A tweet from President TrumpDonald John TrumpDes Moines mayor says he’s worried about coronavirus spread at Trump rally Judiciary Committee Democrats pen second letter to DOJ over Barrett disclosures: ‘raises more questions that it answers’ Trump asks campaign to schedule daily events for him until election: report MORE claiming that he was now “immune” to COVID-19 after his treatment for the virus last week was tagged by the platform as “misleading” on Sunday.

The tweet in question, posted late Sunday morning, stated that the president received a “total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday.”

“That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!” he continued.

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The post was hidden several hours later by Twitter content administrators with a tag that reads, “[t]his Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.” The tag also directed users to the platform’s blog explaining how content relating to the coronavirus is displayed on Twitter’s platform.

White House officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

A Twitter spokesman told The Hill Trump’s tweet was “placed on a public interest notice” for “violating our COVID-19 Misleading Information Policy by making misleading health claims about COVID-19. As is standard with this public interest notice, engagements with the Tweet will be significantly limited.”

The platform moved in May to implement a policy that would place a tag on posts from world leaders and other significant public figures that contained false or misleading information about COVID-19. Posts from other users that are not judged by the site’s admins to serve the public’s interest by remaining on the platform are removed if they contain false or misleading information about the pandemic.

In August, the company followed through with that policy and temporarily banned the Trump campaign from posting on the platform until a tweet containing a video in which the president falsely claimed that children are “almost immune” from the virus was deleted.

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President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden holds massive cash advantage over Trump ahead of Election Day Tax records show Trump maintains a Chinese bank account: NYT Trump plays video of Biden, Harris talking about fracking at Pennsylvania rally MORE‘s tax records show that China is one of three foreign countries where he maintains a bank account, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management LLC, which paid $188,561 in taxes in China from 2013 to 2015, according to the Times.

In addition to the Chinese account, Trump also has bank accounts in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The president’s foreign bank accounts are held under corporate names and as a result don’t appear on the president’s public financial disclosure forms, the Times reported.

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The tax documents that the Times has obtained don’t indicate how much money may have flowed through Trump’s foreign accounts, and the Times said it’s unclear which financial institutions hold the accounts. The IRS requires taxpayers to report the portion of their income from foreign countries, and the Trump hotel management entity only reported several thousand dollars from China, the Times said.

Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump organization, said the company opened an account at a Chinese bank that has offices in the U.S. in order to pay taxes associated with efforts to do business in China. He said the account was opened after the Trump Organization opened an office in China in an effort to explore possible hotel deals in Asia.

“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Garten told the Times. “Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”

The Times story comes as China has been a topic of discussion during the 2020 presidential race. Trump has been arguing that Democratic presidential nominee Joe BidenJoe BidenBiden holds massive cash advantage over Trump ahead of Election Day Tax records show Trump maintains a Chinese bank account: NYT Trump plays video of Biden, Harris talking about fracking at Pennsylvania rally MORE is too soft of China.

The president and his allies have raised questions about the business dealings in China of Hunter Biden, the candidate’s son. Hunter Biden has denied wrongdoing and has said that he has not used his father’s position for personal gain.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s financial disclosures and tax returns don’t show any business or income in China, the Times reported.

The Times article is one of several stories the newspaper has written in recent weeks based on tax records of the president that it has obtained. An earlier story reported that Trump only paid $750 in federal income taxes for each of 2016 and 2017.

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Stocks opened with gains early Monday as the fate of coronavirus relief negotiations between the Trump administration and House Democrats remained up in the air with less than four weeks until Election Day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened with a gain of roughly 100 points, rising 0.4 percent as the market opened. The Nasdaq composite opened more than 1.1 percent higher, and the S&P 500 index rose nearly 0.7 percent after the opening bell.

The stock market has risen steadily since President TrumpDonald John TrumpDes Moines mayor says he’s worried about coronavirus spread at Trump rally Judiciary Committee Democrats pen second letter to DOJ over Barrett disclosures: ‘raises more questions that it answers’ Trump asks campaign to schedule daily events for him until election: report MORE abruptly reversed his decision last week to end negotiations with Democrats over another round of stimulus and pandemic response spending. 

