Ethics Concerns Raised as Trump Uses White House as Convention Prop

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The use of the White House by President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for events related to this week’s Republican National Convention are legal, according to administration officials.  For others working in the White House and the administration, however, there are lines not to be crossed, according to the Hatch Act, a 1939 federal law that prohibits most government officials from engaging in political activities while on the job.  Trump administration officials have been cited for breaking the Hatch Act 13 times by federal investigators at the Office of Special Counsel. At least a dozen more investigations aremore

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Can Anonymous Classrooms Protect Students from Beijing Snooping?

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With many American universities holding online courses this semester because of the pandemic, faculty members at Princeton, Harvard and other elite schools are looking for ways to protect the privacy and identity of students logging in from Hong Kong and China, where they are subject to China’s repressive rules on self-expression.  The Hong Kong National Security Law that passed in June allows Chinese authorities to prosecute any foreign institution, organization or individuals, regardless of their location, if they are involved in any action deemed to be a crime. Legal scholars say the law opens the door for a wide rangemore

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UN Security Council Declines Action on US-Sought Return of Iran Sanctions

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The president of the U.N. Security Council said Tuesday there is no consensus for restoring international sanctions on Iran in the 15-member council and that he would take no further action on a U.S. demand to re-impose them.  “It is clear for me that there is one member, which has a particular position on the issue, while there are significant numbers of members who have contrasting views,” said Council President Indonesian Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani. “In my view, there is no consensus in the council. Thus, the president is not in the position to take further action.”  Last week, U.S. Secretary of Statemore

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Biden To Be Regularly Tested for Coronavirus, Campaign Says

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, will be tested regularly for COVID-19, an aide said on Monday, as the campaign prepares for the possibility of more public events in the run-up to November’s election.   Since the coronavirus began spreading widely in the United States in March, Biden has done few public events, most of them close to his Delaware home.   But following his formal nomination at last week’s Democratic National Convention, the campaign is expanding its health protocols in a new phase of the race that could see the former vice president inmore

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Can Anonymous Classrooms Protect Students from Beijing’s Snooping?

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With many American universities holding online courses this semester because of the pandemic, faculty members at Princeton, Harvard and other elite schools are looking for ways to protect the privacy and identity of students logging in from Hong Kong and China, where they are subject to China’s repressive rules on self-expression.  The Hong Kong National Security Law that passed in June allows Chinese authorities to prosecute any foreign institution, organization or individuals, regardless of their location, if they are involved in any action deemed to be a crime. Legal scholars say the law opens the door for a wide rangemore

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Campaign Says Biden To Be Regularly Tested for Coronavirus

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, will be tested regularly for COVID-19, an aide said on Monday, as the campaign prepares for the possibility of more public events in the run-up to November’s election.   Since the coronavirus began spreading widely in the United States in March, Biden has done few public events, most of them close to his Delaware home.   But following his formal nomination at last week’s Democratic National Convention, the campaign is expanding its health protocols in a new phase of the race that could see the former vice president inmore

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Trump’s America First Agenda Shapes GOP Foreign Policy

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The Republican Party’s foreign policy agenda has been almost entirely shaped in the past four years by President Donald Trump’s approach to international relations, including new trade deals, skepticism of international organizations, and calls to reduce U.S. troop deployments overseas.   Because of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing protocols, the Republican Party this year did not write a new party platform, which traditionally gives an official outline of the party’s vision and policy priorities. However, the party said in a resolution released at this week’s convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, that if it had been able to convene in 2020 tomore

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NBA Star LeBron James’ Group Plans Effort to Recruit Poll Workers for November

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A group of athletes led by NBA star LeBron James will roll out a multimillion-dollar program in the next few weeks to recruit poll workers in heavily Black electoral districts for November’s election, a person familiar with the plans said on Monday.   More Than a Vote, a group of prominent athletes fighting voter suppression, will collaborate with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on the program in a dozen states, including battlegrounds such as Georgia, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin, where disenfranchisement affects Black voters, the source said.    The New York Times first reported the effort, which will recruit youngmore

