| "I don't recall": Pence tells Fox News he can't remember if he was on standby for Trump Posted: 01 Sep 2020 11:21 PM PDT  Mike Pence gives a halting and evasive answer when pressed about reports on Trump's mysterious visit to Walter Reed
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| Portland's police chief called out elected officials for not stopping violence in the city, after rioters threw burning debris at the mayor's apartment building Posted: 02 Sep 2020 04:33 AM PDT  Protests have been held nightly in the city since the police-involved killing of Black man George Floyd in Minnesota at the end of May.
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| New US sanctions on international tribunal prosecutor, aide Posted: 02 Sep 2020 07:52 AM PDT  The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and one of her top aides for continuing to investigate war crimes allegations against Americans. The sanctions were immediately denounced by the court, the United Nations and human rights advocates. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the moves as part of the administration's pushback against the tribunal, based in The Hague, for investigations into the United States and its allies.
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| Thailand’s king reconciles with ousted wife Posted: 02 Sep 2020 05:51 AM PDT  Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn has reconciled with his royal consort, whom he stripped of her titles last year.
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| University of California system can no longer consider SAT, ACT results in admissions, judge rules Posted: 02 Sep 2020 09:12 AM PDT  A judge in California ruled that the system's "test optional" policy unfairly disadvantaged students with disabilities who could not access the SAT and ACT.
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| US Army pursues new mid-range missile, as tactical missile upgrade hits delay Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:56 AM PDT  A recent strategic fires study is prompting the Army to go after a near-term, mid-range missile prototyping effort. But meanwhile, its cross-domain capability upgrade for the Army Tactical Missile System is delayed due to technical problems.
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| Bindi Irwin reflects on the moment she discovered she was pregnant Posted: 02 Sep 2020 08:59 AM PDT  "Discovering that I was going to become a mother will forever be a moment where time stood still," the daughter of the late Steve Irwin wrote.
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| Moon booster rocket fired up in critical test Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:30 PM PDT  Engineers in Utah fire up a booster rocket that will help send astronauts back to the Moon.
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| App wars: TikTok aside, Trump WeChat ban could be bigger deal Posted: 02 Sep 2020 12:41 PM PDT |
| The body-shaming Chadwick Boseman experienced is a reminder to think twice before commenting on a celebrity's weight loss Posted: 02 Sep 2020 10:22 AM PDT  Chadwick Boseman was mocked online for his weight loss related to cancer, showing how harmful online comments about weight can be.
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| Special Report: Pentagon's latest salvo against China's growing might - Cold War bombers Posted: 01 Sep 2020 03:58 AM PDT  On July 21, two U.S Air Force B-1B bombers took off from Guam and headed west over the Pacific Ocean to the hotly contested South China Sea. The sleek jets made a low-level pass over the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its escorting fleet, which was exercising nearby in the Philippines Sea, according to images released by the U.S. military. The operation was part of the Trump administration's intensifying challenge to China's ruling Communist Party and its sweeping territorial claims over one of the world's most important strategic waterways.
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| 2 pythons weighing 100 pounds collapse ceiling in Australia Posted: 01 Sep 2020 07:05 AM PDT  An Australian returned home and was surprised to discover that his kitchen ceiling had collapsed under the weight of two large pythons apparently fighting over a mate. David Tait entered his home in Laceys Creek in Queensland state on Monday and found a large chunk of his ceiling lying on his kitchen table. "I knew we hadn't had rain, so I looked around to find what had caused it," Tait told Nine Network television on Tuesday.
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| A "Corn Moon" rises tonight — and it only happens every 3 years Posted: 01 Sep 2020 12:18 PM PDT  Don't miss tonight's full moon, which has a special twist this year.
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| Residents in Kenosha are dismayed at law enforcement's response to the Jacob Blake shooting and protests: 'They just let the fires burn' Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:45 PM PDT  During nights of civil unrest, parts of the city burned as armed citizens attempted to protect their properties from being destroyed.
