U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday before a U.N. vote on whether to extend the Iranian arms embargo that Iran is the world’s leading promoter of terrorism and must not be allowed to buy or sell weapons with other countries.“We’re going to do everything we can within our diplomatic tool kit to stop that from happening,” Pompeo said at a news conference in Vienna, Austria.Pompeo’s remarks came after he met with International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi and before a U.N. Security Council vote in New York on a U.S. resolution to indefinitely extend the arms embargo on Iran.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi in Vienna, Austria, Aug. 14, 2020.Results of the council vote are to be disclosed later Friday. The council is expected to reject the resolution because of a lack of support from Europe, China and Russia.“We’re urging the whole world to join us,” Pompeo said. “This isn’t about the JCPOA. This is about whether the world is going to allow Iran to buy and sell weapons systems.”The arms embargo on Iran is due to expire in October under terms of the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, from which U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.Pompeo is on a weeklong trip to central and eastern Europe at a time when the Trump administration looks to confront Russian and Chinese economic and geopolitical competition in Europe. Before his trip ends Friday, Pompeo would have visited the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria and Poland.5G technologyPompeo visited Slovenia on Thursday, where he and his Slovenian counterpart Anze Logar signed a joint declaration on 5G technology.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Anze Logar sign an agreement on 5G internet technology as Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa stands at center, in Bled, Slovenia, Aug. 13, 2020.State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said the memorandum of understanding signed Thursday recognizes “the critical importance of 5G security – both within NATO and the EU.”She tweeted that “Slovenia joins a growing community of nations dedicated to protecting their security, privacy and intellectual property.”.FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and the Prime Minister of Czech Republic Andrej Babis address the media during a press conference as part of a meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, Aug. 12, 2020.The two leaders discussed nuclear energy cooperation and the Three Seas Initiative, a political platform to promote connectivity among nations in central and eastern Europe by supporting infrastructure, energy and digital interconnectivity projects.The trip comes as the Pentagon prepares to move forward with a plan to pull almost 12,000 troops from Germany and redeploy part of the U.S. forces to Poland and other NATO nations, raising concerns at home and in Europe even as senior officials defend it as a strategic necessity. Pompeo discussed with his counterparts the just-completed U.S.-Poland Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).The defense deal enables the United States for “rotational presence” of an additional 1,000 U.S. troops to “enhance deterrence against Russia, strengthen NATO,” and to assure allies, officials say. About 4,500 U.S. personnel are already on rotation in Poland.Wayne Lee contributed to this report.
 
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A youngster in the Boy Scouts of America has taken the U.S.-based youth development organization’s motto — “Be prepared” — well beyond himself to help hundreds of high-school students with online learning. Manan ShahManan Shah, 16, a high-school senior and Boy Scout from New Jersey, saw many students struggling with online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and created a system to help them. “We still realized there was kind of that missing piece without a teacher being present at all times,” Shah explained to VOA. “So, we figured this was our way to give back if we could get a team of volunteers to help the other students.”  With co-founder Linda Liu, 16, another high school senior, they created the nonprofit tutoring service Linda LiuLimitless Minds co-founder Linda Liu says her experience as a dancer has helped her create the non-profit as well. “I’ve been dancing for over 10 years” competitively, she told VOA. “That really just builds a sense of responsibility, and there’s a lot of leadership involved and you have to work together with your team.” Tutoring is free at Limitless Minds. Students get 30 minutes to two hours of tutoring per session. For safety and security, Limitless Minds requires students have a parent next to them for the tutoring session. The tutors receive no pay, but they do earn volunteer hours for various groups.  However, starting an enterprise has not been all smooth sailing.   “Trying to keep in communication with everyone does get tough. It takes a lot of time, but at the end of the day, it is worth it,” Shah told VOA in an interview. Along with his co-founder, Shah has been supported by his family, teachers, school officials and the entire community. “We’ve gotten positive feedback from school principals, from parents, really from all sorts of people and we even have tutoring logs where parents can submit feedback after each of their sessions,” Shah explained.  “Overall, I think we both just want to help as many people as possible and start more chapters, get more tutors/tutees, help as many people possible, and just spreading Limitless Minds as far as possible,” Liu said.  Although Shah and Liu will graduate next spring and plan to head to college in fall 2021, they say Limitless Minds will go on. “Yeah, for sure. That’s all we’re here for. So, if people still want the free tutoring, which it seems like they will, then I’d be happy to continue,” Shah said. “You know, we’re only getting started,” Liu said. “We’re not just going to start this and then go to college and leave it. It’s something we’re both passionate about. We’re both dedicated to this, we want to keep this going and just really see where it can go.”  ‘Generational Catastrophe’ Possible as Pandemic Creates Education CrisisAntonio Guterres says pandemic has created the largest disruption to education in history    So far, Limitless Minds says it has provided more than 1,400 hours of free tutoring with a team of more than 300 high-school age tutors helping more than 300 students from grades kindergarten through Grade 8. And they have 14 chapters in the United States, Pakistan and El Salvador.Shah advises anyone who wants to start a community-service organization should go for it. “For anyone else who might want to start a community service initiative just like this just know that even if it seems overwhelming to keep going. We never even thought we’d come this far and be able to help so many people,” he said. “Everything starts off small and as long as your heart is in the right place and really care about what you’re doing it will start to grow. You’ll be able to help a lot of people and that makes it really rewarding at the end of the day.”
