Monthly Archives: July 2021

With Quint Forgey and help from Andrew Desiderio

Welcome to the penultimate edition of the premier week (aka edition four) of National Security Daily, POLITICOs newsletter on the global events roiling Washington and keeping the administration up at night. Im Alex Ward, a national security reporter at POLITICO and your guide to whos up, whos down and whats happening inside the Pentagon, the NSC and D.C.s foreign policy machine. National Security Daily will arrive in your inbox Monday through Friday by 4 p.m.; please subscribe here.

Tips, comments and hate mail at [emailprotected], @alexbward or likely at some bar in Washington. Make sure to follow @QuintForgey, too!

Yes, the Biden administration decided to let Nord Stream 2 get built. No, Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) wont lift his holds on a slew of State Department nominees ready for confirmation.

In an exclusive interview on the 764-mile-long pipeline, the lawmaker said he will still block the administration from building out its diplomatic team until it imposes congressionally mandated sanctions on the companies constructing the pipeline.

Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN has repeatedly said their waiver of sanctions can be rescinded. Well, good. Hes laid out the path forward: Rescind the waiver and actually follow the law, Cruz said in his Senate office. And when they rescind the waiver, I will happily lift my holds. State has it within their power to lift the holds any time they want.

The problem for Cruz is that time for waivers has come and gone: President JOE BIDEN has already made his deal with Germany, and keeping those sanctions off the pipeline is a key component of it. The senators holds on the State nominees didnt get the administration to reverse course in fact, one prominent nominee got through thanks to maneuvers by Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and after repeated questioning, Cruz couldnt detail a new move to pressure the White House.

Still, he insists Bidens Nord Stream decision is so historically wrong that nothing but a complete 180-degree turnaround will get him to change his mind. I believe, if they continue down this path, this will be on the order of magnitude of Jimmy Carters giving away the Panama Canal. That, five decades later, remains a spectacular loss for U.S. foreign policy, because a Democratic president was too weak to stand up for our interests. I think Biden and [Vice President KAMALA] HARRIS decision on Nord Stream 2 is at that level of magnitude.

Its this kind of rhetoric that has many on Capitol Hill, namely Democrats, thinking Cruz is using the Nord Stream 2 issue for his own political gain. Theres no question the Texan championed this issue before Biden entered the White House and worked behind the scenes to pass legislation to mandate sanctions. But staffers who NatSec Daily spoke with say hes leveraging the presidents position on the pipeline purely for notoriety.

Hes catering to [former President DONALD] TRUMPs base by accusing Biden of being weak on Russia, one senior Senate Democratic aide said. Another commented: Bidens f---up on Nord Stream 2 gave [Cruz] the opening he wanted.

With Cruz, as with many politicians, its hard to know where conviction ends and ambition begins.

Come Jan. 20, 2025 the next president I believe the next Republican president will reimpose the sanctions on this pipeline, he said. That means that a European company that thinks they can get along with facilitating this pipeline is facing the sword of Damocles when you no longer have a White House that just capitulates to Russia.

When I asked if it will be Cruz leading that White House in four years, he paused with a chuckle before replying: Time will tell.

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BREAKING FROM POLITICO U.S. AND IRAQ TO ANNOUNCE SHIFT IN MILITARY ROLE: Our own LARA SELIGMAN has the scoop: "U.S. and Iraqi officials are finalizing a shift in the U.S. military mission in Iraq to a purely advisory role by the end of the year, marking the official end of the U.S. combat mission in the country, according to a U.S. official and two people familiar with the issue," she reported today. "Under the plan, which the people stressed will not constitute a withdrawal of American forces from the country, a number of U.S. service members will remain in Iraq indefinitely. These troops will provide logistics and advisory support, as well as air power, intelligence and surveillance capability in the fight against the Islamic State, which this week claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Baghdad that left dozens dead."

NS2 DEAL A BETRAYAL: RADEK SIKORSKI, the former top Polish official and current EU Parliament member, says his region is raging over the Nord Stream 2 pact between the U.S. and Germany. Its viewed as a betrayal in Eastern Europe, he told NatSec Daily in the lobby of his D.C. hotel.

Poland, Ukraine and others see the Russian natural gas pipeline as a clear win for Moscow. That Washington and Berlin made the deal showed little regard for Central and Eastern European interests, he argued.

Sikorski is in town with a European delegation to meet with U.S. officials and surely give an earful to his American counterparts.

Biden, for his part, defended the agreement his administration brokered with Chancellor ANGELA MERKELs government on Nord Stream 2 late last night. Speaking to reporters on an airport tarmac outside Cincinnati, the president explained that the pipeline is 99 percent finished.

The idea that anything that was going to be said or done was going to stop it was not possible, he said.

BIDENS CUBA RESPONSE GETS SOME TEETH: The U.S. has slapped targeted individual sanctions on a Cuban military leader and a government entity extending the Magnitsky Act penalties originally passed to punish Russian government oppression and then broadened to include countries such as Venezuela.

In a statement announcing the sanctions first reported by our own MARC CAPUTO and SABRINA RODRIGUEZ Biden condemned the mass detentions and sham trials that are unjustly sentencing to prison those who dared to speak out in an effort to intimidate and threaten the Cuban people into silence.