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| Elvis Presley landmark Graceland in Tennessee hit with 'Defund the Police' graffiti Posted: 02 Sep 2020 05:14 AM PDT  Graceland, the Elvis Presley estate and signature landmark, was hit overnight with "Defund the Police" and "BLM" (Black Lives Matter) graffiti.
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| Former friend of Melania Trump says the first lady painted a rosy picture of facilities holding migrant children Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:37 PM PDT  First lady Melania Trump knew exactly what she was doing when she wore a jacket that read "I DON'T REALLY CARE, DO U?" while traveling to and from a Texas facility holding migrant children, her former friend and adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff says.In her new book, Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady, Winston Wolkoff said this attire was chosen specifically to "get the media's attention. Otherwise, no one would have covered the story."The trip took place in June 2018, and Winston Wolkoff said she later spoke with Trump about what she saw at the facility. The first lady told her people were going "crazy about the zero-tolerance policy at the border," but it wasn't as horrible as it sounded.Stating that she was directly quoting Trump, Winston Wolkoff writes that Trump said the children she met were "brought in by coyotes, the bad people who are trafficking, and that's why the kids were put in shelters. They're not with their parents, and it's sad. But the patrols told me the kids say, 'Wow I get a bed? I will have a cabinet for my clothes?' It's more than they have in their own country where they sleep on the floor. They are taking care nicely there."Winston Wolkoff writes that Trump went on to say mothers taught their children to tell border agents, "I'm going to be killed by gangs!" so they would be allowed into the United States. "They are using that line and it's not true," she said Trump told her. "They don't want to stay in Mexico because Mexico doesn't take care of them the same as America does."Speaking with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night, Winston Wolkoff said these were the first lady's exact words, and there is "no way to fabricate any of my story."More stories from theweek.com Pelosi says San Francisco salon 'owes me an apology for setting me up' The poisonous lessons of a potential Trump victory CDC 'urgently' tells states to get coronavirus vaccine distribution running by Nov. 1
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| Iran hails support for nuclear deal against US Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:14 AM PDT  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday hailed the show of unity by parties to a 2015 nuclear deal, after they defeated US efforts to restore international sanctions.
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| Bethenny Frankel shares selfie to show lines on forehead: 'No work on this face' Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:42 AM PDT  When critics claimed a recent filter-free selfie proved she had fillers, Botox and more, the former "Real Housewives" star shot back with evidence to the contrary.
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| Democratic presidential candidate Biden raised record haul of over $300 million in August: report Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:39 AM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was expected to report a record fundraising haul of more than $300 million for the month of August, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter. Biden, who is leading Republican incumbent President Donald Trump in most national opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 3 election, raised $140 million in July. The campaign was expected to see a boost from the Democratic National Convention and the naming of his vice presidential pick, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California, in August.
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| 73-year-old woman uses American flag to defend family from intruder, Utah cops say Posted: 02 Sep 2020 07:27 AM PDT  "I whooped his a-- and I'll whoop it again."
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| New Taiwan passports to emphasize distinction with China Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:55 AM PDT  Taiwan plans to issue new passports emphasizing its independent identity and downgrading connections with China. The foreign ministry on Wednesday released images of the new document that features "Taiwan" in large capital letters on its cover and minimizes the English wording "Republic of China," the island's official name according to its constitution. Taiwan was handed over from Japanese to Chinese rule in 1945.
