Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike Wednesday asked residents to stay home over Japan’s upcoming four-day summer holiday weekend as confirmed COVID-19 cases have been surging in the capital.At a news briefing, Koike said the city has topped 10,000 total cases. She said that, while there would need to be scientific analysis to say whether or not the city is experiencing a second wave of the virus, she recommended everyone prepare for it.Tokyo reported 238 new cases Wednesday, down from last Friday’s record 293 daily cases, but still over 200 for the second day.  The city has seen triple-digit new cases for all but two days in July.Looking toward the upcoming long weekend, Koike said she would like Tokyo residents, especially older people and those with pre-existing conditions, to “refrain from going out as much as possible.” Japan will begin a four-day weekend on Thursday. The holiday had been established for the now-postponed Olympic games, which were to have started Friday.Japan has never had a total lockdown but officials asked businesses to close and people to work from home in a state of emergency starting in April, that was gradually lifted recently.     Japan has around 26,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, and about 1,000 deaths.Last Friday’s 293 daily cases is the highest for Tokyo since the pandemic started in China and spread to Japan late last year.
…

Global markets are mixed Wednesday as investors’ earlier enthusiasm over news of a promising coronavirus vaccine is tempered by the pandemic’s grip on the planet. Japan’s Nikkei index lost 0.5%.  Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.4%, while the Composite index in Shanghai gained 0.3%. Australia’s S&P/ASX index closed down 1.2% after news reports about a jump in new coronavirus infections in the southern state of Victoria, home to Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne.  Elsewhere, the KOSPI index in South Korea was down, but essentially unchanged percentage-wise, and Taiwan’s TSEC index is up 0.6%  Mumbai’s Sensex index is up 0.1% in late afternoon trading. In European, the FTSE index in London is down 0.3% in early morning trading.  Paris’s CAC-40 index is 0.8% lower, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is down 0.4%. The political gridlock in the United States over a new financial aid package for millions of Americans left unemployed due to the pandemic has also cast a pall over the markets.   In oil trading, U.S crude is selling at $41.76, down 0.4%, while Brent crude is down $44.26, down 0.4%.   All three major U.S. indices are trending upward in futures trading. 
…