This is just the beginning, the president said, pledging that the U.S. will continue to sanction individuals responsible for oppression of the Cuban people.

The Treasury Department this afternoon added two new entries to the Office of Foreign Assets Controls list of Specially Designated Nationals: 77-year-old LVARO LPEZ MIERA, minister of Cubas Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the Brigada Especial Nacional del Ministerio del Interior, or the Cuban governments Interior Ministry Special Brigade.

Cuban American activists, Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators had loudly criticized Biden in recent days for declining to take more forceful action since the July 11 uprisings on the island.

But the latest sanctions accompanied by measures to bring increased internet access to Cuba and calls for more international pressure on the totalitarian government is huge, said SASHA TIRADOR, a top Miami political operative who was briefed on the administrations plans last night.

No administration has ever announced that they will hold each individual who violates human rights on the island of Cuba accountable, she said.

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NORTH KOREAS NUKE COUNT: Researchers HANS KRISTENSEN and MATT KORDA, writing for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, are doing the math on North Koreas nuclear arsenal.

The two experts cautiously estimate that North Korea might have produced sufficient fissile material to build 40 to 50 nuclear weapons and that it might possibly have assembled 10 to 20 warheads for delivery by medium-range ballistic missiles.

That number is pretty much in line with other estimates of Pyongyangs arsenal which continues to grow. So far, North Korea has given the Biden administration the cold shoulder, and any meaningful dialogue on denuclearization with Washington just isnt happening.

HONG KONG ACTIVISTS PLEAD FOR HELP: A group of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists currently living in exile have sent a letter to Congress imploring U.S. lawmakers to pass legislation granting refugee status to Hong Kong citizens with well-founded fears of persecution by the territorys authorities, our own PHELIM KINE reports.

The letter calls on Congress to grant Priority 2 Refugee Status to Hong Kongs peaceful pro-democracy protesters seeking resettlement, Temporary Protection Status to Hong Kong citizens already in the U.S. and an extension of visas to high-skilled Hong Kong residents with an associate degree or above.

U.S. lawmakers must act quickly, the letter states, as the Hong Kong government is closing travel routes for citizens fearful of government reprisals for peaceful protest. As of Aug. 1, a new law goes into effect that would allow for exit bans on government critics.

FRANCE FINGERS CHINA FOR CYBERATTACK: The French cybersecurity agency ANSSI released a statement today formally blaming a large intrusion campaign on a hacking group called APT31 thats known to be operating in China, per our own VINCENT MANANCOURT.

In addition to allegedly targeting the numerous French entities, the U.S. this week named APT31 as one of several Chinese government-linked groups behind a major attack on Microsoft Exchange servers. The European Union said the group was operating from the territory of China, without explicitly linking it to the state.

AUSTIN REBOOTS PENTAGON BOARDS: Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN plans to restart five major Pentagon advisory boards the same ones he dissolved in February amid an effort to root out Trump loyalists, reports Lara Seligman.

Days after his confirmation in February, Austin fired the members of 31 defense advisory boards and directed the immediate suspension of operations for all 42 of the Pentagons panels, pending a zero-based review" of the Defense Departments boards and commissions.

Now, Austin is expected to restore the five major panels which focus on policy, science, business, innovation and health after he looks over the recommendations of the committee that conducted the review. The new membership of the reconstituted boards is likely to be more diverse, although some of the prior members are expected to be renominated.

LINKING UP WITH LOCKHEED: Lockheed Martin CEO JIM TAICLET, in an interview with Defense Ones MARCUS WEISGERBER, laid out plans for his company the worlds biggest defense contractor to help the Pentagon start digitally connecting all its weapons on the battlefield.

The Defense Department has already embraced a connect-everything approach. In May, the top brass signed off on the Joint All-Domain Command and Control strategy, which aims to link weapons systems and sensors from all of the military services into a single network. Now, Taiclet says he believes companies should assist in writing the technical standards for the Pentagons effort.

HOUSE HASTENS VETTING FOR AFGHAN ALLIES: The House this morning approved a measure to streamline the vetting process for Afghan nationals seeking refuge in the U.S., our own ANDREW DESIDERIO tells us. The overwhelming 407-16 vote comes amid bipartisan pressure on the Biden administration to ensure that the Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort as translators and interpreters are sufficiently protected from the rapidly advancing Taliban.

Evacuation flights for Afghan nationals are scheduled to begin later this month, but the administration is still working to find additional third countries willing to temporarily house the applicants, pending final approval of their visas.

The House bill, dubbed the Allies Act, eliminates some steps of the vetting process in order to accelerate the Afghans formal admission into the U.S. The legislation now heads to the Senate, and the White House has indicated that Biden will sign if it reaches his desk.

OUT WITH THE OLD: Air Force and Navy leaders defended their push to divest almost $3 billion worth of planes and ships in an appearance before a Senate subcommittee yesterday, according to CQ Roll Calls ANDREW CLEVENGER.

Lt. Gen. DAVID NAHOM, the Air Forces deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, and Vice Admiral JAMES KILBY, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities, teamed up to argue that retiring the assets was necessary to invest in future capabilities and to get rid of equipment well past its service life.

But both Democratic and Republican lawmakers seemed hesitant to embrace the plan, which is part of the Defense Departments budget request. Theres not a member of this committee that doesnt get pressure from other members who serve in the Senate to keep some of these systems, said Sen. JON TESTER (D-Mont.).

