Oxford University will remove its statue of Cecil Rhodes, the British imperialist who promoted apartheid-style second-class citizenship for black people in southern Africa.

The university’s Oriel College voted Wednesday in favor of removing the statue and to create an independent commission to investigate issues surrounding the statue of Rhodes, the Guardian reported.

“Both of these decisions were reached after a thoughtful period of debate and reflection and with the full awareness of the impact these decisions are likely to have in Britain and around the world,” the governing body said in a statement. “The commission will deal with the issue of the Rhodes legacy and how to improve access and attendance of BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] undergraduate, graduate students and faculty, together with a review of how the college’s 21st century commitment to diversity can sit more easily with its past.”

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Rhodes also founded the De Beers diamond company and was the namesake of the Rhodes Scholarship as well as the nation of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and sought to expand British influence throughout Africa, believing white Anglo-Saxons to be “the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race.”

Oxford students have called for the statue’s removal dating back to 2016. Another statue of Rhodes at the University of Cape Town was removed in 2015 after decades of student protests, originating among Afrikaner students due to his role in the Boer War and later continuing among black students for the role his ideas played in the development of apartheid.

As anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests have spread around the world since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, numerous protests in both the U.S. and internationally have targeted statues of figures associated with either the Confederacy or institutional racism in general.

In Bristol, U.K., protesters pushed a statue of slave trader Edward Colston into the harbor, while in Antwerp, demonstrators set fire to a statue of King Leopold II of Belgium, who killed at least 10 million people in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

China is on track to fulfill its commitments to buy huge amounts of U.S. agricultural and other goods, Trade Representative Robert LighthizerRobert (Bob) Emmet LighthizerGOP senator warns quick vote on new NAFTA would be ‘huge mistake’ Pelosi casts doubt on USMCA deal in 2019 Pelosi sounds hopeful on new NAFTA deal despite tensions with White House MORE told the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.

“They say they’re going to meet them, and the indicators now that we have are that they are going to meet them,” Lighthizer said at a hearing on the trade agenda for 2020.

As part of the “phase one” trade deal signed earlier this year, China agreed to increase its U.S. imports by $200 billion over two years, with a particular focus on agriculture.

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Skeptics of the deal said at the time that the U.S. would have trouble providing that level of goods, and might just redirect exports headed to other destinations toward China instead.

But the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic meltdown that accompanied it cast a longer shadow on the deal, which also scaled back a portion of the tariffs President TrumpDonald John TrumpLincoln Project launches new ad hitting Trump over China policies Trump criticizes Bolton as memoir excerpts offer scathing account of White House Bolton book portrays ‘stunningly uninformed’ Trump MORE imposed on China in the trade war.

Trump, who is making toughness on China a central campaign issue, at one point went so far as to say he was “torn” as to whether he wanted to stay in the “phase one” deal at all.

But Lighthizer painted a rosier picture Wednesday.

“Every contact I’ve had with the Chinese, they have reaffirmed their commitment to upholding the purchase agreement,” he said.

When asked about the example of cotton purchases, he said that China had already bought $1 billion worth of American cotton this year, “way above where they were” last year, which itself saw record imports, he said.

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“I don’t know if I should be making these public statements, but whatever,” he said of the figures, which have not yet been published.

Some purchases, such as soybeans, would see a boost in the latter half of the year, he predicted.

In the hearing, Lighthizer also criticized the World Trade Organization (WTO), which he called “a mess,” and pushed for reforms.

“The WTO has failed America and failed the international trading system,” he said.

The next director general for the group, he said, should be someone who understands that the system in place is insufficient for addressing big, state-run economies such as China’s.

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Lighthizer also said it was “unlikely” that the U.S. would be able to stitch up negotiations with the United Kingdom over a new deal as the U.K. navigates its exit from the European Union. Even if an agreement came together, he said, it would be nearly impossible to consider moving it through Congress before November’s election.

Lawmakers are looking for ways to aid the struggling recycling industry, but the coronavirus is standing in the way of efforts to stamp down on single-use plastics. 

The industry was hit hard by a 2018 decision from China to close its doors to much of the U.S.’s waste, but a coronavirus-related drop in sales tax revenue has left many cities unsure of how to pay for the increasingly expensive programs. 

“When municipalities are no longer able to afford recycling, the collected recyclables are oftentimes incinerated or piled up in landfills, leaking toxins into the air we breathe,” Ranking Member Tom CarperThomas (Tom) Richard CarperKey Republican jeopardizes nomination of Trump consumer safety pick Efforts to rescue recycling complicated by coronavirus Senate subcommittee: IRS should increase oversight of tax-prep companies in Free File program MORE (D-Del.) said at the start of a Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.

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“No American should have to debate whether they can afford to recycle, especially amid a pandemic that has caused great economic hardship and whose effects are exacerbated by air pollution,” he added.

The challenges facing the recycling industry are complex and varied.

The market for many recyclable products shrunk considerably once China no longer accepted them. As the value of those products shrank, programs that were once profitable began losing money.

Meanwhile ,many products that claim to be recyclable are either too expensive or undesirable to be reused while trash and other products people assume are recyclable contaminate shipments sent to processors.

Many have argued one needed measure is to severely reduce America’s reliance on single-use plastics, a move that could limit the amount of things like plastic silverware and Keurig cups that end up in landfills, as well as so-called recyclables that are seldom repurposed.

But that effort may face new resistance as many businesses turn to single-use items to fight the spread of coronavirus.