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| CDC Asks States to Prepare to Distribute Potential COVID Vaccine by Nov. 1 Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:30 PM PDT  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked states to be ready to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine by November 1, according to new reports.In a letter to state governors and health officials last week, CDC director Robert Redfield said that Texas- based McKesson Corporation would soon be requesting permits to build distribution sites and instructed governors to consider waiving requirements that would slow the construction or opening of the sites, The Hill reported."The normal time required to obtain these permits presents a significant barrier to the success of this urgent public health program," Redfield wrote. "CDC urgently requests your assistance in expediting applications for these distribution facilities and, if necessary, asks that you consider waiving requirements that would prevent these facilities from becoming fully operational by November 1, 2020."Every state and U.S. territory, along with New York City, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and San Antonio last week received documents which included plans for distributing two possible unnamed vaccines that would require two doses to be administered a few weeks apart, the New York Times reported. The documents said essential workers, national security officials, seniors and members of particularly vulnerable racial and ethnic groups would receive priority in receiving the vaccination, according to the Times.In light of some health experts' warnings that a vaccine likely would not be developed and approved before year's end, critics have accused President Trump of rushing the vaccine for political gain, as the November 1 date is two days before the presidential election.Likewise, the president has accused federal officials of slowing the process to damage his campaign for a second term.But while Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has repeatedly said that it is likely a vaccine would be ready between the end of 2020 and the first half of 2021, he appeared optimistic that a vaccine would be ready sooner rather than later in an interview with NBC's Today on Wednesday."I believe that by the time we get to the end of this calendar year that we will feel comfortable that we do have a safe and effective vaccine," Fauci said.Several vaccines are in phrase three trials as part of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's effort to accelerate the development, manufacturing and distribution of coronavirus vaccines and treatments.The U.S. has recorded over 6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, more than any other country in the world, and at least 184,914 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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| It Doesn’t Matter Who Is Pushing for Masks, This GOP Governor’s Answer Is No Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:13 AM PDT  Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt hasn't been willing to order masks statewide in his conservative stronghold no matter who's come calling. He hasn't been willing to take further steps requiring face coverings as a public health measure even as local mayors have hoped to see more action from the governor. When the head of a House subcommittee charged with monitoring COVID response scolded him for his approach, he didn't budge. Even after some Republican governors relented and ordered facial coverings as the coronavirus ravaged their states, Stitt hasn't moved. Not even reports from the White House Coronavirus Task Force that have recommended in recent weeks that the state implement a mask requirement has changed his mind. "I'm not going to mandate something statewide," Stitt said during a press conference Tuesday, saying the decision should be left to the local level. "Every community is different." That lack of follow-through from the governor has disappointed some elected officials in the state as they try to contain the coronavirus through a patchwork of local mask requirements. As of Monday, 17 cities and towns had mask ordinances according to the Oklahoma State Medical Association. "It really is much less effective than if the governor would take action,"said John Browne, the Democratic mayor of McAlester, Oklahoma. "Because I can have a mask requirement in my town and the town next door not have it. So you're not getting the benefit that you would get if everyone were following the same rules." The push for a statewide mask order has continued as documents from the White House Coronavirus Task Force have shown the state's coronavirus situation at an alarming level. In the most recent report published online and dated Aug. 23, the task force said the state had the "12th highest rate in the nation," for new cases out of 100,00 population as well as the "8th highest rate in the nation," when it came to positive COVID-19 tests. "With the continued geographic expansion of COVID-19 spread, a mask mandate needs to be implemented statewide (in counties with greater than 20 cases) to decrease community transmission," the report says. "Bars must be closed and indoor dining must be restricted in yellow and red zone counties and metro areas." In earlier reports dating back to Aug. 2 the task force had also recommended statewide mask action, saying bluntly in the Aug. 16 report "mask mandate needs to be implemented statewide to decrease community transmission." Those reports, which the state began posting online late last month, were only made public by the state after Stitt caved to outcry from officials, according to The Oklahoman. "We're a very red state and you have the Trump administration and the White House task force that are recommending that we have a mask mandate, so I don't understand it politically," said Dr. Dale Bratzler, the chief COVID officer for the University of Oklahoma who supports a statewide mask order. "I don't think there's