AND IN WITH THE NEW: Meanwhile, on the House side of the Capitol, U.S. Special Operations Command Gen. RICHARD CLARKE testified about SOCOMs bid to buy 75 new armed overwatch aircraft with the goal of replacing an aging Air Force fleet and helping meet a global demand for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, per Air Force Magazines BRIAN EVERSTINE.

Congress previously blocked SOCOM from procuring armed overwatch aircraft in the latest National Defense Authorization Act, but it allowed the command to continue with demonstrations. In May, SOCOM awarded $19.2 million to five companies for prototypes as part of the effort.

LITTLE ACTION BACKING UP TOUGH BIDEN TALK: The Wall Street Journals right-leaning editorial board is livid with the presidents handling of foreign affairs this week, arguing his tough-guy rhetoric hasnt matched his decisions on Nord Stream 2 and China.

As for the controversial pipeline, the Biden Administration has now blessed the projects completion, handing Vladimir Putin a major strategic victory at the expense of Ukraine and Europes energy independence.

And on the lack of public retribution for Chinas hacking and cyberattacks, the editorial board argues that a joint statement with Europeans isnt enough: The allied powers announced no sanctions or other repercussions. A coalition against Chinese cyber attacks is nice, but not if the result is a lowest-common-denominator response i.e., nothing. Beijing may conclude that harsh words are all the U.S. can unite its allies behind.

ACTIVISTS WARY OF BIDENS WAR ON DOMESTIC TERROR: According to our own BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN, civil liberty advocates are warning that the administrations efforts to root out extremism within the U.S. could produce a litany of unintended consequences including a chilling effect on various forms of protest and undue government scrutiny of tens of millions of Americans.

The debate presents a challenging political dynamic for an administration seeking to appeal to progressives while also strengthening its domestic counterterror work across the board.

Our domestic terrorism strategy and its implementation are laser-focused on violence and threats of violence that threaten public safety and national security, said a senior administration official, not constitutionally protected advocacy and freedom of expression in support of political views, whatever they may be.

But CHIP GIBBONS, the policy director at Defending Rights and Dissent, framed Bidens approach in another way: It will have collateral consequences.

ROSE MAXED OUT: MAX ROSE, a senior adviser on Covid-19 in the Pentagon, announced he was leaving his post. It was an honor to work alongside so many heroes who turned the tide against the Pandemic here at home, he tweeted. Its unclear what hell do next, but he said he looks forward to some family time & the next chapter.

DOD'S TOP ASIA HAND LEAVES: DEREK HELVEY has left the Pentagon earlier after leading its Indo-Pacific policy shop. He's now a senior adviser at the U.S. Mission to NATO, Foreign Policy's JACK DETSCH reports. Previously a member of the Obama and Trump administrations, Helvey took charge of one of DOD's most vital policy portfolios and proved himself useful to SecDef Austin. "Even though Helvey was not expected to stay for the long term, he had worked closely with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, serving at his side during the Pentagon leaders first overseas trip to Japan, South Korea, India, and Afghanistan in March," Detsch wrote.

Foreign Affairs: Pakistans Pyrrhic Victory in Afghanistan

Foreign Policy: Get Ready for a Spike in Global Unrest

The New Yorker: Is Cubas Communist Party Finally Losing Its Hold on the Country?

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SecDef Austin departs on a trip to Alaska, Singapore, Hanoi and Manila: Hell meet with key leaders to reaffirm defense relationships and conduct bilateral meetings with senior officials, per the Pentagon.

The Heritage Foundation, 11 a.m.: How Congress Can Help America Get More Out of Our Defense Dollars

Hudson Institute, 12 p.m.: Transforming Defense for a Competitive Era

The Brookings Institution, 12:30 p.m.: Transatlantic data flows: Whats next after the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield?

Have a natsec-centric event coming up? Transitioning to a new defense-adjacent or foreign policy-focused gig? Shoot us an email at [emailprotected] or [emailprotected] to be featured in the next edition of the newsletter.

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Ted Talks: What Cruz wants from Biden on Nord Stream 2 - Politico

Daily Political BriefingJuly 22, 2021Updated

July 22, 2021, 10:57 p.m. ET

The House voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to expand a visa program for Afghans who are facing retribution for helping American troops and diplomats during the 20-year war in Afghanistan, moving to allow more of them to immigrate to the United States quickly as the Biden administration races to evacuate them.

With Afghans who helped the U.S. personnel now facing threats from the Taliban as American troops withdraw, a broad bipartisan coalition in Congress led by military veterans who have worked alongside interpreters or fixers in combat zones themselves has raced to give the administration wider latitude to airlift them to safety.

By a vote of 407-16, the House moved on Thursday to expand the number of available special immigrant visas for Afghans to 19,000 from 11,000 and broaden the universe of people eligible for them by removing some application requirements.

Many of us have expressed grave concerns about the challenges our allies face in navigating the application process, said Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Administration Committee. Afghans stepped forward to serve aside our brave military.

Under the legislation, applicants would no longer have to provide a sworn statement that they faced a specific threat or proof that they held a sensitive and trusted job. Instead, the measure would in effect stipulate that any Afghan who helped the U.S. government by definition faces retribution, and should be able to apply for a visa.