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Chair John BarrassoJohn Anthony BarrassoEfforts to rescue recycling complicated by coronavirus Senate GOP police bill mirrors Trump order on chokeholds McConnell wants vote on police reform bill before July 4 MORE (R-Wyo.) pointed to grocery stores that no longer allow customers to bring their reusable bags while some restaurants have switched to disposable plates and cutlery.

“The pandemic has reminded us of the critical role that single-use plastics play in protecting public health,” he said.

There is a growing call from recycling experts, however, to not only steer away from single-use plastics, but to make more sustainable packaging that companies could reuse time and again, similar to how soda bottles were recollected back in the day.

“It’s clear we have the know how to produce and distribute products, and therefore we surely have the skill sets design, elegant reverse logistics to recapture the product,” said Nina Bellucci Butler, with More Recycling, a research company that deals primarily with plastics. “It’s not a moonshot. it’s an Earth shot.”

She has pushed for a price on carbon, something she believes will incentivize companies to either design packaging that is truly recyclable or reuse their containers. 

Putting the onus on companies to handle disposal of their packaging is an idea that has been pushed by Sen. Tom UdallThomas (Tom) Stewart UdallKey Republican jeopardizes nomination of Trump consumer safety pick Efforts to rescue recycling complicated by coronavirus Judge orders Mnuchin to give Native American tribes full stimulus funding MORE (D-N.M.) as well, part of his recycling bill that likewise aims to reduce the amount of plastic waste that lands in oceans.

“Producers need to take responsibility for the collection, recycling, and disposal of the products they create. This will create powerful incentives to design products that are more sustainable and easier to recycle,” he told the committee.

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“This is a tried and true, market-proven concept,” he continued. “We already do this for batteries, paint and other items that are dangerous if disposed improperly.”

Industry groups are in the middle of an effort to rethink recycling.

The Consumer Brands Association, which represents wide array of packaged products sold on every grocery store aisle, has been advocating to standardize recycling, bringing harmony to the nation’s more than 10,000 different recycling programs. 

“Every stakeholder is better positioned to educate consumers, reduce confusion and ensure investments pay off when the entire system is aligned on a national scale,” said Meghan Stasz, the association’s vice president of packaging and sustainability.

She wants the federal government to assist by collecting information across all the systems.

“We need consistent and standardized data so we know across the country what the rates are by material, where the success stories are so they can be replicated, where the problem spots are so they can be solved,” she said. “Our ability to succeed in fixing the broken recycling system starts with data.”

President TrumpDonald John TrumpLincoln Project launches new ad hitting Trump over China policies Trump criticizes Bolton as memoir excerpts offer scathing account of White House Bolton book portrays ‘stunningly uninformed’ Trump MORE will lay out a “road map” for preventing suicide among American veterans during a White House address on Wednesday.

The road map calls for 10 recommendations, including a national public health messaging campaign around suicide, changes to how research on veteran suicide is conducted and suicide prevention training across professions, according to senior administration officials.

Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks laying out the plan in the East Room Wednesday afternoon and will be accompanied by Vice President Pence. The plan, which officials say stretches 60 pages, is expected to be released later in the day.

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The Trump administration plans to launch a public messaging campaign to raise awareness about suicide in the coming weeks, officials said, drawing on one of the recommendations.

“In order to succeed in any of this work, we have to change the culture of mental health and specifically around suicide,” a senior administration official told reporters on a call previewing the plan. “Within the veterans community, but also more broadly.”

“This campaign will educate Americans about risk factors, about protective factors and will also dispel many of the myths that currently exist, that have always existed, around suicide,” the official continued.

Veterans are especially vulnerable to suicide when compared to the general population. The Department of Veterans Affairs says that veterans have a suicide rate that is 1.5 times higher than nonveteran adults.

The senior administration official told reporters Wednesday that the United States has seen an increase of more than 30 percent in suicide rates over the past 25 years. Officials also expressed concerns that suicides would increase amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 117,000 Americans and has had a devastating impact on the U.S. economy.

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The road map was mandated by an executive order Trump signed into law in March 2019 that set up a task force to develop strategies to lower veteran suicide and improve research while making legislative proposals to Congress calling for additional resources needed to combat veteran suicide.

Officials plan to work to implement the recommendations over the next two years. They signaled that the task force would be working to address the legislative component of the order in the coming year.

Trump has enjoyed broad support among veterans and military voters and has sought to highlight his administration’s work to address issues specific to veterans. However, Trump has recently endured criticism from high-profile former military officials over his handling of protests against police brutality and racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

–This report was updated at 11:15 a.m.

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The California-based utility company Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) pled guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter after reaching a deal with California prosecutors over its equipment’s role in starting a deadly 2018 wildfire, local media reported Tuesday.

PG&E is now one of a few companies to ever plead guilty to manslaughter charges as state prosecutors sought to hold them accountable for their role in the deadliest wildfire in California history.

The fire killed 85 people but prosecutors were not able to find enough evidence to establish if any single one of the deaths was the company’s fault. The company also pled guilty to one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire as part of an agreement with Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.

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The sentencing is likely to take place later this week and the company has agreed to pay a $3.48 million penalty and $500,000 for the cost of the investigation.

“No words from me can ever reduce the magnitude of that devastation or do anything to repair the damage, but I sincerely hope that the actions we’re taking today will help bring some measure of peace,” PG&E CEO Bill JohnsonWilliam (Bill) Leslie JohnsonPG&E pleads guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter in 2018 Camp Fire The Hill’s Campaign Report: Republicans go on the hunt for new convention site Police unions coalition director: Biden ‘off the deep end’ in calls for reform MORE told the Superior Court in California’s Butte County, according to KCRA Sacramento.

Johnson, who was hired about six months after the fire happened, will step down next month. 

