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US Top Diplomat Heads to Central Europe as US Looks to Confront Russian, Chinese Influence
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is launching a weeklong trip to central Europe with a stop Tuesday in the Czech Republic where he is scheduled to give a speech and have a dinner meeting with Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek.
Pompeo is also set to visit a museum commemorating the U.S. role in liberating the region during World War 2.
The top U.S. diplomat’s trip comes as the Trump administration looks to confront Russian and Chinese economic and geopolitical competition in Europe.
Pompeo is traveling to Prague and Pilsen in the Czech Republic; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Vienna, Austria; and Warsaw, Poland, from Aug. 11 to Aug. 15.
He will become the first secretary of state since 2011 to visit Slovenia, where he will sign a Joint Declaration on 5G technology as Washington is countering risks posed by communist China’s “infiltration into high-tech networks” in the region.
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.
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The United States is pulling almost 12,000 troops from Germany, following through on President Donald Trump’s call to reduce the U.S. military footprint overseas. While defense department officials say the move will boost American security, critics see the move as punishment for a country Trump has criticized as “delinquent” in NATO defense spending. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
Produced by: Bronwyn Benito
Rights Restricted Off US Pulling Almost 12,000 Troops From Germany US military leaders describe the move as ‘strategic,’ but President Trump says he wants the troops out of Germany because ‘we don’t want to be the suckers anymore’
Ambassador Philip Reeker, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, said Pompeo will discuss with his counterparts the just-completed U.S.-Poland Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that “provides a framework” to further strengthen “the broad transatlantic security.”
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.
Energy security
Energy security will also top Pompeo’s discussion with leaders in central Europe as Russia’s controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that connects Russia and Germany nears completion.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, top left, arrives with his wife Susan Pompeo, top right, at the airport in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020.
“We have been very dedicated to helping those countries find alternate sources so that they can diversify from Russia,” said Reeker.
Russia has previously defended the project as economically feasible.
The U.S. has been warning about the security risks of Russian energy export pipelines, in particular Nord Stream 2. U.S. officials said if completed, these projects would undermine European security and strengthen Russia’s ability to use its energy resources to coerce the U.S.’s European partners and allies.
Czech Republic
In Prague, Pompeo will meet with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis to discuss 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 initiative gets its name from the three seas that border the region: the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas.
On Wednesday, Pompeo is set to deliver a speech at the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on bilateral ties and foreign policy.
Americký ministr zahraničních věcí @SecPompeo ve středu 12. 8. v českém Senátu přednese veřejný projev a bude s předsedou @Vystrcil_Milos jednat o společných zájmech v zahraničně-politických otázkách. pic.twitter.com/ySOKmD9ftd
— Senát Parlamentu ČR (@SenatCZ) August 7, 2020
Slovenia
In Ljubljana, Pompeo will sign a Joint Declaration on 5G technology with Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar.
Over the past year, European countries, including Poland, Estonia and the Czech Republic, have signed agreements with the U.S., pledging that 5G suppliers would not be subject to control by a foreign government without independent judicial review, which effectively excludes Chinese firms.
Slovenia will join those countries in the so-called “5G Clean Networks” to use only trusted vendors to secure critical telecommunications, cloud, data analytics, and mobile apps.
Reeker told VOA it is “a reflection of the shared dedication to protecting privacy” and cybersecurity.
Austria
In Vienna, the U.S.-Austria Strategic Partnership and growing trade relationship will be high on the agenda in Pompeo’s meetings with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.
Austria hosts the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations in charge of monitoring Iran’s adherence to the 2015 nuclear deal from which the U.S. has withdrawn.
Pompeo will also hold talks with IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, as Washington is calling on other members of the U.N. Security Council to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire on Oct. 18.
Poland
In Warsaw, the chief U.S. diplomat will have talks with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on deepening defense ties, recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, securing 5G networks, and improving regional energy and infrastructure through the Three Seas Initiative. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Pompeo will also meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who visited the White House in late June.
Poland sees Nord Stream 2, which would double Russia’s gas export capacity via the Baltic Sea, as a threat to Europe’s energy security.
“In our view, it is paying with European money for Mr. (Vladimir) Putin’s weapons, and we don’t like it,” Morawiecki said during a recent webinar hosted by the Atlantic Council.
Morawiecki said Poland, as “the most pro-European and most pro-American country” in Europe, is strengthening the transatlantic alliance.