The legislation also strengthens protections for surviving spouses and children, allowing them to retain eligibility if an applicant dies or is killed before his or her visa is approved. Each visa applicant is allowed to include up to four family members, limited to their spouse and unmarried children under the age 21.

The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where there is bipartisan support for the Afghan visa program, but funding for its expansion has been embroiled in a broader fight over spending on Capitol security. The same is true for another measure the House passed recently that would waive a requirement for applicants to undergo medical examinations in Afghanistan before qualifying for visas.

Both pieces of legislation aim to shorten the long wait for permission to enter the United States, which can last as long as seven years for some applicants.

Even with the bill passed on Thursday, the application process is still expected to take more than a year long after the American withdrawal.

Sixteen Republicans opposed the measure, which some of them argued did not contain strong enough vetting for the Afghans who helped American troops. Others argued that the bill was simply misguided at a time when Congress should be more strictly limiting immigration, not making it easier.

But those arguments were rejected by Representative Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida and a former Green Beret who still serves as a colonel in the national guard. He referenced an interpreter he served with in Afghanistan, nicknamed Spartacus, who he said had been beheaded along with members of his family for helping Americans.

The legislation does not diminish or circumvent the screening process, Mr. Waltz said. Trust me, before these men and women were allowed to work with our units, they were heavily vetted.

The legislation, spearheaded by Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado and a former Army Ranger, has widespread support in both parties.

Some members of this body, including me, may not be here without the service and sacrifice of Afghans who answered the call to serve shoulder-to-shoulder with us, Mr. Crow said.

Its consideration comes as the Biden administration has announced plans to evacuate an initial tranche of Afghans to an Army base in Virginia in the coming days. About 2,500 Afghan interpreters, drivers and others who worked with American forces, as well as their family members, will be sent in stages to Fort Lee, Va., south of Richmond, to await final processing for formal entry into the United States, officials said.

With the American military in the final phases of withdrawing from Afghanistan, the White House has come under heavy pressure to protect the Afghan allies.

Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, said the Afghans have a bull's-eye on their back.

They will be killed if we dont get them out of there, Mr. McCaul said. Please, Mr. President, get them out before they are killed.

Some of the Afghans awaiting visas have spoken out about the threats they face from the Taliban.

Since 2014, the nonprofit organization No One Left Behind has tracked the killings of more than 300 translators or their family members, many of whom died while waiting for their visas to be processed, according to James Miervaldis, the groups chairman and an Army Reserve noncommissioned officer.

More than 18,000 Afghans who have worked as interpreters, drivers, engineers, security guards, fixers and embassy clerks for the United States during the war have been caught in bureaucratic limbo after applying for special immigrant visas, which are available to people who face threats because of work for the U.S. government. The applicants have 53,000 family members, U.S. officials have said.

J. Thomas Manger, a veteran police chief of departments in the Washington, D.C., region, has been hired to lead the United States Capitol Police, the board that oversees the agency announced on Thursday.

After conducting a national search in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the board members said in a statement that they were confident in Chief Mangers experience and approach in protecting the Congress its members, employees, visitors and facilities.

He will begin work on Friday. Chief Manger takes over a police force that is still reeling half a year after the riot. The 2,000-member police force that protects Congress finds itself at perhaps its biggest crossroads in its nearly two-century existence. Its work force is traumatized and overworked as its ranks have been hollowed out by a flood of departures. The agency is facing possible furloughs, teetering on the brink of running out of funding as overtime costs outpace its budget for salaries. It has been besieged by criticism from members of both parties for the stunning security failures that allowed the assault to occur.

After the attack, Steven A. Sund resigned from his post as the Capitol Police chief, along with the top House and Senate security officials, a move that left raw feelings on the force among those who remained deeply loyal to Mr. Sund.

The union representing officers voted that it had no confidence in the acting Capitol Police chief, Yogananda D. Pittman, and six other senior officials in the department.

The challenges in protecting the Capitol campus, and everyone who works or visits there, have never been more complex, Chief Manger said in a statement.

The courage and dedication of the men and women of this agency were on great display on Jan. 6th. It is now my job to ensure that they have the resources and support to continue to fulfill their mission in an ever increasingly difficult job.

Chief Manger has spent more than four decades in policing, including serving as chief of police in Montgomery County, Md., from 2004 to 2019. He also served as police chief in Fairfax County, Va., from 1998 to 2004.

From 2014 to 2018, Chief Manger was president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and from 2013 to 2017, he was vice president of the Police Executive Research Forum.

transcript

transcript

If were ever going to be able to get through this, and especially to prevent something like this from happening again, we need to at least find out how it really did happen. And while Speaker Pelosi refuses to investigate this, many of us have taken action on our own to start digging in to the facts, to try to get the facts as best we can. We know that the Chinese Communist Party wont release the background, the data, the facts. Wont let us talk to those people that worked in that Wuhan lab was there American tax dollars that went directly or indirectly to the Wuhan lab to perform gain-of-function research. A lot of evidence indicates there was all of these questions deserve answers. The question is: Why are Democrats stonewalling our efforts to uncover the origin of the Covid virus? Why are Democrats not investigating the growing list of evidence that leads us directly to the Chinese Communist Party and their cover-up? And why is this administration refusing to hold China accountable? Our Republican members will continue to work to demand answers and accountability and transparency for the American people.