The indictment served earlier this year names the company, not a specific individual. Ramsey told the Wall Street Journal that the negligence went back decades, making it difficult to serve charges to specific individuals. 

PG&E is simultaneously embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings after California’s forestry bureau found it liable for starting the fire, which led to the destruction of Paradise, Calif., and drove tens of thousands of residents from their homes.

The company is set to pay $25.5 billion in settlements, including $13.5 billion earmarked for wildfire victims. A federal judge will make a final decision on June 30.

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A new web of alliances is taking shape as EU members wrangle over billions of euros intended to fuel Europe’s post-coronavirus recovery.

Traditional friendships are being tested as governments start negotiating over the European Commission’s proposal to borrow money on the markets and create a four-year €750 billion recovery fund, to be added to the EU’s long-term budget. The battle will move to a higher level in a videoconference on Friday when EU leaders debate the plan for the first time.

The fight over the 2021-2027 budget had already been raging for years and clear camps had emerged. A group of southern and eastern countries pushed for a bigger budget, as well as defending regional development cash — known as cohesion funding — and agricultural subsidies. The group enjoyed the support of France on some fronts, particularly on payouts for farmers.

Meanwhile, a group of self-described frugal countries, oftentimes with the support of Germany, was pushing for a smaller post-Brexit budget and a focus on modern programs like research.

But the COVID-19 crisis and the Commission’s recovery proposal has upended this map of alliances, creating a more fragmented negotiation where countries move in different factions depending on the particular question at hand.

Much of the debate centers around two key issues: the balance in payouts between grants and loans, and what criteria should be used to determine how much money each country will receive.

Here are five new factions emerging in the recovery funding debate.

The ‘loans for loans’ gang

Austria, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden

While member countries appear to agree that a compromise will ultimately include a mix of loans and grants, a fight is raging on the balance between the two.

Governments have clashed over the Commission’s proposal that the bulk of the €750 billion pot should be distributed as grants to member countries, while only around a third would be paid out as loans.

Under the Commission’s plan, the money allocated as grants would still need to be paid back — but not by the member countries who receive the cash. Instead, the repayments would come from the EU budget as a whole, over a period of 30 years starting in 2028.

A group of the traditional frugal countries, joined by Finland, wants a greater portion of the EU’s borrowed cash to be distributed via loans to member governments. Those countries themselves would then be responsible for paying the money back.

“There is no clear justification for providing grants (rather than loans) from the Recovery and Resilience Facility,” the Dutch government wrote in a letter to its national parliament last week.

Hungary has also expressed support in Brussels for the loans-for-loans concept, but now appears to be warming up to grants.

The grants gang

France, Germany, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain

Paris and Berlin have called for a €500 billion recovery fund that would provide grants to member countries — an idea that was warmly welcomed in Southern Europe, where highly indebted countries prefer EU transfers over more loans.

The idea of grants also has support in parts of the bloc’s east — though some leaders are nervous about the vast size of the Commission’s proposal and the joint responsibility for the repayment of borrowed cash distributed as grant money.

“If we want to support states that have a problem with too much debt, we probably won’t be of much help if [we] increase this debt by means of loans,” Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš wrote in a recent analysis of the Commission proposal. “I support grants but in a reasonable overall volume.”

Criteria critics I: Wealthy westerners

Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden

Much of the work that EU governments have been doing so far is trying to understand the formulas the Commission has proposed for distributing cash — and figuring out whether they are winners or losers.

Ambassadors have already engaged in an intense debate over a proposed €310 billion pot of grants which would be available under the new fund’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, a program to support investments and reforms. According to the Commission’s plan, these grants would be distributed using a formula that would take into account unemployment between 2015 and 2019, population size and GDP per capita.

This group of relatively wealthy countries is arguing the allocation criteria, especially for the Recovery and Resilience Facility, should better reflect the direct impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

“We need a clearer analysis of why and where the money is really needed as a result of the corona crisis. And how this money is going to ensure that all member states come out of this crisis stronger than before,” Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok told POLITICO last week.

The recovery instrument should target “the countries most affected by the COVID-19 crisis,” the Danish government wrote in a paper.

The view is shared across numerous member governments beyond the Frugal Four, in particular those who feel that the proposed allocation for their countries does not reflect the economic damage inflicted by the crisis.

“One area of concern for us would be that this New Generation [recovery] fund as it’s been proposed is being based on pre-COVID figures around individual economies,” Irish Minister for European Affairs Helen McEntee told RTÉ Radio One last week.

“The people of this country have spent a lot of time making sure that we are now in a very good position, or that we were in a good position pre-COVID,” McEntee said, adding that Ireland is “hoping to get as much support from this as possible” and that PM Leo Varadkar will raise the issue of allocations during the leaders’ videoconference.

Ireland is set to experience a fall of 7.9 percent in its GDP this year, according to the Commission’s spring forecast, and will qualify for €1.2 billion out of the €310 billion in grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, according to the Commission’s proposal.

Further complicating the negotiations is the fact that the Commission has put forward another formula for a €50 billion cohesion program, REACT-EU, which would take into account GDP, unemployment and youth unemployment from 2020 and 2021 — data that does not exist yet, making it impossible for countries to calculate how much they would receive.

Criteria critics II: Anxious easterners

Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia

Eastern members are also critical of the Commission’s formula — but for different reasons. They are concerned that too much money will go to Southern Europe, even though countries in that region are wealthier than they are.

According to the Commission’s projections, Hungary would receive €6.1 billion in grants under the Facility, compared with €12.9 billion for Portugal, while the population of Portugal is only slightly higher than that of Hungary.