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who began his career as a human rights lawyer, is coming under severe criticism for cracking down on activist groups calling for reform in North Korea. The Moon administration has carried out a broad campaign to prevent the organizations, mostly led by North Korean defectors, from floating balloons and bottles filled with propaganda leaflets into the North. The leaflets often criticize North Korea’s human rights record or mock North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and are sometimes packaged with items of value, such as dollar bills or USB flash drives loaded with South Korean dramas. North Korea, which forbids access to the outside world, has complained bitterly about the leaflets. Last month North Korea demolished the de facto inter-Korean embassy just north of the border and threatened unspecified military action unless Seoul stopped the launches. The Moon government, which wants to improve ties with Pyongyang, says the crackdown is necessary to reduce military tensions. But activists say the government’s response is unprecedented and may be fatal for many groups working on North Korean human rights. Fierce crackdown Over the past several weeks, South Korean authorities have raided the offices of non-governmental organizations, filed criminal complaints against the groups, and in some cases even surveilled, briefly detained or physically blocked activists as they head to or from launch sites.  Authorities have also moved to formally outlaw the launches and threatened to imprison violators for a year. Last week, South Korea’s Unification Ministry revoked the NGO licenses of two of the most prominent leaflet campaign groups, complicating their ability to raise money. Officials have warned they will inspect 25 more groups, raising fears their licenses too will be cancelled.  On Monday, a group of South Korean NGOs appealed to the United Nations for help against what they called an “unjustified and politically motivated” investigation. The actions, they said, risk “stifling…the entire North Korean human rights movement in South Korea.” Global condemnation Many international rights groups have also condemned the crackdown with unusual bluntness.  “Rather than kowtow to Kim Jong Un’s sister, South Korea should be standing up for its own principles,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.  Last month, Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, called the leaflet launchers “human scum” and “mongrel dogs.” Within hours, South Korea began pressuring the NGOs, raising accusations Moon was stifling free speech in order to placate the North. “I think President Moon and his people are so deep into this they don’t see they’re no longer making sense,” said Robertson. “Their actions are now violating the rights they spent their entire careers trying to build up.” 
The U.N. Human Rights Office in Seoul also questioned the decision to revoke the NGO licenses, according to the Dong-A newspaper.Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and leader of an anti-North Korea civic group, speaks as he prepares to release balloons containing leaflets denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, near the demilitarized zone in Paju, June 16, 2020.South Korea presses on But South Korea is undeterred by the criticism, persisting with its crackdown even after the North inexplicably called off its campaign of leaflet-related retaliations late last month.  Moon is now expected to prioritize inter-Korean ties during the final two years of his presidency.  “The peaceful management of inter-Korean relations is the number one priority for us, and human rights would come second,” said a source close to Moon, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity to candidly describe Seoul’s view on the issue.  Left-leaning South Korean politicians have long shied away from criticizing North Korean human rights abuses. Instead, they prefer to focus on expanding ties with Pyongyang, hoping that will someday lead to a unified Korea that would respect human rights. A more aggressive approach, they argue, not only prevents reunification but also could lead to hostilities.  “We are not the United States. We cannot push against North Korea on all fronts. We have to prioritize. The issue now is peace, denuclearization, and the prevention of any kind of military conflict and escalation. Those are more urgent than human rights abuses,” said the source close to Moon. “For us, peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula is a matter of national existence,” he added. Legal justifications Both conservative and liberal South Korean governments have at times attempted to block activists from launching leaflets. Usually, officials cite national security considerations. In 2014, North Korean border guards tried to shoot down some of the balloons, resulting in an exchange of gunfire with the South.According to a recent poll, about 60% of South Koreans support a leaflet launch ban. That sentiment is especially common in border areas where many residents fear North Korean retaliation. During the latest crackdown, authorities have cited varying legal justifications, including opposition from locals but also environmental regulations and non-binding diplomatic agreements. “They have a whole bunch of excuses and they continue to pull them out and throw them against the wall and see which one is going to stick,” said Human Rights Watch’s Robertson.  The launches are protected in principle under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the rights of freedom of expression, even to send information across borders, said Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea. “Now at the same time, any government around the world has the faculty to limit this Article 19 by arguing, for example, national security or public order,” Ojea Quintana said. The special rapporteur told VOA’s Korean Service he plans to request a meeting with South Korean officials to find more about the NGO license revocation, but stressed: “From what I know, I definitely don’t like the move.” Launches continue  Despite the controversy, it’s not even clear whether Seoul’s strategy will work. According to local media, there have been at least three successful balloon launches since late June.  Two of the launches were reportedly conducted by Eric Foley, who heads Voice of the Martyrs Korea. Unlike other defector groups that launch anti-Pyongyang propaganda, Foley, an evangelical Christian, distributes Bibles along with items like rice and vitamins. During one attempted launch in early June, Foley was stopped by police who physically blocked his path to the launch site. Since then, he and his staff have been under regular police surveillance. “I’m puzzled at the amount of resources being applied to stop our work,” Foley told VOA. “I’m trying to launch one balloon containing seven Bibles, using my own car…and the response is to have 10 police officers stopping me for 90 minutes, taking photos of the helium tanks.” Foley has vowed to continue launching the Bibles, which he sees as necessary to support underground Christian groups that are persecuted in North Korea. Other NGOs have also vowed to continue launching more provocative materials.  “By making this a bigger thing,” Robertson said, “I think the South Koreans have now set themselves up for a game of perpetual cat and mouse with these North Korean defector organizations, who have the wherewithal and have the determination to continue doing this.” 
…

