South African singer and musician Johnny Clegg, one of the loudest voices in pop during the anti-apartheid movement, is being widely mourned in the country following his death earlier this week.
 
The so-called “White Zulu” — so named for his use of indigenous South African music and dance – passed away at age 66, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Musician Sipho Mchunu was just 17 when he met the young man who would change his life — and South Africa’s music scene.
 
Mchunu was walking down the street when Clegg, just 16, approached him and asked him to sing him a song. He did, and the rest, he says, is history: the two formed a band, Juluka, and became known for their inventive use of Zulu songs and dance. In 1990, they became the biggest-selling world music group on the planet.

‘He taught me a lot also’
 
Clegg was no ordinary singer — and, Mchunu says, no ordinary South African. His goal was to unite South Africans across color lines. But Mchunu says the learning went both ways.
 
 “I’ve never been to school so I can’t read and write,” he told VOA this week in Johannesburg. “So he made me understand the white people, a little bit of the culture. I guess you could say he helped me a lot. I helped him too. But I don’t feel like, when the people they say, “you taught him a lot.’ I say, ‘he taught me a lot also.’ So in Zulu, we call that ‘izandla ziyagezana,’ the hands wash each other.”
 
‘He captured the imagination’

On the streets of the hip Johannesburg suburb of Melville, South Africans of all races mourned the loss.
 
“You can compare him to any international performer,” said music fan Philip Brook. “For instance, Queen was a true performer, a true artist. So was Johnny Clegg. He captured the imagination of the people, he told a beautiful story.”
 
He also continues to inspire a new generation of musicians, like 20-year-old student Nipo Mubaiwa.
 
“When we speak about legends and icons we’re actually speaking about people like Johnny Clegg, people like Freddie Mercury and so I think for me that’s a really iconic moment,” she said. “And you know that you created such a big impact when you pass away and so many people are just in a state of shock because of the amount of impact that you had on their lives.”
 
Mchunu taught Clegg how to dance and stick-fight like a Zulu man, and was by Clegg’s side as they rocketed to stardom with hits like “Asimbonanga” and “Impi,” a song so controversial it was banned by the apartheid regime.

Fans big and small
 
But Clegg’s music, which dealt with big issues and major figures like former South African President Nelson Mandela, also touched the hearts of ordinary South Africans. Street guard Konose Kula says he will forever carry Clegg’s music in his heart.
 
“Johnny Clegg was the best,” he said. “He was a super musician. Yeah. He was a legend.”
 
Kula, too, is a musician, and plays the guitar and the piano. And, he says, the legend himself may be gone, but the White Zulu’s music will never die.

…

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee who will question former special counsel Robert Mueller next week plan to focus on a narrow set of episodes laid out in his report, an effort to direct Americans’ attention to what they see as the most egregious examples of President Donald Trump’s conduct.

The examples from the Mueller report include Trump’s directions to White House counsel Donald McGahn to have Mueller removed and, later, orders from Trump to McGahn to deny that happened. Democrats also will focus questioning on a series of meetings Trump had with former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in which the Republican president directed Lewandowski to persuade then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit Mueller’s investigation.

Mueller laid out several episodes in which Trump tried to influence his investigation and wrote that he could not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice.

Democratic aides say they believe the McGahn and Lewandowski narratives, explained in detail in the 448-page report, are clear examples of such obstruction and will be easy to understand as lawmakers try to educate the American public on a report that they believe most people haven’t read. The aides requested anonymity to freely discuss members’ plans for questioning.

The House Judiciary and intelligence committees will question Mueller in back-to-back hearings July 24. The testimony had been scheduled for July 17 but was delayed . Time will be extremely limited under an agreement with Mueller, who is a reluctant witness and has said he will stick to the contents of the report.

To effectively highlight what they see as the most damaging parts of the report, lawmakers said Thursday that they will have to do something that members of Congress aren’t used to doing: limit the long speeches and cut to the chase.

“Members just need to focus,” said Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the intelligence panel. “Nobody’s watching them. Keep it short, keep focused, listen to each other, work together. Make this as productive as possible.”

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat on the Judiciary panel, said: “You will find little or no editorializing or speechifying by the members. This is all about allowing special counsel Mueller to speak.”

Lawmakers on the Judiciary panel said that they have been working with committee staff on which members will ask what. The staff wants to make sure that they ask targeted questions, such as on Trump’s directions to McGahn and Lewandowski.

“It’s going to be fairly scripted,” said Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, another Democrat on the Judiciary panel. “The main goal is to get Robert Mueller to say what Robert Mueller wrote in the Mueller report. And then get it on national TV, so people can hear him saying it.

The Judiciary Committee aides said that they want lawmakers to take multiple pieces of information in Mueller’s report and connect the dots for viewers. Besides the episodes with McGahn and Lewandowski, they said lawmakers also will focus on the president’s conduct toward his former lawyer Michael Cohen and his former campaign manager Paul Manafort. The report looks at how Trump praised both men when he perceived they were on his side, contacting Cohen to tell him to “stay strong” and publicly praising Manafort for “refusing to break.” There also were subtle hints that he could pardon each.

Cohen eventually started cooperating with the government, and Trump then publicly called him a “rat” and suggested his family members had committed crimes.

The House intelligence panel, which has fewer members, is expected to focus on the first volume of Mueller’s report, which details multiple contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Mueller found that there was not enough evidence to establish a conspiracy between the two.

House intelligence committee aides, who also declined to be identified to discuss the confidential preparations, said that lawmakers on that panel are expected to focus on those contacts and on what the report says about WikiLeaks, the website that released Democratic emails stolen by the Russians.

As the Democrats methodically work through the highlights of the report, it could start to feel a bit like a class: Mueller 101.

Raskin, a longtime constitutional law professor, says he plans to use some visual aids, like posters, to help people better understand what Mueller wrote.

“We have different kinds of learners out there,” Raskin said. “And we want people to learn, both in an auditory way but also in a visual way, about these dramatic events that Mueller will be discussing.”

Republicans are preparing as well and are expected to focus more on Mueller’s conclusions that there isn’t enough evidence of a conspiracy and no charges on obstruction _ than the individual episodes detailed. The top Republican on the Judiciary panel, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, said his members will be asking questions that aim to confirm what is in the report.

But while the Democrats are eagerly anticipating the opportunity, many of the Republicans are weary.

“Frankly the American people have moved on,” Collins said. They “want to get it behind us.

…

Former South African President Jacob Zuma has decided to stop testifying at a public inquiry into state corruption.

Zuma’s lawyers said Friday their client feels that he has been questioned unfairly.