Last month, the State Department said people making investments or engaging in activities related to Nord Stream 2, including pipe-laying vessels and engineering service in the deployment of the pipelines, could face U.S. sanctions.
“It’s a clear warning to companies: aiding and abetting Russia’s malign influence projects will not be tolerated,” said Pompeo during a July 15 press conference.
“Let me be clear. These aren’t commercial projects. They are the Kremlin’s key tools to exploit and expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies,” Pompeo said.
Cleveland Indians pitcher Mike Clevinger in quarantine after violating COVID-19 protocols
Cleveland Indians pitcher Mike Clevinger has “been instructed to quarantine” after the team learned Monday that he broke COVID-19 protocols while on the team’s road trip in Chicago.
“The Cleveland Indians will continue to keep the health and safety of our players, coaches and staff members as our top priority,” the team said in a statement, adding Clevinger will also need to undergo additional testing while he is away from the team.
Clevinger, 29, is the second Indians pitcher instructed to spend time away from the team after Zach Plesac was also sent home via a car service for reportedly leaving the team hotel to go out with friends in Chicago on Saturday night. According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Clevinger was with Plesac on Saturday, though he reportedly flew home with the team Sunday.
Among the updated COVID-19 protocols from MLB — sent in a memo that was obtained by USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale last week — it stated: “Any player or staff member must notify their compliance officer if they intend to leave the hotel on the road. The officer will decide whether their planned trip outside the hotel complies with the manual and the club’s code of conduct.”
Clevinger is 1-1 in three starts this year with a 3.24 ERA. He last pitched on Aug. 5. Now down Clevinger and Plesac, who pitched Saturday, the Indians said Adam Plutko will start Tuesday night.
Ramon Laureano on trying to fight Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron: ‘I regret charging him because he’s a loser’
As Major League Baseball weighs its disciplinary decision following Sunday’s brawl between the Oakland A’s Ramon Laureano and Houston Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron, Laureano offered his side of the story to reporters on Monday.
In an interview with ESPN, Laureano said that Cintron instigated the fight when he made an obscene comment about Laureano’s mother. Cintron — in a response through an Astros spokesperson — denied to ESPN that he insulted Laureano’s mother.
But mainly, Laureano said he regretted that he let Cintron get him so fired up that he looked to fight someone despite MLB’s strong emphasis against brawls during this pandemic-shortened season.
“I regret charging him because he’s a loser,” Laureano said. “[A suspension] is understandable, but I hope it’s not that many games.
“At the end of the day, I’m here to win a World Series with the Oakland Athletics — this wonderful group of guys. I don’t want to be a distraction. Obviously, I am right now. Hey, I’ve already moved on. I’m facing Julio Teheran today, and that’s all I’m thinking right now.”
That’s some serious Conor McGregor apology vibes right there, but Cintron should get the harsher punishment here. He’s a coach and shouldn’t be urging opponents to fight.
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Laureano added that he had no ill will toward the Astros, and he didn’t think any of the pitches that hit him during the series were intentional.
‘Group Economics’ more than just message on jersey for Miami Heat’s Andre Iguodala
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — On the surface, the initiative looked like a significant gesture that highlights the NBA’s commitment toward addressing racial justice reforms.
The NBA’s Board of Governors announced they will give $300 million ($30M a year for the next 10 years) to the newly-created NBA Foundation, which is “dedicated to creating greater economic empowerment in the Black community.”
Miami Heat swingman Andre Iguodala, who is also the vice president of the NBA players union, looks at that gesture differently.
“You just can’t be checking a box. Is it a marketing ploy or are we just doing it to build relations? In the grand scheme of things, that’s $10 million per team and that’s essentially a tax,” Iguodala told USA TODAY Sports as part of a wide-ranging interview.
“This can’t be a one-time thing. You look at these larger brands and how much money they make from the community. They give back, but they’re bringing in a few billion a year.”
Iguodala praised the NBA, the league’s board of governors and the players union for agreeing to the initiative. He also noted that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver “realizes this is very important” for the league to support and provide funding for racial justice causes.
Iguodala raised concerns, however, to make a larger point.
He believes that investing in Black businesses and communities will play a significant role in building generational wealth. That, in part, will reduce racial inequality in education, housing and hiring practices, he says.
“We’re still trying to make equal grounding for our next generation,” Iguodala said. “Right now we’re part of the progress, but we have to continue to think bigger than ourselves with a lot of our decisions. We’re in a position where we can gain some wealth being professional athletes. But at the same time, the majority of our people are still bogged down in an oppressive state. So we have to pull them up with us.”