any good political reason not to have a mandate. I just don't get it." An email seeking comment for this story from Stitt's office was not returned this week. Oklahoma was also highlighted as a place of concern by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Monday. In a scathing statement paired with the weeks of state by state reports from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, the head of the select subcommittee, said "the President and his enablers kept these alarming reports private while publicly downplaying the threat to millions of Americans." The committee's press release went on to note that from June 23 on Oklahoma was among 14 states in a dangerous "red zone," category that avoided ordering masks across their respective states. "When people are giving you guidance and you're not following it, what kind of message are you sending to your residents?" said Breea Clark, a Democrat serving as the mayor of Norman where a mask requirement is in place, told The Daily Beast. "You know, I'm asking people to wear masks, but if the governor can't follow guidance from the White House, why would my residents follow guidance from their mayor?" Stitt's approach has been problematic at times throughout the pandemic. In mid-March, the governor was called out for posting a photo with his family at a busy restaurant even as the coronavirus was in the early stages of causing problems in the United States. By late April and early May, he was at the forefront of Republican governors rushing to begin reopening from the pandemic. And in June, despite well-founded fears about the president holding an indoor rally, he enthusiastically embraced President Donald Trump campaigning in his state. By July, the governor announced he had tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the first governor in the nation to publicly announce a positive test. On Tuesday, Stitt donned a mask while he wasn't speaking at the press conference, and urged people to "wash your hands, watch your distance and wear a mask." Some in Oklahoma, like Bixby mayor Brian Guthrie didn't take issue with Stitt's lack of action on a statewide mask order, with the Republican saying "I can stand behind him on his decision," because of how the virus is impacting parts of the state differently. And the mayor of Midwest City, where an indoor mask order is in place locally, said he could see both sides of the situation facing the governor. "I just don't know to be honest with you, I just don't know," Republican Matt Dukes said when asked if he wanted to see a statewide mask order. "I'm not trying to dodge the question, I just don't really know how much more effective it would be than doing it at a local jurisdictional level." Mask mandates, though initially resisted by Republican governors, have become more widely accepted throughout the summer. States led by conservative governors like Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi eventually conceded to statewide mask orders as the virus situations in their states grew more concerning. But even after the president publicly came around on wearing a mask in public, that messaging has become more difficult for GOP officials following the largely maskless crowd that Trump invited to the lawn of the White House for his GOP nomination speech last week. As a part of their investigation into the guidance Oklahoma received from the Trump administration, Clyburn wrote to Stitt on July 29 that the governor "appears to be following the contradictory public messaging coming from the Administration." In subsequent letters to Clyburn, Stitt defended his approach emphasizing in one "we believe strongly in providing local municipalities with data that enable them to make the right decisions for their residents." But that deference to localities is leading to clear concern for some cities who have taken the extra step of a mask requirement, even as many others haven't. "The communities that are trying to be safe and protect its citizens is having an extra difficult time doing that because of the lack of participation of other cities and towns," Anadarko mayor Kyle Eastwood said. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Spurned by allies, Saudi rethinks chequebook diplomacy Posted: 01 Sep 2020 07:53 PM PDT  From Pakistan to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia is scaling back its famed chequebook diplomacy, a longstanding policy of splashing petro-dollars in exchange for influence, which observers say has yielded few tangible gains.
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| Biden suggests having a live fact-checker during presidential debates Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:28 AM PDT  While making remarks on Wednesday in Wilmington, Del., former Vice President Joe Biden suggested he would like a crawl during the televised presidential debates that fact-checks him and President Trump.
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| U.S. CDC tells states to prep for COVID-19 vaccine distribution as soon as late October Posted: 02 Sep 2020 03:11 PM PDT  The timing of a vaccine has taken on political importance as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks re-election in November, after committing billions of federal dollars to develop a vaccine to prevent COVID-19, which has killed more than 180,000 Americans. "For the purpose of initial planning, CDC provided states with certain planning assumptions as they work on state specific plans for vaccine distribution, including possibly having limited quantities of vaccines in October and November," a CDC spokeswoman told Reuters. The New York Times had earlier reported that the CDC had contacted officials in all 50 states and five large cities with the planning information.
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| Air Force Tests New Bomb That Could Replace Controversial Cluster Munitions Posted: 02 Sep 2020 04:35 PM PDT  Tests measured battle damage from the BLU-136 Next Generation Area Attack Weapon at the Nevada Test and Training Range.