House Republican leaders and doctors gathered Thursday morning for a news conference ostensibly to urge Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus amid rising infections across the United States, but they used the event to attack Democrats who they said, without proof, had dissembled about the origins of the virus.

The appearance by the second and third-ranking House Republicans, Representatives Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and Elise Stefanik of New York, alongside a dozen doctors suggested that a resurgence in the spread of the virus, driven by the more contagious Delta variant, had not prompted the party to change its tone. Mr. Scalise and Ms. Stefanik instead blasted Democrats for what they called a cover-up on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.

Only when pressed by reporters did the leaders address vaccination.

I would encourage people to get the vaccine, Mr. Scalise said near the end of the event, when pressed about his position on it. I have high confidence in it. I got it myself.

He and other Republicans spent most of their time on Thursday discussing unproven claims that the Chinese had released a virulent, human-made virus on the world and charging that Democrats had ignored it.

The event in front of the Capitol had been billed as a press conference to discuss the need for individuals to get vaccinated, uncover the origins of the pandemic, and keep schools and businesses open. Yet Republicans who attended, many of whom represent constituencies that have refused to get the vaccine, could not seem to bring themselves to hammer home the importance of doing so.

Even the doctors who emphasized vaccinations, Representative Andy Harris of Maryland and Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, soft-pedaled and qualified their statements.

If you are at risk, you should be getting this vaccine, Dr. Harris said, adding, We urge all Americans to talk to their doctors about the risks of Covid, talk to their doctors about the benefits of getting vaccinated, and then come to a decision thats right for them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone age 12 or over not only those at higher risk get vaccinated against the coronavirus as soon as possible.

When pressed, Representative Greg Murphy, Republican of North Carolina, demurred: This vaccine is a medicine, and just like with any other medicines, there are side effects and this is a personal decision.

The emphasis on the so-called lab leak theory was something of a surprise given the surge of infections concentrated in rural, strongly Republican regions of the country.

Nationally, the average of new coronavirus infections has surged 171 percent in 14 days, to more than 41,300 a day on Wednesday, and deaths a lagging number are up 42 percent from two weeks ago, to nearly 250, according to a New York Times database. Still, new cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain at a fraction from their previous devastating peaks.

Vaccines remain effective against the worst outcomes of Covid-19, including from the Delta variant. Experts say breakthrough infections in vaccinated people are so far still relatively uncommon. The Delta variant is estimated to account for 83 percent of new cases in the United States, the C.D.C. said earlier this week.

The Kaiser Family Foundation reported at the end of June that 86 percent of Democrats had at least one shot, compared with 52 percent of Republicans. An analysis by The Times in April found that the least vaccinated counties in the country had one thing in common: They voted for Mr. Trump.

But Dr. Murphy said the notion that conservatives are hesitant to receive the vaccine is not only disingenuous; its a lie.

As for the lab leak theory, one after another, Republicans framed the issue as virtually settled: Research at a virus laboratory in Wuhan, China, created the novel coronavirus through risky gain of function experiments, then leaked it into the world.

Criminals have been convicted on less circumstantial evidence than currently exists, and every day more evidence has revealed, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa said.

Recently, some scientists have urged that the possibility of a lab leak be taken seriously, alongside the possibility that the coronavirus emerged naturally, most likely from an animal. But they are mostly looking at the possibility that a naturally evolved virus was present in the lab and escaped, not that the virus was created deliberately. Even some of the most vocal scientific supporters of a lab leak possibility do not claim that there is definitive evidence of the origin of the virus.

Rather than cover up the matter, President Biden ordered U.S. intelligence agencies in late May to investigate the origins of the coronavirus and to report back in 90 days.

The Justice Department on Thursday began putting in place a plan to reduce violent crime in the nations largest cities, detailing the work of five federal strike forces aimed at disrupting illegal gun traffickers who flood urban streets with illicit firearms.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland traveled to Chicago, where one of the strike forces will be located, to highlight the plan and underscore the Biden administrations efforts to curb the spread of illegal firearms. A Chicago police officer and two agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were shot while working undercover in the city this month.

The gun violence tragedy now facing the country, needless to say, affects our communities and our security and safety, but it also affects our law enforcement officers, Mr. Garland said in remarks at A.T.F. headquarters in Washington before leaving for Chicago.

He also appealed to lawmakers, who have not yet confirmed President Bidens nominee to lead the bureau, David Chipman. A.T.F. is on the front lines of our efforts to battle gun violence, Mr. Garland said. We are very hopeful that the Senate will soon act.

The bureau will serve as a key coordinating partner in the strike forces, which will be overseen by U.S. attorneys in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Northern California and Washington, D.C. The Justice Department has identified those places as end points for significant gun trafficking corridors.

WASHINGTON Calling Roe v. Wade egregiously wrong, Mississippis attorney general urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to do away with the constitutional right to abortion and to sustain a state law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The court will hear arguments in the case in the fall, giving its newly expanded conservative majority a chance to confront what may be the most divisive issue in American law: whether the Constitution protects the right to end pregnancies.