Iguodala’s kept a busy schedule during the NBA’s season restart on a quarantined campus at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida. Between games and practices, Iguodala has estimated he has had phone calls or Zoom meetings with tech investors about once or twice a week about possible partnerships.
When he played for the Golden State Warriors (2013-19), Iguodala took advantage of his proximity to Silicon Valley to expand his business portfolio. Recently, though, Iguodala has sought ventures that will serve a bigger purpose.
Iguodala recently joined with Comcast Venture’s Catalyst Fund, which has invested in startups founded by Black, Latinx and women entrepreneurs. He has sought other businesses with similar mission statements.
“You see a lot of companies being funded for billions of dollars. But when you look at the board members, none of us are involved or a part of the decision-making process,” Iguodala said. “Yet, studies show that when you have a diverse board and a diverse community environment and culture in your company, you have higher profits and higher revenues.”
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To become more immersed in these issues, Iguodala has often spent his free time in recent years reading books, either on business trends or on racial issues. Iguodala has continued that practice when he settled here on the NBA’s campus.
His most recent reads? Iguodala picked up “The Four” by Scott Galloway, which details the business practices of various tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Iguodala also read Manning Marable’s “How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America,” which explains how the white and Black community have operated under a different set of rules in the free market system. That inspired Iguodala to pin “Group Economics” on the back of his jersey.
“It’s essentially how systemic oppression doesn’t allow us to buy from our own communities, or get loans to build businesses so we can support ourselves and recycle our dollar,” Iguodala said. “That’s how you build your community, get better funding for schools and how you invest in yourself and become landowners. The system is created for us not to be able to do those things. So then we have to depend on other people, whether it be the government or other communities.”
The NBA players union has talked at length about these issues. So much that Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard were among the most vocal players wondering if resuming the NBA season could hurt efforts to address racial justice reforms.
Iguodala said that the players union mostly addressed how the league would manage its health and safety protocols surrounding the coronavirus outbreak or how the NBA would help players with mental health support and amenities, both to cope with being away from family and to help with work-life balance. But Iguodala and other members of the players union also talked with the league to ensure it would support them through words and resources in addressing racial justice reforms.
“It’s part of my duty to support the views and thoughts and opinions of the players,” Iguodala said. “I may disagree with some things. But if it’s a majority vote and we say, ‘This is how we feel,’ I feel like it’s my job to support that and make that sacrifice to go along with it. That has always been my views on whatever our guys want to do.”
Now that the NBA, its owners and players union agreed on forming a foundation to help the Black community, Iguodala expressed hope this marks the beginning of a long partnership.
“We have to keep our foot on the gas. We can’t be relaxed and say, ‘Look at what we were able to accomplish in a short period of time,’ ” Iguodala said. “You look historically at all the civil rights leaders. They weren’t just doing it for that year or the year after that. They were trying to do it for their kids’ kids.”
Follow USA TODAY NBA writer Mark Medina on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Concrete, a Centuries-Old Material, Gets a New Recipe
On any given day, Central Concrete, in San Jose, Calif., does what concrete companies have been doing for centuries: combining sand, gravel, water and cement to create the slurry that is used in construction.
But Central — one of a handful of companies at the forefront of a movement to make a greener concrete — is increasingly experimenting with some decidedly new mixtures.
In one part of the plant, carbon dioxide from a chemical gas company is injected into the concrete, locking in that greenhouse gas and keeping it out of the atmosphere, where it would contribute to global warming. Elsewhere, engineers tinker with the recipe for concrete, trying out substitutes for some of the cement, which makes up about 15 percent of the mix and functions as the glue that holds it all together. Cement, however, is also responsible for most of concrete’s carbon emissions — emissions so high that some have abandoned concrete for alternative building materials like mass timber and bamboo.
Concrete, it turns out, has a serious pollution problem.
ImageCredit…Jason Henry for The New York Times
The most widely used construction material on the planet, it has given us sculptural buildings, sturdy bridges and dams, parking garages and countless other structures that surround us. But concrete is also responsible for about 8 percent of global carbon emissions. If concrete were a country, it would rank third in emissions behind China and the United States.
In the United States alone, 370 million cubic yards of concrete was produced last year, with nearly 40 percent of it going into commercial real estate, according to the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, a trade group.