The “Recovery and Resilience Facility key needs to be adjusted,” said one diplomat from an eastern member state. “Unemployment should not be in the key.”

A number of Eastern European states have lower unemployment rates than Southern European EU members but also have lower GDP per capita than those countries.

Speaking at a meeting of leaders from the Visegrad Four group of Central European countries last Thursday, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Igor Matovič said that “we should avoid a situation wherein a country with more or less the same population and more or less the same GDP per capita situated in Southern Europe will profit from the program far more than a Central European country.”

One outlier is Poland, which is set to be among the Commission plan’s top beneficiaries. While Warsaw has signaled its support for its fellow Visegrad countries, it has also not fully challenged the proposal from Brussels.

Asked whether Poland is happy with the proposed allocation methodology, Finance Minister Tadeusz Kościński told POLITICO: “Mostly yes, but not completely. We will be negotiating this.”

Commission’s southern comforters

Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain 

Some countries say that the Commission’s allocation formulas may not be perfect, but, given time constraints and the economic impact of the crisis, governments should broadly accept its approach.

Southern countries benefit significantly from the way in which the Commission designed its plans. Together, Italy and Spain qualify for over 40 percent of the Recovery and Resilience Facility’s €310 billion in grants.

Asked if Greece is satisfied with the Commission’s proposed allocations, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Greece’s deputy minister responsible for European affairs, told POLITICO that “so far we view the proposal in a positive way.”

For some officials, speed matters more than numbers.

“At the end, it might be better to focus on doing things fast than doing them perfectly,” said one diplomat. “Of course everybody can find reasons to complain,” the diplomat said, adding that at the end of the day “you have to see everything as a package.”

There are concerns that any changes to the allocation keys at this stage could jeopardize the chances of a deal in July.

“We don’t have magic,” said another diplomat. “Changing the formula is simply the perfect recipe for delay.”

Jacopo Barigazzi and Barbara Moens contributed reporting.

Welcome to Tuesday’s Overnight Health Care

More Americans have now died from coronavirus infections than during all of World War I. Cases are climbing, especially in the Sun Belt. Vice President Pence said the concerns of a second wave of the virus are “overblown,” and administration officials pledged that any potential vaccine would be free for some people. 

We’ll start with Pence:

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Pence: Panic over second coronavirus wave ‘overblown’

Vice President Pence on Tuesday blamed the media for stoking concerns of a “second wave” of coronavirus in the United States, insisting in an op-ed that the Trump administration’s response has been successful even as infections are climbing in several states.

The vice president, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that panic over a rebound in coronavirus cases is “overblown” while touting the administration’s handling of the pandemic.

“The truth is, whatever the media says, our whole-of-America approach has been a success,” he wrote. “We’ve slowed the spread, we’ve cared for the most vulnerable, we’ve saved lives, and we’ve created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future. That’s a cause for celebration, not the media’s fear mongering.”

In reality: Experts dispute that the country is facing a second wave, and instead have expressed concern that the country never fully got past the first wave of infections. The virus is now hitting areas that were initially spared while New York, California, Washington and New Jersey were devastated. 

Pence and President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat warns of potential staff purge at US media agency Judge denies request to stop Trump rally due to coronavirus concerns Fauci on coronavirus infections: ‘We’re still in a first wave’ MORE have repeatedly attempted to downplay the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, and the administration has largely shifted its focus from addressing the health impacts of the virus to reopening states as quickly as possible.

Read more here.

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Things not looking great in Texas: State hits new high for coronavirus cases, hospitalizations

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Tuesday urged people to stay home as the state registered the highest number of new hospitalizations due to the coronavirus, marking the fifth consecutive day of rising hospitalizations.

Abbott reported that 2,622 people tested positive on Tuesday for the coronavirus, a new daily record for the Lone Star State. The prior record had been set on June 10, when 2,504 tested positive.

The state’s Health and Human Services Department also reported that 2,518 lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients are currently in Texas hospitals, up from 2,326 on Monday. Hospitalizations have been on a steady upward trend since May 25, when about 1,500 were hospitalized.

“If you do not need to go out, the best advice is still to stay at home,” Abbott said at a press conference in Austin.  

Still, Abbott said hospitals have plenty of capacity to deal with a surge in hospitalizations, and the state is moving along with reopening, allowing restaurants to use 75 percent of their capacity and allowing most businesses to operate at 50 percent capacity or more.

Read more here.

Trump health officials pledge COVID-19 vaccine will be free to the ‘vulnerable’

Any potential vaccine for COVID-19 will be free for any “vulnerable” American who can’t afford it, Trump administration officials pledged Tuesday.

As the administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” closes in on potential candidates and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding continues to flow to private companies, advocacy groups and lawmakers have raised questions about the cost of a potential vaccine. 

Administration officials didn’t have all the answers, but said some people would get it for free. 

“For any American who is vulnerable, who cannot afford the vaccine and desires the vaccine, we will provide it for free,” a senior administration official said during a call with reporters. 

But: It’s unknown exactly what “vulnerable” means, or how the administration is defining affordability. The officials noted that insurers “have expressed interest” in covering vaccines with no cost-sharing. But they did not mention the CARES Act passed in March requires that. 

Read more here.

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Some good news: Trial shows drug reduces coronavirus deaths by one-third among severely ill patients

A clinical trial in Great Britain has found that a cheap, widely available drug reduces deaths from coronavirus in severely ill patients on ventilators by one-third, which researchers hailed as a significant breakthrough.

The drug, a steroid called dexamethasone, was found to reduce deaths among coronavirus patients on ventilators by one-third and by one-fifth among patients receiving oxygen only. There was no benefit among patients not on ventilators or receiving oxygen.

“Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19,” said Peter Horby, a professor at the University of Oxford and one of the chief investigators of the trial. “This is an extremely welcome result.”

Caveat: There’s no actual study yet, just a press release with top line figures. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, wrote on Twitter that the results appear to be “very good news,” though he cautioned that the researchers did not release their full data. 

Read more here.

House coronavirus task force launches probe into largest nursing home operators

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The House subcommittee tasked with overseeing the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has written to the country’s largest nursing home companies, as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, demanding thorough reports on their preparedness for and handling of COVID-19.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the chair of the subcommittee, penned the letters on Tuesday. 

“The Subcommittee is concerned that lax oversight by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the federal government’s failure to provide testing supplies and personal protective equipment to nursing homes and long-term care facilities may have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus and the deaths of more than 40,000 Americans in these facilities,” Clyburn wrote to the agency.

Nursing homes have been devastated by coronavirus outbreaks. Federal data shows about a third of all virus deaths in the country have been in nursing homes. Infection control lapses, lack of testing and major shortages of personal protective equipment have all played a role in the crisis.

Read more here. 

In other nursing home news…

IRS says stimulus checks belong to residents, not nursing homes

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The IRS on Tuesday alerted nursing homes that coronavirus stimulus checks generally belong to residents and cannot be seized by these facilities.

The alert comes after state attorneys general have reported receiving complaints about nursing homes and assisted-living facilities telling residents that they need to sign over their payments. Members of Congress have been urging federal agencies to ensure that facilities don’t improperly confiscate residents’ checks.

The direct payments are a key part of coronavirus relief legislation enacted in March. Most U.S. households are entitled to one-time payments of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child.

Read more here.

New testing bill introduced

Sen. Ted CruzRafael (Ted) Edward CruzOvernight Health Care: Pence says panic over second coronavirus wave ‘overblown’ | Texas hits new high for COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations | Trump health officials pledge vaccine will be free to the ‘vulnerable’ 180 Democrats ask House leadership for clean energy assistance When will Americans — all Americans — declare that enough is enough? MORE (R-Texas) is out with a new bill to encourage businesses to test their employees for coronavirus, which he says could help safely reopen the economy. 

The bill provides a tax credit for businesses that test their employees in states where infection rates are above the national average. 

“As businesses re-open and states navigate the next steps in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress should do its part to help employers cover the cost of testing to promote a safe workplace,” Cruz said in a statement. 

Link to the bill.   

22 percent at increased risk for serious COVID illness, study finds 

About 1.7 billion people have at least one underlying health condition that puts them at increased risk for serious COVID-19 illness if infected, according to a study published this week in The Lancet medical journal.

That translates to 22 percent of the global population having at least one of 11 health conditions, including cardiovascular disease or diabetes, that puts them at increased risk for negative health outcomes if they contract COVID-19.

The study, published Monday, is intended to help countries protect people at highest risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19 through increased social distancing measures, medical care and other resources for those populations, the researchers wrote.

Read more here. 

What we’re reading

Coronavirus model once used by White House now predicts 200,000 U.S. deaths by October (CBS News)

African countries are still waiting for a surge in Covid-19 cases. Some public health experts question whether it will happen (CNN.com)

Trump pushes ahead with Tulsa rally, while Pence misleads and coronavirus cases rise (ABC News)   

State by state

Chicago sues Trump administration over ObamaCare enrollment in coronavirus pandemic (NBC Chicago)

Hospitals in several Alabama cities now seeing all-time highs in coronavirus patients (AL.com)

Texas mayors to Gov. Abbott: Let us mandate face masks to slow spread of novel coronavirus (San Antonio Express-News)

Florida sets new single-day record for coronavirus cases, adding 2,783 (Tampa Bay Times)

Miami pauses reopening as Florida’s new coronavirus cases rise (ABC News)

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Op-eds in The Hill 

Vaccine supply chain: Federal government must pivot from venture capital seeder to overseer 

COVID-19 inequalities are striking and uncompromising

Anthony FauciAnthony FauciFauci on coronavirus infections: ‘We’re still in a first wave’ Fox’s Hemmer presses McEnany on public absence of Birx, Fauci: ‘They seem to have disappeared’ Fauci says he hasn’t talked with Trump in two weeks MORE, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is warning that the United States has to yet get through the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

“People keep talking about a second wave,” Fauci said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “We’re still in a first wave.”

The comments arrived as pockets of the U.S. experience surges in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

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California, Texas, Arizona and Florida are among states reporting consistent increases in case counts. In Texas, health authorities on Tuesday registered the state’s highest number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat warns of potential staff purge at US media agency Judge denies request to stop Trump rally due to coronavirus concerns Fauci on coronavirus infections: ‘We’re still in a first wave’ MORE and Vice President Pence have cast the increase as largely a product of an uptick in the nation’s testing capacity. Pence wrote in an op-ed earlier Tuesday that the media’s coverage of a “second wave” was “overblown,” arguing that the administration’s approach “has been a success.”

But Fauci told the Journal that higher percentages of positive tests in some states “cannot be explained by increased testing.”

He also pointed to people’s behavior, saying that it’s “very risky” to congregate in places such as bars when “the location they are [in] indicates they shouldn’t be doing that.”

In a separate radio interview, Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said that a combination of individual behavior and states relaxing health restrictions too soon was responsible for some of the increases. 

“States may say they’re in this particular stage, but then you might find people are not adhering to the guidelines,” he told NPR. “That’s clearly increasing the risk and likely explaining some of the upticks you’re seeing.”

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The U.S. has reported more than 2.1 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 116,000 deaths caused by it, according to a Johns Hopkins University database.