Lower courts blocked the Mississippi statute, calling it a cynical and calculated assault on abortion rights squarely at odds with Supreme Court precedents. The justices agreed to hear the case in May, just months after Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has said she personally opposes abortion, joined the court. She replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a proponent of abortion rights, who died in September.

The new filing, from Attorney General Lynn Fitch, was a sustained and detailed attack on Roe and the rulings that followed it, notably Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that said states may not impose an undue burden on the right to abortion before fetal viability the point at which fetuses can sustain life outside the womb, or about 23 or 24 weeks.

The Constitution does not protect a right to abortion, Ms. Fitch wrote. The Constitutions text says nothing about abortion. Nothing in the Constitutions structure implies a right to abortion or prohibits states from restricting it.

She told the justices that the scope of abortion rights should be determined through the political process. The national fever on abortion can break only when this court returns abortion policy to the states where agreement is more common, compromise is often possible and disagreement can be resolved at the ballot box.

The law at issue in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, No. 19-1392, was enacted in 2018 by the Republican-dominated Mississippi Legislature. It banned abortions if the probable gestational age of the unborn human was determined to be more than 15 weeks. The statute included narrow exceptions for medical emergencies or a severe fetal abnormality.

The law was challenged by Mississippis sole abortion clinic, which is represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, an advocacy group. The centers president, Nancy Northup, said she was dismayed by the states new filing.

Mississippi has stunningly asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe and every other abortion rights decision in the last five decades, Ms. Northup said in a statement. Todays brief reveals the extreme and regressive strategy, not just of this law, but of the avalanche of abortion bans and restrictions that are being passed across the country.

The precise question the justices agreed to decide was whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional. Depending on how the court answers that question, it could reaffirm, revise or do away with the longstanding constitutional framework for abortion rights.

Ms. Fitch urged the justices to take the third approach, saying it would bolster the legitimacy of the court.

Roe and Casey are unprincipled decisions that have damaged the democratic process, poisoned our national discourse, plagued the law and, in doing so, harmed this court, she wrote.

Representative Hank Johnson, Democrat of Georgia, was among a group of protesters arrested on the Capitol complex on Thursday while demonstrating for voting rights and against the filibuster in the Senate. The arrest came one week after the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police, also while demonstrating for voting rights.

I was arrested today protesting against Senate inaction on voting rights legislation & filibuster reform, Mr. Johnson wrote on Twitter. In the spirit of my dear friend and mentor the late Congressman John Lewis I was getting in #goodtrouble.

In a video posted to his Twitter account, Mr. Johnson could be seen continuing to chant with protesters even after he was taken into custody with his hands bound in zip ties.

Tia Mitchell, a reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution who was on the scene, posted a video on Twitter showing Mr. Johnson and other protesters with their arms linked, blocking a doorway. They were warned by U.S. Capitol Police that they could be arrested for demonstrating without a permit, according to Ms. Mitchell.

Last Thursday, Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, was among nine people arrested in the atrium of a Senate office building while demonstrating in favor of two voting rights bills in Congress, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act.

Both measures aim to protect and expand access to voting but face long odds of becoming law because Democrats, who have a narrow majority in the Senate, need Republican votes to overcome a filibuster. For months, Democrats have expressed frustration over their inability to advance their expansive voting overhauls as Republican state legislatures rush to pass laws that restrict voting rights across the country.

President Biden last week called the fight against restrictive voting laws the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War, even as he seemed to acknowledge that the legislation had little hope of passing. At a televised town hall on Wednesday in Cincinnati, the president defended keeping the filibuster, saying that getting rid of it would throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done.

As news and images of the arrests spread across social media, some noted the contrast between the treatment of the members of Congress, who are both Black, and the hundreds of rioters who trespassed at the Capitol on Jan. 6 who were not detained, although police made efforts to impede them.

In an interview with Elle about her arrest, Ms. Beatty pointed out the same discrepancy.

At the Jan. 6 insurrection, you had thousands of people damaging federal property, rushing and breaking down doors, Ms. Beatty said. People were dying. There was nothing peaceful about it. And look what happened. That day there were no arrests, no handcuffs, no paddy wagons.

WASHINGTON The Biden administration issued new sanctions on Thursday against Cubas defense minister and an elite brigade of government security forces over human rights violations during a crackdown on protesters this month.

In the days since demonstrations erupted across Cuba on July 11, the Biden administration has been consulting with officials in Washington and experts on how broadly it should impose economic penalties against authorities accused of ordering or carrying out a heavy-handed response.

The Biden administration concluded that lvaro Lpez Miera, the head of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, has played an integral role in the repression of ongoing protests in Cuba, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Members of the special forces unit Boinas Negras, or Black Berets, which was previously placed under sanctions during the final days of the Trump administration, will also be penalized for a wave of arrests larger than any other crackdown in years, if not decades.

Activists said at least 150 protesters were arrested or disappeared during the July 11 demonstrations, and internet service was cut for much of the island to stifle anti-government sentiment. Additionally, Human Rights Watch officials said on Thursday that protesters in Cuba were being subjected to closed-door summary trials without a defense lawyer.

The sanctions, issued as part of the Global Magnitsky Act, allow the American government to freeze the property or other assets in the United States that belong to the people targeted by the economic penalties.

The Cuban people have the same right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as all people, President Biden said in a statement.