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Treasury Secretary Steven MnuchinSteven Terner MnuchinPelosi calls Trump administration policies on testing and tracing inadequate Administration officials call on Congress to immediately pass bill to spend unused PPP funds Trump claims he is ‘immune’ from coronavirus, defends federal response MORE on Friday extended a $1.8 trillion offer to Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiTrump slight against Gold Star families adds to military woes Pelosi calls Trump administration policies on testing and tracing inadequate Trump claims he is ‘immune’ from coronavirus, defends federal response MORE (D-Calif.), the most expensive Republican offer to date. But Pelosi and top Democratic leaders called the offer insufficient to meet the needs of the crisis, while Senate Republicans ripped it as too costly.

Trump and his top White House advisers have generally been supportive of a higher price tag for a stimulus bill than the more fiscally conservative Senate. Larry KudlowLarry KudlowMORE, the president’s top economic adviser, has waived off concerns that a Trump-Pelosi agreement could get blown up on the Senate floor.

“I think if an agreement can be reached, they will go along with it,” Kudlow said Sunday in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”

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Stocks opened with losses Thursday after a rise in weekly unemployment claims and a narrowing window to pass a stimulus deal before Election Day shook markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened with a loss of nearly 320 points, falling 1.1 percent after the opening bell. The S&P 500 index opened with a loss of nearly 1.3 percent and the Nasdaq fell roughly 1.6 percent as trading began.

Thursday’s opening slump put the stock market on track for its third straight day of losses, driven primarily by fears that the Trump administration and Congress may be unable to strike a deal to boost the ailing economy before Nov. 3. 

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Initial jobless claims for the week ending October 10th spiked to 898,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday, along with 373,000 applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for contractors, gig workers and others left out of the traditional aid program.

More than 25 million Americans are on some form of jobless aid, according to the Labor Department, and millions are struggling to get by after the July 31 expiration of a $600 boost to weekly jobless benefits that was passed through the $2.2 trillion CARES ACT in March.

Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiOn The Money: Mnuchin says COVID-19 relief before election ‘would be difficult’ | Gender employment gap widens with start of virtual school year | Warren rips Disney over layoffs, executive pay Videos show conservative activists discussing limiting mail-in voting: report Michigan Republican isolating after positive coronavirus test MORE (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven MnuchinSteven Terner MnuchinOn The Money: Mnuchin says COVID-19 relief before election ‘would be difficult’ | Gender employment gap widens with start of virtual school year | Warren rips Disney over layoffs, executive pay Owners of meatpacker JBS to pay 0M fine over foreign bribery charges Mnuchin says COVID-19 relief before election ‘would be difficult’ MORE have spent more than two weeks in negotiations toward a follow up to that package, but have yet to make a deal. The prospects for a breakthrough have been complicated by difference between Trump, who has urged lawmakers to “go big,” and Senate Republicans, who have bristled at passing the administration’s initial $1.8 trillion over concerns about the debt.

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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 team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage.

DOJ TAKES AIM: The Justice Department on Monday announced indictments against six Russian hackers in connection to attacks on international events including the 2017 French elections and the 2018 Winter Olympics, as well as U.S. businesses and hospitals.

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The six individuals indicted are members of the GRU, the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, which was responsible for targeting U.S. election infrastructure in all 50 states in the months ahead of the 2016 presidential election. A dozen GRU members had previously been indicted by the Justice Department in 2018 for these hacking efforts. 

The indictment, handed down by a grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania, alleges that the six individuals “knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other and with persons known and unknown to the grand jury to deploy destructive malware and take other disruptive actions, for the strategic benefit of Russia, through unauthorized access to victim computers.”

Among the alleged attacks were hack-and-leak operations against the political party of now-French President Emanuel Macron in 2017, along with other French politicians. They are also alleged to have targeted the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, as retaliation for Russians being banned from participating in the games due to doping allegations. 

Further, the six Russian nationals were indicted in connection to attacks on the Ukrainian power grid and government agencies, which caused widespread power outages; for targeting two organizations involved in investigating the United Kingdom-based nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter; and for most recently targeting Georgian government agencies and companies. 

The hackers are also accused of carrying out the 2017 NotPetya malware attack, one of the most widespread and debilitating international cyberattacks in history. Three of the groups targeted by the NotPetya virus were hospitals and facilities within the Heritage Valley Health Systems, a FedEx Corporation subsidiary and a large U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturer, with the three companies suffering a combined $1 billion in losses from the attacks.  

Read more here.

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CHINA CONCERNS: U.S. citizens could be put at “serious risk” if the federal government is not able to come together and create a unified strategy to combat Chinese threats to critical technologies, a congressionally created bipartisan commission concluded Monday.