A U.S. appellate court in Washington on Tuesday blocked the new chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) from installing his appointees to oversee a government-funded organization that advances technology to promote internet freedom across the world. The U.S Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling, enjoining the USAGM leader, Michael Pack, from replacing the previously existing leadership of the Open Technology Fund, one of several global media agencies he oversees. Voice of America is one of the USAGM entities but is not affected by the new ruling. The appellate decision is temporary, pending further consideration of the merits of the case against Pack’s attempt to reconfigure the Open Technology Fund’s board. But it appears to reinstate the OTF’s previous board while a lawsuit over the matter proceeds in court.  The decision was the first legal setback for Pack’s effort to assert control of USAGM since he assumed office in June. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell rejected a request by the OTF’s existing board members to block Pack’s move to replace them. Howell ruled that Congress gave the USAGM chief executive officer definitive authority to control USAGM’s entities and that if Congress did not like Pack’s actions, it could limit his authority through further legislation. Howell noted, “Congress has decided to concentrate unilateral power in the USAGM CEO, and the court cannot override that determination.” The appellate court, however, said Pack seems to lack the same authority over the internet-focused nonprofit Open Technology Fund that he has over the other government-funded global media organizations. “OTF is not a broadcaster … and is not sufficiently similar to the broadcast entities expressly listed” in the law that controls the USAGM chief executive’s actions, a three-judge panel ruled. Pack’s “statutory authority … does not seem to include control of OTF’s board or operations.”The U.S. Agency for Global Media logo at Voice of America, in Washington, D.C., Nov. 22, 2019. (VOA)Howell dismissed concerns about Pack’s replacement of the board, but the appellate panel disagreed and said the OTF board members contesting their ouster were likely to eventually win their case. “The government’s actions have jeopardized OTF’s relationships with its partner organizations, leading its partner organizations to fear for their safety,” the court order said. “Further, absent an injunction during the appellate process, OTF faces an increasing risk that its decision-making will be taken over by the government, that it will suffer reputational harm, and that it will lose the ability to effectively operate in light of the two dueling boards that presently exist.” Neither Pack nor USAGM responded to a VOA inquiry Tuesday for comment on the ruling. A legal representative for the OTF board members who brought the suit did not respond to VOA questions about the verdict. Pack, a conservative filmmaker, won Senate confirmation last month after his nomination lingered for nearly two years in Congress over objections from Democrats. In his first weeks in office, Pack fired the leadership of the entities he oversees, mostly replacing them with career officials. He appointed outsiders to leadership posts at OTF and Radio Marti.  Critics of the Pack’s appointment say Trump named him in an effort to garner more favorable coverage of his administration and that Pack’s replacement of key officials has undermined the media entities’ effectiveness.  Pack has defended the moves as part of his legislative powers aimed at improving and modernizing the U.S.-funded agencies. He has also defended the editorial independence of the network’s journalists and vowed to uphold the VOA Charter. The VOA Charter, signed into law in 1976, requires VOA to be “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” in its reporting; to provide “a balanced and comprehensive” account of American opinion, and to describe U.S. government policies “clearly and effectively.” Pack is the first Senate-confirmed CEO of USAGM following a major overhaul of the agency’s leadership structure that Congress approved in late 2016 and former President Barack Obama signed into law. The changes gave expansive new powers to the CEO over all of the U.S. government-funded civilian broadcasters, including the power to set budgets and terminate funding for agencies the CEO no longer sees as effective. The federal court ruling came a day after Karl Racine, the attorney general in the city of Washington, filed his own lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court, claiming that Pack’s attempted takeover of the OTF board violated city law on governance of nonprofit organizations. 
…

A Lebanese man accused of laundering drug money for the militant group Hezbollah has been extradited from Cyprus to the United States. Ghassan Diab, 37, arrived in Miami last week to face charges dating back to 2016 in the U.S. state of Florida, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Saturday. Diab has been charged with two counts of money laundering over $100,000, two counts of conspiracy to launder over $100,000, two counts of unlicensed transmission of currency over $100,000, and two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communications device to further the commission of money laundering, all of which are felonies under Florida law, according to a statement released by the department. In 2016, a state attorney in Florida identified Diab as an alleged Hezbollah associate, announcing charges against him as a part of an operation on money laundering by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Miami, according to the Justice Department. Diab was arrested in Cyprus in March 2019 upon his arrival from Beirut, Lebanon. U.S. law enforcement agencies in recent months have stepped up crackdowns on the Iranian-backed group and its financial networks. In April, the U.S. Department of State issued a bounty of up to $10 million for information on Muhammad Kawtharani, a senior Hezbollah military commander, as part of U.S. efforts to disrupt the finances of the Shiite group. The U.S. designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 1997. Significant move Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, says such extraditions of Hezbollah associates are significant steps to damage the group’s operations abroad. Diab was “part of a very large drug trafficking and laundering network that spans several continents,” he said. “These [U.S.] actions hit one specific node of the network,” Ottolenghi told VOA. “It may not take it all down, but it exposes people, disrupts operations and sucks resources out of those operations.” Ottolenghi added that every time a Hezbollah operative is arrested and prosecuted, the group “loses their resources, and their assets get exposed.” 2016 case The case against Diab in Florida reportedly traces back to an international drug-smuggling hub in Colombia where his brother-in-law, Mohammad Ahmad Ammar, ran an operation to launder drug money. Ammar, 35, was extradited to the U.S. in 2016. He was later convicted in Miami of one count of money laundering in excess of $100,000 and one count of conspiracy to commit laundering in excess of $100,000. Hassan Mohsen Mansour, a third Hezbollah operative involved in the scheme, was arrested in Paris in 2016. Global network For years, Hezbollah has been carrying out illicit activities around the world to fund its military operations, experts and U.S. officials say. The militant group has been particularly active in drug trafficking, money laundering and other illegal activities in South America, North America, Europe and the Middle East. Experts say Hezbollah has been effective in advancing its agenda in various fields, exploiting loopholes wherever it has been able to do so. “The global network of Hezbollah from Latin America through Middle East and Europe, plus their enormous and deep-rooted investments in every business aspect from construction to gambling, has turned them a reliable partner for drug cartels and other organized groups to reach them for money laundering and other revenues generated from illicit trades and activities,” Hugo Antonio Acha, a counterterrorism expert based in Miami, told VOA. In some parts of Europe, experts argue, the Lebanese groups and their Iranian benefactors have developed a vast network that provides support to Hezbollah in terms of logistical, financial and operational capabilities. Acha said that Hezbollah militants “have hands in governments, banking systems and officials from a country like Venezuela that has been completely hijacked by a criminal organization, to countries that operate under the umbrella of shell companies, like Romania, and own banks and accounts in the Isle of Cayman, to businesses that were being developed in Qatar and construction complexes in the United Arab Emirates.” In May, German authorities banned the political activities of Hezbollah on German soil, a move experts believe could be significant to cutting off support for the group’s activities around the world. The European Union considers Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist organization, while allowing its political wing to operate in the bloc’s countries. The Netherlands and Germany are the only EU members that recognize Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. The U.K. also dropped the distinction last year. 
…

The presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, Joe Biden, told Americans Tuesday that President Donald Trump “has quit on you and he’s quit on this country.”  In livestreamed remarks, Biden blamed Trump for failing to lead during the coronavirus pandemic, adding that as COVID-19 infections spread each day, “too many American workers are still out of work and losing hope.”  The former vice president said that Trump’s own staff has acknowledged he fails the most important test of being an American president: “The duty to care for you, for all of us.”  Biden added: “A president is supposed to care, to lead, to take responsibility, to never give up.” During Tuesday’s daily coronavirus briefing, however, Trump sought to portray his administration as effectively leading the response, saying potential vaccines are “coming a lot sooner than anybody thought possible” and discussed a new aid package for Americans affected by the virus. The White House began the daily briefings after stopping them in late April. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in New Castle, Del., July 21, 2020.Biden’s remarks came during the latest low-key campaign event he has held in his home state of Delaware. The setting was an elementary school auditorium in New Castle, attended by fewer than 30 people, including a few invited guests, campaign staff, Biden’s Secret Service detail and a pool of reporters, due to social distancing.The event was primarily intended to roll out the third plank of Biden’s economic plan, known as “Build Back Better,” focusing on child care and home health care, with a pledge to provide 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. The situation with child care in the United States “is dire,” said Biden, who declared, we’re in a “child care emergency.”  Biden promised his plan would give every 3- or 4-year-old child “access to free, high-quality preschool.” Home health care workers would get access to training to become an emergency medical technician, nurse or even a doctor, Biden said of his plan.  He said it would put 3 million Americans to work in child care and home care, and would allow even more to go out into the labor force who can’t go out into workforce due to the “caregiving squeeze.”  “This is both a moral and economic imperative for the nation in my view,” he said.  His economic platform to increase access to child care and health care “is about dignity and respect for working people,” Biden said. “And that’s precisely what this election is all about: dignity and respect. Biden’s remarks Tuesday came 100 days before voters choose between either him or Trump.  Recent polls indicate the former vice president leading the incumbent president, including a Reuters/Ipsos poll of registered voters conducted last week that put Biden 10 percentage points ahead.  The Democratic candidate has detailed several other parts of his economic recovery plan while criticizing Trump’s coronavirus response and his handling of the economy.  President Donald Trump holds a face mask as he speaks during a news conference at the White House, July 21, 2020.Trump has countered by positioning himself as the candidate best capable of boosting the economy, calling Biden, who will turn 78 in November, “totally ill-equipped” and questioning his opponent’s mental acuity, boasting in a recent interview of performing well on a cognitive test.  Trump is 74. Earlier this month, Biden proposed a $700 billion manufacturing plan that he said would add 5 million new jobs to help cope with the spike in unemployment during the pandemic.  Biden said his plan includes $300 billion for research and development projects in clean energy, telecommunications, artificial intelligence and other fields. It also includes $400 billion for the government purchase of U.S.-built goods, such as environmentally clean products and construction materials.  Last week, Biden proposed spending $2 trillion to fight climate change and cut carbon emissions from power plants to zero by 2035.  The Biden campaign has said another piece of the plan to be revealed in a future speech involves efforts to advance racial equity in the aftermath of national protests against police brutality.  During his presidency, Trump has regularly touted massive renovation and expansion of America’s infrastructure. He has accomplished regulatory changes to ease development and construction through executive orders. His projects that would need spending approval from lawmakers have run into opposition from some in both parties due to their scope and size, and how they would be funded.  In recent months, the pandemic and the resulting loss of jobs have forced the administration to shift focus from what has been a centerpiece of the president’s 2016 campaign pledge.  
 
