racism thrives in Miami, my hometown, a place dominated by a white Latino supermajority." In the city, Alvarez writes, "there is indifference, or outright hostility, to the Black Lives Matter movement." She argues that "it's certainly recent enough for Miami's white Latinos to remember the oppression our own families overcame, and to honor them by standing up for our black neighbors today." Free Beacon: Criticisms A "Calculated Attempt To Tar Cotton's Character." The Washington Free Beacon (7/28, 78K) editorializes that recent criticisms of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) over his remarks about the New York Times' 1619 Project represent "a calculated attempt to tar Cotton's character. The same was true when New York Times staffers raised selective outrage at Cotton's op-ed calling for order in the streets." Cotton, the Free Beacon writes, "should wear these latest attacks as a badge of honor." COUNTER-TERRORISM California Man Charged With Leading Online White Supremacist Group Devoted To Dylann Roof. The Sacramento (CA) Bee (7/28, Stanton, 567K) reports, "An Orangevale man who has reportedly led a secret online life as leader of a neo-Nazi movement that idolizes church shooter Dylann Roof is under investigation by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office in connection with racist graffiti and had a firearm seized earlier this month over fears that he might become a "lone wolf" attacker, court records say." Andrew Richard Casarez, 27, "has been under investigation since December 'regarding graffiti which appeared to be motivated by hate/race' and became the subject of an emergency gun violence protective order after an online website identified him as an online poster in white supremacy sites known as 'Vic Mackey,' the purported leader of a group known as the 'Bowl Patrol.'" Pentagon Admits To Civilian Casualties In Somalia. The New York Times (7/28, Gibbons-Neff, 18.61M) reports the Pentagon has "admitted for the third time that its bombing campaign against terrorist groups in Somalia, which has been underway for more than a decade, had caused civilian casualties there, a military report said on Tuesday." The announcement by AFRICOM "substantiated reports by Amnesty International that a U.S. airstrike on Feb. 2 in the Somali town of Jilib killed Nurto Kusow Omar Abukar, 18, and injured her two younger sisters and grandmother." In the report, AFRICOM Commander Gen. Stephen J. Townsend wrote, "Our goal is to always minimize impact to civilians. Unfortunately, we believe our operations caused the inadvertent death of one person and injury to three others who we did not intend to target." COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE Former FBI Agent Strzok Publishing Book In September About Trump, Russia. The AP (7/28, Tucker) reports former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok "is releasing a book on his concerns the president could be compromised." Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media "said in a statement that the book, 'Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald 3. Trump,' is due out September 8." The book will offer "an insider's view on some of the most sensational and politically freighted investigations in modern American history, including into whether the 2016 Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to sway the presidential election." Strzok said Tuesday in a statement accompanying the book announcement, "Russia has EFTA00135679 long regarded the US as its 'Main Enemy,' and I spent decades trying to protect our country from their efforts to weaken and undermine us." The Hill (7/28, Scully, 2.98M) reports the book is expected "to provide an insider's view on some of the most notable and politically infamous investigations in modern American history, including the investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the presidential election." Also reporting on the story is Axios (7/28, Allassan, 521K). Declassified Senate Intelligence Report Highlights Doubts About Steele Dossier. Fox News (7/28, Olson, 27.59M) reports a declassified report from the Senate Intelligence Committee "released on Wednesday revealed internal conversations about the notorious Steele dossier between the FBI and CIA during the writing of an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian election interference and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election." The Steele dossier was "at the center of the applications for FISA warrants against former Trump advisor Carter Page for alleged ties to Russia." The report, the "fourth in a series of such releases by Senate Republicans, adds more detail to information previously reported by Horowitz." The report reinforces the "deep divide regarding how much stock the IC put into the Steele information well before the three renewals of the Page FISA warrants, and that those in the FBI were rather uncritical of Steele's reliability." The Daily Caller (7/28, Ross, 716K) reports the documents "detail an intense debate between the CIA and FBI in late 2016 over the handling of information from Christopher Steele, with one CIA official telling the Senate Intelligence Committee that the former British spy's allegations about Trump-Russia collusion were 'very unvetted.'" Despite the CIA's "concerns about Steele's allegations, the FBI successfully lobbied to include his information in an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election." The bureau also continued "using information from Steele to conduct surveillance against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page." Jarrett Says It "Makes Sense" Steele's Source Worked At The Brookings Institution. Fox News (7/28, Musto, 27.59M) reports Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett "said Tuesday that the primary source for former British spy Christopher Steele's unverified dossier working for the Brookings Institution research group 'makes sense." In an interview on 'Fox & Friends,' Jarrett "explained that he had previously run into former Brookings Institution senior research analyst Igor Danchenko's name several times." He said, "I could never piece it together. Because frankly...it is so wild and stupid that Steele's source was not from Russia but - it's a guy in Washington, DC working for the liberal Brookings Institution. Now, it sort of makes sense because the president of Brookings at the time was Strobe Talbott: [a] long-time Hillary Clinton ally who was hoping to fuel the collusion narrative and had his own contacts with Christopher Steele." Op-Ed: A Steeley Media Silence. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (7/28, Subscription Publication, 7.57M), Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. writes about the release of the key sub- source in the Steele dossier and the unwillingness of mainstream media to provide adequate coverage. The source was Russian Igor Danchenko, who studied at Louisville and Georgetown, and worked as a business and political writer, including at Brookings. He complained that media sources virtually universally ignored the new revelation despite the extreme public attention the story has received during the past three years. He argues there is something wrong with US journalism. Valerie Jarrett Pressed On Obama's Role In Russia Probe. Fox News (7/28, Schultz, 27.59M) reports Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo "pressed a top aide to President Obama about what the former president knew about the launch of the Russia probe into President Trump's 2016 campaign." In an interview Tuesday, Bartiromo "asked Valerie Jarrett whether Obama 'directed' the probe into Trump campaign ties to Russia, which eventually sparked the Mueller investigation." Jarrett, former Obama senior adviser, said, "That's not how it works. That's not how our investigations work. We leave that to the intelligence community to bring forward information. And the dossier - I would imagine would be one piece of EFTA00135680 a much bigger puzzle." Eisen Says In New Book Mueller Refused To Admit Trump Committed "At Least Five Chargeable Crimes." The Washington Examiner (7/28, Chaitin, 448K) reports special counsel Robert Mueller "refused to admit President Trump committed at least five crimes," according to a top lawyer for the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment fight. Norm Eisen, a former Obama adviser and US ambassador, "criticizes Mueller in his new book, 'A Case for the American People: The United States v. Donald J. Trump,' chastising the former FBI director for failing to go 'all the way' with his obstruction of justice inquiry and letting the country down." Eisen wrote, "The refusal to admit there were at least five chargeable crimes was his shortcoming, not his lack of style. I understood his old-fashioned restraint under the special counsel regulations and typical prosecutorial standards. But he had leeway under the rules to do much, much more, and he didn't." US Seeks To Dismiss Charges Against Ex-Twitter Employees Accused Of Spying For Saudi Arabia. The Verge (7/28, Statt, 2.05M) reports, "Two former Twitter employees who were last fall charged with spying on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia may have charges against them dropped at the recommendation of US prosecutors." The Verge adds, "It is unclear at this time why the US is pushing to have the case against the two men, Ahmad Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah, dismissed," but "lawyers in San Francisco submitted the recommendation to a judge on Tuesday. It has yet to be approved. A third man, a Saudi citizen named Ahmed Almutairi, was also implicated in the operation as the recruiter who convinced Abouammo and Alzabarah to spy on Saudi dissidents using internal Twitter tools. Prosecutors are also recommending charges against him be dropped." Lawmakers Aim To Deny Visas To Chinese Spies And Their Families. The Washington Fxaminer (7/28, Dunleavy, 448K) reports, "Republicans in the House and Senate are pushing legislation aimed at denying visas to foreigners who have engaged in espionage or intellectual property theft against the United States." Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) "announced the Protecting America from Spies Act on Tuesday with a particular focus on China, a country against which the Trump administration is turning up the pressure on several fronts. Harztler introduced her version of the bill last month while Cruz dropped his in the evening on Tuesday." According to the Examiner, "Their goal is to empower the State Department to ensure that any espionage and illicit tech-transfer activity makes one ineligible for entry into the U.S. To do so, the Republicans aim to update the Immigration and Naturalization Act because, under current law, spies from China or elsewhere who are expelled from the U.S. are still allowed to then reapply for visas to regain entry." Report: US To Order Drastic Reduction In Chinese Diplomats. The Washington Times (7/28, Gertz, 492K) reports exclusively that the Administration is "preparing to order China to sharply reduce the number of diplomats posted in the United States to levels equal to the number of American diplomats stationed in China, senior State Department officials said." The official said the move "seeks in part to reduce the burden on FBI counterintelligence agents, who in recent months have devoted 2,000 special agents to catching Chinese spies and their agents." Op-Ed: The New "Cold War" Between The US And China Is A Dangerous Myth. In an op-ed in the Washington Post (7/28, 14.2M) reports former DNI Dan Coats writes, "China dominates current discussions of foreign policy, primarily because it poses the greatest challenges to our national interests. But China also dominates the discussion because the Covid-19 pandemic emerged there, a fact that has become a major theme in the President Trump's campaign for reelection. The trade relationship seems to be deteriorating along with the political relationship." EFTA00135681 He concludes, "Policies by the US and our allies must be aimed at expanding the diplomatic and political space to work these issues creatively and productively. ... And it will also require the rebuilding of alliance cohesion and multilateral institutions capable of responding to China's long- term strategic vision with policies of comparable coherence and strength. Only the US can forge those tools. Our allies and other like-minded nations are beginning to recognize the threats China poses to our common future." Singapore Spy Case Stirs Fears China Recruiting On Island State. Reuters (7/28, Geddie, Aravindan) reports the case of a Singaporean "caught spying for China in the US has reawakened fears over China recruiting intelligence assets on an island state which has won trust among Western governments while keeping on good terms with Beijing." Jun Wei Yeo, "a 39-year-old academic who also goes by the name Dickson Yeo, pleaded guilty in a US court on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of Chinese intelligence." He will be "sentenced in October and faces up to 10 years in prison." Singapore's home ministry "said in a brief statement on Sunday that it had been aware of Yeo's case since his arrest by US authorities in November, and he is receiving consular assistance." Court documents "show Yeo was lured into becoming a Chinese asset four years earlier while attending a forum in Beijing to give a presentation on Southeast Asian politics." Revised Missile Pact With US To Facilitate South Korean Spy Satellite. Reuters (7/28, Shin) reports Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Hyun-chong "said on Tuesday. South Korea and the US have agreed to revise their joint missile guidelines to facilitate South Korea's plans to build a spy satellite by easing rules on rocket propellants." Under the current guidelines, "last amended in 2017, South Korea cannot build rockets using solid-fuel engines, posing a setback for its plans to develop a military spy satellite by the late 2020s." Kim "said at a briefing in Seoul that the change in the propellant rules took effect on Tuesday." He said, "This revision would allow us to have an unblinking eye that monitors the Korean peninsula 24/7. If we fire low-altitude launch vehicles based on our own solid fuel propellant as planned, it would dramatically improve our military's reconnaissance capabilities." University Of Texas Says Researchers Will Be Contacted By FBI About China Contacts. KXAN-TV Austin, TX (7/28, Powell, 495K) reports from Austin, Texas, "Monday evening, faculty, graduate and postdoctoral students at the University of Texas at Austin were sent a message from university leaders alerting them that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation will be contacting researchers regarding efforts the Chinese government may have taken to illegally obtain research from American universities. This is 'including coronavirus vaccine research." KXAN-TV adds, "UT Austin researchers are working on projects to further expedite the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. University leaders said this is part of a 'national situation' that may impact some in UT's research community. They explained the FBI told UT last week that because of the recently ordered closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston, the bureau will be 'contacting UT researchers about the role of the Consulate and efforts by the Chinese government to illegally procure research." Rubio Doubts IC Global Threats Hearing Will Happen This Year. Politico (7/28, Matishak, 4.29M) reports acting Senate Intelligence Chair Marco Rubio (R-FL) "raised doubts Tuesday that the panel will hold a public session on global threats facing the US this year, citing increased partisanship over the nation's intelligence apparatus." Rubio said, "I'm not sure we're going to have one, especially after the letters over the last ten days, seeing this sort of heavy politicization of it." He was referring to "a war of words that erupted between congressional Democrats and the Trump Administration and Republicans after the nation's top counterintelligence official issued a warning about election interference." Rubio added, "It's become harder to get to an agreement on a forum that doesn't turn into a political circus. Why would a career professional intelligence official, at any level at this point, want to be dragged into being turned into a political pretzel to further the narrative of one side or the other?" EFTA00135682 Russian Intelligence Services Spreading Coronavirus Disinformation. The New York Times (7/28, Barnes, Sanger, 18.61M) reports "Russian intelligence services have been spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, according to newly declassified intelligence, material that demonstrates how Moscow is continuing to try to influence Americans as the election draws closer." The Hill (7/28, Wise, 2.98M) reports the campaign reportedly includes "the dissemination of news articles with unfounded claims about the virus's origins and how Moscow and the US have responded to it, among other things." The AP (7/28, Tucker) reports US officials "said Tuesday Russian intelligence services are using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain ahead of the presidential election in November." US government officials "said two Russians who have held senior roles in Moscow's military intelligence service known as the GRU have been identified as responsible for a disinformation effort meant to reach American and Western audiences." CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS Kansas City Man Charged In Beating Death. The Kansas City (MO) Star (7/28, Nozicka, 549K) reports, "A Kansas City man was charged Tuesday in the June beating of a victim found dead in the middle of a street in northeast Kansas City, according to court records." Antoine Cotton, 42, "was charged with second-degree murder in the June 15 killing of 51-year-old Hoang Dinh, who was found in the 3600 block of Thompson Avenue with severe trauma to his head. Police were assisted with surveillance in the case by FBI agents assigned to Operation LeGend, a new federal anti-crime initiative, according to charging documents." Federal Prosecutors Oppose Maxwell's Effort To Name Epstein Victims. The New York Daily News (7/28, Brown, 2.52M) reports, "Federal prosecutors slammed Ghislaine Maxwell's 'absurd' effort Tuesday to name the underage girls she's accused of grooming for Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse." According to the Daily News, "Maxwell's legal team says they should be allowed to identify women who have previously spoken publicly about the British socialite's alleged role recruiting girls into Epstein's trafficking scheme. Prosecutors have not named any of the women they consider victims of Maxwell's sex abuse trap. In a new filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Rossmiller wrote that it was important to maintain that anonymity. 