“Our client from the beginning . . . has been treated as someone who was accused,” said Zuma’s lawyer, Muzi Sikhakhane.

The former president has given testimony this week at the so-called “State Capture” commission.

Raymond Zondo, the lead judge in the probe, has said, “The commission is not mandated to prove a case against anybody, but is mandated to investigate and inquire into certain allegations.”

Zuma has denied allegations of corruption, saying he was a victim of conspiracies to end his career, ruin his reputation and kill him.

Zuma was forced to resign from office last year by the ruling African National Congress party after being implicated in numerous corruption scandals.  In one instance, prosecutors accused him of using some $20 million in public funds for improvements at his private estate.

…

The German rescue ship captain who allegedly disobeyed Italy’s ban on migrant ships, voiced hope Thursday that EU countries would allow migrants in the future. Carola Rackete spoke after she was questioned by a Sicilian court on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration.

Shouts of “Brava,” along with applause, greeted Carola Rackete as she left court in the town of Agrigento after just under four hours of questioning. Demonstrators outside the courtroom held banners which read, “Saving lives at sea is not a crime.”

Sea-Watch 3 Captain Calls for EU Action on Migrants Rescues

A German humanitarian ship captain who eluded an Italian effort to block her from docking at an Italian port after rescuing migrants has called for the European Commission to do its best to avoid new migrants’ standoffs

The 31-year-old Rackete told reporters she was pleased to have told the court why she entered the port of Lampedusa in late June after two weeks at sea in international waters. Rackete was arrested June 29 after defying orders to stay out of the port and hitting a police boat with her ship, the Sea-Watch 3, with migrants on board.

A judge in Agrigento subsequently released her from house arrest, saying the captain followed the “law of the sea,” which is first and foremost to save the lives of endangered people.

The captain has said she docked at Lampedusa because she feared for the health of her migrant passengers.

Rackete told journalists she hoped the new European Union Commission would let migrants such as those she had rescued enter those countries without facing added impediments.

“I sincerely hope that the European Commission now after the new election of the parliament will do their very best to prevent situations like that happening and that all the European countries will work together in the future to accept any people which the civilian fleet has rescued,” said Rackete.

The Italian government has adopted a tough position against illegal immigration. Authorities have imposed a policy that effectively stops non-governmental organization ships with rescued migrants from entering Italian waters.

In the case of Rackete, investigators say she will not undergo further questioning. Rackete’s lawyers also say she is free to return to Germany if she so desires and that no arrest has been confirmed. Additionally, the lawyers say Rackete is no longer the captain of the Sea Watch as there has been a change in crew.

…

VALLETTA, MALTA — Three suspects were formally charged this week in the 2017 slaying of Maltese anti-corruption journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia. 
 
Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, all in their 50s, were arrested in December 2017. The Justice Ministry’s confirmation of the charges, which allows a trial to be held, came Tuesday, days before a 20-month deadline. 
 
The public prosecutor now has another 20 months to set a date for the trial, which legal experts said might not take place for years. 
 
Late last week, the government of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, at the recommendation of the Council of Europe, said it would create a public commission of inquiry within two months that would investigate whether the Oct. 16, 2017, attack could have been prevented. 
 
Caruana Galizia, described as a “one-woman WikiLeaks,” was responsible for a number of corruption exposes targeting both Muscat and opposition figures. 
 
In the wake of the killing, Malta asked American and Dutch experts to help in the probe. 
 
After her death, her sons demanded Muscat’s resignation, accusing him of surrounding himself with crooks, creating a culture of impunity and turning the tiny Mediterranean state into a “mafia island.” 

…

House lawmakers voted Wednesday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

In a vote that mostly followed party lines, House members passed the Raise The Wage Act, the first minimum wage increase since 2009. The measure has not yet come up in the Senate. The bill would more than double the national minimum wage over the next 6 years, a marked increase from the current $7.25 federal minimum wage.

The bill would also raise the minimum wage for tipped employees to the same level from the current $2.13 an hour.

In the 231-to-199 vote, three Republican representatives joined the majority and voted for the bill, while six Democrats voted against it.

“This is about workers, it’s about their economic and financial security and today is a bright day because it affects so many people in our country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters at a news conference.

Skepticism

While the vote was nearly unanimous by Democrats, some members were skeptical.

Democrats Tom O’Halleran of Arizona and Stephanie Murphy of Florida introduced an amendment that would mandate the Government Accountability Office to track the bill’s effects and report to the House before the entire wage increase is implemented. It passed 248-181.

Republican lawmakers voiced sharp opposition, arguing it will stifle economic growth.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said that the bill would “eviscerate millions of American jobs,” referencing a report by the Congressional Budget Office that projected between 1 million and 3 million Americans could lose their jobs if the bill were to become law. 

The CBO also predicted that the bill would give over 30 million Americans raises, lifting 1 million from poverty.

In the Republican-controlled Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell questioned why the Senate would “depress the economy at a time of economic boom,” in an interview with the Fox Business Network, indicating that he would not bring the bill for a vote.
 

…

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that China’s mistreatment of its Uighur Muslim minority had created one of the most significant human rights crises in contemporary world history. 
 
Speaking at a conference on religious freedom in Washington, Pompeo said, “China is home to one of the worst human rights crises of our time” and that “it is truly the stain of the century.” 
 
The nation’s top diplomat also accused Chinese government officials of intimidating countries to keep them from attending the conference and said the U.S. had “taken note” of the countries that succumbed to China. While not naming them, Pompeo urged the countries to “find the courage” to stand up to China. 
 
Pompeo said earlier this week that representatives of more than 100 countries would attend the three-day conference that ends Thursday, but a State Department spokesman could not confirm the number. 
 
“We know the Chinese government called countries specifically to discourage participation,” the spokesman said, but “we cannot prove the exact number they successfully impacted.”

The Chinese government has dismissed accusations it violated rights to religious freedom. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a Beijing news briefing Thursday that “this situation of so-called religious persecution does not exist.”  
 
Lu also said China “demand[s] that the United States correctly view China’s religious policies and the status of religious freedom in China, and stop using the issue of religion to interfere in other countries’ affairs.” 
 
U.N. experts and activists contend China has placed at least 1 million ethnic Uighurs in detention centers. Nearly two dozen countries on the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier this month called on China to stop its persecution of Uighurs in the country’s western Xinjiang region. 
 
The U.S. has been considering sanctions against Chinese officials over their policies in Xinjiang but has yet to impose them amid Chinese threats of retaliation. 
 
U.S.-China relations are already tense because of a trade war between the world powers. 