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) — established by Congress in 2018 and composed of lawmakers, federal officials and industry leaders — in a white paper published Monday highlighted the “China problem” faced by the security of the information and communications technologies (ICT) supply chain. 

The CSC detailed concerns around U.S. reliance on critical technologies manufactured by a potential adversary, along with concerns that the U.S. is falling behind on the international stage due to the lack of a cohesive strategy to challenge Chinese dominance in fields such as telecommunications and the development of fifth generation (5G) wireless technologies. 

“The imperative is clear. Chinese government interventions in its own domestic industry, in global trade, and in standard-setting bodies has created an uneven playing field on which companies in the United States and partner countries struggle to compete,” the CSC wrote in the white paper. “Now is the time for strategic cohesion. Without an ICT industrial base strategy, America risks falling behind competitively and leaving its citizens at serious risk.”

Federal oversight around the use of Chinese technologies in the U.S. has grown over the past two years due to concerns over data security and privacy, with companies including telecom giant Huawei and social media platform TikTok, which owned by Chinese group ByteDance, coming under close scrutiny by the Trump administration and on Capitol Hill. 

Read more here.

DEMS SLAM FCC: House Democrats slammed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman on Monday over his announcement that the panel would move forward with the Trump administration’s petition to clarify the meaning of a law that grants tech companies a legal liability shield over content posted on their websites by third parties. 

Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee accused FCC Chairman Ajit Pai of attempting to help a “flailing President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden holds massive cash advantage over Trump ahead of Election Day Tax records show Trump maintains a Chinese bank account: NYT Trump plays video of Biden, Harris talking about fracking at Pennsylvania rally MORE” through his decision to move forward with the administration’s push to clarify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. 

“Chairman Pai’s decision to start a Section 230 rulemaking is a blatant attempt to help a flailing President Trump,” Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Rep. Mike DoyleMichael (Mike) F. DoyleHillicon Valley: DOJ accuses Russian hackers of targeting 2018 Olympics, French elections | Federal commission issues recommendations for securing critical tech against Chinese threats | House Democrats slam FCC over ‘blatant attempt to help’ Trump House Democrats slam FCC chairman over ‘blatant attempt to help’ Trump Hillicon Valley: Twitter tightens rules before election | Intelligence chief briefed lawmakers on foreign influence threats | Democrats launch inquiry into Pentagon’s moves on a national 5G network MORE (D-Pa.) said in a statement.

“The timing and hurried nature of this decision makes clear it’s being done to influence social media companies’ behavior leading up to an election, and it is shocking to watch this supposedly independent regulatory agency jump at the opportunity to become a political appendage of President Trump’s campaign,” the Democrats added. 

They said the FCC’s “rush to push President Trump’s agenda weeks before Election Day should be seen for the reckless and politically-motivated stunt that it is.”

Read more here.

INTEL BATTLES: Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John RatcliffeJohn Lee RatcliffeGreenwald slams Schiff over Biden emails on Fox 50 former intelligence officials warn NY Post story sounds like Russian disinformation Hillicon Valley: DOJ accuses Russian hackers of targeting 2018 Olympics, French elections | Federal commission issues recommendations for securing critical tech against Chinese threats | House Democrats slam FCC over ‘blatant attempt to help’ Trump MORE and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam SchiffAdam Bennett SchiffGreenwald slams Schiff over Biden emails on Fox Hillicon Valley: DOJ accuses Russian hackers of targeting 2018 Olympics, French elections | Federal commission issues recommendations for securing critical tech against Chinese threats | House Democrats slam FCC over ‘blatant attempt to help’ Trump Federal commission issues recommendations for securing critical tech against Chinese threats MORE (D-Calif.) are publicly battling over the emails allegedly recovered from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, accusing one another of politicizing intelligence.

The two are battling over a controversial report published by The New York Post last week concerning a laptop and emails allegedly sent by Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe BidenJoe BidenBiden holds massive cash advantage over Trump ahead of Election Day Tax records show Trump maintains a Chinese bank account: NYT Trump plays video of Biden, Harris talking about fracking at Pennsylvania rally MORE. 

The story alleged that then-Vice President Biden participated in a meeting with a top adviser to Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, where his son sat on the board at the time, prompting immediate attacks from President Trump and his allies that Biden is corrupt.

Schiff in a Friday interview with CNN said the “smear” campaign against Biden and his ties to Ukraine originated as part of a Russian disinformation plot more than a year ago, but he did not explicitly link the Kremlin efforts to the Post story.

Ratcliffe, however, sought to claim that Schiff was remarking that the Post story was a result of Russian disinformation, which he says is not supported by intelligence.