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Trump Takes Center Stage at Republican Convention

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Republicans opened their four-day convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Monday, and unanimously nominated President Donald Trump for a second term. Mike O’Sullivan reports, in a nation battered by COVID-19 and a recession, speakers warned of darker days ahead if Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden is elected. Camera: Mary Cieslak   …

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US Schools Scramble to Close Digital Gap

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Many schools are opening around the U.S. for in-person classes, but many others are offering classes online only.  That has set parents, school officials and community members scrambling to make sure every student has the equipment they need for online learning.The pandemic has drawn attention to a long-standing problem in the U.S.: the gap between students who have the computers and internet access needed for online learning and those who do not.  Roughly 1 in 5 homes in the U.S. lack either a computer or an internet connection strong enough for online work, according to data from a Pew Research Centermore

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Praise for Health Care Workers, Barbs for Biden as GOP Convention Opens

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U.S. President Donald Trump took center stage at the Republican National Convention Monday night and immediately signaled that defending his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis is paramount in winning a second term. On the first night of the nationally televised Republican convention, Trump was shown greeting health care workers at the White House who – against the views of many Americans — praised his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “You’re an incredible group,” Trump told several health care workers and two COVID-19 survivors who recovered from the infectious disease that has killed more than 177,000 people in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University data, the most of any nation in the world. “We have to make this China virus go away,” Trumpmore

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Trump Holding Center Stage at US Republican Convention

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A parade of Republicans is set Monday night to acclaim President Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention and call for his reelection. But the main event is the finale for the evening, Trump himself unleashing attacks on his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden. Party stalwarts renominated Trump earlier Monday for a second four-year term, with the U.S. leader appearing shortly after at the convention site in Charlotte, North Carolina. He called the November 3 vote “the most important election in the history of our country.” He contended that the only way Democrats could defeat him is through a riggedmore

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Amid US Economic Crisis, Trump’s Base Has Faith

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As Republicans encourage Americans to vote for President Donald Trump, they are making their case this week from Charlotte, North Carolina, where the pandemic has forced them to dramatically scale back their national convention. Even though the pandemic has shaken American businesses, there are many who say they still have faith in the president’s ability to bring economic prosperity back. Esha Sarai has the story from Charlotte.Camera: Esha Sarai, Mary Cieslak  Producer: Esha Sarai  …

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Anonymous Classrooms: Professors Try to Protect Students from Beijing’s Snooping

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With many American universities holding online courses this semester because of the pandemic, faculty members at Princeton, Harvard and other elite schools are looking for ways to protect the privacy and identity of students logging in from Hong Kong and China, where they are subject to China’s repressive rules on self-expression.  The Hong Kong National Security Law that passed in June allows Chinese authorities to prosecute any foreign institution, organization or individuals, regardless of their location, if they are involved in any action deemed to be a crime. Legal scholars say the law opens the door for a wide rangemore

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Trump Fires Up Party Delegates with Warnings of ‘Rigged’ Election

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Just minutes after delegates to the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, formally awarded him the party’s nomination on Monday, President Donald Trump told them the only way the Democrats can defeat him at the polls in November is through a rigged election using mail-in-ballots. “They’re trying to steal the election,” Trump declared without evidence during a formally unannounced but highly expected appearance before the convention. “Suppose they don’t mail them to Republican neighborhoods.”  The election is shaping up to be “the greatest scam in the history of politics,” the president remarked in a mostly unscripted speech on the firstmore

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Zoom Suffers Worldwide Outages