…

Top congressional Democrats met with White House officials Tuesday, as lawmakers and President Donald Trump face down an end-of-month deadline to pass a new funding package combating the vast health and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.  Tuesday’s private talks brought together Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and acting Chief of Staff Mark Meadows with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.  Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Meadows attend meeting to discuss coronavirus aid legislation at the White House in Washington.The push for action comes with the country adding on average more than 66,000 new cases per day during the past week, and with federal payments of $600 per week to millions of unemployed workers set to expire at the end of July.  Mnuchin and Meadows have set an unofficial deadline of July 31 to pass the new round of funding. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell downplayed that possibility when asked by reporters Tuesday, saying Senate Republicans’ proposal would be introduced by the end of this week.  Months ago, the White House and Congress approved a package of bills totaling more than $3 trillion, with unusual bipartisan agreement. Now Trump, Republican lawmakers and Democrats are voicing an array of coronavirus priorities they need to tackle before Congress leaves Washington in three weeks for its annual August recess. Lawmakers will not return until September.   McConnell said he will not bring a bill to the Senate floor unless it includes provisions curbing the legal liability of businesses and schools if their workers, customers or students contract the coronavirus.  Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) listens during a press conference on Capitol Hill on July 21, 2020 in Washington.Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said Tuesday there have been only a handful of lawsuits nationwide relating to the pandemic.  “There is no tsunami, there is no flood, but Senator McConnell is trying to capitalize on this moment of uncertainty in America to close down the responsibility of businesses to make certain they do everything reasonably possible to protect their customers and their employees,” Durbin told reporters.  Trump has also called for the measure to include a temporary end to the 7.65% payroll tax on workers’ salaries that would benefit those who are working, but not the more than 17 million unemployed U.S. workers who currently have no paychecks to tax.   Lawmakers of both parties have shown little interest in the president’s payroll tax cut proposal.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks about legislation for additional coronavirus aid during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, July 20, 2020.McConnell said Tuesday his party would focus on passing $105 billion in funding to return U.S. schoolchildren to in-person instruction when the school year begins in the fall, as well as new rounds of funding to address historic levels of unemployment.  “We’ll also be proposing a targeted second round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) with a special eye toward hard-hit businesses,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “And speaking of building on what worked in the CARES Act, we want another round of direct payments to help American families keep driving our national comeback.”  Senate Democrats released a proposal Tuesday that would send $430 billion in funding to state and local school districts to help them teach grade-school students in person, online or in a hybrid model. McConnell said Tuesday that Republicans were proposing $105 billion in funding for schools. Trump has suggested withholding federal funding to school districts if they do not reopen fully when the school year resumes.  Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., speaks about the coronavirus during a media availability on Capitol Hill, March 3, 2020 in Washington.“Bullying schools with a one-size-fits-all demand is not the road to get back to in-person learning. It is the road to chaos, more infections and would put families and school staff at risk,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, author of the proposal, told reporters in a conference call Tuesday.  Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers want to extend the $600-a-week federal boost to less-generous state unemployment benefits through the end of 2020 and provide more aid for state and local governments to weather the coronavirus crisis.   Some Republicans want to end the extra federal unemployment payments, saying they are a disincentive to push employees back to their jobs because some employees have made more money unemployed than when they were working.   One possible compromise would extend the jobless benefits but cut them to between $200 and $400 a week or limit them to the workers who were paid the least before being laid off.  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Md., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Feb. 4, 2020 in Washington.In a call with reporters Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said there was no magic number for the amount of unemployment benefits, suggesting, “It is not irrational to talk about making sure the neediest are taken care of, and neediest is in the eye of the beholder. “  McConnell has said a new coronavirus spending deal could total about $1 trillion, but Democrats want a much bigger plan, more in line with the $3 trillion measure the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved in mid-May. That package, however, has languished in the Republican-controlled Senate as Democrats have called for its passage.  
…