'The Government has repeatedly asked defense counsel to explain how or why it would need to publicly name victims of sexual abuse to prepare for trial, and the defense repeatedly has declined to do so, presumably because the argument borders on the absurd,' Rossmiller wrote in Manhattan Federal Court." Illinois Woman Pleads Guilty To Forced Labor. The Chicago Sun-Times (7/28, Seidel, 875K) reports, "A woman accused last year of keeping 'enslaved' Guatemalan immigrants in her squalid Cicero home pleaded guilty Tuesday to forced labor." Concepcion Malinek, 50, "admitted through her lawyer that she helped several people enter the United States between 2009 and 2014, only to charge them fees and demand payment while threatening to have them deported. She also helped some of them obtain fraudulent IDs. In one case, she admitted she offered to help a Guatemalan citizen enter the United States illegally for $8,000 before increasing and adding fees for 'additional services.' Robert Rascia, Malinek's attorney, said Malinek let that person stay at her home while she paid off the debt." FBI Agent Shoots Suspect In Arkansas. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette (7/28, 307K) reports that a FBI agent "shot and wounded a suspect near a west Little Rock discount store" on Tuesday. FBI spokesman Connor Hagan "did not give the condition of the suspect but he did say the agent was uninjured." The Arkansas Times (7/28, 70K) reports that Arkansas police "blocked a portion of Stagecoach Road in the 9100 block near Interstate 430 for an investigation of an apparent vehicle EFTA00135683 crash and a shooting involving an FBI agent." The AP (7/28) reports that a FBI team will "investigate the incident and turn over its findings to the Justice Department or local prosecutors, or both." Local sources include KATV-TV Little RorkjAR) Little Rock, AR (7/28, KATV, 137K), KTHV-TV J ittle Rnrk (AR) Little Rock, AR (7/28, 63K), and KARK-TV Little Rock, AR (7/28). Continuing Coverage: Colorado Police Officers Shot In Line Of Duty. The Denver Post (7/28, 720K) reports in continuing coverage about the shooting of two Aurora police officers, who "were on assignment with the FBI Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force" and "were following an armed-robbery suspect." Aurora police spokesman Matthew Longshore did not identify the officers, but he said that they were not critically injured. Ohio Man Faces Murder Charges. The Xenia (OH) Daily Gazette (7/28) reports that a federal grand jury "charged Joshua Cordell Lee Williams, 19, with firearms-related murder and possessing with the intent to distribute a controlled substance." Court documents "show on Jan. 21, 2020, Williams met with four individuals in Wilmington to sell them marijuana," but a struggle "ensued between the individuals" and Williams "fired the weapon, shooting the victim, Layne Hall, in the chest and fatally injuring him." Utah Sex Offender Arrested. Deseret (UT) News (7/28, 308K) reports Utah sex offender Brandon Albert Larson "was arrested Monday and formally charged Tuesday in 7th District Court with 60 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; three counts of assault by a prisoner, escape and evidence tampering, all third-degree felonies; interfering with an arresting officer, drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, all class B misdemeanors." The investigation "began in June when the Utah Attorney General's Office and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified Emery County sheriff's detectives of possible child pornography being uploaded to a cellphone." FBI Agents Searching Home Of Tennessee State Senator. WHBO-TV Memphis, TN (7/28, 23K) reports that the FBI "confirmed to FOX13 that agents were sent to the home of [Tennessee] State Sen. Katrina Robinson Tuesday morning." The FBI "would not say why they were at Robinson's home and referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office." South Carolina Man Sentenced Over Firearms Charge. The Lexicatsin_Catairke (7/28, 20K) reports United States Attorney Peter M. McCoy, Jr., "announced Tuesday that Demarcus Deon Booker, 34, of Lexington, was sentenced to 6 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition." Evidence "presented to the court showed that federal law prohibited Booker from possessing firearms and ammunition based upon multiple prior convictions, including a 2006 assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, a 2012 possession with intent to distribute marijuana, and a 2012 possession with intent to distribute marijuana." FBI Investigating Murder Of Illinois Teenager. The Chicago Sun-Times (7/28, 875K) reports that the FBI "is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen in an Englewood shooting that killed four people, including 14-year-old Vernado Jones Jr." Jones "was shot in the back on Independence Day when four gunmen walked up to a gathering at 61st and Carpenter and opened fire, striking eight people." Oklahoma Man Arrested Over Fatal Shooting. The Tulsa (OK) World (7/28, 205K) reports Kyle Sago, who "was sought as the suspect after a man EFTA00135684 was shot dead outside a home in the 18500 block of East First Street about 6:30 p.m. Saturday," was arrested on Monday. He "was booked into the Tulsa County jail and is being held without bond on a hold for the Federal Bureau of Investigation." KOW-13( Tulsa, OK (7/28, Griffin, 108K) reports that the victim "was a Cherokee Nation citizen, and because of the recent Supreme Court ruling, the FBI was given the case." Kansas Men Charged In Connection To Kidnapping. KOAM-TV Pittsburg, KS (7/28) reports Freddie Lewis Tilton and Alvin Dale Boyer "were charged in federal court today for kidnapping a woman" in July 2020. The case "was investigated by the FBI, the Neosho, Mo., Police Department, the Newton County, Mo., Sheriff's Department, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)." Continuing Coverage: Colorado Man Charged With Assault. The Arvada (CO) Presc (7/28) reports in continuing coverage about the investigation into Eric Breemen, who "is accused of hitting [Lakhwant] Singh with his car in April." Breeman "was originally charged with six felonies, including attempted murder, first-degree assault for extreme indifference, first-degree assault for causing serious bodily injury, leaving a scene involving serious bodily injury, vehicular assault and violating bail bond conditions." Investigation In Kentucky Results In Drug Charges For 14 Individuals. The to_uisville (KY) Courier-Journal (7/28, Kachmar, 368K) reports US Attorney Russell Coleman announced on Tuesday that an investigation involving the FBI apprehended members of a gang that allegedly distributed illegal drugs in Louisville. The article says that as a result of the operation, "14 individuals were charged with conspiring to distribute fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone and methamphetamine." An online WHAS-TV Louisville, KY (7/28, 99K) article says the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Louisville Metro Police Department "worked together on the investigation." The WLKY-TV Louisville, KY (7/28, 79K), WDRB-TV Louisville, KY (7/28, 179K), and WAVE-TV Louisville, KY (7/28, Valtierra, 34K) websites also cover this story. Multi-State Drug Investigation Operation Leads To 17 Arrests. The Jackson (TN) Sun (7/28, 55K) reports 17 "individuals have been charged in federal court with operating a multi-state drug trafficking organization in West Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi." The article highlights the FBI's involvement with the investigation of this case. Georgia Man Arrested For Methamphetamine Trafficking. The Covington (GA) Newc (7/28, 22K) reports Andy Kirk Davis, who "is a member of the 'Ghost Face Gangsters' gang," was arrested Tuesday by the Butts County Sheriff's Department with support from the FBI. Sheriff Gary Long "said his agents purchased more than 500 grams of meth from Davis in Butts, Newton and Putnam counties." New York Man Sentenced For Drug Trafficking. WNYT-TV Albany, NY (7/28, 37K) reports Francisco Alarcon Badillo, who "was convicted of selling crystal meth," was "sentenced in federal court Tuesday to five years in prison for drug trafficking." The FBI supported the investigation. Police Investigating 2011 Disappearance Of North Carolina Man. The Charlotte (NC) Observer (7/28, 470K) reports that the Northampton County Sheriff's Department "combed the farm across from Daniel Moses' old house, covering 65 acres with a cadaver dog," as part of a new push to solve the reason behind Moses' disappearance in 2011. Moses' family has asked the FBI to investigate, but the agency has not committed to do so. Michigan Police Reopening Investigation Into 1967 Cold Case. EFTA00135685 WZZM-TV Grand Rapids, MI (7/28, 73K) reports Ottawa County Sheriff's Office will exhume the unidentified body of a woman found dead in 1967 in an effort to finally identify her. She "is believed to have been between 16 and 21 years of age, around 5-foot-7 and between 90 and 100 pounds at the time of death." WHTC-AM Holland, MI (7/28, Inc., 399) reports that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children "is providing resources, including forensic anthropology, to further this investigation." FBI Investigating Illinois Bank Robbery. The Park Ridge (IL) Herald-Advocate (7/29, Johnson, 1.75M) reports that the FBI is investigating the July 27 robbery of Parkway Bank. The agency "is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the suspect's arrest." New Mexico Man Arrested In Connection To Bank Robbery. The Brainerd (MN) Daily Dispatch (7/28) reports James Richard Ardito, who "was convicted of robbing the same bank over a decade ago," was "arrested Monday, July 27, at a residence in Andover" in connection to the Deerwood Bank robbery on July 24. This case "remains an active investigation by the sheriff's office working jointly with the FBI." Continuing Coverage: Ohio Man Accused Of Carjacking. WOW-TV Cleveland (7/28, Tullos, 68K) reports James King Belle, who "arrested for carjacking a woman's car at gunpoint in Mayfield Heights," was ordered held on a $75,000 bond. FBI agents "arrested Belle on July 20." Washington Drug Investigation Leads To 19 Indictments. The Kent (WA) Reporter (7/28, Hunter, 90K) reports 19 people, including three Kent residents, have been indicted in connection with an "18-month investigation of a drug trafficking organization tied to the" Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) in Mexico, which is often referred to as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Commenting on the results of the investigation, "conducted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Tacoma Resident Office in partnership with" the FBI and several other law enforcement organizations, was DEA Special Agent in Charge Keith Weis, who stated, "The South Sound streets are safer today with the removal of this violent criminal ring that pushed heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into our communities." Multiple New York Defendants Plead Guilty To Conspiring To Distribute Meth. The Salamanca (NY) Press (7/28, Eckstrom, 5K) reports 10 defendants have pleaded guilty "to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute, and distributing, five grams or more of methamphetamine." The pleas "are the result of an investigation" conducted by the DEA, the FBI and some other law enforcement organizations. The Genesee (NY) Sun (7/28) and the Jamestown (NY) Post-Journal (7/10, 42K) also cover this story. FINANCIAL CRIME & CORPORATE SCANDALS Florida Man Charged With PPP Fraud. Forbes (7/28, Erb, 9.71M) reports, "The Department of Justice has announced the arrest of a Florida man in connection with Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan fraud. David T. Hines, 29, of Miami, Florida, was arrested and charged with fraudulently obtaining $3.9 million in PPP loans and using those funds, in part, to purchase a 2020 Lamborghini Huracan sports car. Authorities seized the $318,000 sports car and $3.4 million from bank accounts at the time of the arrest." Forbes adds, "According to the complaint, Hines applied for approximately $13.5 million in PPP funds to pay employees. However, it's alleged that those employees either didn't exist or were paid a fraction of what Hines claimed. Hines' state and bank records showed little to no payroll expense during this period." EFTA00135686 HSI Has Seized More Than $7M In COVID-19 Fraud Proceeds. Fox News (7/28, Dorman, 27.59M) reports, "Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Tuesday that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents have seized more than 900 shipments of counterfeit or substandard medical equipment and supplies - including test kits and purported treatments for COVID-19. The agency made the announcement to mark 100 days since the April launch of Operation Stolen Promise, meant to 'protect the Homeland from the increasing and evolving threat posed by COVID-19-related fraud and criminal activity.'" Fox News adds, "In addition to the seizure of hundreds of shipments, HSI said its agents had initiated 570 criminal investigations and made 53 arrests. Agents have also seized more than $7 million in "illicit proceeds," including $2.2 million obtained through fraud related to the CARES Act." Former Ohio Candidate Says He Was FBI Informant In Householder Probe. The Cleveland Plain Dealer (7/28, Tobias, 895K) reports from Columbus, Ohio, "A former state legislative candidate says he went to the FBI earlier this year with his concerns over the anonymously funded political ads that flooded the airwaves during his race, earning him a spot as a witness in the federal charging documents against Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others that were unsealed last week." Nick Owens, "a Brown County Republican and member of the State Board of Education, says he is referenced in the 81-page affidavit as 'Individual 1.' Individual 1 provided the FBI with information about Householder's political operation relevant to the investigation, the affidavit says, including by detailing Householder's secret control of a political group prosecutors said covertly received $60 million from FirstEnergy in exchange for Householder's delivery of nuclear bailout legislation." Owens, "a former assistant county prosecutor, said he called the FBI tip line in mid-March. He said he was connected with Blane Wetzel, the FBI special agent who ended up writing the complaint." The Cincinnati Enquirer (7/28, Balmert, 223K) reports from Columbus, Ohio, "Owens, from Clermont County, knew that something wasn't right when Householder said that he put $500,000 into the race. That included an attack ad that incorrectly accused the Democrat of abusing his elected position during a traffic stop. 