He added, This is just the beginning the United States will continue to sanction individuals responsible for oppression of the Cuban people.

Cubas foreign minister, Bruno Rodrguez, said the new sanctions were unfounded & slanderous in a message on Twitter.

Calling attention to police violence in the United States, the foreign minister added: It should rather apply unto itself the Magnitsky Global Act for systematic repression & police brutality that took the lives of 1021 persons in 2020.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, described the sanctions as among a range of responses Mr. Biden would deploy to help Cubans grappling with government oppression and a growing humanitarian crisis. She said that addressing this moment was a priority for the administration.

As vice president during the Obama administration, Mr. Biden oversaw a policy that restored full diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time in more than a half-century. But he has taken a tougher stance as president, a position that generally has been greeted warmly by members of Congress including some Democrats who had been in the awkward position of siding with President Donald J. Trumps policy of containing Cubas communist government.

Cubans have grown increasingly frustrated with their government amid an economic crisis that has included food scarcity, power cuts, skyrocketing inflation and a growing number of Covid-19 deaths. The Cuban government, for its part, has blamed the United States for a trade embargo and, last week, accused American officials of stirring the unrest.

Our message could not be clearer: The U.S. stands with the people of Cuba and there will be consequences for those with blood on their hands, Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said on Twitter. Mr. Biden is absolutely right in holding the Cuban regime accountable as it violently tries to squash Cubans hopes & dreams.

The State Department also is considering whether to allow people in the United States to send money to relatives and friends in Cuba though a remittance process that, in past cases, has been exploited by government officials who have seized a cut of the funds. The departments spokesman, Ned Price, said this week that the Biden administration was examining how to get the money directly in the hands of the Cuban people.

Additionally, Mr. Price said, the department may increase the number of American diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, where the Trump administration set the number of staff at the bare minimum. It is not clear when, or if, the Biden administration will move forward on either front.

Ernesto Londoo and Frances Robles contributed reporting.

The C.I.A. is stepping up efforts to confront the cause and effects of mysterious sonic incidents, believed to be attacks, that have injured U.S. officials, by increasing medical staff and assigning an agency veteran who hunted Osama bin Laden, the agencys director, William J. Burns, said in an interview on Thursday.

Im certainly persuaded that what our officers and some family members, as well as other U.S. government employees, have experienced is real and its serious, Mr. Burns told NPR in his first interview since taking over the C.I.A. three months ago.

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The House votes to increase the number of visas for Afghans who have helped U.S. troops. - The New York Times

A Cuban flag and an image of Cubas late President Fidel Castro hang on a wall in Havana as people head to Revolution Square for a massive tribute to Castro in 2016.(Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

Like all forms of oppression, communism and democratic socialism belong in the dustbin of history.

We may be witnessing the end of Communism in Cuba. On July 11, thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest the islands appalling political and economic conditions. Some media outlets are trying to spin these as COVID protests rather than a general rejection of government domination. The cries of Freedom! and Enough! and the prevalence of American flags put that narrative to rest. Cubans long to be free, and now they may get the chance.

The island nation of 11 million is a political and economic basket case. Its government is a brutal dictatorship with an appalling record of human-rights abuses. Freedom of speech and assembly are heavily curtailed, and in response to the protests, the regime has restricted Internet access. Cubas economy is largely bereft of private ownership. Government-run enterprises are the rule, not the exception. Most workers are employed by the state. On the Heritage Index of Economic Freedom, only two countries rank lower: Venezuela and North Korea.

These are not separate problems. Political and economic tyranny are symptoms of the same malady. We must not fall into the trap of blaming only one kind of repression. In Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman warned against thinking any kind of economic arrangement can be associated with any kind of political arrangement. We arent free to choose political and economic systems a la carte. Genuine democracy requires free enterprise, and vice versa.

Cubas ongoing turmoil reminds us we cant compartmentalize human freedom. Sadly, many Western politicians and intellectuals remain obstinate. So-called democratic socialism is currently fashionable. Its also completely unworkable. F. A. Hayek, who shared the Nobel prize in economics in 1974 and was also an accomplished political philosopher, demonstrated this nearly 80 years ago. His Road to Serfdom shows economic control and political liberty are incompatible. The reason is obvious: Top-down economic planners cannot possibly obtain the knowledge of free citizens acting in their economic interest. Political freedom threatens the very control the elites wish to exercise. As Hayek recognized, democratic socialism is not only unachievable, but that to strive for it produces something utterly different the very destruction of freedom itself.

What about China? comes the inevitable reply. Yes, China has seen significant economic liberalization without political liberalization over the decades. But even now, the Chinese Communist Party dominates economic affairs. Formally and informally, many businesses take their marching orders from the government. In the words of Xi Jinping, the CCPs goal is integrating the leadership of the party into all aspects of corporate governance. Dont be fooled into thinking the CCPs compromise with some amount of private residual income is a capitalist triumph.

Is it possible to have extensive economic freedom without political freedom? Certainly, its possible. But far more importantly, how likely is this to work? Too often we focus on authoritarian-capitalist success stories Singapore is a favorite as if they provide a generalizable model. Robert Lawson, a researcher at Southern Methodist University and a leading expert on economic and political freedom, rightly calls out this ahistorical thinking. For every Lee Kuan Yew, Lawson reminds us, there are dozens of tin-pot dictators who have ruined their nations. The extensive scholarly literature on political and economic freedom is clear: They are complements, not substitutes.