Pence offers solidarity
 
Vice President Mike Pence also addressed the conference, telling attendees that U.S. trade talks with China would not influence America’s commitment to religious freedom in the East Asian country. 
 
“Whatever comes of our negotiations with Beijing, you can be assured that the American people will stand in solidarity with people of all faiths in the People’s Republic of China,” he said. 

Pence, offering rare criticism of U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, also called on the kingdom to release jailed blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for insulting Islam. 
 
Pence also demanded the release of detained religious dissidents in Eritrea, Mauritania and Pakistan and vowed the U.S. would press for religious freedom in North Korea amid efforts to denuclearize the country. 

…

Anti-corruption officials in Pakistan have arrested former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for allegedly evading an ongoing investigation into corruption charges against him.

The former Pakistani leader is the latest in a series of high-profile opposition politicians targeted under the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan who accuses his predecessors of corruption and stashing away billions of dollars to foreign bank accounts. 

Abbasi together with several members of his opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) was on his way to address a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday, when he was taken into custody by a team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the state anti-corruption body.

Authorities later took the former prime minister to Islamabad, where he will appear before an anti-corruption court on Friday, said NAB officials. Abbasi served as prime minister from August 2017 to May 2018.

NAB officials explained that the arrest stemmed from a case related to the award of a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract when Abbasi was serving as the federal minister for petroleum and natural resources. They said Abbasi had been repeatedly summoned for questioning sessions, including one on Thursday, but he did not appear.

The arrest came just weeks after the country’s former president, Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, was arrested in connection of multiple cases of corruption and money laundering against him.

Abbasi’s predecessor and party chief, Nawaz Sharif, is currently serving a seven-year jail term after he was convicted of corruption last year.

Sharif’s brother and the current party chief, Shahbaz Sharif, denounced Abbasi’s arrest. He alleged in a statement that “the institution of NAB has become Imran Khan’s puppet but such cheap tactics cannot waiver our resolve.”

Opposition parties reject allegations against their leaders and dismiss the accountability campaign as politically motivated to divert public attention from struggling economy, soaring inflation and ballooning deficits. Khan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party denies the charges.

Khan defeated the PML-N in last year’s national elections, promising to crackdown on rampant corruption and improve the crisis-ridden national economy. 

…

U.S. President Donald Trump is disavowing chants of “send her back” at his political rally which were heard when he questioned the loyalty of U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a war refugee from Somalia.

“I was not happy when I heard that chant,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office, adding he disagreed with it.

Asked why he did not try to stop the chant at the event on Wednesday evening in North Carolina, the president replied: “I think I did – I started speaking very quickly.”

Omar when asked about Trump on Thursday by reporters outside the Capitol, replied, “I believe he is fascist.”

She asked: “Because I criticized the president, I should be deported?”

Omar is one of four new Democratic Party members of Congress who are women of color who have repeatedly been attacked by Trump since Sunday on social media and in public comments. The congresswoman posted a tweet late Wednesday featuring a picture of herself wearing a hijab and seated in the speaker’s chair in the U.S. House of Representatives chamber along with a message for Trump and his supporters, who have in recent days repeatedly suggested the U.S. citizen “go back” to Somalia.

“I am where I belong, at the people’s house and you’re just gonna have to deal!” Omar wrote.

?? I am where I belong, at the people’s house and you’re just gonna have to deal! pic.twitter.com/W0OvDXGxQX

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 18, 2019

Also, Omar late Wednesday, quoted the late African American poet Maya Angelou, tweeting, “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like the air, I’ll arise.”

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

-Maya Angelou https://t.co/46jcXSXF0B

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 18, 2019

“I think in some cases they hate America,” Trump, at the rally, said Wednesday evening of Congresswomen Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayana Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.

When Trump accused Omar of “anti-Semitic screeds,” the crowd in Greenville, North Carolina, responded with chants of “send her back.”

“These congresswomen, their comments are helping to fuel the rise of a militant hard left,” declared Trump at the event.

A Republican congressman, Adam Kinzinger, is warning the behavior exhibited at Trump’s rally the previous evening threatens to tear apart the country.

I deeply disagree with the extreme left & have been disgusted by their tone. I woke up today equally disgusted – chants like “send her back” are ugly, wrong, & would send chills down the spines of our Founding Fathers. This ugliness must end, or we risk our great union.

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 18, 2019

During his 90-minute rally on Wednesday, Trump several times thanked other Democrats in the House for voting down, hours earlier, an attempt to push articles of impeachment against him.

Trump called Congressman Al Green’s raising the impeachment issue in the House “a sneak attack.”

The 332-95 vote to kill the measure was the first action on the issue by the chamber since the Democrats took control of it in January.

Green defied party leadership, who contend formally raising the impeachment issue is premature as House committees, led by the Democrats who control the chamber, continue to investigate Trump and members of his Cabinet.

“We’re not having him set our agenda; we’re setting our own agenda,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said of Trump.

On Tuesday night, four Republicans joined every Democrat in the House to approve a resolution condemning Trump’s “racist” remarks. At the center of the dispute was Trump’s Sunday tweet telling the four congresswomen to “go back” to their countries to fix them before attacking the United States, even though all four are U.S. citizens and only Omar was not born in the country.

The House resolution, which was passed 240-187, “strongly condemns” Trump’s “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”

…

The lawyer and family of Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani physician who helped the United States track down former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, told VOA that Afridi continues to suffer in prison under dire conditions.

Qamar Nadeem, Afridi’s lawyer, expressed optimism that the fate of his client would be discussed during the planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan next week at the White House.

“Dr. Afridi can’t sleep properly, due to harsh conditions and sweltering heat, as there is no window in the cell where he is kept,” Nadeem said. “Imran Khan is visiting the U.S., but if Dr. Afridi remains in pain, then I think the visit won’t be a success.”

Speaking to VOA, Jamil Afridi, Shakil Afridi’s brother, expressed frustration that the doctor’s case has not been resolved in more than eight years.

“President Trump and the U.S. government should have resolved this issue by now,” he told VOA.

Jamal Afridi said he last visited his brother, who he says has become very weak, July 6.

“He cannot rest during the day, nor can he sleep at night. He is in great pain,” he said.

U.S. officials have not said publicly if the two leaders will discuss Afridi’s case. But according to a statement released by the White House last week, both sides will discuss a host of issues, including counterterrorism and joint U.S.-Pakistan efforts to bring stability to the South Asian region.

Pakistani officials, however, did not rule out the possibility of Afridi’s case being raised.

Muhammad Faisal, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson, told VOA that all issues of mutual interest would be discussed between the two leaders.

“I cannot share the details, but all issues will be discussed,” he said.