'I understand campaign finance,' Owens told The Enquirer about the November 2018 meeting. 'You can't just dump in $500,000.'" The Enquirer adds, "Now, Householder, political adviser Jeff Longstreth and three GOP lobbyists are the subjects of a federal investigation into a $61 million bribery scheme to elect Householder as speaker, pass a $1.3 billion bailout for two nuclear plants and defend that legislation against a ballot effort to upend it. Part of that effort included funneling money from FirstEnergy and other donors to dark money groups, which are not required to disdose donors, and political action committees." The Cleveland Plain Dealer (7/28, Eaton, 895K) reports, "Ned Hill will never forget his first encounter with Larry Householder. During the Perry County state legislator's first term as Speaker of Ohio's House of Representatives, Householder visited a board meeting of an industry group that Hill was attending. 'The ethos of "pay to play" was palpable,' recalls Hill, an Ohio State University professor of economic development. 'I saw him work the room, pounding people's chests with his fingers and telling them how much their donation was going to be. It was the closest thing to a shakedown that I have ever seen." The Plain Dealer adds, "More than a decade before Householder's July 21 arrest in a federal bribery probe of the state's nuclear bailout law, Householder's aggressive fundraising practices came under law enforcement scrutiny. But no charges resulted from that case." Former New Jersey Mayor Sentencing Delayed. The Press of Atlantic City (1‘13) (7/28, 177K) reports former Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam Jr's sentencing "has been rescheduled to September." His sentencing "has been pushed back five times since he pleaded guilty Oct. 3 to defrauding a youth basketball program out of more than $87,000." The FBI investigated. College Admissions Scheme Mastermind Was Working On His Own Degree Until Last Week. EFTA00135687 0SA Today (7/28, Oldham, 10.31M) reports from Phoenix, Arizona, "The man who exploited a broken system to help wealthy parents bribe and cheat their way into sending their children to elite colleges spent the past eight months taking a familiar approach to turning his life around: education." Rick Singer, "the consultant at the center of the largest college admissions scandal in American history, had been enrolled at Arizona's Grand Canyon University since November 2019, according to GCU spokesperson Bob Romantic. As of July 21, Singer no longer was a student at the university, Romantic said." Singer "had been working on a doctorate in psychology at the Phoenix- based university and had hoped to be near completion when he was sentenced sometime in 2021 or 2022, his lawyer Donald Heller said Tuesday." Watchdog At SBA Reports Having Seen Indications Of Extensive Fraud In Emergency Loan Program. Reuters (7/28, Prentice) reports, "The internal watchdog at the U.S. government agency responsible for managing COVID-19 emergency loans and grants to small business owners and nonprofits said it has found 'strong indicators of widespread potential fraud' in the disaster loan program." The Office of the Inspector General at the Small Business Administration (SBA) "said it has been 'inundated' with contacts to investigative field offices, receiving complaints of more than 5,000 instances of suspected fraud from financial institutions receiving economic injury loan deposits through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Advance grant programs, according to a public memo on Tuesday." SBA inspectors have commenced several probes "into reports of suspected fraud in the disaster loan program, the memo from SBA Inspector General Hannibal 'Mike' Ware to SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza said." The Washington Post (7/28, Gregg, 14.2M) reports the SBA's office of inspector general indicated "that it has identified $250 million in taxpayer-subsidized coronavirus loan funds given to 'potentially ineligible recipients." The Post adds, "Among the potentially fraudulent transactions detailed in the report are $1.9 million in pending SBA transactions made to accounts outside the United States, roughly 3,000 'suspicious' transactions worth $73 million that were flagged by a banking service provider." A credit union informed the Justice Department that of the 60 SBA deposits it received, 59 seemed to be fraudulent. The inspector general said, "We are alarmed by these reports, but they are consistent with our investigations, which indicate pervasive fraudulent activity." The report included a response from Carranza, who "said the findings were 'unexpected" and challenged the contention that the SBA did not put appropriate internal controls in place. Said Carranza, "The reality is that SBA has developed and implemented a comprehensive, rigorous, end-to-end infrastructure to reduce the risk of fraud in the EIDL COVID program." The Hill (7/28, Moreno, 2.98M) says, "According to the report, nine financial institutions have reported a combined total of $187.3 million in suspected fraudulent transactions through the program." Meanwhile, the New York Times (7/28, Cowley, 18.61M) says the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program "offers eligible companies low-interest loans and small grants." In contrast to the Paycheck Protection Program, "the disaster program does not rely on banks to vet applicants and issue loans." Ware "recommended 'immediate action and attention' to prevent further losses." The Times adds that Ware "identified one especially glaring shortfall: The S.B.A. has no formal process for working with financial institutions to review possible fraud cases." CYBER DIVISION Republicans Raise Concerns TikTok Could Be Used By Chinese Government Interfere In Elections. The Hill (7/28, Miller, 2.98M) reports a group of Republican senators "led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R- AR) on Tuesday raised concerns that popular social media app TikTok could be used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to spread disinformation around US elections." The lawmakers - who also "included Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Rick Scott (R-FL) - wrote to the FBI, the DHS and ODNI raising concerns that EFTA00135688 the app could be used by China to interfere in American elections." Cotton and his colleagues wrote, "TikTok has become a popular forum for Americans - particularly younger Americans - to engage in political conversations. I'm greatly concerned that the CCP could use its control over TikTok to distort or manipulate these conversations to sow discord among Americans and to achieve its preferred political outcomes." The Washington Fxaminer (7/28, Neale, 448K) reports the senators "asked each agency what sort of punishment could be leveled if the app is used in disinformation campaigns during election cycles." Reuters (7/28, Alper) reports a spokesperson for the company "said that TikTok, though not a 'go-to' for political news, was 'proactively investing to safeguard our app,' and taking cues from the experience of peers during the last election." The person said, "TikTok already has a strict policy against disinformation, and we don't accept political ads," adding that "content and moderation policies are led by a California-based team and aren't 'influenced by any foreign government." Op-Ed: The Cyberattack On Garmin Poses A Complicated Question For The US Government. In a commentary in Slate (7/28, 1.58M), Josephine Wolff writes, "What really made the Garmin attack interesting...was the test it posed to the US government's ongoing attempts to crack down on Russian cybercrime organizations. The ransomware that infected Garmin's systems appeared to be a program called WastedLocker...by the Russian cybercrime group known as Evil Corp. In late 2019, the US Treasury's OFAC announced sanctions against Evil Corp, which prohibited US individuals and firms from engaging in any transactions with them." Wolff concludes, "The Treasury Department would now investigate what happened with Garmin and penalize the company if, in fact, it did authorize any ransom payment. But the government may be understandably wary of appearing to bully a company that has already suffered considerable losses. If, however, Garmin faces no investigation into what happened then the government will be sending a clear signal to all other cybercrime victims that its sanctions were never more than a symbolic gesture." Chinese Hackers Infiltrated Vatican Network. The New York Times (7/28, Sanger, Wong, Horowitz, 18.61M) reports Chinese hackers "infiltrated the Vatican's computer networks in the past three months, a private monitoring group has concluded, in an apparent espionage effort before the beginning of sensitive negotiations with Beijing." While "Chinese hackers and state authorities have often used cyberattacks to try to gather information on groups of Buddhist Tibetans, Muslim Uighurs and Falun Gong practitioners outside China," the Times says this "appears to be the first time" they "have been publicly caught directly hacking into the Vatican and the Holy See's Study Mission to China." Foreign Hackers Exploit Pandemic. Forbes (7/28, Fisher, 9.71M)reports the cybercrime risks "faced by Americans working from home are just the tip of a very dangerous cyberattack iceberg." Strong evidence indicates that "Russia, China and potentially other adversaries have been attempting to hack universities and research institution's databases to steal potentially lifesaving Covid-19-related intellectual property." With millions of lives and trillions of dollars at stake, the US "is in a dangerous place when it comes to vulnerabilities associated with the pandemic." To understand just what we're facing, Forbes interviewed Bryan Cunningham, long-time cybersecurity and privacy lawyer and Founding Executive Director of the University of California, Irvine Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, about "exactly what's going on, what the focus should be, and what precautions Americans should be taking." Op-Ed: In An Evaporating OODA Loop, Time Is Of The Essence. In a commentary in C4ISR & Networks (7/28), Jan Kallberg, a research scientist at the Army Cyber Institute at West Point, writes, "Both the accelerated execution of cyberattacks and an increased ability to, at machine speed, identify vulnerabilities for exploitation compress the time window that cybersecurity management has to address unfolding events. ... It is time to face the EFTA00135689 issue of accelerated cyber engagements." Kallberg raises "the 'observe, orient, decide, act' loop and the utility of the OODA concept for cybersecurity. The CODA loop resurfaces in cybersecurity and information security managerial approaches as a structured way to address unfolding events." Kallberg condudes, "I have no intention of being a narrative impossibilist, who presents challenges with no solutions, so the current way forward is pre-authorizations. In the near future, the human ability to play an active role in rapid engagement will be supported by artificial intelligence decision-making that executes the tactical movements." Langevin Calls Hill Oversight On Cyber "Absolutely Essential." MeriTalk (7/28, Weingarten) reports Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) - one of the pioneering policy voices in Congress on cybersecurity issues - "told MeriTalk in an exclusive interview that legislative oversight of Federal government actions in the cybersecurity arena remains 'absolutely essential." Rep. Langevin, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities, said, "I do believe that congressional oversight here is absolutely essential. It's really important." The congressman, "who co-founded the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus in 2008 with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), "talked about a range of a pending legislative and policy issues in a wide-ranging interview on July 24." Asked about a July 15 Yahoo News report that "said the CIA has received White House clearance to conduct offensive cyber operations, Rep. Langevin said, "I can't comment on that since I have not been briefed on that." He added, "I can neither confirm nor deny that such a program exists." US Government Issues Warning To Critical Infrastructure Providers. 1360 Gov (7/28) reports the US government on Thursday "issued a cybersecurity alert to operators of critical infrastructure, outlining 'immediate actions' that should be taken during a 'time of heightened tensions' to avoid being compromised by a cyberattack." Recommendations include "disconnecting from the Internet any operational systems that do not need connectivity for safe and reliable operations, and planning for 'continued manual process operations' should the industrial control systems (ICS) become unavailable or need to be deactivated due to hostile takeover." Security experts "say it is significant that NSA joined DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on the alert, and that the alert was not related to a specific incident." They "said the warning could be a nod to tensions with several adversaries of the US, including Russia, China and Iran." US Army Cyber Chief Outlines Ten-year Plan For Information Warfare. C4ISR & Networks (7/28, Pomerleau) reports the US Army's top cyber general "has described three phases that will prepare the service for information warfare over the next decade." Appearing in a special edition of the Cyber Defense Review, Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, commander of Army Cyber Command, "provided a road map for where his organization is headed." Fogarty "sketched out three phases Army Cyber Command will undertake over the next 10 years, with the first reaching out to mid-2021." By that time, the command "hopes to realize the initial builds of new programs and formations, many of which have already been underway for some time." The main effort is "the migration of ARCYBER's headquarters from Fort Belvoir, Virginia, to Fort Gordon, Georgia." The command "uncased the colors at its new state-of-the-art headquarters attached to NSA's Georgia division in a brief July 24 ceremony." Lindy Cameron Named New Head Of GCHQ Cyber Security Agency. The Independent (UKI (7/28, Sengupta, 1.36M) reports a civil servant who "has served in conflict zones including Afghanistan and Iraq, and has worked in the international development field, will be taking over as the head of one of Britain's cyber intelligence agencies." Lindy Cameron "will replace Ciaran Martin as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ." She joins the NCSC "from the Northern Ireland Office where she was deputy head to the Permanent Secretary, Sir Jonathan Evans." She had previously "served as the Director-General in charge of the Department for International Development (Dfld) programmes in Asia, Africa and the Middle East." Cameron, a "graduate of the Ministry of Defence's Royal EFTA00135690 College of Defence Studies (RCDS) served in Baghdad and Kabul for Dfid, and Helmand for the Foreign Office at particularly violent times in both conflicts." Security Magazine (7/28) reports Cameron will lead the "UK's principal technical authority on cybersecurity." Her role will include "overseeing the organization's response to hundreds of cyber incidents each year, improving the cyber resilience of the UK's critical national infrastructure, identifying the risks and opportunities for the UK in emerging technologies and leading the NCSC's ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic." LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES Democrats Investigating Administration Decision To Lift Ban On Some Firearm Silencer Sales. The New York Times (7/28, Vogel, 18.61M) reports House Democrats said Tuesday they are "investigating the Trump administration's decision to lift a ban on firearm silencer sales to foreign private buyers that had been enacted to prevent the devices from being used against American troops." The Times says Democrats are looking into "the involvement of Michael B. Williams, a White House lawyer" who worked for two years as general counsel of the American Suppressor Association, which "had lobbied to overturn the ban." The removal of the ban "pav[ed] the way for as much as $250 million a year in possible new foreign sales for companies that Mr. Williams had championed." Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee's subcommittee on national security issues, "sent a letter Tuesday to the White House budget office requesting documents related to the move, and Mr. Williams's role in pushing it." WPost: Federal Consent Decree Needed To Fix Alabama's "Grotesque" Prisons. In an editorial, the Washington Post (7/28, 14.2M) condemns Alabama's state prisons for male convicts as "overcrowded, understaffed, grotesque chambers of horrors where beatings, rapes and suicides are commonplace and systematically underreported." The Post condemns the state's "sluggish at best" reform efforts, warning, "The culture of mismanagement and violence is too entrenched, and the corrections department lacks basic accountability policies." The Post says that state Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) "is demonstrably less interested in fixing the prisons than in grandstanding," exemplifying how that state government is "incapable of tackling a breakdown in its basic obligation to provide decent, safe prisons." The Post argues that that "what may be the nation's most mismanaged, inhumane and blood-soaked prison system" will only be fixed by "a no-nonsense consent decree, overseen by a federal court." OTHER FBI NEWS Lawmakers Object To FBI HQ Funding In Coronavirus Bill. The Hill (7/28, Bolton, 2.98M) reports, "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says he wants the $1.75 billion in funding for a new FBI headquarters in downtown Washington removed from the GOP's coronavirus relief package." The Hill adds, "Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, McConnell said he hopes that provision and other 'non-germane' items will be removed from the legislation before it's sent to President Trump's desk. 'I am opposed to non-germane amendments, whether it's funding for the FBI building or, for example, in the House bill, whether it's a tax cut for high-income earners in blue states or other non-germane amendments in the House bill like marijuana studies or aid to illegal immigrants,' McConnell told reporters after GOP senators met for lunch with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who are involved in negotiations with congressional Democrats on the COVID-19 package." The Washington Post (7/28, Daly, 14.2M) reports, "McConnell told reporters he opposes inclusion of the FBI money and all other measures not related to the government's response to the virus. 'When we get to the end of the process, I would hope all of the non-COVID-related measures are out,' McConnell said. 'No matter what bills they were in at the start." McConnell's EFTA00135691 comments "came after Democrats accused Trump of self-dealing with his push on the FBI building, which sits across the street from a downtown hotel that Trump owns on Pennsylvania Avenue, blocks from the White House. The Trump International Hotel could face competition if the FBI moves from the site and another hotel is developed on the property." The Post adds, "Before running for office, Trump expressed interest in redeveloping the FBI property himself, and he has taken a strong personal interest in the effort to rebuild the headquarters." The New Ynrk Time (7/28, Rogers, Cochrane, 18.61M) reports that McConnell "looked startled on Monday when first asked why Republicans had agreed to a White House demand that $1.75 billion for a new F.B.I. building be tucked into their emergency coronavirus relief bill," and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) "the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, framed the item as a Trump administration priority, not a Republican one. Other Republicans were more blunt. 'I don't know - that makes no sense to me' said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally of President Trump's. 'I'd be fine, OK, with stripping it out." The Times adds, "By Tuesday afternoon, another chapter in Mr. Trump's long, strange and, to his critics, ethically questionable odyssey to personally shape the future of the J. Edgar Hoover Building seemed headed to a close as Republicans distanced themselves from key elements of their own coronavirus relief bill." USA Today (7/28, King, Bailey, 10.31M) reports, "White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Capitol Hill that a new headquarters is a 'pressing need.' While he defended its indusion, Meadows said it won't be an obstacle to passage of another relief bill. 'There are a number of things in the last bill that had nothing to do with the coronavirus,' he said. 'I think everybody acknowledges that it's a funding mechanism. And I don't see it standing in the way of us getting a deal." NBC Newc (7/28, Caldwell, 6.14M) reports, "A new FBI headquarters has been in the works for more than a decade and was slated to move from its current downtown location to a yet-to-be determined site in the Washington suburbs of Maryland or Virginia." The "plans to move the headquarters were abruptly scuttled but an Inspector General report that found that top officials at the General Services Administration, which oversaw the selection of the new headquarters, met with the president multiple times, misrepresented the cost of rebuilding on the current FBI site and misled Congress about the project. Critics say the president was concerned about an abandoned FBI building at the current location that could be transitioned into a commercial venture and provide competition for his hotel." CNN (7/28, Foran, Barrett, 83.16M) reports, "A number of Senate Republicans have expressed opposition to the provision and Republicans pushed administration officials Tuesday during their private lunch as to why the money was included in the bill, which members argued wasn't even related to coronavirus." The AP (7/28, Daly) reports, "Before running for office, Trump expressed interest in redeveloping the FBI property himself, and he has taken a strong personal interest in the effort to rebuild the headquarters. 'They don't have money for food stamps, but they have money for an FBI building just so that they can diminish competition for the president's hotel,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday night. 'More than 150,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, millions are unemployed ... and Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are more concerned about protecting Trump Hotel. That is shameful,' said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va." Also reporting are NPR (7/28, Snell, 3.12M), Federal News Network (7/28, Heckman, 220), the Wall Street Journal (7/28, Parti, Wise, Subscription Publication, 7.57M), The Hill. (7/28, Carney, 2.98M), and Bloomberg (7/28, House, Litvan, 4.73M). Judge Says Finicum Lawsuit Against Oregon Authorities May Proceed, But Not Against FBI. The Oregonian (7/28, Bernstein, 1M) reports, "A wrongful death civil suit can proceed against the Oregon State Police stemming from the 2016 fatal shooting of refuge occupation spokesman Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum, but allegations against the FBI, federal Bureau of Land Management, Oregon's governor and Harney County should be thrown out, a federal judge has recommended." US Magistrate Judge Patricia Sullivan "made the findings in a 73-page ruling that now goes before a district judge, who can accept the findings, reject them or issue a separate decision." Jeanette EFTA00135692 Finicum "filed the lawsuit against the FBI, Oregon State Police, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and others in the fatal shooting of her 54-old husband, a rancher from Arizona who became the spokesman for the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon." The AE (7/28) reports from Portland, Oregon, "A federal district judge now must decide whether to accept, reject or modify Sullivan's recommendation." Finicum "was shot in Jan. 2016 by state police officers after he fled an attempted police stop while he and other occupation leaders were heading to a meeting in a neighboring county. Law enforcement officers used a road block to stop his vehicle, and police said Finicum had reached inside his jacket for a gun when he was shot. Jeanette Finicum's lawsuit contends he was shot 'assassination style' by improperly trained `militarized officers of the Oregon State Police and/or FBI' as he was trying to drive to the neighboring county to seek the protection of Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer. Jeaneatte Finicum also said in the lawsuit that Gov. Kate Brown was also responsible for her husband's death in part by authorizing the participation of state police and the police stop." OTHER WASHINGTON NEWS White House Task Force Now Lists 21 States In "Red Zone." The New York Timec (7/28, 18.61M) says "a new federal report found that the number of states with outbreaks serious enough to place them in the 'red zone' had grown to 21, and urged officials in them to impose more restrictions." The 21 states "were placed there because they had more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people in the past week. Three more states were added to the most serious category since a similar report dated July 14: Missouri, North Dakota and Wisconsin." The findings in the new report, "which contained profiles of each state, were sent to state officials by the White House Coronavirus Task Force." ow(7/28, Higgins-Dunn, 3.62M) reports on its website that on Tuesday, NIAID Director Fauci said there are "early signs that a coronavirus outbreak could be brewing in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky. The so-called positivity rate, or the percentage of tests run that are positive, appears to be rising in those states - an early indication that the outbreak is worsening, Fauci said. ... 'That's a surefire sign that you've got to be really careful," Fauci told ABC. Norah O'Donnell said on the SIRS Fvening Newc (7/28, lead story, 4:40, 4.37M) reported, "With the death toll from coronavirus dosing in on 150,000 Americans, it now appears the outbreak is growing so rapidly nationwide, nearly half of all states are in what the White House calls the 'red zone." David Muir said on ABC World News Tonight (7/28, lead story, 4:40, 7.32M), "As they continue to battle the virus in the South, there are early indicators tonight it might be reappearing in some states in the North. The death toll continues to climb, more than 148,000 lives lost in the US, and a grim new report from Florida: a record 191 deaths in just 24 hours, more than 9,000 more positive cases." Lester Holt said in opening NBC Nightly News (7/28, lead story, 2:55, 6.05M), "It was just over three months ago President Trump predicted the US would lose 50 to 60,000 people from coronavirus. He wasn't even close. Tonight, the death toll has climbed over 150,000." The Washington Post (7/28, Morello, 14.2M) reports, "As new coronavirus infections appeared to plateau in the Sun Belt but creep up in the Midwest, governors and local authorities imposed additional restrictions Tuesday." The Wall Street Journal (7/28, Mann, Prang, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) reports that states in the US are examining their own coronavirus indicators when making decisions about reclosing parts of their economies amid the pandemic. States are mostly making decisions on restaurant dining and large social gatherings on their own. NBC Nightly News' (7/28, story 2, 3:00, Holt, 6.05M) reported Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) "is talking about whether a further lockdown is required to arrest a recent surge in COVID cases," while the New York Times (7/28, Sandoval, 18.61M) reports that "in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where a surge of virus cases has set off a flood of deaths this month, funeral homes - like hospitals - are overloaded and struggling to carry out basic services and keep up with the expanding crisis." EFTA00135693 Pence Credits Trump For Vaccine Progress. Vice President Pence said on Fox News' The Story (7/28), "A vaccine usually takes years to develop, but what President Trump did early on was to say we need to clear any red tape barriers." He added, "We have great confidence that by this fall we will have a vaccine. The really exciting thing is that under Operation Warp Speed, we are literally producing those vaccines right now." FDA Commissioner Hahn said on WIOD-FM Miami (7/28, 439), "I think if everything broke right, the timetable by end of this year, early next year could be met." Asked about speculation that the Administration is trying to rush a vaccine to influence the presidential election, Hahn said, "I want to assure the American people this is being done with the utmost scientific and medical rigor. ... We have world-class scientists at the FDA, the best in the world. They are not...going to do anything than use the best judgment around the science and the data." CDC Director Redfield said on KOCO-TV Oklahoma City (7/28, 33K), "The countermeasure of a vaccine is on the horizon. You heard this week we had two large Phase 3 trials begin. Next week, I think there will be a third. We are on a very rapid pace to develop a vaccine. I think it is reasonable that we may have an approved vaccine before the end of this year." Moderna Tests Vaccine In Monkeys. The New York Times (7/28, Grady, 18.61M) reports monkeys given the Moderna coronavirus vaccine "and then deliberately infected were able to fight off the virus, quickly clearing it from their lungs, researchers reported on Tuesday." The findings "do not guarantee that the vaccine will perform the same way in people, but the results are considered encouraging and a milestone in the struggle against the pandemic." Azar Says US Performing 800K Tests Per Day. HHS Secretary Azar said on KLIF-AM Dallas (7/28, 2K), "On testing, we are now doing 800,000 tests a day in the United States. That is what all of these public health experts were talking about, the talking heads on TV, back many months ago, saying was the ultimate goal. We are now there. We would like to see faster turnaround on it." HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir said on WTAM-AM Cleveland (7/28, 12K), "About half the results on that we have in your state and every other state are either point- of-care, meaning 15 minutes or so done like in a local hospital, which is generally within one shift or 24 hours. It is the big commercial labs that have started to get backed up. ... We are trying to get that down, particularly in nursing home." Giroir was also interviewed on WIBC-FM Indianapolis (7/28, 6K). Wilkie: VA Nursing Homes Have Just Two Current COVID Cases. WJHL-TV Johnson City, TN (7/28, 41K) reported that according to VA Secretary Wilkie, "the number of patients in VA nursing homes nationwide who currently have the virus can be counted on one hand." Wilkie: "We have two veterans who are positive in our nursing homes out of 7,500. That's because we took emergency measures early on." Birx Meets With Virginia Officials About Coronavirus Mitigation. WWBT-TV Richmond, VA (7/28, 29K) reported White House Coronavirus Task Force Response Coordinator Deborah Birx visited Richmond Tuesday to meet with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and state health officials. Birx "gave some recommendations to possibly help mitigate this upward trend in numbers. Among those recommendations: 100% mask wearing by everyone in public. She also suggested that Virginians avoid going to bars and limiting groups to 10 or less." WTVR-TV Richmond, VA (7/28, 24K) reported that Birx "also touched on ways to improve test turnaround times, which can sometimes take more than a week." Birx: "Many tests have moved toward the South to provide more rapid diagnosis in their critical situation. I think though we do need incredibly additional help from our university structure." WRIC-TV Richmond (VA)'s 8 News at 6PM (7/28, 54K) reported that Northam "is taking [Birx's] advice, but not all of it." Birx "told the governor to go further to prevent the kind of surges we're seeing in other states." Birx: "What always worries me is if there are people who have gone EFTA00135694 to the Virginia Beach area or the Portsmouth area or the Hampton area and unknowingly bring that virus back." Kodak Lands $765M Federal Loan For Pharmaceutical Manufacture. USA Today (7/28, Fritze, Subramanian, 10.31M) reports President Trump "returned to the briefing room Tuesday to tout his administration's deal with camera