“It’s funny that some of the people that complained the most about intelligence being politicized are the ones politicizing intelligence and unfortunately in this case, it is Adam Schiff,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business anchor Maria BartiromoMaria Sara BartiromoGreenwald slams Schiff over Biden emails on Fox Hillicon Valley: DOJ accuses Russian hackers of targeting 2018 Olympics, French elections | Federal commission issues recommendations for securing critical tech against Chinese threats | House Democrats slam FCC over ‘blatant attempt to help’ Trump Ratcliffe, Schiff battle over Biden emails, politicized intelligence MORE, adding that Schiff claimed “Hunter Biden’s laptop and e-mails on it are part of some Russian disinformation campaign.”

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“Let me be clear: The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” Ratcliffe added.

Read more here.

ICYMI: CONSERVATIVES HAVE CONCERNS: Conservatives have seized on Facebook and Twitter’s handling of this week’s controversial New York Post story on Hunter Biden to attack tech’s legal liability shield.

The decisions by both companies to limit the spread of the dubious article — by Twitter for breaking a policy on hacked materials, by Facebook as precaution — was used as evidence for Republican’s allegations of anti-conservative bias in social media.

President Trump in particular has used the episode to reenergize the crusade he’s led against Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act since signing an executive order targeting it in May.

“Now, Big Tech — you see what’s going on with Big Tech? — is censoring these stories to try and get Biden out of this impossible jam. He’s in a big jam,” Trump said at a rally Thursday.

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The New York Post article alleged that Hunter Biden, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden‘s son, had organized a meeting between a Ukrainian businessman and his father, who was vice president at the time. That claim was based on emails obtained from a hard drive with no substantive links to anyone involved.

The Biden campaign has denied any such meeting and pointed to numerous investigations that have all concluded there was “no wrongdoing” by the former vice president regarding Ukraine. Facebook and Twitter both moved to clamp down on the story — the former based on its hacked materials policy and because of sensitive information not redacted from the emails in the story, the latter because of unknown “signals.”

Read more here.

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An op-ed to chew on: How to expand rural broadband, fast and affordably 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of the end-to-end encrypted messaging service Signal, is “trying to bring normality to the Internet” (New Yorker / Anna Wiener)

As local news dies, a pay-for-play network rises in its place (New York Times / Davey Alba and Jack Nicas)

Oracle founder donated $250,000 to Graham PAC in final days of TikTok deal (The Verge / Makena Kelly)

How does Google’s monopoly hurt you? Try these searches. (Washington Post / Geoffrey A. Fowler)

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This September was the hottest on record globally, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has found. 

The NOAA finding, announced Wednesday, puts the planet on track to have its second-hottest year on record based on year-to-date temperatures. 2016 is currently the hottest year.

September 2020 was 1.75 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the 20th-century average of 59 degrees Fahrenheit, and 0.04 degrees hotter than the two next-warmest Septembers of 2015 and 2016.

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The data falls in line with similar findings from the European Union’s climate change service, which also determined that this September was the hottest on record. 

According to NOAA, all seven of the warmest Septembers have occurred during the past seven years, and all 10 of the warmest Septembers have occurred since 2005. 

September 2020 was the 429th month in a row with temperatures that were “at least nominally,” above the 20th-century average.

Some of the most abnormally warm temperatures this September were in parts of the North Pacific Ocean, southwestern Canada, the western U.S., South America, Europe, northern and southeastern Asia, Australia and Antarctica. 

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Five environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday for using tear gas at the protests in Portland, Ore.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon and others represented the environmental groups that filed the lawsuit accusing the agency of deploying “an unprecedented amount of dangerous chemical weapons” without first checking the potential environmental impacts. 

The groups allege that DHS violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to examine the effects of the chemicals on the environment before using them against protesters demonstrating against racial injustice and police brutality. 

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The environmental groups taking on the federal government include Neighbors for Clean Air, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides, Cascadia Wildlands, 350PDX and Willamette Riverkeeper. 

These organizations are calling on DHS to stop using chemicals like tear gas for crowd control until the agency studies the health and environmental impacts and publishes that information. 

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The deployment of tear gas, pepper spray and other chemicals during the Portland protests,, have reportedly been connected to symptoms, such as loss of appetite, hair loss and irregular menstrual cycles, according to a release. 

The chemicals have also stayed in Portland after deployment and have been found on vegetation, on buildings and in streets, prompting worries that the stormwater system is carrying the chemicals to the Willamette River. 