Some U.S. experts agree.

“This is the type of a thing that you would expect President Trump to push, because you know he wants to be seen as a deal-maker who would want to make a deal,” Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based  Wilson Center, told VOA. “But the question is what the deal would look like.”

Who is Afridi?

Afridi helped the United States find bin Laden in 2011. He was later arrested by Pakistani authorities and has been in prison awaiting trial since then.

He reportedly used a fake vaccination program to try to obtain DNA samples from bin Laden’s family. U.S. officials have claimed Afridi was imprisoned for his role in helping the U.S. But Pakistan disputes that claim, alleging Afridi provided financial support to a local militant group.

At a conference in May that was attended by Pakistanis, U.S. Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman said the U.S. cannot ignore the fact that a Pakistani who helped the country find a terrorist is behind bars.

“We have chosen to ignore the fact that OBL [bin Laden] was just down the street from the military academy, but we can’t ignore the one best Pakistani who helped us find this terrorist is behind bars,” Sherman said, referring to Afridi.

Charges and trial

Afridi has not been officially charged with treason for helping the U.S in the bin Laden case. He has reportedly been accused under tribal law for helping militants in the nearby Khyber tribal region. In a tribal court, the law allows authorities to not present the defendant in court and limit the number of appeals.

If Afridi were to be charged with treason in a Pakistani court, he would have the right to public hearings and appeals up to the country’s Supreme Court. This would allow details of the bin Laden operation to be discussed publicly, something the government does not want, according to analysts.

But legal experts told VOA that Pakistan has so far failed to produce evidence against Afridi.

Farhad Afridi, a Pakistani lawyer who is unrelated to Shakil Afridi, maintains that Afridi’s continued imprisonment is unjustified.

“No evidences have been produced before the court regarding the charges leveled against him and under which the conviction of Dr. Shakil Afridi is granted,” the lawyer told VOA.

Swap?

For several years, the media in Pakistan have speculated about a possible swap with the U.S. involving Afridi and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is jailed in the U.S. on terrorism charges.

Siddiqui was convicted in 2010 by a federal jury in Manhattan on charges of trying to kill U.S. government personnel while she was in custody in Afghanistan. She was found guilty of attempted murder and six other charges stemming from a shooting at a police station in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province in 2008.

Experts doubt that such a swap would take place because of the strict U.S. laws pertaining to terrorists.

“I just don’t know if the Trump administration would be willing to swap, with regard to terrorists,” Kugelman said. “But again, you never know. We cannot rule out the possibility that it could be discussed.”

Jamil Afridi claims the civilian government in Pakistan is powerless, and that the fate of his brother can be decided only by the country’s powerful military.

“The army controls the prison, and the prison authorities follow their orders,” he said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.

…

A Republican senator blocked a bipartisan bill that would have made sure that a fund providing compensation to 9/11 workers would remain viable until 2090. 

Rand Paul of Kentucky questioned the bill’s 70-year time frame and said any new spending should be offset by corresponding cuts so the U.S. government’s $22 trillion debt does not continue to grow. 

“It has long been my feeling that we need to address our massive debt in the country,” Paul said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “And, therefore, any new spending … should be offset by cutting spending that’s less valuable. We need to at the very least have this debate.”

Presidential hopeful New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand had offered the bill for unanimous consent, which would have fast-tracked its approval. 

Under Senate rules, an objection from a single senator can block a measure offered via unanimous consent, which is what Paul did. 

A spokesperson for Paul later told The Hill that Paul “is not blocking anything,” adding that he is “simply seeking to pay for it.”

The bill, which easily passed in the House last month, would extend though 2092 a victims compensation fund, essentially making it permanent. 

More than $7 billion was placed in a fund to compensate firefighters, construction crews, police and other emergency workers who rushed into the debris of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001 — inhaling dust, smoke, chemicals and other hazardous substances.

Many are suffering from breathing problems, digestive disorders, and lung and other cancers.

The Justice Department has warned that the fund is running out of money because there was no mechanism in Congress to make sure that does not happen before the entire program is set to expire next year.

Benefit payments have been slashed and about 21,000 claims are still awaiting a decision.

Gillibrand said she was “deeply disappointed” by Paul’s action.

“Enough of the political games. Our 9/11 first responders and our entire nation are watching to see if this body actually cares. Do we care about the men and women who answer the call of duty?” she asked in an emotionally charged speech. 

“Thousands of those men and women have died,” she said. Others still have to “face the terrifying reality that they are going to die because of what they did on 9/11 and the months thereafter.”

Gillibrand and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer have asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring up the bill for a vote before Congress goes on its August recess.

…

The Democratic-controlled House voted Wednesday to hold two top Trump administration officials in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas related to a decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The House voted 230-198 to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt. The vote, a political blow to the Trump administration, is largely symbolic because the Justice Department is unlikely to prosecute the two men.

The action marks an escalation of Democratic efforts to use their House majority to aggressively investigate the inner workings of the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump abandoned the citizenship question last week after the Supreme Court said the administration’s justification for the question “seems to have been contrived.” Trump directed agencies to try to compile the information using existing databases.

The White House called the vote “ridiculous” and “yet another lawless attempt to harass the president and his administration.”

The Justice and Commerce departments have produced more than 31,000 pages of documents to the House regarding the census issue, and senior officials from both agencies, including Ross, have spoken on the record about the matter, the White House said, adding that Democrats continue to demand documents that the White House contends are subject to executive privilege.  

“House Democrats know they have no legal right to these documents, but their shameful and cynical politics know no bounds,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. 

Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said the contempt vote was an important step to assert Congress’ constitutional authority to serve as a check on executive power.

“Holding any secretary in criminal contempt of Congress is a serious and sober matter — one that I have done everything in my power to avoid,” Cummings said during House debate. “But in the case of the attorney general and Secretary Ross, they blatantly obstructed our ability to do congressional oversight into the real reason Secretary Ross was trying for the first time in 70 years to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.”

While Ross and other officials have claimed the sole reason they wanted to add the citizenship question was to enforce the Voting Rights Act, “we now know that claim was nothing but a pretext,” Cummings said. “The Supreme Court said that.”

At the direction of Barr and Ross, “the departments of Justice and Commerce have been engaged in a campaign to subvert our laws and the process Congress put in place to maintain the integrity of the census,” Cummings said.

The contempt resolution “is about protecting our democracy, protecting the integrity of this body. It’s bigger than the census,” he said.

Ross called the vote a public relations “stunt” that further demonstrates Democrats’ “unending quest to generate headlines instead of operating in good faith with our department.”