company Kodak to manufacture pharmaceuticals." The Wall Street Journal (7/28, Levy, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) reports Kodak has been awarded a $765 million government loan through the Defense Production Act, to help improve domestic production of drugs to treat a variety of medical conditions and decrease US dependence on foreign supply chains. The company is preparing to develop ingredients for generic drugs as the US seeks to shift its reliance from countries like China and India. The official White House Twitter account said, "We are building the greatest medical arsenal in history!" The Washington Examiner (7/28, Doyle, 448K) reports, "A new division, Kodak Pharmaceuticals, is expected to create 350 jobs, senior administration officials said during a call with reporters Tuesday." The Washington Timec (7/28, Howell, 492K) says Trump "has made domestic manufacturing one of the linchpins of his agenda. However, the pandemic exposed the extent to which the U.S. still relies on China, India and other countries with lax labor and environmental standards to produce its goods, medicines and health supplies." Appearing on Fox Business' Mornings With Maria (7/28), Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Navarro said, "This project with Kodak is going to be amazing. And it started with the President months ago telling my office, 'Hey, we need to bring those supply chains back.' And then he made a critical creative decision, when he signed an executive order that enabled the Development Finance Corporation...to figure out ways to finance bringing those supply chains home." WROC-TV Rochester, NY (7/28, 24K) reported that Navarro "says this will help with American pharmaceutical independence." WHEC-TV Rochester, NY (7/28, 26K) showed Navarro saying, "And by the way, raise wages in the process because we'll be more productive. That's the beauty of the American Way here." Twitter Removes Trump Retweet Of Video With Controversial COVID Claims. David Muir said on ABC World News Tonight (7/28, story 2, 3:45, 7.32M) that President Trump is "under fire for sending mixed messages about the virus. [After] several days last week, telling Americans, wear a mask, that they work, they should social distance," Trump then retweeted "a video of a controversial doctor overnight." ABC's Jonathan Karl: "Trump is once again downplaying the COVID-19 threat and hyping a discredited treatment." Trump: "Many doctors think it is extremely successful, the hydroxychloroquine." Karl: "This after the President again used his Twitter account to spread misinformation, tweeting video of a doctor denouncing the use of masks and promoting hydroxychloroquine, the controversial anti-malaria drug the President's top health officials have warned is ineffective and potentially dangerous as a COVID-19 treatment. That doctor, who was only licensed to practice medicine in Texas last November, has a history of outrageous statements, such as saying health problems can be caused by demons." Norah O'Donnell said on the CBS Evening News (7/28, story 2, 2:00, 4.37M), "In an extraordinary move, the three most powerful social media companies effectively censored videos shared by President Trump because it promoted false and misleading claims about COVID-19. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have labeled false information in the past. This time, they deleted the video, but not before it was seen on Facebook at least 14 million times." Peter Alexander reported on NBC Nightly Newc (7/28, story 4, 1:45, Holt, 6.05M), "In the clip, a Houston doctor, who has pushed conspiracy theories and blamed some medical issues on demon spirits, aggressively promotes hydroxychloroquine as part of a COVID cure. ... She's also made videos saying that doctors make medicine using DNA from aliens." Trump: "I can tell you this, she was on air along with many other doctors. They were big fans of hydroxychloroquine. But I know nothing about her." The ,SE (7/28, Seitz) reports that "many Republicans reacted with outrage, filling social media with cries of 'censorship,' after Donald Trump Jr.'s account was put on a timeout for sharing the EFTA00135695 video, which was viewed millions of times online in a matter of hours, reaching the president himself, before Facebook, Twitter and YouTube banned it." The AP adds, "Because it spread misinformation about treating the coronavirus, Twitter required Trump Jr. take down the video and put his account on a 12-hour timeout, a Twitter spokesman confirmed Tuesday." The Washington Post (7/28, Shepherd, 14.2M) reports that Donald Trump Jr. spokesman Andy Surabian "said the restriction was 'further proof that Big Tech is intent on killing free expression online and is another instance of them committing election interference to stifle Republican voices." Politico (7/28, Forgey, 4.29M) reports that on Tuesday, NIAID Director Fauci "dismissed dubious medical advice" the President "shared on Twitter the previous evening, vowing to continue in his role as the country's top infectious disease expert despite a new salvo of attacks from the White House." Fauci said, "The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in [treating] coronavirus disease "Bloomberg (7/28, Parker, Wagner, 4.73M) and Reiiterc (7/28, Culliford) also report. Biden Says Trump "Has Been Lying To You." Mary Bruce reported on ABC World News Tonight (7/28, story 3, 2:20, Muir, 7.32M), "As President Trump spreads misinformation on the pandemic, Joe Biden today said the country can't fight the virus if they can't trust the President." Biden: "People are losing faith in what the President says. And if a President repeatedly says things to you that are not true and then there comes a time when they say, 'I have something that I think can cure you, but it could really hurt you,' you're not going to listen to the guy who has been lying to you." NBC Nightly News (7/28, story 5, 0:45, Holt, 6.05M) showed a clip of Biden saying, "To change the tone over the last few days, as Trump has, doesn't change the facts of the last four years. President Trump faces a real test, and he's failed it." Politico Analysis: Trump Reverts To "Typical Behavior" After Briefly Staying On Message. A Politico (7/28, McGraw, 4.29M) analysis says that although President Trump "was more willing to stick to a script, temporarily eschewed some of his more fact-challenged medical statements and kept many of answers to reporters' questions uncharacteristically succinct," over the past week, his "more typical behavior is starting to show through." Trump has, in the last day, "again chided governors who were slowing economic reopenings amid a nationwide coronavirus surge, and he returned to promoting flawed information about hydroxychloroquine, MAGA world's preferred Covid-19 drug, even as top public health officials debate its efficacy." Politico says the "swinging pendulum of Trump's tone represents the latest instance of Trump pulling back on his frequent tactics - pushing evidence-deficient claims, interweaving political attacks with policy announcements - only to revert within days." WPost Analysis: Trump One Factor In Nation's "Fraught Relationship With Masks." The Washington Post (7/28, Witte, Cha, Dawsey, 14.2M) looks at the nation's "fraught relationship with masks," writing that "faulty guidance from health authorities, a cultural aversion to masks and a deeply polarized politics have all contributed" to skepticism, as has "a president who resisted role modeling the benefits of face coverings, and who belittled those who did. The result, experts say, is a country that squandered one of its best opportunities to beat back the coronavirus pandemic this spring and summer." The Wall Street Journal (7/28, Hufford, Williams, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) runs a feature titled "How Face Masks Work And Which Types Offer The Best Covid-19 Protection." Transportation Unions Seek Mandate Mask Requirements On Planes, Buses, Trains. The Washington Post (7/28, Duncan, 14.2M) reports the Transportation Trades Department, a coalition of 33 unions, formally asked the Transportation Department this week "to issue an emergency rule ordering passengers to wear masks on planes, buses and trains or be denied a ride." Politico Analysis: Pandemic Is Pushing Biden, Democrats To Left On Healthcare. EFTA00135696 Politico (7/28, Ollstein, 4.29M) reports in an analysis that the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting "economic devastation...are pushing Joe Biden and the Democratic Party further to the left on health care," it "may not be far enough for some progressives." Politico says Biden is "inching closer to the Bernie Sanders wing of the party without embracing 'Medicare for All,' by proposing to lower the eligibility age of the entitlement program from 65 to 60 and potentially extend government coverage to an additional 23 million people." In addition, Biden is "backing a robust government-run public health insurance option that would auto-enroll low-income people who lose their jobs and provide another choice for Americans covered under Obamacare or at their job." Politico says the proposals "could tamp down the kind of infighting that roiled Democrats in the leadup to 2008 and 2016 elections," but "they come as emboldened progressives" are demanding the party embrace "Medicare for All" in its platform. Third Church Will Take Challenge To State Worship Restrictions To Supreme Court. The Washington Examiner (7/28, Rowan, 448K) reports that Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Chicago "on Tuesday announced its intentions to appeal to the Supreme Court, following an unfavorable ruling from an Illinois federal appeals court upholding Gov. J.B. Pritzker's worship ban." The church "has been embroiled in a legal war with Chicago and the state of Illinois since early May when it began opposing the 10-person limit on in-person services." If the Supreme Court accepts the case, it will be "the first coronavirus church closure case to reach the highest court." The Court "has rejected two emergency injunctions filed by churches in California and Nevada" since May. Future Of MLB Season In Doubt Amid COVID Outbreak. NBC Nightly News (7/28, story 11, 1:20, Holt, 6.05M) reported that the new Major League Baseball season's future "is already in doubt." NBC (Brock) added that the league announced Tuesday that "the Miami Marlins' games are postponed through Sunday, after four more players tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total to 15 since opening day, or roughly half the team's traveling roster. ... The league says its positivity rate through last Thursday is below 1%, as it tries to keep an infectious disease from stopping sports." Many Colleges Changing Plans For Fall. The Wall Street Journal (7/28, Al, Belkin, Korn, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) reports that with many colleges and universities expected to begin classes in the next few weeks, many schools are still developing plans for the fall semester. The Journal reports that many schools had planned to reopen their campuses to students, but are now shifting to online classes. CES 2021 To Be A Digital-Only Event. CNBC (7/28, Haselton, 3.62M) reports on its website that on Tuesday, the Consumer Technology Association announced that January's CES 2021 "will be a digital-only event due to ongoing concerns about the spread of coronavirus." According to CNBC, CES is "the biggest tech show of the year, and it's where major companies like LG, Samsung and others, often show off new products ranging from televisions to refrigerators." The AP (7/28, Pisani) reports that the decision is "a reversal from May when organizers said it would go on as a smaller gathering in Las Vegas." New York Paramedic Describes Impact Working During Pandemic Has Had On Him. NBC Nightly News (7/28, story 3, 2:20, Holt, 6.05M) reported on a paramedic in New York who "has a cautionary tale for the rest of the country." NBC's Stephanie Gosk added, "In early April, paramedics in Yonkers were getting nearly 700 calls a day, double the normal volume." Paramedic A.J. Briones: "Saying that we cannot be affected by the things that we see is like saying we can walk on water and not get wet. As long as you do the right thing, death never takes a patient from me. He always has to fight me for it. The rest of the country is starting to have spikes. So areas like Florida and Texas now have huge numbers and are going through what we went through in March and April. You'll have moments when you're questioning your own abilities and perhaps EFTA00135697 your sanity. But you'll rise." WSJournal Responds To Senators' Criticism Of Meat Processing Facilities. The Wall Street Journal (7/28, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) says in an editorial that Smithfield Foods and other meat processing facilities are doing their best to operate safely amid the coronavirus pandemic, and says criticism by Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D- MA) may score political points but ignores reality. Administration To Reject All New DACA Applications. Reuters (7/28, Holland) reports the Administration, "bolstering" the President's "tough immigration stance in an election year, said on Tuesday it will reject any new applications for the so-called 'Dreamer' immigrant program and shorten the deportation protections of those whose eligibility is soon to expire and needs renewal." Reuters adds "a senior administration official said there would be a lengthy review of a Supreme Court ruling last month that found the administration had erred in the way that it had decided to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, in which some 644,000 immigrants are enrolled. ... The administration plans to continue its existing policy of not accepting new DACA applicants, a policy in place since 2017, the official told Reuters," but "will extend the eligibility by a year for those DACA immigrants whose protection from deportation was due to expire, as long as they do not have a criminal record." The Washington TiMPc (7/28, Al, Dinan, 492K) notes a "senior administration official" said, "The administration is now undertaking a comprehensive review of the DACA program and the justifications that have been offered for winding DACA down, including its legality." Along those lines, to the New Ynrk Times (7/28, Shear, Kanno-Youngs, 18.61M), "President Trump will not try again to immediately terminate President Barack Obama's program that protects young undocumented immigrants," and instead "officials said that the administration would conduct a 'comprehensive review' of the program." The Washington Examiner (7/28, Crilly, 448K) quotes the "senior administration official" as saying, "The Administration was obviously very disappointed in Chief Justice Roberts' decision at the Supreme Court a few weeks back." The New Ynrk Pact (7/28, Nelson, 4.57M) says "the White House announced the decision in a Tuesday call with reporters" and the AP (7/28, Miller, Colvin) that "a White House official confirmed the announcement Tuesday," while the Fox News (7/28, Shaw, 27.59M) website quotes DHS Secretary Wolf as saying, "As the Department continues looking at the policy and considers future action, the fact remains that Congress should act on this matter. ... There are important policy reasons that may warrant the full rescission of the DACA policy." USA Today (7/28, Fritze, Jackson, 10.31M) reports "critics called the administration's review an attempt to limit the program, despite the Supreme Court's decision last month that the administration erred in striking it down in the first place." White House "officials," meanwhile, "acknowledged Tuesday that they expected the move will ultimately face additional legal challenges." Politico (7/28, Choi, 4.29M) runs a similar story under the headline "Trump Administration Rejects New DACA Applications As It Works To End Program," while the Wall Street Journal (7/28, Kendall, Hackman, Subscription Publication, 7.57M), jvlcClatchy (7/28, Wilner, 19K), The Hill. (7/28, Samuels, Chalfant, 2.98M), and Breithart (7/28, Munro, 673K), among other news outlets, also cover the story. Trump Calls Senate GOP Coronavirus Bill "Sort Of Semi-Irrelevant." The Washington Pact (7/28, Al, Werner, Kim, Stein, 14.2M) reports President Trump "brushed off the new $1 trillion Senate GOP coronavirus legislation as 'sort of semi-irrelevant' Tuesday, dismissing its significance just a day after Senate Republican leaders overcame contentious internal divisions to roll it out." The Post writes, "If the wheels were not entirely off Tuesday, negotiations were not off to a great start." Democrats accused Senate Majority Leader McConnell "of not wanting a deal at all, while one Republican senator called the new GOP bill 'a mess." Reuters (7/28, Morgan, Zengerle) reports Trump "told reporters that there were aspects of the bill hammered out with fellow Republicans and unveiled on Monday that he did not like. Trump did not elaborate." McConnell "said he opposed 'non-germane' add-ons in the plan, including a EFTA00135698 provision to fund a new FBI building that the White House had insisted upon and is not related to coronavirus aid." According to the AP (7/28, Mascaro), "The differences over the next coronavirus aid package are vast: Democrats propose $3 trillion in relief and Republicans have a $1 trillion counteroffer. At stake are millions of Americans' jobless benefits, school reopenings and eviction protections." The AP adds that it is "apparent" that Democrats have the "leverage," and says Republicans are "so deeply divided over the prospect of big government spending it's leaving [McConnell] with a weakened hand." Politico (7/28, Desiderio, Levine, Caygle, 4.29M) reports Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, "It's a mess. I can't figure out what this bill is about. I don't know what we're trying to accomplish with it." Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) "spoke up about the lack of amendments and the legislative process," and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), "who opposes a new coronavirus relief measure altogether, stormed out of the lunch meeting early and harangued his colleagues over the $1 trillion price tag, which is almost certain to rise during a negotiation with Democrats." CNBC (7/28, Pramuk, 3.62M) reports on its website that Senate Minority Leader Schumer said on Tuesday, "Unfortunately, we're pretty far apart right now, although I'm optimistic we could have a good solution at the end." CNBC says that when "asked if the sides could reach a deal before the end of next week, [Schumer] said: 'I hope so, and that's what we're working for. We'll sit down. We're going to sit down again today. We'll sit down 24/77 The New York Times (7/28, Cochrane, 18.61M) reports that House Speaker Pelosi "has said that she plans to fight for even more funding, particularly for schools, in negotiations with Republicans," but McConnell "has warned against letting the price tag rise beyond $1 trillion, particularly as many Republicans question the merits of approving any additional aid." The Washington Times (7/28, Munoz, 492K) also covers the comments by Schumer and Pelosi, while The Hilt (7/28, Lillis, 2.98M) reports House Majority Leader Hoyer said Democrats "are not insisting that $600 federal unemployment payments be induded in the massive coronavirus relief package under negotiation between the two parties." Hoyer told CNN, "It's not $600 or bust. Speaker Pelosi said the other day, which I thought was a great line: 'We don't have red lines, we have values. And we're going into these negotiations with values.'" The Wall Street Journal (7/28, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) looks at how the Democratic and GOP plans compare. GOP Bill Replaces Spending On Defense Programs Canceled To Fund Border Wall. The Washington Post (7/28, Werner, Demirjian, 14.2M) reports that Senate Republicans' "new $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill restores hundreds of millions of dollars in Pentagon spending that the Trump administration redirected to help pay for President Trump's border wall." According to the Post, "Navy planes and ships and Air Force aircraft that the Trump administration canceled earlier this year so the money could go to pay for the wall have reappeared in the GOP bill that was introduced on Monday." House Panel Expected To Question Tech CEOs On Antitrust Issues, Social Media Accountability. The AE (7/28, Gordon) reports Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook, Google's Sundar Pichai, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg will appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, where they "will answer for their companies' practices before Congress for the first time as a group." They will do so "in the manner of tycoons of Wall Street or the tobacco industry in earlier high-octane televised shamings." The panel's hearing "cap[s] its yearlong investigation of Big Tech's market dominance." CNBC (7/28, Feiner, 3.62M) says on its website, "Regardless of how well-practiced the CEOs are when they take the witness stand, their testimonies will offer an important insight: how they are handling antitrust challenges from regulators with the authority to break them up." The Wall Street Journal (7/28, Tracy, McKinnon, Glazer, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) quotes Rep. David Cidlline (D-RI), who chairs the Antitrust Subcommittee, saying, "These platforms have been allowed to run wild and free from really any constraints. The responsibility we have is to make dear what the impacts are of the lack of competition in the digital marketplace." The New York Times (7/28, Kang, Nicas, McCabe, 18.61M) quotes Gigi Sohn, "a former senior EFTA00135699 adviser at the Federal Communications Commission and a fellow at Georgetown University's law school," as saying, "It has the feeling of tech's Big Tobacco moment." The limes says Republicans are "expected to sidetrack discussion with their concerns of liberal bias at the Silicon Valley companies and accusations that conservative voices are censored." The Washington Post (7/28, Zakrzewski, 14.2M) similarly says, "There are signs Republicans intend to raise unproven accusations that tech companies are biased against conservatives." On Monday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) wrote to Attorney General Barr "seeking a Justice Department investigation into whether Mark Zuckerberg lied in his 2018 testimony when he said that Facebook doesn't make content decisions based on political ideology." The New Ynrk limes (7/28, 18.61M) says in an editorial that the hearing "could give the public a rare glimpse into the inner workings of some of the world's most valuable companies. ... The challenge for the subcommittee will be in establishing whether these tech companies - which have amassed immeasurable power - operate as illegal monopolies in certain domains, such as online search (Google), online marketplaces (Amazon), mobile phone app stores (Apple), the dissemination of information (Facebook), advertising sales (Google and Facebook) and mergers and acquisitions." Hawley Bill Links Ad Practices To Content Liability Shield. Reuters (7/28, Bose) reports that on Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced legislation "that would penalize large tech companies that sell or show targeted advertisements by threatening a legal immunity enjoyed by the industry." According to Reuters, "The bill, titled 'Behavioral Advertising Decisions Are Downgrading Services (Bad Ads) Act,' aims to crack down on invasive data gathering by large technology companies such as Facebook and Alphabet's Google that target users based on their behavioral insights." Breitbart Analysis: Google "Interfering" In 2020 Election By Suppressing Breitbart Search Visibility. Breithart (7/28, Bokhari, 673K) reports, "A few days after the 2016 election, at an internal meeting later leaked to Breitbart News, top Google executives, induding Sundar Pichai, Sergey Brin, and Kent Walker, lamented President Trump's victory," likening his "voters to 'extremists' and discussing their desire to make Trump's election and the populist movement a 'blip' in history. True to their word, four years later, Google is deliberately working to interfere with the reelection of Trump in 2020. There are several ways in which Google is interfering in the 2020 election, but this article will focus primarily on one of them: political search bias. Search visibility is a key industry measure of how findable a publisher's content is in Google search. New data shows that Google has suppressed Breitbart's search visibility by 99.7 percent since 2016." VA IG: Breakdown At DC Hospital Preceded Veteran's Suicide. The Washington Post (7/28, Rein, 14.2M) reports that a veteran, "suffering in pain and out of medication, turned last year to the Veterans Affairs' flagship hospital in D.C. for help. Instead of receiving aid," a new report by the VA inspector general released Tuesday said, "a cascade of failures by the medical staff resulted in him being forcibly expelled." He shot and killed himself six days later. The report "revealed not only poor communication and poor judgment by multiple mental health and emergency room staff, but it exposed an insensitive call by the emergency department's attending physician." Senate Democrats Assail Pompeo's Management Of State Department. The Washington Post (7/28, Hudson, 14.2M) reports that in a "scathing report" about Secretary of State Pompeo Tuesday. Senate Democrats criticized his "management of the State Department, decrying the broad vacancies at the agency and high-profile resignations of career officials because of alleged intimidation and retribution campaigns by political appointees." The Post says the report "probably will provide ammunition for liberal lawmakers who are poised to grill Pompeo about his actions during his public appearance before the committee on Thursday." The New Ynrk limes (7/28, Verma, 18.61M) says the report "says Mr. Pompeo's department is rife with what it describes as troubling issues: vacant key department posts, a culture of disrespect toward career staff members and an atmosphere of political retaliation. Democrats say this has hampered the agency's effectiveness in pursuing diplomatic relationships abroad or EFTA00135700 responding to crises like the coronavirus pandemic." DO) Issues Guidance On Awarding Grants To Religious Groups. The Washington Times (7/28, Vondracek) reports the Department of Justice issued new guidance saying that under the Supreme Court's decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the "Office of Justice Programs cannot exclude religious or evangelizing groups from eligibility for grant funding." In the case, the Court held that taxpayer-financed vouchers for education can be used for a Christian school. Census Officials Worry White House Is Pushing To Complete Count Early. The New York Times (7/28, Wines, 18.61M) reports census officials are concerned that the Administration and Senate Republicans "appear to be signaling that they want the census finished well ahead of schedule, pandemic or not." The Times says the Administration "took the Census Bureau by surprise last week," when "it asked the Senate Appropriations Committee to set aside $448 million in the next coronavirus relief package for a 'timely' completion of the census." The request, which "did not define what 'timely' meant," comes "as census workers and former officials say the White House and the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, are asking how the bureau can compress its schedule to wrap up the count of households earlier than expected - perhaps by the end of September. The aim, they say, may be to speed up the delivery of key data for political reapportionment to the president by the end of December." INTERNATIONAL NEWS Pfizer CEO: Other Countries Will Not Pay Less Than US For Vaccine. Reuters (7/28, Mishra, Erman) reports that on Tuesday, Pfizer "said other developed countries would not get a lower price for its coronavirus vaccine than what it will charge the United States under a contract announced last week." Reuters reports that the Trump Administration "agreed to pay nearly $2 billion to buy enough of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and German biotech BioNTech SE to inoculate 50 million people at a price of $39 for a two-dose treatment course." Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla is quoted as saying, "All the countries that are developed right now will not receive a lower price for the same volume commitment than the US." UN Report: Virus-Linked Hunger Causing 10,000 Children To Die Every Month. The AP (7/28, Hinnant, Mednick) reports that across the globe, lockdowns put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus are "pushing already hungry communities over the edge, cutting off meager farms from markets and isolating villages from food and medical aid. Virus-linked hunger is leading to the deaths of 10,000 more children a month over the first year of the pandemic, according to an urgent call to action from the United Nations shared with The Associated Press ahead of its publication in the Lancet medical journal." In addition, "more than 550,000 additional children each month are being struck by what is called wasting, according to the U.N. - malnutrition that manifests in spindly limbs and distended bellies." China Continues To Report Rise In New Cases. The AP (7/28) reports that "new coronavirus cases continue to rise in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, with 57 reported on Tuesday." The AP also says Beijing "reported its first case of domestic transmission in more than two weeks, while the northeastern province of Liaoning added another six cases in its local outbreak. Another four cases were found among Chinese travelers arriving from outside the country, bringing the daily total over the past 24 hours to 68." Hong Kong Sets New Record For Daily Numbers Of New Cases. The Washington Post (7/28, Mahtani, 14.2M) reports that in Hong Kong, recovery "progress has come to a halt, as government missteps and a mutated strain of the coronavirus have led to the most severe wave of infections in [the country] since the onset of the crisis in January." Cases are now "setting new daily records," and "isolation wards are filling up." Until recently, heralded "as a model in the fight EFTA00135701 against coronavirus, Hong Kong is emerging as a cautionary tale." Clinton Administration Official: China Must Be Held Accountable. Jamie Metzl, who served on the National Security Council and in the State Department in the Clinton Administration, writes in the Wall Street Journal (7/28, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) that China much be held accountable for the spread of the novel coronavirus and subsequent cover-up. Defector Who Returned To North Korea Suspected Of Bringing COVID To Nation. The New York Times (7/28, Choe, 18.61M) reports Kim Geum-hyok, who defected to South Korea from the North in 2017, is suspected of bringing C0VID-19 to his hometown of Kaesong earlier this month when he returned. On Monday, police in South Korea "said that before Mr. Kim left, a warrant had been issued for his arrest on a rape accusation." What happened to Kim after he returned to the North "is unknown," but Pyongyang "said Sunday that he was in quarantine," accusing him of creating "the dangerous situation in Kaesong City that may lead to a deadly and destructive disaster." European Countries See "Worrying Rise" In New Coronavirus Cases. The Washington Post (7/28, Morris, Birnbaum, Steinhaus, 14.2M) reports "countries across Europe that had brought their coronavirus outbreaks under control are now seeing a worrying rise in cases, as health officials warn that lax public attitudes are putting the continent on a dangerous trajectory." In fact, "a spike in infections is leading Belgium to ramp up restrictions on social contact, while Spain has closed gyms and nightclubs in Barcelona. In France, the government announced that the initial progress made in a strict two-month lockdown has more or less evaporated." At the same time, "German health officials have called a rise in infections in the past two weeks deeply concerning." The Washington Times (7/28, Meier, 492K) reports "Spain and other EU countries...are facing pressure to clamp down again as they tentatively reopen public life." Spain Criticizes UK, Germany For Advising Tourists To Stay Away. Reuters (7/28, Melander, Young, Sheahan) reports Spain "reacted angrily on Tuesday to recommendations from Britain and Germany that their citizens avoid its islands and beaches because of an increase in coronavirus cases." With travel advisories "piling up on top of a quarantine order from Britain for returning travellers, Spain, which depends on summer visits by sun-seeking northern Europeans, is facing a major blow to any hopes of reviving its economy." WPost: EU Succeeded In Suppressing Outbreak Due "Quality Of Leadership." In an editorial, the Washington Post (7/28, 14.2M) says "European Union nations, having largely succeeded in suppressing covid-19 infections, are returning to something resembling normal life, with