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| Criminal charges loom in California boat fire that killed 34 Posted: 01 Sep 2020 01:48 PM PDT  Nine days after the scuba boat Conception went down in flames with 34 people trapped below deck in one of the deadliest disasters in California maritime history, a federal grand jury began looking into whether a crime had been committed. Now, a year after the Sept. 2 tragedy, investigations into the cause of the pre-dawn blaze and whether someone is to blame are still ongoing, though court documents say criminal charges are imminent. The captain of the boat, who could face an unusual federal manslaughter charge, was briefed in July on the evidence prosecutors have against him.
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| Fact check: Photo alleged to be Kyle Rittenhouse's armed mom is from different protest Posted: 01 Sep 2020 04:42 PM PDT  A viral post uses an image of a woman from a different day and time but claims that the armed protester is Kyle Rittenhouse's mother.
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| Joseph Kennedy III beaten by Ed Markey in Massachusetts primary Posted: 02 Sep 2020 07:06 AM PDT  The grandson of assassinated politician Robert Kennedy lost to the incumbent Ed Markey.
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| Biden, Harris, and Abortions Late in Pregnancy Posted: 02 Sep 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Do Joe Biden and Kamala Harris believe that abortion should be legal even late in pregnancy? Here are four pieces of evidence that suggest the answer is yes.First: Biden and Harris are strong supporters of Roe v. Wade.Roe requires that abortion be permissible even at the end of pregnancy whenever a physician believes it necessary to protect a woman's health. Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe, says that "the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors -- physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age -- relevant to the well-being of the patient." While it has sometimes been suggested that Doe did not intend to say a broad health exception is constitutionally required, subsequent court decisions have insisted on it.We have reason to think that each year in America, more than 10,000 abortions take place after the 20th week of pregnancy, and that the bulk of these abortions do not take place because of risks to mothers' physical health or because of fetal abnormality. Yet prosecutions for violating state statutes that appear to prohibit abortion late in pregnancy are vanishingly rare, perhaps because the Supreme Court appears to have made such laws unenforceable.Biden has said that there will be "a litmus test on abortion" for any Supreme Court justices he nominates. Neither he nor Harris says that the Court should adjust its jurisprudence to allow abortion to be banned late in pregnancy.Second: Biden and Harris have each sponsored bills that appear to keep abortion late in pregnancy legal even if the Supreme Court were to change its mind.Harris has sponsored legislation, the "Women's Health Protection Act," that explicitly provides for legal abortion after viability when "the treating health care provider" thinks it necessary for the mother's "health," and that later adds that all terms in the law should be construed "liberally." She has also sponsored separate legislation to provide federal funding for abortion, with no time limitation in the bill text; and to require state governments to pay for abortions, again with no time limitation in the bill text. During her presidential campaign, she said that she would require states to show the Justice Department that any changes in abortion policy they intended to make conformed to the Women's Health Protection Act.Biden, too, sponsored legislation while in the Senate to make abortion legal after viability when needed to protect "health," with the text not specifying physical health.Third: The Democratic platform endorses "reproductive health, rights, and justice," "including safe and legal abortion," and opposes "federal and state laws that create barriers to reproductive health and rights." It endorses taxpayer funding of abortion as well. The endorsements are not qualified, and no limitations based on stage of pregnancy are mentioned.Fourth: Neither Biden nor Harris says that they believe abortions late in pregnancy should be prohibited.I see one piece of evidence that Biden does not believe abortions late in pregnancy should be legal. In 1997, he said explicitly that he would like to ban all abortions after viability. But he was speaking in favor of legislation that a) was, by his account, consistent with Roe v. Wade and b) might not have banned any abortions at all.All in all, then, the evidence justifies the conclusion that Biden and Harris believe abortion should be legal at any stage of pregnancy so long as an abortionist is willing to say it will promote the mother's emotional health -- and journalists who assert otherwise are creating confusion where none need exist.
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| Republican Sen. Joni Ernst promoted a far-right conspiracy theory that falsely claims coronavirus cases are inflated by healthcare providers Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:54 PM PDT  Sen. Joni Ernst questioned whether the confirmed number of COVID-19 cases in the US are being overcounted.