Democrats prefer to “play political games rather than help lead the country” and “have made every attempt to ascribe evil motivations to everyday functions of government,” Ross said.

Ross told the oversight committee that the March 2018 decision to add the question was based on a Justice Department request to help enforce the Voting Rights Act.

Democrats disputed that, citing documents unearthed last month suggesting that a push to draw legislative districts in overtly partisan and racist ways was the real reason the administration wanted to include the question.

Democrats feared that adding the question would reduce participation in immigrant-heavy communities and result in a severe undercount of minority voters. They have pressed for specific documents to determine Ross’ motivation and contend the administration has declined to provide the material despite repeated requests.

“The real issue we should be debating” is why Democrats are afraid to ask how many citizens live in the United States, said Representative James Comer, a Kentucky Republican. Contrary to Democrats’ claims, Ross and other officials have cooperated with the oversight panel and provided thousands of documents, Comer said.

“If the Democrats can’t impeach President Trump, they will instead hold his Cabinet in contempt of Congress,” he said. “This is just another episode in political theater.”

In a letter late Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Barr and Ross asked Democrats to postpone the vote, saying they have shown a “clear record of cooperation” with Congress. The contempt vote “is both unnecessarily undermining” relations between the two branches and “degrading” Congress’ “own institutional integrity,” they wrote.

Trump has pledged to “fight all the subpoenas” issued by Congress and says he won’t work on legislative priorities, such as infrastructure, until Congress halts investigations of his administration. 

…

Congress is heading for a showdown with President Donald Trump after the House voted Wednesday to block his administration from selling billions of dollars in weapons and maintenance support to Saudi Arabia.

Trump, who has sought to forge closer ties with Riyadh, has pledged to veto the resolutions of disapproval that passed the Democratic-led House largely along party lines. Two of the resolutions passed with 238 votes, while a third was approved with 237. Each of the measures garnered just four Republican backers.

The Senate cleared the resolutions last month, but like the House, fell well short of a veto-proof majority. Overturning a president’s veto requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate.

Heightened Middle East tensions

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accused the Trump administration of circumventing Congress and the law to move ahead with the arms sale. He called the resolutions “extraordinary but necessary” to stop “a phony emergency to override the authority of Congress.”

The votes came against the backdrop of heightened tensions in the Middle East, with much of the focus on Iran. Tehran is pushing the limits on its nuclear program after Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal more than a year ago. Iran has inched its uranium production and enrichment over the limits of the accord, trying to put more pressure on Europe to offer it better terms and allow it to sell its crude oil abroad.

The White House has declared stopping the sale would send a signal that the United States doesn’t stand by its partners and allies, particularly at a time when threats against them are increasing.

But opposition among members of Congress to the Trump administration’s alliance with the Saudis has been building, fueled by the high civilian casualties in the Saudi-led war in Yemen — a military campaign the U.S. is assisting — and the killing of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.

Estimated $8 billion in arms

The arms package, worth an estimated $8 billion, includes thousands of precision-guided munitions, other bombs and ammunition, and aircraft maintenance support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had cited Iranian aggression when declaring an emergency to approve the weapons sales in May. The Saudis have recently faced a number of attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“Right now, as I speak, Iran is stretching its tentacles of terror across the Middle East,” said the Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Republican, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, who pushed for the resolutions to be rejected. “If we allow them to succeed, terrorism will flourish, instability will reign and the security of our allies like Israel will be threatened.”

Bypassing Congress

Critics of the sale also had denounced the White House for bypassing congressional review of the arms sales, which was done by invoking an emergency loophole in the Arms Export Control Act.

Pompeo had informed Congress that he had made the determination “that an emergency exists which requires the immediate sale” of the weapons “in order to deter further the malign influence of the government of Iran throughout the Middle East region.”

The law requires Congress to be notified of potential arms sales, giving the body the opportunity to block the sale. But the law also allows the president to waive that review process by declaring an emergency that requires the sale be made “in the national security interests of the United States.”

Engel said there was no emergency, arguing that two months after Pompeo’s notification not a single weapon has been shipped and many of them haven’t even been built.

“What kind of emergency requires weapons that will be built months and months down the road?” Engel said.

…

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to block the sale of the advanced F-35 jet to Turkey means Ankara may look elsewhere to replace its aging air force.

Trump’s veto in response to Turkey’s acquisition of Russian missiles could prompt Ankara to turn to Moscow again.

Trump’s announcement followed the first deliveries of Russia’s S-400 air defense missile system to Turkey. Washington had repeatedly warned Ankara that the S-400’s advanced radar could compromise the F-35 stealth technology, making delivery of the jet impossible.

However, Trump’s decision appears to have taken Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by surprise.

“Tayyip Erdogan really trusted Trump,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “In last month’s G-20 meeting in Japan, they were sitting together and Trump [was] saying it’s easy to do business with this these guys.

“It created the expectation that he will prevent the embargo on the F-35, but Trump gave into strong domestic pressure,” he added.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, Turkey’s foreign ministry called the decision to exclude it from the F-35 program a mistake, dismissing the Pentagon’s concerns.

The statement also warned the U.S. decision would cause irreparable harm to relations between Washington and Ankara.

Vital to military fleet 

Turkey is one of the biggest international buyers of the F-35, with an order of 100 of the expensive planes. The jets were a vital part of the Turkish military’s long-term plan to replace its fleet of F-16s, some of which are decades old.

Further complicating the situation, Turkey’s neighbor and rival, Greece, could acquire the F-35, gaining a decisive military edge.

“Future potential foreign military sales customers include Singapore, Greece, Romania, Spain and Poland,” Vice Admiral Mathias Winter, the head of the Pentagon’s F-35 office, said in testimony to the U.S. Congress.

Athens and Ankara have a series of territorial disputes, and Turkish and Greek jets routinely contest airspace in mock dogfights. For now, both sides are equally matched with F-16s.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar insisted in April that Turkey was prepared for any termination of the F-35 sale.

“We have short-term, medium-term and long-term plans,” Akar said.

Ankara has taken some initial steps to build its own fighter, but many experts dismiss the project as fanciful, based on cost and expertise.

“Probably Turkey will look now to the Chinese- or Russian-produced jet fighters, which would further alienate Turkey to the West and push Turkey to the East. There will be a restructuring of course in the Turkish army if the F-35 is not provided,” Bagci said.

Moscow indicated its openness to selling its latest fighter jet, the Su-57.

“These fifth-generation Russian fighter jets [the Su-57] have outstanding qualities and show promise for export,” Sergey Chemezov, head of Rostec, which manufactures the Su-57, said in a May interview with Turkey’s news agency.