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There are more than 20 million COVID-19 cases around the world and with more than 759,000 deaths, the global community will likely soon reach the one million death tally. “Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months, at a minimum,” presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Thursday, marking at least one difference in how he would handle the coronavirus pandemic versus Donald Trump.   “Every governor should mandate mandatory mask-wearing,” he said.   “The estimates by the experts are it will save over 40,000 lives.”   Trump, who has rarely been seen wearing a mask as the virus roars through the country, has refused to insist that governors issue a mask-wearing mandate. A glitch in California’s COVID-19 reporting system undercounted the state’s cases by as many as 300,000 cases, state officials say. According to a New York Times database Friday, California is the first U.S. state to reach more than 600,000 COVID-19 cases, with almost 11,000 deaths.On Thursday, California reported 7,911 new cases and 187 deaths. The nation’s top infectious disease expert said he had hoped the U.S. would be in a better place by now with the coronavirus. “We certainly are not where I hope we would be, we are in the middle of very serious historic pandemic,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a National Geographic panel discussion Thursday.  Even though President Trump said this week he expects the outbreak to be in “good shape … in a very short period of time,” Fauci said the number of cases will continue to rise unless federal and state governments can work together. That’s the thing that I’m concerned about because I believe we can, we have within our power to be able to get that down,” he said. There has been no single coordinated strategy from Washington and states on how to fight the outbreak. Some states have mask mandates and are continuing restrictions, while others do not require masks in public places and have eased the rules on social gatherings.  Some states are seeing the number of cases rise while such hot spots as Arizona, California and Florida are improving and are “having now, less deaths, less hospitalizations, less cases,” Fauci said. Fauci has said that the coronavirus will likely never go away but that health officials can work to bring it down to “low levels.” Governments must ‘do it all’
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said governments must “do it all” – test, isolate and treat patients, and trace and quarantine all the people with whom they had contact.  Other experts are warning that unless world leaders take more action to contain it, the coronavirus could be just as or even deadlier than the 1918 flu pandemic, which is believed to have killed 50 million people worldwide. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open looked at New York City.  It says even when doctors take into account the technology, life-saving drugs and information that did not exist 100 years ago, the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases during the first two months of the outbreak was “substantially greater” than the peak of the 1918 epidemic. New Apps Three more states – Alabama, North Dakota and Wyoming – are launching apps to warn people about potential exposure to COVID-19, Reuters reports.  Virginia is the first state to implement the technology, and other states are testing apps and plan to introduce them in the coming weeks.  Users who download the apps on their smartphones get a map of the state and dots where the most cases are clustered, so travelers and others can avoid those areas.The premier of Germany’s Bavaria state is apologizing for problems with a data entry system that meant about 900 people who tested positive for COVID-19 were never told about it. Nearly 44,000 people who traveled to Bavaria about two weeks ago have been waiting for their test results. Officials believe about 900 tests were positive. “It is really extremely galling. We can only apologize,” Bavarian leader Markus Soeder told reporters. He promised to fix the problems by adding more staff to the testing centers. The Bavarian state health minister has offered to resign.  Soeder has been touted as a possible successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel. Dentists furious Meanwhile, dentists are angry with the WHO’s recommendation that people put off routine checkups in areas where the coronavirus appears to be spreading. “Dentists have been experts in infection control for over 20 years due to the HIV-AIDS scare,” California Dental Association president Dr. Richard Nagy said. “So we’re used to preparing our offices for infection disease control. We really increased our knowledge of airborne base pathogens and prepare their offices in terms of enhanced PPE enhanced training for our staff,” he explained. The American Dental Association says it “strongly disagrees” with the WHO and says doctors and hygienists can work safely with the appropriate equipment.  Many U.S. medical practices immediately perform temperature checks on all patients who walk through their doors and limit the number of people allowed inside the offices at the same time.   