A new study indicates that the accelerated melting of Arctic permafrost could release as much as 40 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere not previously accounted for in global emissions estimates.  Permafrost is the thick layer of soil in the world’s Arctic and Antarctic regions that, for centuries in some cases, has remained frozen throughout the year. It is vital to the world’s climate because it stores twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere.   The study, published Monday in the science journal Nature Geoscience, examines how under usual circumstances, the top layer of this frozen soil thaws during summer when plants and microorganisms spring to life. The microbes eat plant roots and respirate like all living organisms and inevitably emit greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide. This process is known as rhizosphere priming. The researchers say with more and more of the prior frozen soil thawing, more plant roots are exposed to microorganisms, which in turn emit more carbon dioxide. The researchers determined the phenomenon could add as much as 40 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere by the year 2100.  Prior to this study, scientists estimated that global emissions must fall by 7.6% every year over the next 10 years to meet the 1.5°C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. But the authors of the study note that their new estimates of emissions from permafrost melting are currently “unaccounted for in global emission scenarios and implies that the remaining anthropogenic carbon budget to keep warming below 1.5 or 2 °C … may need to be even more constrained.” While Earth is heating up, warming is significantly worse in the Arctic. Analysis from NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that the past decade was the hottest on record overall. In the Arctic, air temperatures are rising twice as fast as the global average. This new study shows that permafrost melt can, in turn, prompt further melt. More carbon in the atmosphere means worsened atmospheric warming and more melting. 
 
…

The U.S. government has charged a visiting Stanford University researcher of  visa fraud in connection with a plan to conceal her membership in the Chinese military. Federal prosecutors said Monday 38-year-old Song Chen lied on her visa application in 2018 to work at Stanford as a neurologist. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said Song indicated on the application that she served in the Chinese military from September 2000 to June 2011 and worked at a Beijing hospital. Prosecutors said, however, she was a member of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) when she entered the U.S. in December 2018 and that her claim of working in a Chinese hospital “was a cover for her true employer, the PLA.” According to the complaint, Song said she disassociated from the Chinese military after graduating from Fourth Military Medical University, which is associated with the PLA.  The U.S. attorney’s office said Song faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. 
…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met face to face with members of his Cabinet Tuesday for the first time since March.
 
Johnson and his Cabinet gathered at the Foreign Office so they could have a room large enough to practice social distancing due to the new coronavirus.
 
In his remarks before the meeting, Johnson said he will not let the pandemic blow him off course and delivering on his agenda. He touted his plan to build 40 new hospitals and hire 50,000 more nurses, as well as thousands more police officers and more funding for schools.
 
The pandemic would likely be on the agenda for the meeting a day after scientists at Oxford University said their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who received the shot.
 
Johnson called the in-person meeting just days after encouraging people to return to their jobs. He said last week he would give employers more flexibility to determine the safest way to bring employees back to their workplaces.
 
…

Whole Foods Market discriminated against its employees when it barred them from wearing Black Lives Matter face coverings while on the job, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Boston.The supermarket chain disciplined, intimidated and retaliated against the workers who were showing solidarity with the racial justice movement that had a resurgence of support following the May death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, according to the lawsuit.Store managers cited the company dress code, which prohibits slogans or logos not affiliated with the company, as the reason for prohibiting Black Lives Matter messages.  Whole Foods in a statement said employees “must comply with our longstanding company dress code, which prohibits any visible slogans, messages, logos or advertising that are not company-related, on any article of clothing.”But the plaintiffs say the company has allowed other messages on workers’ attire, including rainbow pins and flags, and sports team names and logos.”The actions of Whole Foods against its employees are not only illegal but shameful,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.Whole Foods “selectively and arbitrarily” enforced the dress code to specifically suppress the Black Lives Matter message, she said.The 14 plaintiffs work at stores in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Bedford, New Hampshire; Berkeley, California; and Seattle. More plaintiffs are expected to join.Savannah Kinzer, one of the plaintiffs, said she was fired from the Cambridge store for wearing a Black Lives Matter mask.The complaint requests an immediate injunction against employee retaliation and termination, as well as compensatory damages and back pay.  Whole Foods in an emailed statement said it could not comment on pending litigation and denied firing Kinzer — or anyone else — for wearing a Black Lives Matter mask, but instead for not working her assigned shifts.The company does not tolerate retaliation, the statement said. “We recognize, respect, and take steps to ensure we do not impinge on employees’ legal rights,” the statement said. 
…