Su-57 buyers sought 

Rostec is urgently looking for buyers of the Su-57 since India pulled out of the project. Moscow initially was able to buy a handful of the expensive planes, although last month it ordered another 76.

However, analysts warn any move by Ankara to further deepen its dependence on Russian weapons would further strain its relations with its NATO partners. NATO has voiced strong concerns about Turkey’s purchase of two batteries of S-400 missiles.

A significant procurement of advanced Russian jets could push Turkey’s NATO’s ties to a breaking point.

“Logically, it’s possible you can buy S-400, you can buy Russian fighter bombers,” Haldun Solmazturk, head of the Ankara-based 21st Century Turkey Institute, said.

“But this would require a fundamental political decision,” he added, “not just the Turkish government, but including Turkish parliament, Turkish public. This would be a national decision similar in 1946 when Turkey opposed the Soviet Union and applied to join NATO in 1949.

“Such a decision would be equally important, equally critical. It would be a junction point in Turkish political, military history,” Solmazturk said.

However, given that Erdogan appears to have been wrong-footed by Trump’s vetoing of F-35s, analysts suggest Ankara is most likely scrambling to form a new strategy.

“We have got to this point by a series of diplomatic accidents, not by intention,” Bagci said. “The Turkish mind is confused. There is no clear mind in the heads of Turkish politicians. Erdogan, his defense and foreign ministers, this trio have to talk now on what to do. There is always the possibility to keep the channels open to Washington to find a solution.

“Otherwise, it’s bye-bye, Washington relations and NATO,” he said. 

…

Bolivia, which has one of South America’s highest rates of women being killed because of their gender, has declared femicide a national priority and will step up efforts to tackle growing violence, a top government rights official said on Tuesday.

Since January authorities have recorded 73 femicides – the killing of a woman by a man due to her gender – in the highest toll since 2013. The murders amount to one woman killed every two days.

“In terms of the femicide rate, Bolivia is in the top rankings,” said Tania Sanchez, head of the Plurinational Service for Women and Ending Patriarchy at Bolivia’s justice ministry, despite legal protections being in place.

A 2013 law defined femicide as a specific crime and provided tougher sentences for convicted offenders.

“We are not indifferent,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “The national priority is the lives of women, of all ages, and for that reason the president has raised this issue of femicide as the most extreme form (of violence),” Sanchez said.

Emergency Plan

The latest femicide victim was 26-year-old mother Mery Vila, killed last week by her partner who beat her on the head with a hammer.

This week, the government announced a 10-point “emergency plan.”

Worldwide, a third of all women experience physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, according to the U.N. In Bolivia, violence against women is driven by entrenched machismo culture, which tends to blame victims and even condones it.

According to a 2016 national government survey, seven of every 10 women in Bolivia said they had suffered some type of violence inflicted by a partner.

Sanchez said the new plan “takes into account prevention, as well as care to victims and punishing violence, macho violence.”

A commission will also look at increasing government spending on gender violence and prevention, and evaluate various initiatives’ success.

“Funding is insufficient. There’s a great need in the regions,” Sanchez said.

Other measures include obligatory training courses for civil servants and public sector employees on gender violence and prevention.

School and university teachers will also receive training about “the psychological, sexual and physical violence” women and girls face.

The commission will also consider if femicide should be regarded as a crime of lesser humanity.

Widespread Gender Violence

Latin America and the Caribbean have the world’s highest rates of femicide, according to the United Nations.

Some 15 other countries in the region have introduced laws against femicide in recent years.

Victims of femicides in Bolivia and across the region often die at the hands of current or former boyfriends and husbands with a history of domestic abuse, experts say.

“We believe that this increase (in femicides) is related to a patriarchal system that appropriates the bodies and lives of women,” said Violeta Dominguez, head of U.N. Women in Bolivia.

Femicide cases in Bolivia often go unpunished, with victims’ families struggling for justice, Sanchez said.

Of 627 cases recorded since 2013, 288 remain open without a conviction, which Sanchez called “alarming.”

Bolivian President Evo Morales posted on Twitter on Monday “It’s time to end impunity, and tackle problems as a society.”

…

An FBI analysis of crudely made pipe bombs mailed to prominently critics of President Donald Trump has concluded they wouldn’t have worked, according to a report made public Tuesday.

The January report on the analysis was filed in Manhattan federal court, where U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff is scheduled to sentence Cesar Sayoc in September after the Florida man pleaded guilty to explosives-related charges in the scary episode weeks before midterm elections last year.

Sayoc, 57, faces a mandatory 10-year prison term and up to life. Sayoc has repeatedly said he never intended to injure anyone, a claim that his lawyers will likely argue was supported by the report.

The FBI said the devices wouldn’t have functioned because of their design, though it couldn’t be determined whether that was from poor design or the intent of the builder.

It said the fuzing system for each device lacked the proper components and assembly to enable it to function as a method of initiation for an explosive.

It also said the devices contained small fragments of broken glass, fragmentation often added to explosives to injure or kill people nearby.

Whether the devices might have exploded became a major focal point of recent hearings when Sayoc asserted that they could not and prosecutors seemed to leave the question open.

Sarah Baumbartel, an assistant federal defender, declined comment, though the issue was likely to be addressed when his lawyers submit written sentencing arguments next week.

In a letter to the judge several months ago, Sayoc wrote: “Under no circumstances my intent was to hurt or harm anyone. The intention was to only intimidate and scare.”

Sayoc admitted sending 16 rudimentary bombs – none of which detonated – to targets including Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, several members of Congress, former President Barack Obama and actor Robert De Niro. Devices were also mailed to CNN offices in New York and Atlanta.

The bombs began turning up over a five-day stretch weeks before the midterms. They were mailed to addresses in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, California, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Georgia.

Sayoc was arrested in late October at a Florida auto parts store. He had been living in a van plastered with Trump stickers and images of Trump opponents with crosshairs over their faces.

…

Country singer Luke Combs was just 6 years old when his mom and grandmother snuck him into his first concert by hiding him in the backseat of their car so he could go see Vince Gill play at a minor league baseball stadium.
 
It came full circle for the singer-songwriter from North Carolina when Gill came out to formally induct Combs, 29, into the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday night in Nashville, Tennessee.
 
Combs, who has taken country music by storm in the last two years with hit after hit off his debut major label record, told reporters backstage before the induction that he actually didn’t get to see Gill finish that performance 23 years ago.
 
“I actually missed my favorite song that night because I started crying because there was thunder in the background, so we ended up leaving early,” Combs said. “I am looking forward to saying hello to him.”
 