The lawsuit says “the presence of chemicals, sediment, and munitions debris … in the Willamette River waters can cause negative effects to recreationalists, as well as wildlife.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Kelly Simon, the interim legal director of ACLU Oregon, said in a statement that “environmental hazards and police violence disproportionately” affect Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities and other people of color. 

“The large volumes of tear gas and other chemical weapons that federal officers recklessly and thoughtlessly unleashed in Portland is yet more evidence of the Trump administration’s racist disregard for public health and a safe living environment,” she said. “So we will see them in court, again.”

Protests in Portland have continued since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody in May. President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden holds massive cash advantage over Trump ahead of Election Day Tax records show Trump maintains a Chinese bank account: NYT Trump plays video of Biden, Harris talking about fracking at Pennsylvania rally MORE sent federal authorities to quell the demonstrations over the summer, leading to confrontations between federal officers and protesters. 

Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services determined in a report last month that cyanide and heavy metals like chromium and zinc appeared at higher levels in stormwater catch basins near a protest site than elsewhere in the city, according to The Associated Press. 

Governors and state health officials scrambling to develop comprehensive coronavirus vaccine distribution plans are pleading with the Trump administration for more clarity and more funding.

State and local officials sent drafts of their plans to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week, just 30 days after the administration released its initial COVID-19 vaccination playbook.

The task of setting up a comprehensive distribution system is daunting, especially since no vaccine for the novel coronavirus has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and clinical trials of two of the four leading candidates have been paused because of safety concerns. 

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Until a vaccine is authorized or approved by the FDA, officials won’t know which populations the vaccine will be most effective in, storage requirements, dosage requirements and other variables. States also don’t know how many doses of the initial vaccine they will receive.

Public health officials say they are used to planning without knowing the full picture but are urging Congress to provide $8.4 billion in additional funding.

“It’s one thing to write a strong plan. It’s quite another to implement the plan. And right now the plans … are just wish lists. Without additional resources and funding, we won’t be able to successfully implement them,” said Claire Hannan, executive director of the National Association of Immunization Managers. 

President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden holds massive cash advantage over Trump ahead of Election Day Tax records show Trump maintains a Chinese bank account: NYT Trump plays video of Biden, Harris talking about fracking at Pennsylvania rally MORE has tied his reelection message to promising a vaccine by Nov. 3, and the CDC told states to prepare for a vaccine rollout by Nov. 1, raising concerns that political pressure could undermine the science. 

While the vaccine manufacturers and federal health officials have since indicated that timeline is unrealistic, state officials said they have to be ready to go whenever a vaccine is authorized.

“Our approach is, let’s be ready, irrespective of when the first vaccines received approval or authorization,” said Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 

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“Certainly the more lead time that we have, the better able we will be on day one, but for us it’s less about a date that we’ve circled on our calendar, it’s more about knowing that we have a certain discrete checklist … in place,” Shah said.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will recommend a plan for initial vaccination, but states will ultimately have the final say. Most plans are expected to prioritize the first doses for vulnerable populations, health providers for COVID-19 patients and first responders. 

The Trump administration has delegated much of the responsibility of preparing to states, but the federal government will provide the actual vaccine and syringes. States will be responsible for other supplies, like bandages, gloves and needle disposal containers.

Federal officials said the U.S. has already assembled at least 40 million vaccination kits with the bottles, needles and other items needed for the shots.

“All of those are in warehouses ready to go, so that’s a big logistical task or undertaking,” Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy in the Department of Health and Human Services, told reporters recently.

Supplies like needles and syringes will be automatically ordered in amounts to match vaccine orders.

State officials argue that a successful distribution plan will require a level of coordination with the federal government that has been missing through much of the pandemic.

Inequalities and delays in obtaining personal protective equipment, testing components and the experimental COVID-19 drug remdesivir have made officials skeptical. 

New York Gov. Andrew CuomoAndrew CuomoOvernight Health Care: NIH chief: Trump has not met with task force in ‘quite some time’ | CDC reports 300,000 more deaths than expected this year | UK to start challenge trials for vaccine Cuomo: Travel within Tri-State area should be avoided due to COVID-19 spike California plans to review coronavirus vaccine independently MORE (D) and Arkansas Gov. Asa HutchinsonAsa HutchinsonState officials plead for more info on vaccine distribution plans Bipartisan governors ask Trump for help with COVID vaccine distribution plan Arkansas GOP governor on Trump rallies: There shouldn’t be mass gatherings without social distancing MORE (R), the bipartisan leaders of the National Governors Association, last week asked for a meeting with the White House to discuss specific concerns about funding for the administration of a vaccine, allocation and supply chain, and communication and information requirements.