schools, shops and businesses reopening." The Post argues that the most conspicuous difference between these countries and the US "might be quality of leadership." Though Europe "could still be hammered by another wave of infections," the Post says "the union nevertheless has been made stronger by the crisis, thanks to responsible leaders willing to make tough decisions and impose unpopular measures." WSJournal: Global Increases Show Lockdowns Won't Stop Virus' Spread. The Wall Street Journal (7/28, Subscription Publication, 7.57M) editorializes that the recent increase in cases around the world disprove arguments that the reopening of parts of the US happened too quickly are to blame for America's virus resurgence. The increases, it argues, also indicate that lockdowns will not stop the spread of the virus. Iranian Military Exercise Includes Attack On Mock US Aircraft Carrier. The SRS Fvening News (7/28, story 9, 0:20, O'Donnell, 4.37M) reported, "War games by the Iranian military are again raising tensions with the US in the Persian Gulf," with Iran firing missiles "at a mock US aircraft carrier" and then boarding it. LISA Today (7/28, Hjelmgaard, 10.31M) reports that the "war games and military drills that illustrate the persistent threat of conflict between Tehran and Washington." US Navy Fifth Fleet EFTA00135702 spokeswoman Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich said in an emailed statement that the Navy was aware of the military exercise involving the mock Nimitz-class carrier. Iran conducted a similar exercise in 2015, when it sank a replica US aircraft carrier. Similarly, the AP (7/28, Gambrell) reports that the exercise and the US response "underlined the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S." Missiles fired by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard during "the drill resulted in American troops being put on alert at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Al-Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command in Qatar." Rebarich condemned "this type of irresponsible and reckless behavior by Iran in the vicinity of busy international waterways." Additional coverage includes the Washington Free Beacon (7/28, Beyrer, 78K) and the Washington Fxaminer (7/28, Halaschak, 448K). Former Iranian President Reached Out To Saudi Crown Prince. The New York Times (7/28, Fassihi, 18.61M) reported that former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for denying that Holocaust and calling for the elimination of Israel, wrote "written a chummy letter to his country's most ardent Arab foe": Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Selman. The letter, which is "filled with flattery and praise" and casts the crown prince as a man of peace, "flout[s] Iran's stated policy toward Saudi Arabia." In it, Ahmadinejad calls for working to end the Yemen war. Diplomats and analysts "said it was highly unlikely" the move would result in further engagement, and "some saw it as a bid for relevance by Mr. Ahmadinejad." Meanwhile, a spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations "sought to play down Mr. Ahmadinejad's attempts at independent diplomacy." Iran Moves Imprisoned British-Australian Woman To "Notorious" Prison. Fox News (7/28, Sorace, 27.59M) reports on its website that officials say that Iran moved Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer in Islamic studies at Melbourne University, "to Qarchak prison, the country's notorious desert jail, officials said Tuesday." In 2018 Iran sentenced the British- Australian academic to 10 years on espionage charges. Taliban Declares Temporary Cease-Fire To Mark Eid Al-Adha. The Washington Post (7/28, George, Constable, 14.2M) reports that the Taliban announced a temporary cease-fire Tuesday to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The Afghan government "welcomed the move" and "ordered Afghan government forces to respect the truce." The cease- fire comes amid growing pressure "to bring the militants and the Afghan government together for direct peace talks now months overdue," and as "violence across the country remains high, despite the signing of a peace deal between the Taliban and the United States in February." US, Australia Vow To Pursue United Front Against China. The AP (7/28, Lee) reports the US and Australia are "teaming up in their criticism of China, taking the country to task for aggressive behavior throughout the Asia-Pacific and not acting quickly to contain the coronavirus." The US and Australian foreign and defense ministers "pledged Tuesday to renew and strengthen a united front against China and what they termed Beijing's malign behavior throughout the region and beyond that they said had grown worse in recent years." The two sides also "accused China of violating international norms in the South China Sea and vowed to uphold freedom of navigation and the rule of the law as well as democratic freedoms in Hong Kong." Report: US To Order Drastic Reduction In Chinese Diplomats. The Washington Times (7/28, Gertz, 492K) reports exclusively that the Administration is "preparing to order China to sharply reduce the number of diplomats posted in the United States to levels equal to the number of American diplomats stationed in China, senior State Department officials said." The official said the move "seeks in part to reduce the burden on FBI counterintelligence agents, who in recent months have devoted 2,000 special agents to catching Chinese spies and their agents." Harvard Professor Hit With Additional Charges In Spying Case. The Washington Times (7/28, Mordock, 492K) reports that "federal charges continue to mount against the former chairman of Harvard University's chemistry department who was indicted earlier this year for EFTA00135703 allegedly lying to investigators about his ties to a controversial Chinese talent recruitment program." The Justice Department on Tuesday filed its third indictment against Charles Lieber, this time alleging he failed to report foreign bank accounts with the IRS. Chinese Hackers Infiltrated Vatican Network. The New York Times (7/28, Sanger, Wong, Horowitz, 18.61M) reports Chinese hackers "infiltrated the Vatican's computer networks in the past three months, a private monitoring group has concluded, in an apparent espionage effort before the beginning of sensitive negotiations with Beijing." While "Chinese hackers and state authorities have often used cyberattacks to try to gather information on groups of Buddhist Tibetans, Muslim Uighurs and Falun Gong practitioners outside China," the Times says this "appears to be the first time" they "have been publicly caught directly hacking into the Vatican and the Holy See's Study Mission to China." Growing Number Of Americans Report Receiving Seed Packages From China. The CBS Evening News (7/28, story 10, 0:20, O'Donnell, 4.37M) reported briefly that "a growing number of people say they've received mysterious packets of seeds in their mailbox. The seeds, apparently from China, have turned up unsolicited in at least 45 states. The Department of Agriculture is urging people not to plant them and has begun an investigation." ABC World News Tonight (7/28, story 7, 0:15, Muir, 7.32M) reported the USDA is urging people "if you receive a package, leave it sealed, don't throw it out, and contact" the agency. Report: US, Russia Space Security Talks End. The Washington Free Beacon (7/28, Beyrer, 78K) reports the US and Russia "held their first talks regarding space militarization since 2013 on Monday, ending without any public progress, the Wall Street Journal reported" Tuesday. The talks in Vienna were "intended to decrease tension and increase cooperation," but "competing views of how to regulate international conduct in space...left the talks without a mutually agreed-upon foundation." Neither Moscow nor Washington released public statements regarding the talks. US Sanctions Two Former Venezuelan Officials. Reuters (7/28, Psaledakis) reports the US on Tuesday imposed sanctions "on two former officials of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government, barring them from traveling to the United States over accusations they were involved in significant corruption." Secretary of State Pompeo said in a statement that the two former officials, Luis Motta and Eustiquio Jose Lugo Gomez, "had accepted bribes and kickbacks" to enrich themselves. The officials were "previously blacklisted by the United States last year in a decision that froze any of their U.S. assets and generally prohibits Americans from dealing with them." Gallup Poll: Global View Of US Leadership Remains Weak. USA Today (7/28, Pineda, 10.31M) reports that "for the third year in a row, Germany remains the top-rated global power, while the image of U.S., Chinese and Russian leadership stays consistently weak, according to a new Gallup poll." The poll results released Monday "measure global views of major powers and show worldwide approval of U.S. leadership continues to be 'historically low.' Globally, 33% approved of U.S. leadership, a slight increase from a previous low of 30% during the first year of Donald Trump's presidency." Gallup said the world's view of the US "dropped 19 points in 2017, between President Barack Obama's last year in office and Trump's first year," and "the situation hasn't changed much since." THE BIG PICTURE Headlines From Today's Front Pages. Wall Street Journal: William Barr Defends Federal Deployments To Break Facebook Offerc Money To Reel In TikTok Creators EFTA00135704 Big Tech Tn Appear Before Congress On Wednesday Rack-Tn-College Plans Devolve Into A lumhle Of Fast-Changing Rules AMC, Universal Agree To Trim Theatrical Window Before Movies Go Online Nightly Cheering Is Over - But A Few Diehards Didn't Get The Memo New York Times: 'This Is About Justice': Biden Ties Economic Revival To Racial Equity J ike Father, I ike Son: President Trump I etc Others Mourn From The Start, Federal Agents Demanded A Role In Suppressing Anti-Racism Protests Jiarr Clashes With House Democrats Defending Responses To Protests And Russia Inquiry City Praises Contract-Tracing Program. Workers Call Rollout A 'Disaster.' 'Amazing, Isn't It?' Long Sought Blood Test For Alzheimer's In Reach Washington Post: Biden Plan Seeks Boost To Black, Latino Wealth Trump Shrugs At Virus Aid Bill In Resisting Masks, US Lost Early Virus Weapon Barr Is Confronted In Caustic Hearing politics At The Point Of A Gun Financial Times: Furnpe Rattles To Contain Surge In Covid-19 Cases Big Tech Goes To Washington Fed Extends Facilities ii Lending Washington Times: Last Stand? McConnell Faces Toughest Test In Fight To Save Senate Majority Trump Cuts DACA Time In Half In Major Rewrite Of Obama Program Trump Taps Defense Production Act To Produce Generic Drugs In The US Europe. Other Success Stories Eve New Lockdowns As Coronavirus Reemerges FXCI IISIVF. US To Order Drastic Reduction In Chinese Diplomats Amid Surge In Spy Cases 'Concerned For The Country': AG Barr Rips Dems' Refusal To Condemn Portland Violence Story Lineup From Last Night's Network News: ABC: Coronavirus-Rising Cases; Trump-Twitter Video; Biden-Trump; AG Barr; Maine-Shark Attack; Weather Report; Seed Packages From China; Remembering Regis Philbin. CBS: Coronavirus-Rising Cases; Trump-Twitter Video; AG Barr; Texas-Shooting of Latino Man; Biden-Trump; Maine-Shark Attack; NYC-Revel Mopeds Suspended; Weather Report; US/Iran Tensions; Seed Packages From China; Army Reserve-First Female Commander. NBC: Coronavirus-Rising Cases; Coronavirus-Los Angeles; Coronavirus-First Responders; Trump- Twitter Video; Biden-Trump; AG Barr; Portland-Protests; Coronavirus-Schools; Maine-Shark Attack; Weather Report; Coronavirus-MLB; Nightly News Kids Edition. Network TV At A Glance: Coronavirus - 21 minutes, 5 seconds Trump-Twitter Video - 7 minutes, 30 seconds AG Barr - 7 minutes, 20 seconds Biden-Trump - 4 minutes, 50 seconds Story Lineup From This Morning's Radio News Broadcasts: ABC: Trump-Dr. Fauci; Texas-Pandemic & Hurricane Hanna; Coronavirus-Rising Cases; AG Barr; ACLU-NYPD Records. CBS: Coronavirus-Rising Cases; Congress-Relief Bill; Coronavirus-Hunger Issue; AG Barr; EFTA00135705 Children Hot Car Deaths; Biden-VP. FOX: Congress-Relief Bill; Trump-Hydroxychloroquine; Pence-Federal Agents in Portland. NPR: AG Barr; Trump-DACA; Trump-Twitter Video. WASHINGTON'S SCHEDULE Today's Events In Washington. White House: • President Trump — Participates in a roundtable with supporters; delivers remarks at a fundraising committee reception; participates in a tour of Double Eagle Energy Oil Rig; delivers remarks on restoring energy dominance in the Permian Basin and signs Presidential Permits. • Vice President Pence — Visits Raleigh, NC, stopping at Thales Academy - which reopened to students last month - to discuss 'the plan the academy is using to safely open', then touring NCBiotech - which is conducting Phase-III trials for a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine - to discuss 'President Donald Trump's goal of making a vaccine available to the American people as soon and as safely as possible' US Senate: • Senate Foreign Relations Committee Business Meeting - Business Meeting, with agenda including the nominations of Natalie Brown to be U.S. Ambassador to Uganda; Jason Myung-lk Chung to be Asian Development Bank U.S. Director, with the rank of ambassador; Sandra Clark to be U.S. Ambassador to Burkina Faso; Ramsey Coats Day to be USAID Assistant Administrator; J. Steven Dowd to be European Bank for Reconstruction and Development U.S. Director; William Ellison Grayson to be U.S. Ambassador to Estonia; Joseph Manso for the rank of ambassador during his tenure of service as U.S. Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; Jenny McGee to be USAID Associate Administrator; Richard Mills Jr. to be the U.S. Deputy Representative to the United Nations, with the rank and status of ambassador, and U.S. Deputy Representative in the United Nations Security Council, and U.S. Representative to the Sessions of the U.N. General Assembly during his tenure of service; and Henry Wooster to be U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Location: Rm 325, Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC; 9:00 AM • Senate Puhlir Works Committee hearing on remote working during coronavirus and whether the govt can save money - Hearing on 'Lessons Learned from Remote Working during COVID- 19: Can the Government Save Money Through Maximizing Efficient Use of Leased Space?', with testimony from Dell Technologies Senior Vice President of Corporate Real Estate, Global Facilities and Environment, Health, and Safety Mark Pringle; Global Workplace Analytics President Kate Lister; and California Air Resources Board Air Quality Planning and Science Division Chief Dr Michael Benjamin Location: Rm 106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC; 10:00 AM • 5-nate Commerce Committee hearing on 'building a stronger and more resilient_seafood sector' - Hearing on 'Building a Stronger and More Resilient Seafood Sector', with testimony from Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Member Leann Bosarge; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Deputy Assistant Administrator of Operations Dr Paul Doremus; and Pacific Fishery Management Council Chair Phil Anderson Location: Rm 253, Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC; 10:00 AM • CFPB Director Kraninger testifies to Senate Ranking Committee on biannual report - Remote hearing on 'The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Semi-Annual Report to Congress', with testimony from CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger; 10:00 AM • Senate Judiciary Committee nominations heari - Senate Committee on the Judiciary nominations hearing considers J. Philip Calabrese and James Ray Knepp II to be U.S. District Judges for the Northern District of Ohio; Aileen Mercedes Cannon to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida; Toby Crouse to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Kansas; and Michael Jay Newman to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio EFTA00135706 Location: Rm 226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC; 10:00 AM • Helsinki Commission online hearing on the societal impact of public monuments and memorials - Helsinki Commission online hearing on 'Human Rights At Home: Values Made Visible, examining what the U.S. conveys to the world through its public monuments and memorials, and discussing how acknowledgement of the past can encourage restitution, reparations and restorative justice. Witnesses include former OSCE Secretary General and High Commissioner on National Minorities Lamberto