Of course, the fullest flowering of human political freedom is liberal democracy. While regular, transparent elections are important, these may matter less for economic liberty than constitutional protections for speech, religion, assembly, and so on, writes Lawson. Reaching this destination is incredibly hard. It took a good long time in the Anglosphere. As ex-prime minister Gordon Brown once quipped, When establishing the rule of law, the first five centuries are the hardest. Can it happen in Cuba, China, and other authoritarian states on a more favorable timeline? The jury is still out on how effectively political repression can function in these societies. What might be fragile in Cuba can weather a storm in China. Transitions are always tricky. Hopefully all nations suffering despotism can find their way.

Like all forms of oppression, Communism and democratic socialism belong in the dustbin of history. They deprive millions of life, liberty, and property. Its time to make a final push to eradicate these barbaric philosophies once and for all. We can only hope the brave Cuban demonstrators will lead the way. If they show the world the harmony of political and economic freedom, they can forever wear it as a badge of honor.

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Cuba Reminds Us There Is No Political Freedom without Economic Freedom - National Review

By contributing authors Tishina Okegbe, PhD, MPP and Temi Ifafore-Calfee

Historically, global health assistance has been delivered largely by high and upper-middle income countries, the so-called Global North. These countries export technical expertise, often furnishing financial and human resources to low- and middle-income countries, frequently referred to as the Global South. Annually, OECD and donor countries spent over $150 billion on foreign aid with a subset targeted to advance global health goals and priorities abroad. While we celebrate declining poverty rates, improving maternal and child health outcomes and ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, deeper investigation leads one to question the purportedly altruistic nature of the Global North. In fact, one may find that an element of duality exists.

Global health assistance has its origin in colonization, though development agencies, donors, academic institutions, and global health practitioners seldom refer to this history. As a result, health systems across the globe model themselves on systems established by former colonial powers. These systems are held up as the ideal to which the Global South should aspire. The consequences of the Global North not recognizing the enduring imprint of colonization and imperialism results in continued subjugation of the Global South through the provision of global health technical assistance.

The negative impact of the North-South dynamics is evident. People from the Global South regularly report being ignored, silenced, and excluded from funding decisions that affect them. Several studies have highlighted the extraction of intellectual property from the Global South as reflected by principal authors from outside countries of research, including a recent Lancet Global Health commentary. Global health organization staffing models built on highly paid Global North leadership and inexpensive Global South labor may result in adverse work conditions. Moreover, English and other UN official languages dominate the language of global health fora and publications, further devaluing local languages.

In the Global North countries, academic institutions can play a critical role in shrinking the space between the purported values of global health and incongruent actions. This starts by acknowledging the duality that exists and actively working to improve the health and wellbeing of domestic communities of color. Framing the work through a restorative justice lens, Global North countries must also self-reflect. Given that the United States is the worlds largest global health assistance funder, intentionally rectifying ubiquitous oppressive global health practices may motivate other Global North countries to initiate national-level self-inquiry.

Because systems of oppression are complex and longstanding, we recognize that there is no sole solution to dismantle them. Hence, we offer two recommendations for US academic and global health institutions and practitioners to implement towards mitigating the problematic duality.

We applaud efforts by institutions like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Lancet to address the organizational structures and systems that perpetuate racial inequity. These efforts advance transparency and contribute towards closing the vast research gap on the study of racism and its impact on health practices. However, were concerned that these efforts are performative and commitments will fade once momentum passes. US academic institutions can address this concern by establishing a global accountability structure. This structure would create a safe space through which the Global North acknowledges its oppressive legacy and the subsequent impact on the Global South, and truly listens and learns from the Global South. This structure could be coordinated by a body such as the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, whose current membership represents government, US and international institutions, and think tanks. This would lead to a gradual shift in power dynamics, which currently favors the Global North. It will also be important for Global North institutions to hold each other accountable so that the onus does not rest on the Global South.

US academic institutions also have a role to play in advancing equitable access to quality health services. While domestic communities of color appear strikingly similar to populations the US serves abroad through global health assistance, strategic domestic health investments in communities of colors have been lacking. US academic institutions should employ the same evidence-based decision-making processes domestically that are utilized internationally to determine where resources and healthcare investments should be deployed. By determining the magnitude and geography of the problem, these institutions can assist the government in providing technical assistance to communities in need.

We acknowledge that these recommendations will not eradicate this duality, as more robust, systemic approaches are needed to shift dynamics that have been in place for centuries. However, they can serve as first steps and can be implemented immediately. We are also inspired by recent US commitments toward advancing racial equity and can envision a decolonized global health field on the horizon.

Tishina Okegbe, PhD, MPP is a global health specialist with 10+ years of experience. She earned her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and a masters degree from Princeton University, and is a Term Member on the Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tishina-okegbe/

Temi Ifafore-Calfee is the acting Managing Director within USAIDs Private Sector Engagement Hub. Her career spans 15 years, holding senior and director-level roles and she is a first-generation American.

Disclaimer: The findings and views in this commentary are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

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Helping or Hurting? The Duality of Global Health and How to Fix It - PLoS Blogs