Fauci indicated earlier this month that the White House task force continued to do “substantial” work, but he said Tuesday that his last meeting with Trump came two weeks ago, when he and other health experts informed the president of vaccine development efforts. 

Like Pence, Trump has repeatedly touted the nation’s testing capacity, something it struggled with at the outset of the outbreak, as the reason for the recent rise in cases.

Trump, who is planning to host a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday, told reporters on Monday that “if we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.”

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill about Fauci’s latest remarks.

Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter with this LINK.

Welcome! Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech reporter, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills), for more coverage.

CIA REPORT FAULTS AGENCY: A newly unclassified internal CIA report found that a massive 2017 data breach of the agency that enabled classified information to be sent to WikiLeaks was caused by the CIA failing to secure its own systems.

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The report, put together by the CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force in 2017, is partially redacted and was released publicly on Tuesday by Sen. Ron WydenRonald (Ron) Lee WydenHillicon Valley: Report finds CIA security failures led to massive breach | Pelosi calls on advertisers to pressure social media giants | Experts warn firms facing serious cyber threats in COVID-19 era Newly unclassified report finds CIA security failures led to massive 2017 breach Congress set for fight over expiring unemployment relief MORE (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

According to the report, a CIA employee was able to steal up to 34 terabytes of information, or around 2.2 billion pages in Microsoft Word, of classified data and leak it to WikiLeaks in the spring of 2017 due to major security lapses at the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI). 

“In a press to meet growing and critical mission needs, CCI had prioritized building cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own systems,” the task force wrote in the report. “Day-to-day security practices had become woefully lax.”

The investigators added that “CCI focused on building cyber weapons and neglected to also prepare mitigation packages if those tools were exposed. These shortcomings were emblematic of a culture that evolved over years that too often prioritized creativity and collaboration at the expense of security.”

The leak marked the largest data breach in the CIA’s history and included information on hacking tools used by the agency to break into smartphones and other internet-connected devices. 

The task force noted that due to failures to address vulnerabilities in IT systems, if WikiLeaks had not published the stolen information, the CIA “might still be unaware of the loss — as would be true for the vast majority of data on Agency mission systems.”

In a letter to Director of National Intelligence John RatcliffeJohn Lee RatcliffeHillicon Valley: Report finds CIA security failures led to massive breach | Pelosi calls on advertisers to pressure social media giants | Experts warn firms facing serious cyber threats in COVID-19 era Coronavirus Report: The Hill’s Steve Clemons interviews Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney Newly unclassified report finds CIA security failures led to massive 2017 breach MORE on Tuesday, Wyden criticized the intelligence community for its “widespread cybersecurity problems.”

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Wyden specifically pointed to a 2014 move by Congress that required all federal agencies, with the exception of the intelligence community, to adopt cybersecurity practices and protocols from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

“While Congress exempted the Intelligence Community from the requirement to implement DHS’ cybersecurity directives, Congress did so reasonably expecting that intelligence agencies that have been entrusted with our nation’s most valuable secrets would of course go above and beyond the steps taken by the rest of the government to secure their systems,” Wyden wrote. “Unfortunately it is now clear that exempting the intelligence community from baseline federal cybersecurity requirements was a mistake.”

Read more.

 

PELOSI ENLISTS ADVERTISERS: Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiPelosi asks House chairs to enforce mandatory mask-wearing during hearings Hillicon Valley: Report finds CIA security failures led to massive breach | Pelosi calls on advertisers to pressure social media giants | Experts warn firms facing serious cyber threats in COVID-19 era OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Dems press Trump consumer safety nominee on chemical issues | Lawmakers weigh how to help struggling energy industry | 180 Democrats ask House leadership for clean energy assistance MORE (D-Calif.) on Tuesday urged advertisers to pressure social media platforms to tackle misinformation more aggressively.

“Advertisers are in a position — they have power — to discourage platforms for amplifying dangerous and even life threatening disinformation,” Pelosi said during a George Washington University forum focused on misinformation about the coronavirus spread on social media.

When asked whether advertisers should withdraw from social media companies or mount a public pressure campaign, Pelosi said they should do “a combination of both.”

Conspiracy theories and unfounded claims about the coronavirus, its origins and ways to combat it have surged online amid the spread of the disease, causing what the World Health Organization has branded an “infodemic.”

While major social media platforms have taken steps to reduce the spread of misinformation, such as elevating information from trusted sources and limiting the spread of potentially harmful posts, critics have said those efforts fall short.

Pelosi emphasized Tuesday that business models are contributing to the problem.

“Social media executives are not only allowing the spread of disinformation on platforms, they program their algorithms to enhance their business model of capturing your time and attention meaning that they amplify the most inflammatory content, no matter how dangerous or false,” she said.

Read more.

 

BANKERS BEWARE: Lawmakers on Tuesday received a loud warning about the danger of hackers zeroing in on financial institutions as prime targets during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“America is grappling with a cyber insurgency and our financial sector is the number one target,” Tom Kellermann, a former member of a presidential cybersecurity commission during the Obama administration, told a House Financial Services subcommittee during a Tuesday hearing on the threat. 

While cybersecurity has long been a major issue for the financial sector, a huge spike in cyberattacks in connection to the COVID-19 pandemic has only underlined the risks.

Kellermann now heads cybersecurity strategy at VMWare, a software company that released a report last month reporting a 238 percent surge in cyberattacks against banks between February and April.

Many of these cyberattacks stem from non-affiliated malicious actors, but experts warn that Russia, China and North Korea also may be targeting financial institutions during the pandemic.