Zannier, journalist and documentary filmmaker H.R.H. Maria- Esmerelda of Belgium, Smithsonian Institution Acting Under Secretary for Museums and Culture Kevin Gover, and former Charlottesville, VA, Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy; 10:00 AM • Senate Finance Committee hearing on WTO reform - Hearing on 'WTO Reform: Making Global Rules Work For Global Challenges', with testimony from Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Trade and International Political Economy Jennifer Hillman; Cassidy Levy Kent partner Thomas Graham; Global Public Affairs UPS President Laura Lane; International Food Policy Research Institute Senior Research Fellow Dr Joseph Glauber; and World Wildlife Fund Vice President for Ocean Policy Michele Kuruc Location: Rm 215, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC; 10:15 AM • Closed Briefing: Intelligence Matters Location: CVC 217, U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, DC; 2:00 PM • Senate Indian Affairs Committee Business Meeting - Business Meeting, to consider legislation including 'S. 1161, A bill to support the education of Indian children', 'S. 2165, A bill to enhance protections of Native American tangible culture heritage, and for other purposes', 'S. 2610, A bill to reauthorize certain programs under the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs of the Department of Energy, and for other purposes', 'S. 2716, A bill to amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act, and for other purposes', 'S. 2891, A bill to require the Secretary of the Interior to establish Tribal Wildlife Corridors, and for other purposes', 'S. 2912, A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to take certain land located in Pinal County, Arizona, into trust for the benefit of the Gila River Indian Community, and for other purposes', and 'S. 3019, A bill to protect access to water for all Montanans, and for other purposes' Location: Rm 628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC; 2:30 PM • Senate Indian Affairs Committee oversight hearing on how to safely reopen Bureau of Indian Education schools - Oversight hearing on 'Preparing to Head Back to Class: Addressing How to Safely Reopen Bureau of Indian Education Schools' Location: Rm 628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC; 2:30 PM • Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on VA telehealth - Hearing on 'VA Telehealth During and Beyond COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities in Rural America' * Committee follows guidelines developed to protect the health of Members, witnesses, staff, and the public, including maintaining six-foot social distance spacing in the hearing room and not accommodating in-person visitors Location: Rm G50, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC; 3:00 PM US House: • House Judiciary subcommittee Business Meeting - Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee Business Meeting, to consider 'Request for a Department of Homeland Security Departmental Report on the Beneficiaries of H.R. 7572' Location: Rm 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC; 9:00 AM • House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on IJSCIs oversight - Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee hearing on 'Oversight of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services', with testimony from USCIS Deputy Director of Policy Joseph Edlow; American Immigration Lawyers Association Director of Government Relations Sharvari Dalal-Dheini; American Federation of Government Employees Local 1924 President Michael Knowles; Federation of American Scientists Senior Fellow Doug Rand; and Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan Location: Rm 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC; 9:30 AM EFTA00135707 • House Commerce subcommittee remote hearing nn reauthnri7ing key public health programs - Health Subcommittee remote hearing on 'Improving Access to Care: Legislation to Reauthorize Key Public Health Programs', with testimony from School-Based Health Alliance President Robert Boyd; BlackWomen's Health Imperative President and CEO Linda Goler Blount; Kids v. Cancer founder and Executive Director Nancy Goodman; Harvard Medical School Professor of Medicine Aaron Seth Kesselheim; National Bone Marrow Donor Program Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel Brian Lindberg; and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart; 10:00 AM • House Armed Services subcommittee hearing nn sexual harassment and retaliation in the military - Military Personnel Subcommittee hearing on 'An Epidemic of Fear: Sexual Harassment and Retaliation in the Military. Is it a crisis at Fort Hood?', with testimony from Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office Deputy Director Dr Nate Galbreath; U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) Command Inspector General Col. Patrick Wempe; and Grass Roots Movement: Justice for Vanessa's Lucy Del Guadio and Melissa Bryant (both veterans) * Held virtually via WebEx and in-person in Rm 2118, Rayburn House Office Building; 10:00 AM • House Small Business subcommittee hybrid hearing nn 'Kick Starting Fntrepreneurship and Main Street Economic Recovery' - Rural Development, Agriculture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship Subcommittee hybrid hearing on 'Kick Starting Entrepreneurship and Main Street Economic Recovery', with testimony from LINK Grinnell Executive Director Chad Nath; Center on Rural Innovation Rural Innovation Network Head Mark Rembert; Ketelsen RV Vice President Jeremy Ketelsen; and Small Nation founder Jason Duff * Held virtually via Cisco WebEx, and in Rm 2360, Rayburn House Office Building; 10:00 AM • House Foreign Affairs Committee markup hearing - Markup hearing on legislation including 'H.R. 7682, Sudan Democratic Transition, Accountability, and Fiscal Transparency Act of 2020', 'H.R. 7276, East Africa Locust Eradication Act', 'H.R. 6334, Securing America From Epidemics Act', 'H.R. 4644, Libya Stabilization Act', 'H.R. 5517, Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative Act', 'H.R. 5586, Haiti Development, Accountability, and Institutional Transparency Initiative Act', 'H.R. 3331, Countering Hizballah in Lebanon's Military Act of 2019', 'H.R. 7703, Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Authorization Act', 'H.R. XXXX, STOP Organ Trafficking', 'H.R. 7623, Passport Backlog Elimination Act', and 'H.Res. 759, Expressing that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the Russian Federation interfered in the 2016 United States Presidential election and deliberately spread false information to implicate the Republic of Ukraine' * Held virtually via Cisco WebEx and in-person in Rm 2172, Rayburn House Office Building; 10:00 AM • House Oversight Committee hybrid hearing on 'safeguarding the 2020 Census against administration attacks' - Hybrid hearing on 'Counting Every Person: Safeguarding the 2020 Census Against the Trump Administration's Unconstitutional Attacks' * Held remotely and in- person in Rm 2154, Rayburn House Office Building; 10:00 AM • House Veterans Affairs subcommittee oversight hearing on state vets homes during coronavirits - Health Subcommittee oversight hearing on 'Who's in Charge? Examining Oversight of State Veterans Homes During the COVID-19 Pandemic' Location: HVC-210, U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, DC; 10:00 AM • House meets for legislative business - House of Representatives meets for legislative business, with agenda for the week including completion of consideration of 'H.R. 7027 - Child Care Is Essential Act' and 'H.R. 7327 - Child Care for Economic Recovery Act', consideration of'H.R. 7617 - Defense, Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2021', and consideration of'H.R. 4686 - Sami's Law', as amended, and "H.R. 7575 - Water Resources Development Act of 2020', as amended, under suspension of the rules Location: U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC; 10:00 AM • House Natural Resources Committee hybrid markup hearing - Hybrid markup hearing on legislation including 'S. 294, Native American Business Incubators Program Act', 'H.R. 1031, Pala Band of Mission Indians Land Transfer Act of 2019', 'H.R. 1267, B-47 Ridge Designation EFTA00135708 Act', 'H.R. 3682, Land Grant and Acequia Traditional Use Recognition and Consultation Act', 'H.R. 3879, SOAR Act', 'H.R. 4299, Data Preservation Act of 2019', 'H.R. 4888, To amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act, and for other purposes', 5040, AIR Safety Act of 2019', 'H.R. 6237, PRC for Native Veterans Act', 'H.R. 6636, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention Improvements Act of 2020', 'H.R 7119, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Land Transfer Act of 2020', and 'H.R. 7489, Long Bridge Act of 2020' * Held virtually via Cisco Webex and in-person in Rm 2167, Rayburn House Office Building; 10:00 AM • Helsinki Commission online hearing nn the societal impart of public monuments and memorials - Helsinki Commission online hearing on 'Human Rights At Home: Values Made Visible, examining what the U.S. conveys to the world through its public monuments and memorials, and discussing how acknowledgement of the past can encourage restitution, reparations and restorative justice. Witnesses include former OSCE Secretary General and High Commissioner on National Minorities Lamberto Zannier, journalist and documentary filmmaker H.R.H. Maria- Esmerelda of Belgium, Smithsonian Institution Acting Under Secretary for Museums and Culture Kevin Gover, and former Charlottesville, VA, Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy; 10:00 AM • Business Meeting, with agenda including 'Authorizing Member Access Requests to review classified documents' Location: HVC-304, U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, DC; 11:00 AM • Amazon. Apple. Facebook, and Google CEOs testify to House Judiciary subcommittee on market dominance - Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law Subcommittee hearing on 'Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google', with testimony from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (testifying virtually); Apple CEO Tim Cook (testifying virtually); Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (testifying virtually); and Google CEO Sundar Pichai (testifying virtually) Location: Rm 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC; 12:00 PM • Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence virtual discussion on coronavirus, race, and sexual violence - Bipartisan Task Force to End Sexual Violence hosts virtual roundtable conversation to discuss 'how coronavirus (COVID-19) and race impact sexual violence on local levels', featuring Task Force co-chair Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster alongside National Alliance to End Sexual Violence President Monika Johnson Hostler, Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence Executive Director Rosa Beltre, National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault Executive Director Condencia Brade, and Center for the Pacific Asian Family Shelter Program Director Patima Komolamit; 2:00 PM • House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on State Department record in promoting diversity and inclusion - Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on 'Diversity and Diplomacy: Assessing the State Department's Record in Promoting Diversity and Inclusion', with testimony from State Department Senior Advisor for Diversity and Inclusion Josue Barrera, Foreign Service Director General and Director of Global Talent Carol Perez, and Office of Civil Rights Director and Chief Diversity Officer Gregory Smith; and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mirembe Nantongo * Held virtually via Cisco WebEx and in-person in Rm 2172, Rayburn House Office Building; 2:00 PM Cabinet Officers: • EPA Administrator Wheeler discusses 'recent successes' on Heritage Foundation virtual event - Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks at Heritage Foundation virtual event on 'recent successes', the agency's 2020 regulatory actions and what they mean to Americans; 10:00 AM Visitors: • No visitors scheduled This Town: • FP virtual dialogue on 'How African Enterprises are Innovating in the Face of COVID-19' - 'How African Enterprises are Innovating in the Face of COVID-19' Foreign Policy 'Profiles in EFTA00135709 Resilience' virtual dialogue, hosted in partnership with the U.S. African Development Foundation, to discuss grassroots investment and sustainable growth in Africa and its effect in supporting coronavirus (COVID-19) recovery. Speakers include Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and USADF President and CEO C.D. Glin, with panelists Sosai CEO Habiba Ali, All On CEO Wiebe Boer, Mastercard Foundation West, Central, and North Africa Regional Head Nathalie Gabala, Brown Button Foundation founder Adepeju Jaiyeoba, Ugandan Under Secretary of Finance Betty Kasimbazi, Shalem Investment Limited Managing Director Ruth Kinoti, Gahaya Links CEO and founder Joy Ngungutse, and Citigroup Assistant Vice President Steve Zita; 10:00 AM • East-West Center online discussion on Mongolia, the U.S., China and Russia - 'Mongolia's Response to Increasing U.S.-China-Russia Rivalry in Asia' online discussion hosted by East- West Center, with featured speakers including The Mongolia Society Vice President Dr Alicia Campi and Mongolia Ambassador to the U.S. Amb. Dr Otgonbayar Yondon; 10:00 AM • Do] virtual public workshop on competition in the licensing of public performance rights in the music industry continues - Department of Justice holds virtual public workshop on competition in the licensing of public performance rights in the music industry, day two, to 'provide a further venue for industry stakeholders to weigh in on the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) consent decrees and their implications for antitrust law enforcement and policy as we enter the third decade of the 21st century and as music distribution continues to evolve through technological innovation'. Day two speakers include Jon Bon Jovi, American Beverage Licensees Executive Director John Bodnovich, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Business Affairs General Counsel and Executive Vice President Peter Brodsky, NAB Legal and Regulatory Affairs General Counsel and Executive Vice President Rick Kalpan, BMI Senior Vice President and General Counsel Stuart Rosen, iHeartMedia Business Affairs Executive Vice President Tres Williams; 12:30 PM • (TA Virtual National Food Policy Conference continues - Consumer Federation of America Virtual National Food Policy Conference continues, focusing on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting the food system, with day two speakers including Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern and World Central Kitchen founder Chef Jose Andres; 1:00 PM • U.S. interest rate decision - Federal Open Market Committee decision on interest rates, following two-day meeting and followed by press briefing with Chair Jerome Powell * The FOMC decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0-0.25% at its last meeting in June as it continued to deal with the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the U.S. economy Location: Washington, DC; 2:00 PM • Dem Sen. Maria Cantwell speaks at RFF webinar on the nation's public lands - 'The Future of America's Public Lands and the Outdoor Recreation Economy' Resources for the Future webinar, with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell discussing the implications of the Great American Outdoors Act and the future of public lands and the outdoor recreation economy in the U.S. ; 3:00 PM • GOP Sen. Mitt Romney participates in Virtual Town Hall with NAACP president and CEO - NAACP hosts Virtual Town Hall with Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, moderated by journalist April Ryan, to discuss the global public health crisis and social uprisings 'which have brought awareness to the ongoing disparities and systemic racism present throughout' the U.S.; 8:00 PM Copyright 2020 by Bulletin Intelligence LLC Reproduction or redistribution without permission prohibited. Content is drawn from thousands of newspapers, national magazines, national and local television programs, radio broadcasts, social-media platforms and additional forms of open-source data. Sources for Bulletin Intelligence audience-size estimates include Scarborough, GfK MRI, comScore, Nielsen, and the Audit Bureau of Circulation. 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