Today’s Headlines and Commentary

Almost 200,000 Americans have died of the novel coronavirus, reports The New York Times, and nearly one million people have succumbed worldwide. Analysts worry that the winter months will bring a resurgence of cases;colder weather tends to force people inside, where the virus transmits more easily. India is experiencing more than 90,000 new cases a day, Israel is imposing a nationwide lockdown, and France and Germany are facing a new wave of infections. 

The Justice Department has threatened to cut federal funding to cities that “have permitted violence and the destruction of property,” reports The Washington Post. Attorney General Bill Barr alleged that  Portland, New York City and Seattle are places where the local governments have failed to combat unrest from Black Lives Matter protests. According to Barr’s statement, other cities may be targeted for funding cuts if they reallocate funding from the police, withdraw officers from violent areas or refuse to accept help from federal law enforcement. The Post notes that the Trump administration attempted to cut funding to so-called sanctuary cities this spring, but a federal appeals court ruled that the move violated the separation of powers. 

Border patrol agents have arrested the woman suspected of sending ricin to President Trump, writes The New York Times. The woman is a Canadian national who was deported from the United States last year for repeatedly violating gun control and visa laws. Post Office officials intercepted her letter to the president last week before it could reach the White House. 

President Trump approved the sale of TikTok to Oracle on Saturday, according to The Verge. TikTok and WeChat were set to be banned in the U.S. market this weekend due to their potential ties with the Chinese Communist Party. Now the Commerce Department has delayed the TikTok ban until Sep. 27, and a District Judge for the Northern District of California has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the ban on WeChat. 

Chinese and Indian military leaders began diplomatic talks today about their border dispute, writes The South China Morning Post. Since August 2, the last time the two sides talked, Indian and Chinese troops have clashed twice. The skirmishes have occured in Ladakh, a strategically located region in Kashmir that’s administered by India but claimed by China. Analysts say that today’s talks bode extremely well for peace in the region. 

An Australian bureau chief for ABC News shared his story yesterday of escaping China under duress. Matthew Carney, who had been reporting in Beijing for two years, heard in 2018 that China was banning ABC’s website and began pushing the government for an explanation. His efforts earned him an intimidating call from the government, several hackings into his personal email account, and a threat by Chinese officials to detain his fourteen-year old daughter in an unspecified location. Pointing to the recent expulsions from China of Australian correspondents, Carney argues that there’s more to the government’s “actions against foreign journalists than [just] tit-for-tat reprisals, as the Chinese portray it.” 

An Aussie woman accused of sexual assault can be extradited to Australia from Israel, according to Haaretz. Malka Leifer, a former school principal, faces 74 charges of sexually assaulting her students at an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne in the early 2000s. An Israeli court held today that Leifer was not unfit for extradition, because after several psychiatric examinations the court ruled that she was faking mental illness.  

A recent investigative series by Buzzfeed News reveals an international banking scandal involving Deutsche Bank. According to suspicious activity reports obtained by Buzzfeed, top executives at Deutsche knew that the bank was gravely vulnerable to money laundering -- and government reports flagged more than $2 trillion in illicit transactions to shell companies and foreign governments.

Cyprus has vetoed European Union sanctions against Belarussian government officials, according to Deutsche Welle. Cyprus has close ties with Belarus –a country under scrutiny for a widely disputed Aug. 4 presidential election. Cypriot officials had wanted sanctions against Belarus to be packaged with sanctions against Turkey for drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean sea. 

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

Shannon Culbertson and Alice Hunt Friend reevaluated how special operations forces fit into the civilian oversight of the U.S. military. 

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