“State-sponsored hacking is the biggest threat to our financial sector because of the capacities that they can bring to bear,” Jamil Jaffer, the founder and executive director of George Mason University’s National Security Institute, testified at the same hearing. “They have almost unlimited resources…you just can’t beat a nation state at their own game.”

Jaffer argued that Congress needed to spearhead efforts to bring the financial sector together to protect the whole instead of individual companies in order to fight back against nation state threats.

“We don’t expect Target and Walmart to defend against Russian Bear bombers coming across the horizon, yet today in cyberspace we expect exactly that of JPMorgan and Citibank,” said Jaffer, who also serves as vice president for Strategy, Partnerships & Corporate Development at IronNet Cybersecurity. “That is simply an unsustainable scenario, and we have got to bring the nation together, large banks have to protect small banks.”

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Members of the House Financial Services subcommittee on national security, international development, and monetary policy rolled out a raft of bills during Tuesday’s hearing that are designed to fend off hackers.

Read more about the threat to financial institutions here.

 

GOOGLE BANS ZEROHEDGE, CITES FEDERALIST: The far-right news site ZeroHedge will no longer be able to generate revenue from any advertisements served by Google Ads and The Federalist may follow suit.

The two sites were found to be in violation of Google’s policies on content related to race when they pushed unsubstantiated claims about the Black Lives Matter protests sparked in recent weeks by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, NBC News first reported.

“We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race from monetizing,” a Google spokesperson told NBC. “When a page or site violates our policies, we take action. In this case, we’ve removed both sites’ ability to monetize with Google.” 

A Google spokesperson told The Hill that sites are judged holistically when being reviewed for content violations. Both ZeroHedge and The Federalist were flagged for violations related to their comment sections that they did not do enough to mitigate.

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Google informed ZeroHedge about their violation several days ago and The Federalist was informed Tuesday.

ZeroHedge did not address the issues brought up by Google, which is why they were removed from the ad platform. The Federalist still has three days to address the issues. 

Read more.

 

PINTEREST ALLEGATIONS: Two black women who left their public policy roles at Pinterest last month have alleged they experienced racial discrimination at the company.

Ifeoma Ozoma, the former public policy and social impact manager, and Aerica Shimizu Banks, who worked in federal government relations, made their accusations in Twitter threads Monday.

Ozoma, a Yale graduate who previously worked at Google and Facebook, said she lobbied unsuccessfully for a year to get a pay raise and accused her manager of “racism, gaslighting, & disrespect,” citing a time she said she was given a bad performance review for not “both-sidesing the promo of slave plantations” as wedding destinations.

She also alleged that a white male colleague gave her phone number, photo and name to “violently racist/misogynistic parts of the internet.” Ozoma called Pinterest’s response to the alleged doxxing “dangerously inadequate.”

“I busted my ass at Yale, Google, then Facebook before Pinterest recruited me as the *second hire* on the global Public Policy team. I led work that raised our public policy profile globally,” she tweeted. “It didn’t matter because I’m a Black woman.”

Ozoma said she and a black female colleague were replaced by a white man, Business Insider reported. On Twitter, Banks confirmed she was the other colleague who left the company.

Banks alleged that human resources at Pinterest misrepresented her pay to her and “pitted her” against Ozoma. She also said she was stripped of her responsibilities after she promoted a policy about the treatment of contractors.

“What should have been a moment of pride and the beginning of a long journey achieving federal and social impact wins for the company, Pinners, and the communities it serves instead marked a period of glaringly unfair pay, intense discrimination, and terrifying retaliation,” Banks posted Monday.

A Pinterest spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill that the company “took these issues seriously and conducted a thorough investigation when they were raised, and we’re confident both employees were treated fairly.”

Read more.

 

Lighter click: What a precious baby

An op-ed to chew on: Big Tech’s artificial intelligence aristocracy

 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: 

Facebook, Google chiefs open to testifying to Congress on antitrust, while Apple’s participation remains unclear (Washington Post / Tony Romm)

Airman charged in killing of federal officer during George Floyd protests in California (NBC News / Andrew Blankstein and Ben Collins)

New York lawmakers want to outlaw geofence warrants as protests grow (Protocol / Issie Lapowsky)

What’s left of Magic Leap? The dream of mixed reality is on life support (Verge / Adi Robertson)

The Incident on the A-Road (Vice News / Anna Merlan)

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Republicans face almost insurmountable odds to change a provision on the renaming of Confederate-named bases included in a mammoth defense bill.

The Senate Armed Services Committee, in a voice vote last week, amended the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to require that a commission be formed to study and come up with a plan to rename military installations named after Confederate figures.

The bill has put the GOP-controlled Senate on a collision course with President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat warns of potential staff purge at US media agency Judge denies request to stop Trump rally due to coronavirus concerns Fauci on coronavirus infections: ‘We’re still in a first wave’ MORE after the White House warned he would veto legislation that required bases be renamed. That threat sparked chatter among several GOP senators to try to change the bill on the Senate floor.

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But Sen. John ThuneJohn Randolph ThuneOvernight Defense: Trump plan to pull troops from Germany gets bipartisan pushback | Top GOP senator says it’s time to look at changing Confederate-named bases | GOP divided over renaming Army bases McConnell signals he will not negotiate police reform with Democrats before bringing up bill Senate could vote on GOP police reform bill as early as next week MORE (R-S.D.) said Tuesday that he thinks it would be difficult for lawmakers such as Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James InhofeJames (Jim) Mountain InhofeOvernight Defense: Trump plan to pull troops from Germany gets bipartisan pushback | Top GOP senator says it’s time to look at changing Confederate-named bases | GOP divided over renaming Army bases Senate Ethics panel dismisses stock sale probe against Loeffler No. 2 GOP senator: Time to look at changing Confederate-named bases MORE (R-Okla.) to change the bill from its current form.