Combs sang two of his hits before Gill and ’90s country star Joe Diffie joined several other Opry members on stage for the induction into the country music institution. Gill praised Combs’ top-notch vocals before joking about Combs’ first introduction to his music.
 
“I obviously didn’t ruin him,” Gill said.
 
The Opry induction is just the latest accomplishment for the singer since releasing his double-platinum album, “This One’s For You,” in 2017. It produced five No. 1 country hits, including the four-times platinum “Hurricane” and the three-times platinum “When It Rains It Pours.”
 
That album, and the deluxe reissue, has been No. 1 on Billboard’s country album chart for a total 41 non-consecutive weeks and his follow-up EP “The Prequel,” also has been sitting in the top five of that chart as well for several weeks.

 
Combs had the most popular country album in 2018 and he is currently the leader in country album consumption through the first half of 2019, according to Nielsen Music.
 
“If people remember anything about what I’ve done, and I think I tell it to the crowd a lot too, is that if I can do this, you can do anything,” Combs said. “I am the proof that you can do anything that you set your mind to.”
 
Combs came to Nashville just about five years ago and started posting videos of his songs on social media and tried to shop his songs around on Music Row. In a few short years, he’s picked up new artist awards from both the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association and multiple awards from at the Billboard Music Awards. He was also nominated for the all-genre best new artist category at this year’s Grammy Awards, but lost to Dua Lipa.
 
The bearded and burly singer-songwriter, who wears the same type of fishing shirt every night on stage, said that all the recent success and attention has been a bit of an adjustment.  
 
“The hardest part has definitely been, you know, getting used to the fame part of it,” Combs said. “I’m just not a really flashy-like guy.”
 
All he wanted was to write songs and sing and at the end of the day, that’s what the Opry induction really came down to, he said.
 
“I’ll have the opportunity to continue to share my songs with people for the rest of my life,” he said.

…

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday sought to build on his appeal to rural voters with the release of a broad plan to revitalize rural America through investments in agriculture, rural economies and infrastructure.
 
“We have to ensure we bring along everyone,” the former vice president said in Manning, an Iowa town of about 1,500 residents. “Doesn’t matter if you live in skyscraper in Manhattan or here in Manning, your child is entitled” to every benefit America has to offer.
 
The plan builds on policies Biden has already released on health care and climate change and expands on a number of policies first introduced in the Obama administration. It sets the ambitious goal of making America’s agriculture industry the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions, by expanding a program that incentivizes farmers to engage in conservation and by allowing farmers to participate in carbon markets in which companies can essentially pay them to offset their own emissions. The plan pledges to invest in “bio-based manufacturing” to bring jobs back to rural America by using agricultural byproducts in manufacturing.
 
It also includes a $20 billion investment in rural broadband infrastructure, a commitment to prioritize the poorest rural counties for federal investments and a promise to create a federal working group to help rural communities figure out how to apply for federal funds and resources. And it features a raft of policies aimed at bolstering rural health care access, including doubling the funding for community health centers and expanding the use of telehealth services and rural medical residency programs.
 
Biden’s plan is one of a series of rural-focused policy proposals released by 2020 Democratic presidential contenders. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota have released policies focused specifically on the agriculture industry, while Klobuchar has also released a proposal to invest in rural infrastructure. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper have all released broader rural-focused plans that, like Biden’s, include planks aimed at an array of rural issues.
 
Biden is aligned with a number of other candidates in pledging to enforce antitrust laws to crack down on agriculture monopolies and bolster small family farms and to negotiate U.S. trade laws to help American farmers. But his plan already has one major backer in former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who called it a “clearly-stated and comprehensive vision” for rural America.
 
Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, remains beloved in the state, and his endorsement would be influential in the state’s caucuses, where Biden needs to make a strong showing if he hopes to have a shot at the nomination. But while he praised Biden’s plan — and hosted an event at his home for the former vice president on Monday night — he stopped short of endorsing Biden outright because he wanted to see more of the candidates’ plans.
 
“I think it’s a good solid plan, however, I think other candidates no doubt will come out with their plans,” he said in an interview. “Hopefully, what comes from all of this is a Democratic Party that is now perceived by people in rural areas and small towns as a party that is once again reengaging with rural folks.”

…

Support for U.S. President Donald Trump increased slightly among Republicans after he lashed out on Twitter over the weekend in a racially charged attack on four minority Democratic congresswomen, a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll shows.

The national survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday after Trump told the lawmakers they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” showed his net approval among members of his Republican Party rose by 5 percentage points to 72%, compared with a similar poll that ran last week.

Trump, who is seeking re-election next year, has lost support, however, with Democrats and independents since the Sunday tweetstorm.

Among independents, about three out of 10 said they approved of Trump, down from four out of 10 a week ago. His net approval – the percentage who approve minus the percentage who disapprove – dropped by 2 points among Democrats in the poll.

Trump’s overall approval remained unchanged over the past week. According to the poll, 41% of the U.S. public said they approved of his performance in office, while 55% disapproved.

The results showed strong Republican backing for Trump as the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a symbolic resolution on Tuesday, largely along party lines, to condemn him for “racist comments” against the four Democratic lawmakers.

All four U.S. representatives – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – are U.S. citizens.

Three were born in the United States.

The public response to Trump’s statements appeared to be a little better for him than in 2017, after the president said there were “very fine people” on both sides of a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In that instance, Trump’s net approval dropped by about 10 points a week after the Charlottesville rally.

This time, while Democrats and some independents may see clear signs of racial intolerance woven throughout Trump’s tweets, Republicans are hearing a different message, said Vincent Hutchings, a political science and African-American studies professor at the University of Michigan.

“To Republicans, Trump is simply saying: ‘Hey, if you don’t like America, you can leave,” Hutchings said. “That is not at all controversial. If you already support Trump, then it’s very easy to interpret his comments that way.”

By criticizing liberal members of the House, Trump is “doing exactly what Republicans want him to do,” Hutchings said. “He’s taking on groups that they oppose.”

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English and gathered responses from 1,113 adults, including 478 Democrats and 406 Republicans in the United States. It has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 3 percentage points for the entire group and 5 points for Democrats or Republicans.

…

Facebook’s ambitious plan to create a financial eco-system based on a digital currency faces questions from lawmakers, as it’s shadowed by negative comments from President Donald Trump, his treasury secretary and the head of the Federal Reserve.

Congress begins two days of hearings Tuesday on the currency planned by Facebook, to be called Libra, starting with the Senate Banking Committee. Meanwhile, a House Judiciary subcommittee will extend its bipartisan investigation of the market power of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple.

Trump tweeted last week that the new currency, Libra, “will have little standing or dependability.” Both Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed Chair Jerome Powell have expressed serious concerns recently that Libra could be used for illicit activity.