“States cannot do this on their own. Period,” Cuomo said. 

“This is a massive undertaking. This is a larger operational undertaking than anything we have done under COVID to date. This is a more complicated undertaking and task. And we need the federal government to be a competent partner with this state and with every state,” Cuomo added.

So far, the CDC has distributed only $200 million to states and territories for vaccination efforts, but the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials said it was “merely a down payment.”

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The CDC itself has also told Congress it urgently needs more funding for the vaccination effort, a figure CDC Director Robert Redfield put at $6 billion last month.

But despite the pleas, new funding does not appear to be coming.

States “do not have a need for additional funding for the rollout of the vaccine program, they actually have received funding for this, they have plenty of resources to manage the vaccine distribution program,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said Monday at a Milken Institute event.

“There’s plenty of funding available to meet all their needs,” Azar added. 

YouTube will ban content containing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines, expanding its policy surrounding misinformation about the virus, the company said Wednesday. 

The Google-owned video platform said it will remove any content that includes claims about COVID-19 vaccinations that contradicts information from health authorities. 

YouTube was already removing content with misinformation about the existence and the transmission of the coronavirus, as well as content promoting medically unsubstantiated methods of treatment. The platform said it had removed more than 200,000 videos related to dangerous or misleading COVID-19 information since early February. 

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YouTube’s move to expand its policy comes as tech companies grapple with the rampant spread of misinformation online, including false information about the coronavirus pandemic, as a number of drug companies are conducting studies on a vaccine for the virus that has infected more than 38 million people globally, including more than 7.8 million in the U.S. 

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Facebook on Tuesday said it would ban advertisements that paint vaccines as unsafe, useless or harmful. 

Facebook’s move to ban COVID-19 vaccine misinformation followed the platform’s decision to block content denying the Holocaust and cracking down on posts pushing the QAnon conspiracy.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki last week stopped short of pledging to ban QAnon on its platform.

“We’re looking very closely at QAnon,” Wojcicki told CNN, when asked about the hesitation to outright ban videos with QAnon conspiracy theories. 

“We already implemented a large number of different policies that have helped to maintain that in a responsible way,” she added. 

The QAnon conspiracy theory alleges, without evidence, that President TrumpDonald John TrumpLabor secretary’s wife tests positive for COVID-19 Russia shuts down Trump admin’s last-minute push to strike nuclear arms deal before election Trump makes appeal to suburban women at rally: ‘Will you please like me?’ MORE and his allies are working to expose and execute a cabal of Democrats and media figures who are running an international child trafficking ring.

Elliott Broidy, a former top Republican National Committee (RNC) fundraiser, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent after he was charged earlier this month.

Broidy entered his guilty plea Wednesday afternoon before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C. The hearing was conducted via video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A charging document filed in early October alleged that Broidy, who was a major Trump fundraiser, engaged in an illegal backchannel effort to influence the Department of Justice.

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Prosecutors said Broidy conspired to lobby the Justice Department to end a federal probe into the $4.5 billion embezzlement scandal involving Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund, 1MDB. 

Prosecutors also said Broidy tried to lobby the Trump administration to arrange for the “removal and return” of a Chinese exile living in the United States who has been identified in news reports as Guo Wengui. Broidy’s lobbying efforts were not successful.

Broidy pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The charge was detailed in a criminal information, which often proceeds a guilty plea – a hint earlier this month that Broidy would ultimately enter a guilty plea. Kollar-Kotelly will need to accept Broidy’s plea on Wednesday for it to become official.

Prosecutors said that Broidy was paid at least $6 million upfront by Malaysian fugitive Jho Low, who has been charged in the embezzlement scheme, and promised as much as $75 million if he was successful in lobbying the Justice Department. Low, who has denied wrongdoing, is not identified in the charging document but his description matches that of the individual described.

Broidy worked as RNC deputy finance chairman between 2017 and 2018. He stepped down from his position amid reports claiming he paid off a Playboy Playmate who claimed he impregnated her. He was also a significant fundraiser for President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden holds massive cash advantage over Trump ahead of Election Day Tax records show Trump maintains a Chinese bank account: NYT Trump plays video of Biden, Harris talking about fracking at Pennsylvania rally MORE’s 2016 campaign and inauguration. 

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