“I know Sen. Inhofe has expressed an interest in having, you know, maybe looking at giving cities and communities and states input. … But by and large, you know, it came out of the committee, it’s in the base bill, it’ll probably take 60 votes to get it out,” Thune said about the provision.

The problem for proponents of changing the language is that their options are extremely limited and would require help from Democrats, who supported the amendment in committee.

The provision would create a commission to come up with a plan within three years for renaming bases and other assets. At the end of three years, the Pentagon “shall” remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederacy or anyone who served voluntarily in the Confederate army, a committee staffer said.

Inhofe has said he wants to change the language of the bill from “shall,” which is viewed as requiring the Defense Department to implement the plan, to “may,” which would give the Pentagon some flexibility and empower communities to be involved in the decision.

“That’s in the making right now, we don’t know how it’s going to end up,” Inhofe said Tuesday. “I’m going to make sure that [there’s] local support and that it’s done properly.” 

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Inhofe said he had not spoken with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellOvernight Defense: Trump plan to pull troops from Germany gets bipartisan pushback | Top GOP senator says it’s time to look at changing Confederate-named bases | GOP divided over renaming Army bases The Hill’s Campaign Report: Liberal groups pressure Biden on police reform as Trump signs executive order McConnell rejects push to ‘airbrush the Capitol’ of Confederate statues MORE (R-Ky.) about getting an amendment vote, but indicated that he would be talking to the GOP leader.

Sen. Josh HawleyJoshua (Josh) David HawleyOvernight Defense: Trump plan to pull troops from Germany gets bipartisan pushback | Top GOP senator says it’s time to look at changing Confederate-named bases | GOP divided over renaming Army bases No. 2 GOP senator: Time to look at changing Confederate-named bases Pass the Taiwan Defense Act — tell China that America will defend Taiwan MORE (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said he would offer an amendment taking issue with the provision telling the commission “what conclusions to reach,” including renaming the bases.

“The committee has prescribed the result … and that I think is a mistake. I think that’s the wrong way to go about this. … So I think removing that mandate is the key thing we’ll look to do,” Hawley said.

Hawley stopped short of predicting he will be able to get a vote once the bill is brought to the floor but said he would “do what I can to offer it.”

Sen. John KennedyJohn Neely KennedyMORE (R-La.) told reporters he believed the provision “picks on the South unfairly.”

“I think history will show that in the 18th century, in the 19th century and well into the 20th century there were many non-Confederate generals, soldiers and others … who practiced racial discrimination, anti-Semitism and misogyny,” he said.

Kennedy said he will offer an alternative plan once the bill is brought to the floor to rename every military installation in the country after a Medal of Honor recipient.

Senators file hundreds of amendments to the NDAA every year, but there’s no guarantee they’ll get a vote. In recent years, the Senate has held only a handful of roll call votes amid a stalemate on which proposal should be allowed to be brought up.

To get a vote on this particular provision, Inhofe, Hawley or another senator will need consent to bring up their amendment and make it pending, a step that puts it in line to get a vote. But, underscoring the difficulty for removing the language from the bill, any one senator, namely Democrats, could object to that effort.

McConnell could alternatively try to force a vote on an amendment by filing cloture, but that would require 60 votes and give Democrats another attempt to block it.

Asked specifically about giving the Pentagon more flexibility on whether to rename the bases, Sen. Dick DurbinRichard (Dick) Joseph DurbinMcConnell signals he will not negotiate police reform with Democrats before bringing up bill Senate could vote on GOP police reform bill as early as next week This week: Lawmakers look to advance police reform bills MORE (D-Ill.) appeared skeptical.

“That looks like they’re looking for an escape,” Durbin said. “The notion that Fort Bragg is named after an incompetent Confederate general, who’s defending that? Who wants to honor that man? … We shouldn’t look for a backdoor escape.”

In a potential blow to supporters of rewording the provision, McConnell indicated he was open to changing Confederate-named bases.

“I can only speak for myself on this issue. If it’s appropriate to take another look at these names, I’m personally OK with that,” McConnell told reporters, adding that he had not discussed the provision in the defense bill with Trump.

“For myself, with regard to military bases, whatever is ultimately decided I don’t have a problem with,” he added.

House Democrats are expected to include a similar provision that would change Confederate-named military installations in their defense policy bill, which they are expected to start work on later this month. Once the House passes its bill, the two chambers will need to go to a conference committee where they will craft a final version.

Typically, if both the House and Senate include a provision in their respective bills it’s difficult to prevent it from ending up in the final agreement, though Inhofe has said they could try to take the base renaming provision out in the conference committee.

Trump has signaled he’s opposed to changing the names, adding an extra complication to getting the NDAA signed into law.

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“My Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations,” Trump tweeted. “Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!”

It’s hardly the first time a president has threatened to veto the defense bill, which typically passes Congress with veto-proof majorities. Former President Obama, for example, repeatedly threatened to veto the bill over restrictions on moving detainees out of Guantánamo Bay. He vetoed the bill once, in 2015, though he signed a subsequent version by the end of the year.

Thune said he didn’t think a veto threat for this year’s NDAA was “insurmountable.”

“Maybe, in time, you know, the president’s position on that based on what he’s hearing and kind of where Congress ends up on this, he may end up, who knows, modifying that, too,” Thune said. “Right now, we’ve got a provision in a bill that at least for right now looks like that’s going to be maybe the new position. We’ve got a lot of legislative process to go through.”

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