The Treasury Department has “very serious concerns that Libra could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financers,” Mnuchin told reporters at the White House on Monday. “This is indeed a national security issue.”

Facebook has “a lot of work to do before we get to the point where we’re comfortable with it,” Mnuchin said.

Already under intense scrutiny from regulators and Congress over privacy and market dominance, Facebook stirred anger on Capitol Hill last month with the unveiling of its plan to create a financial ecosystem based on a digital currency. Senate and House hearings went on the calendar, and the Democratic head of the House Financial Services Committee, which is holding Wednesday’s hearing, called on Facebook to suspend the plan until Congress and regulators could review it.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said that Facebook, with some 2 billion users around the world, “is continuing its unchecked expansion and extending its reach into the lives of its users.” She called Libra “a new Swiss-based financial system” that potentially is too big to fail and could require a taxpayer bailout.

David Marcus, the Facebook executive leading the project, says in his testimony prepared for Tuesday’s hearing by the Senate Banking Committee that Libra “is about developing a safe, secure and low-cost way for people to move money efficiently around the world. We believe that Libra can make real progress toward building a more inclusive financial infrastructure.”

Facebook agrees with Powell’s view that the government’s review of Libra must be “patient and thorough, rather than a sprint to implementation,” Marcus’ statement says. “The time between now and launch is designed to be an open process and subject to regulatory oversight and review. In fact, I expect that this will be the broadest, most extensive and most careful pre-launch oversight by regulators and central banks in FinTech’s history. We know we need to take the time to get this right.”

The planned digital currency is billed as a “stablecoin” backed by deposits in sovereign currencies such as the dollar, euro and Japanese yen — unlike bitcoin, ether or other digital currencies. Promising low fees, it could open online commerce to millions of people around the world who lack access to bank accounts and make it cheaper to send money across borders. But it also raises concerns over the privacy of users’ data and the potential for criminals to use it for money laundering and fraud.

To address privacy concerns, Facebook created a nonprofit oversight association, with dozens of partners including PayPal, Uber, Spotify, Visa and MasterCard, to govern Libra. As one among many in the association, Facebook says it won’t have any special rights or privileges. It also created a “digital wallet” subsidiary, Calibra, to work on the technology, separately from its main social media business. While Facebook owns and controls Calibra, it won’t see financial data from it, the company says.

Mnuchin’s comments came a few days after Trump tweeted: “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”

If they want to get into the financial business, Facebook and its dozens of partner companies in the venture will have to accept the kind of tight regulation that banks are under, Trump said.

Powell, a powerful financial regulator who is independent of the Trump administration, told Congress last week that Facebook’s plan “raises a lot of serious concerns, and those would include around privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, financial stability. Those are going to need to be thoroughly and publicly assessed and evaluated before this proceeds.”

Facebook’s challenges in Washington go beyond Libra. Later Tuesday, at a Judiciary subcommittee hearing, Facebook will be among four big tech companies — along with Google, Amazon and Apple — testifying about their impact on the innovation and entrepreneurship of smaller companies. It’s the latest chapter in lawmakers’ examination of the industry.

”What happens in tech is that one big company grows to control a lot of stuff, and if it’s allowed to stay there for too long, it slows down the sector,” Timothy Wu, a professor of law, science and technology at Columbia Law School, has said. “Companies like Google and Facebook have come to hold too much power. There’s a growing sense that they have too much control over information, news, advertising, even who we are and what’s going on.”

Wu is among the expert witnesses scheduled to appear before the antitrust panel, which also will hear from executives from the four tech companies.

Early Tuesday, it was Google that was on the receiving end of Trump tweet.

Over the weekend, billionaire investor Peter Thiel said the FBI and the CIA should open an investigation to determine if Google had been infiltrated by Chinese intelligence, according to Axios.

According to the Axios story, Theil said Google was “engaged in the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military and not with the US military.”

Before 5 a.m. Eastern, Trump tweeted about Thiel, “A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone! The Trump Administration will take a look!”

…

The European Union is preparing to impose more sanctions on Venezuela targeting officials who are accused of being involved in torture and other human rights violations.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement Tuesday that it is working with the U.N. to make sure that human rights are respected in Venezuela following reports of abuses by the security forces.
 
Mogherini said that “the EU is ready to start work towards applying targeted measures for those members of the security forces involved in torture and other serious violations of human rights.”
 
The EU has had measures in place since 2017, including an embargo on arms and on equipment for internal repression.  It also slapped 18 officials with travel bans and asset freezes.

…

Monsoon flooding and landslides continued to cause havoc in South Asia on Tuesday, with the death toll rising to 78 in Nepal and authorities in neighboring northeastern India battling to provide relief to over 4 million people in Assam state, officials said.

Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center said more than 40,000 soldiers and police were using helicopters and roads to rush food, tents and medicine to thousands of people hit by the annual flooding. Rescuers also were searching for 32 missing people.

In Bangladesh, more than 100,000 people were affected by flooding in the north and forecasters warned that major rivers continued to swell across the country.

Rivers burst their banks in the northern district of Lalmonirhat, marooning villages, news reports said, quoting local water board officials.

In the Indian state of Assam, officials said floodwaters have killed at least 19 people and brought misery to some 4.5 million.

More than 85,000 people have taken shelter in 187 state government-run camps in 30 of the state’s 33 districts, the state disaster management authority said in a statement.

Deadly Monsoon Destroys 5,000 Shelters in Bangladesh Rohingya Camps

At least 10 people have died and thousands of shanty homes have been destroyed since April by monsoon rains in overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh’s southeast, officials say

Atiqua Sultana, a district magistrate, said a flooded river washed away a 150-meter (490-foot) stretch of Assam’s border road with Bangladesh, flooding 70 villages on the Indian side.

Around 80% of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, home to the endangered one-horn rhinoceros, has been flooded by the Brahmaputra river, which flows along the sanctuary, forest officer Jutika Borah said.

After causing flooding and landslides in Nepal, three rivers have been overflowing in India and submerging parts of eastern Bihar state, killing at least 24 people, said Pratata Amrit, a state government official.

More than 2.5 million people have been hit by the flooding in 12 of 38 districts of Bihar state, Amrit said.

In Bangladesh, at least a dozen people, mostly farmers, have been killed by lightning since Saturday as monsoon rains battered parts of the low-lying country.

Bangladesh, with 160 million people and more than 130 rivers, is prone to monsoon floods because of overflowing rivers and the heavy onrush of water from upstream India.

Monsoon rains hit the region in June-September. The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season.

…