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Michael Pack, head of the U.S. government’s global news networks, took steps Wednesday to remove several top officials in a move at least two said appeared to be retaliatory.In a statement sent to Politico and the New York Post, a U.S. Agency for Global Media spokesperson said the action was meant to restore “respect for the rule of law in our work” at the USAGM after a recent review found lax vetting of foreign and other journalists hired by agency’s five networks, which include the Voice of America.The officials were placed on administrative leave, and their security clearances revoked.However, the highest-ranking official sidelined, Chief Financial Officer Grant Turner, said it was punishment for speaking up about “patterns of gross mismanagement” since Pack took over in June and about violations of the legal “firewall” that shields USAGM journalists from political interference.“I think this is really retaliation for a lot of issues that I’ve been bringing to the front office,” Turner told VOA in an interview. He called the stated reasons for his removal “meritless.”David Kligerman, who had served as general counsel for USAGM and previously the Voice of America, also was shoved out.”As a career civil servant, I was disappointed to learn of these actions,” he said in a statement to VOA. “There is no other conclusion to draw except that it is in retaliation for attempting to do my job in an apolitical manner and to speak truth to power.”FILE – Michael Pack, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is seen at his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 19, 2019. Pack’s nomination was confirmed June 4, 2020.The USAGM did not immediately respond to questions about the retaliation claims or confirm media reports saying four other senior USAGM executives also had been forced out in the purge.After nearly two years of delay, Pack was confirmed by the Senate in June to take over USAGM’s top post, replacing Turner, who had been acting CEO. Since then, the top leaders at VOA and other networks have resigned or been removed, hiring and spending were frozen, and Pack has stopped approving visa renewals for the agency’s foreign journalists.Critics say the moves appear to be politically motivated and in defiance of laws that are designed to protect the independence of USAGM journalists and ensure that news reports are accurate, balanced and comprehensive.After being sworn in, Pack told VOA staff via email that he is “fully committed to honoring VOA’s charter … and the independence of our heroic journalists around the world.”Rep. Eliot Engel, chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which has oversight responsibility for USAGM, said in a statement that the removals of Turner and others “smack of illegal retaliation” and that he would ask for an inspector general’s investigation.“I understand that a number of the individuals who have been relieved had tried to make agency leadership aware of potentially inappropriate or unlawful actions during Mr. Pack’s first months in his position,” Engel said in the statement.“It is a clear attempt to cover up his wrongdoing to date and to silence those who might voice concern about his future actions,” the statement said.Pack is scheduled to testify before the committee on September 24.In interviews with conservative media and in news releases, Pack has cast himself as a change agent who intends to root out bias and mismanagement at USAGM. Last week, his office released a previously confidential Office of Personnel Management report saying the agency had failed for years to conduct appropriate security checks for new hires, including foreign journalists brought in for their specialized language skills.The USAGM programming in more 60 languages is aimed at some 100 countries where government controls and censorship stifle press freedom, including China, Iran, the Balkans and dozens of nations in Africa, Latin America and South and Central Asia.Many of USAGM’s journalists are hired on temporary J-1 visas that in the past have been regularly extended by the agency’s CEO. But last month, Pack abruptly halted the extensions, with USAGM saying the visa process is being reviewed, in a move that created uncertainty across VOA language services and tensions with Pack’s office.In a July 23 email to staff, he said past reviews of USAGM by other agencies had uncovered “systematic, severe and fundamental security failures” and that the agency was “working with our federal partners to ensure findings are swiftly and appropriately addressed.”Pack said he had ordered the investigation into agency operations out of concern that “the failures identified compromise the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission, undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal workforce, and pose a threat to U.S. national security.” His office also cited national security in defending the shift to a case-by-case review of J-1 visas.The Voice of America’s entrance hall, leading to VOA offices and studios. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)John Lansing, the Obama appointee who preceded Pack as the USAGM’s leader from September 2015 to September 2019, said in a statement Thursday that the executives being shoved aside are “some of the finest public servants I have ever had the privilege to work with.”