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Videoconferencing platform Zoom experienced worldwide outages Monday morning, coinciding with the first day of remote classes for many schools and universities. On its status page, Zoom reported partial outages for its website, meetings and webinars. By Monday afternoon, all systems were reported as operational. Downdetector recorded a spike in issue reports, mostly from North America and western Europe, which peaked at nearly 17,000 complaints at 9 a.m. EST. Lighter areas on Downdetector’s map Monday morning also showed complaints in China, India, Mexico and other countries, although most had faded by the afternoon. The company’s Twitter mentions were flooded with concerned and panicked users, includingmore

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AP-NORC Poll: Trump Faces Pessimism as GOP Convention Opens

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President Donald Trump is promising to outline an optimistic vision for America at this week’s Republican convention. But he’ll be speaking to a public deeply pessimistic about the direction of the country and overwhelmingly dissatisfied with his and the federal government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Most Americans think there isn’t enough being done to help individual Americans, small businesses or public schools as the pandemic stretches on, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Overall, just 31% of Americans approve of Trump’s leadership on the pandemic, a significant drop from 44% approvalmore

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US WeChat Users sue Trump Over Order Banning Messaging App

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Some U.S.-based users of WeChat are suing President Donald Trump in a bid to block an executive order that they say would effectively bar access in the U.S. to the hugely popular Chinese messaging app.The complaint, filed Friday in San Francisco, is being brought by the nonprofit U.S. WeChat Users Alliance and several people who say they rely on the app for work, worship and staying in touch with relatives in China. The plaintiffs said they are not affiliated with WeChat, nor its parent company, Tencent Holdings.In the lawsuit, they asked a federal court judge to stop Trump’s executive ordermore

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US Faces Back-to-School Laptop Shortage

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Schools across the United States are facing shortages and long delays, of up to several months, in getting this year’s most crucial back-to-school supplies: the laptops and other equipment needed for online learning, an Associated Press investigation has found. The world’s three biggest computer companies, Lenovo, HP and Dell, have told school districts they have a shortage of nearly 5 million laptops, in some cases exacerbated by Trump administration sanctions on Chinese suppliers, according to interviews with over two dozen U.S. schools, districts in 15 states, suppliers, computer companies and industry analysts.As the school year begins virtually in many places becausemore

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Over 24 GOP Former Members of Congress Join ‘Republicans for Biden’

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As the Republican National Convention got under way Monday, Former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, alongside more than two dozen former Republican members of Congress, endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.The Biden campaign announced that the former lawmakers joined its new “Republicans for Biden” program, also launched Monday, part of the campaign’s efforts to engage with Republicans considering voting for Biden. Several of those on  Biden campaign’s list had previously announced their support for the former vice president, including former Pennsylvania Representative Charlie Dent and former senators Gordon Humphrey and John Warner, of New Hampshire and Virginia respectively.Accepting Nomination, Biden Calls onmore

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Long-serving Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway Steps Down

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Kellyanne Conway, a long-serving advisor to President Donald Trump known for sparring with reporters, announced Sunday she will step down to focus on her family.   Conway, 53, has been at Trump’s side since day one, managing his 2016 campaign that catapulted the reality TV star into the world’s most powerful office.   But the past four years of singular loyalty to Trump, including defending him on TV and with informal “gaggles” with the press, have taken a toll on the combative spin doctor who coined the phrase “alternative facts.”   While she made a name for herself as onemore

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Biden: Trump ‘Walked Away’ from COVID Crisis

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says he isn’t blaming President Donald Trump for the coronavirus outbreak, but he does blame him for “walking away” from the crisis.  “The idea of saying that this is going to go away, that some miracle is going to happen is unrealistic,” Biden said, adding that Trump has repeatedly promoted “crazy” treatments and “hasn’t listened to the scientists.”  Biden and his vice presidential running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, spoke to ABC News television in an interview broadcast Sunday night. It was their first joint interview since teaming up for the Democratic ticket.  The interview was conducted last Friday, the day after the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention.  On Sunday evening, Trump announced he had helped to end a regulatory logjam and prompted the federal Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency authorization of so-called convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19,more

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