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| Beijing pillories Pentagon report on Chinese military ambitions Posted: 02 Sep 2020 04:28 AM PDT  China on Wednesday condemned a Pentagon report for claiming Beijing wants to double its stockpile of nuclear warheads within a decade as it seeks to deter the United States from any intervention linked to Taiwan.
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| Venezuelan charged in Miami money laundering case gunned down by motorcycle assassin Posted: 02 Sep 2020 11:10 AM PDT  A Venezuelan businessman charged in Miami with laundering millions of dollars from oil contracts was gunned down Tuesday by a motorcycle assassin in Venezuela, according to authorities.
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| How do you get rid of cops without creating another George Zimmerman? Groups aiming to defund the police have an idea. Posted: 01 Sep 2020 10:59 AM PDT  Groups working to overhaul law enforcement and reimagine public safety told Insider that "defund the police" isn't just about having fewer cops.
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| Israeli flight attendant says "shalom" to UAE, bye to airline Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:03 AM PDT |
| Miami-Dade Public Schools' remote learning platform endures days of cyberattacks Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:39 PM PDT  Some of the cyberattacks are local, while others have come from outside the United States.
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| CDC 'urgently' tells states to get coronavirus vaccine distribution running by Nov. 1 Posted: 02 Sep 2020 01:40 PM PDT  The federal government has hinted to states a COVID-19 vaccine may be ready before Election Day.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services "are rapidly making preparations to implement large-scale distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines in the fall of 2020," CDC head Robert Redfield said in a letter to governors last week. Therefore, the CDC is "urgently" asking states to start "expediting applications" for COVID-19 vaccine distribution facilities so they're "fully operational by Nov. 1, 2020," McClatchy first reported.If and when a coronavirus vaccine becomes available for public or even emergency use, distribution will still stand between it and Americans, and a slow process could cost lives. That's why the departments are asking states to waive some typical requirements to get distribution up and running, though these "will not compromise the safety or integrity of the products being distributed," the letter said.The guidance also noted that health care employees would be among the first Americans to get the vaccine, as well as high-risk individuals such as those over 65 or from "racial and ethnic minority populations."Still, epidemiologists are concerned this announcement could signal the Trump administration is rushing to push out a vaccine. "It's hard not to see this as a push for a pre-election vaccine," Saskia Popescu, an infection prevention epidemiologist in Arizona, told The New York Times. Popescu also warned of "the politicization of public health and the potential safety ramifications" if the vaccine approval process is cut short.More stories from theweek.com Pelosi says San Francisco salon 'owes me an apology for setting me up' The poisonous lessons of a potential Trump victory Nate Silver's analysis of Biden's Electoral College chances renews calls to repeal it altogether
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| Jared Kushner's supermodel sister-in-law Karlie Kloss plans to campaign for Biden Posted: 02 Sep 2020 02:46 PM PDT  Karlie Kloss has long been vocal about her liberal values, despite having a brother-in-law who works for President Donald Trump.
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| US soldiers jailed for Venezuela coup attempt seek pardon Posted: 02 Sep 2020 05:08 AM PDT  Two US special forces soldiers jailed in Venezuela for trying to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro are seeking an official pardon for early release, The Telegraph has learned. Former US Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry were given 20 years each for their role in a botched operation to kidnap Mr Maduro and bring him to the US for trial. The court hearing against them earlier this month took place behind closed doors with no lawyers present. However, the families of the two men were already in talks with Mr Maduro's officials with a view to pleading for clemency. In July they asked Bill Richardson, a former Democrat senator and diplomatic trouble-shooter for President Clinton, to make a private visit to Caracas to lobby on their behalf. He runs his own non-profit organisation, the Richardson Centre, which works to secure the release of US citizens detained around the world.