“Pack’s attempt to discredit them is merely a smokescreen for his attempt to dismantle the legitimate editorial independence of VOA in favor of propagandizing the agency to favor the administration, which is illegal according to the congressional charter that established VOA and USAGM,” Lansing wrote.In an interview, Turner also brought up the firewall and pressures on journalistic resources.He said potential violations include the temporary reassignment of VOA’s journalistic standards editor, Steven Springer, and the J-1 visa policy, saying it was “consistent with what I’ve seen as a pattern of trying to starve our various broadcasting networks of resources.”As interim CEO, Turner handled visa extensions and said he wasn’t aware of any flaws in the process.“We have people from many countries, and the agency, I believe, has taken security very seriously over the years and tried to do very clear investigations of staff,” he said.“Since Mr. Pack’s tenure began there’s been a pattern of gross mismanagement at the agency that I’ve raised concerns about,” Turner said. “Obviously people in VOA and our journalist entities have seen what I believe are clear violations of the firewall.”Pack’s spokesperson defended the removal of Turner and others in Politico, saying: “We took action today to restore integrity to and respect for the rule of law in our work at USAGM. We will take additional steps to help return this agency to its glory days.”FILE – Voice of America offices in Washington, D.C.Pack, a conservative filmmaker, has repeatedly pledged to support the independence of USAGM journalists. At the same time, he has signaled in interviews with conservative news outlets a concern with bias and a belief that the agency has strayed from its mission.The USAGM should “advance America’s broad foreign policy goals, [which] includes fighting for American ideas and institutions against … views from China and Iran,” Pack said in an interview last month with The Epoch Times.Regarding editorial bias, the agency announced in late July that it was investigating VOA’s Urdu language service for a two-minute video posted on the service’s Facebook page showing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaking about President Donald Trump’s policies restricting immigration from some Muslim countries.In a July 30 statement, Pack’s office said the video “can only be described as an apparent election advertisement for [the] presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.”“This investigation – and, indeed, every action that I have taken since starting my tenure last month – has been to repair USAGM so that, once again, U.S. government international broadcasting advances the American national interest,” Pack said in the statement.On Wednesday, the New York Post reported that the Urdu service’s digital managing editor had been placed on administrative leave and that four contractors working on the video would be terminated. USAGM did not respond to VOA’s request to confirm the report.The USAGM oversees five media networks, including VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Free Asia. Also under its umbrella is the Open Technology Fund, a nonprofit that funds technology to get around internet censors and support democracy movements.Pack’s initial move to clean out the heads of the networks and their advisory boards drew objections from a bipartisan group of senators, who said they would review the agency’s funding. USAGM has a budget of about $800 million, with VOA getting the biggest share.Turner took Lansing’s place as interim CEO and director from October 2019 to June 2020. He joined USAGM in February 2016 after five years as the budget director for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which provides U.S. foreign aid to end poverty. Before then, he worked at the Office of Management and Budget under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.Before becoming USAGM general counsel, Kligerman was the lead counsel for Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. He previously worked at the State Department as a legal adviser and in the European and Eurasian Bureau.Other USAGM officials reportedly caught in the purge:Oanh Tran, the executive director of USAGM, who managed internal workflow and communication with other agencies along with advisory board operations. She has worked in the U.S. government for 25 years.Matthew Walsh, deputy director for operations. Walsh previously spent nine years at the State Department as a senior adviser for United Nations Political Affairs, member of the secretary of state’s planning policy staff and adviser to the assistant secretary of state for Africa. He also worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development.Shawn Powers, chief strategy officer, also oversaw the Office of Policy and Research as well as Internet Freedom and circumvention programs. He previously served as the senior adviser for global strategy and innovation from July 2018 to November 2019. Before joining USAGM, he worked as executive director for the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Powers launched and directed the Center for Global Information Studies at Georgia State University.Marie Lennon, who oversaw human resources, contracts, security and civil rights as USAGM director of management services. She is a 35-year government employee who held jobs at VOA, the Navy and Defense departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the former WORLDNET Television, where Pack was once a political appointee. 
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