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| China’s Horrifying War on Uighur Women Posted: 02 Sep 2020 03:30 AM PDT  China's abuse of Uighur Muslims is finally getting some much-needed global attention, with reports of millions herded into political-reeducation camps that recall history's worst atrocities. Now, a groundbreaking new report by Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, reveals that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been systematically targeting Uighur women in a draconian birth-control campaign.Chinese officials have been ruthless in their pursuit of limiting new Uighur births. Uighur women are subjected to forced pregnancy checks, medication that stops their menstruation, forced abortions, and surgical sterilizations.The Chinese government has a long history of perpetrating such horrors on its own citizens. The "one-child policy" was infamously enforced, before eventually being loosened at the end of 2015 to allow couples to legally conceive two children. But even as the CCP regime was easing reproductive restrictions on Han Chinese, it was drastically increasing systematic control of Uighur women in Xinjiang, a province in Western China. Since 2017, the CCP has systematically detained over 1.8 million Uighur Muslims in "political reeducation" camps, and used them for forced labor.Zenz's research reveals that birth-control violations are punishable by extrajudicial internment in "training" camps, and evidence from the leaked "Karakax List" document states that such violations were the most common reason for internment. According to Zenz's report, "in 2014, 2.5 percent of newly placed IUDs [intrauterine birth-control devices] in China were fitted in Xinjiang. In 2018, that share rose to 80 percent, far above Xinjiang's 1.8 percent share of China's population. Between 2015 and 2018, Xinjiang placed 7.8 times more new IUDs per capita than the national average."A Uighur woman reported that in 2018, she was offered "free" surgical sterilization and threatened with internment if she refused. According to her Uighur doctor, her fallopian tubes were cut in the resulting tubal-ligation procedure, making her sterilization irreversible — a common experience for Xinjiang's minorities.China's goal, it seems, is to eradicate future generations of Uighurs by maliciously and ruthlessly controlling Uighur reproduction. This, in itself, is nothing new. The Chinese Communist Party has waged a long and dreadful war against women, more specifically against baby girls. Through the coercion of the one- and two-child policies, it created a gender imbalance as stark as 120 boys for every 100 girls. Families in China often had to seek the approval of local family-planning officials just to have a child, even if they hadn't already reached the one-child cutoff. To meet quotas and restrict population growth, women were subject to forced abortions, and men and women to forced sterilizations.Where the CCP applied the one- and two-child policies relatively equally, however, the Uighurs are being targeted for their membership in a particular religious and ethnic group, making their mistreatment even more pernicious.On July 2, after Zenz's report was released, members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, noting as much, sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arguing that the U.S. may have grounds to publicly and formally declare an atrocity to be occurring. They claim that forced sterilization and forced abortion constitute attempts by the CCP to limit, and maybe even eventually exterminate, the Uighur population.Limiting births on the basis of membership in a particular group may be enough to prove the CCP's intent to commit genocide against the Uighurs — a legal standard that must be met in order for Pompeo to take such a step. Furthermore, officials responsible for human-rights violations against Uighurs may be subject to targeted sanctions like the ones now being applied to senior CCP official Chen Quanguo. As the architect of the surveillance state that made it possible for over 1 million Uighurs to be held in reeducation camps, as well as for similar rights violations in Tibet, Chen is finally facing repercussions for his actions. He and three other CCP officials were sanctioned just last month. Other officials responsible for the injustices uncovered by Zenz may be similarly vulnerable to sanctions.Secretary Pompeo should establish a new position within the Department of State to coordinate the U.S.'s diplomatic, political, and legal response to the gross violations of universally recognized human rights in Xinjiang. This person would play a similar role to that of the Special Coordinator for Tibet and would ensure that the U.S. government is responding as effectively as possible to the crisis in Xinjiang.China's draconian and systematic abuse of Uighur women must be stopped, and the global community should boldly call on the Chinese Communist Party to end its persecution of Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in China altogether. Any holistic strategy to meet the challenges the CCP's actions increasingly pose to the world has to be built on a strong moral foundation, and speaking up strongly and clearly for the Uighurs is the right place to start.Olivia Enos is a senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center. Chelsea Patterson Sobolik is the policy director for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
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