In recent decades, architects, developers and policymakers seeking to lower the carbon footprint of buildings have focused on reducing energy use by improving the efficiency of lighting, heating and other systems. To lower emissions even further, they are looking beyond such operational matters to the carbon emitted in the production and transportation of the materials that make up the structures, or so-called embodied carbon. All eyes are on concrete because buildings use so much of it, from foundations to the topmost floors.
“People are getting smarter about where global-warming impacts are coming from,” said Amanda Kaminsky, principal of Building Product Ecosystems, a consulting firm in New York. “Concrete is responsible for a disproportionate chunk.”
ImageCredit…Jason Henry for The New York TimesImageCredit…Jason Henry for The New York Times
Central, part of U.S. Concrete, a manufacturer based in Texas, is making progress tackling the problem: Low-emission concrete makes up 70 percent of the material the company produces annually, up from 20 percent in the early 2000s. The plant’s push to decarbonize “has really accelerated in the last three years,” said Herb Burton, vice president and general manager of U.S. Concrete’s west region.
Guiding Central’s effort is U.S. Concrete’s national research laboratory at the plant in San Jose. Headed by Alana Guzzetta, an engineer, the lab scrutinizes technology and products developed by other companies, deciding whether to put them to the test and, ultimately, incorporate them into its operations.
Fiddling with concrete’s recipe is not new, however. The Romans used a formula involving lime and volcanic rock. In the early 19th century, an English bricklayer invented Portland cement, still the most widely used type, whose production involves combining limestone and clay and heating it to blistering temperatures. Each construction project today has its own concrete mix, designed by structural engineers to take into account how and where it will be used.
ImageCredit…Jason Henry for The New York Times
Before climate change became a pressing issue, concrete producers sought to reduce the amount of cement in their mixes for the simple reason that it tended to be expensive, in part because of the energy-intensive heating in producing it.
Decades ago, they began substituting some of the cement with cheaper fly ash, a byproduct of coal-burning plants, and slag, a byproduct of steel production. Using such materials had the added benefit of diverting them from landfills, and they were also found to improve concrete’s performance. Only in recent years has concrete with fly ash and slag been promoted as a greener product.
But now there’s a hitch: With coal plants being retired, fly ash is not as plentiful as it once was. The decline of steel production in some parts of the country has made slag scarcer. The shortages have set off price increases for these materials, adding to the urgency of experimentation with alternative concrete mixes.
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The experimentation has also been driven by demand from architects and developers who want their buildings to be green, companies seeking to achieve ambitious carbon goals and governments instituting low-carbon policies. The movement is playing out on a variety of fronts.
Recycled post-consumer glass — which otherwise might be sent to landfills — is being crushed into a powder, known as ground-glass pozzolan, that can be used in place of some of the cement in concrete.
The cement industry is promoting Portland-limestone cement, which reduces carbon 10 percent, according to the Portland Cement Association, a trade group.
Several new ways to make concrete greener employ waste carbon dioxide.
ImageCredit…Jason Henry for The New York Times
CarbonCure Technologies, a company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, invented a process that involves shooting liquid carbon dioxide into concrete during mixing. Doing so not only keeps the greenhouse gas out of the air but also strengthens the concrete and reduces the amount of cement needed.
So far, CarbonCure concrete has a net carbon reduction of only 5 to 7 percent, but the technology has already been installed at 225 plants in the United States. Recently, Central used the CarbonCure technology for the concrete it supplied to LinkedIn for the 245,000-square-foot headquarters the networking company is building in Mountain View, Calif.
ImageCredit…Jason Henry for The New York TimesImageCredit…Jason Henry for The New York Times
Blue Planet, based in Los Gatos, Calif., uses carbon dioxide collected from the exhaust stack of a power plant to produce a synthetic limestone that functions as a substitute for the sand and gravel in concrete. Although Blue Planet is still piloting its technology, Central has already used its aggregate in concrete poured at San Francisco International Airport.
Other companies — including Solidia Technologies in Piscataway, N.J., and BioMason in Durham, N.C. — have developed processes that are being used for cast-concrete products like pavers and tiles.
Central is keeping tabs on all the action.
That is the right approach, said Jeremy Gregory, the executive director at the Concrete Sustainability Hub, an industry-funded group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I don’t see a single game-changer technology,” he added. “It’s going to be a combination of things.”
Green concrete can be more expensive, said Jay Moreau, chief executive of the U.S. aggregates and construction material division of LafargeHolcim, a Swiss company. Last month, LafargeHolcim made a concrete mix that lowers carbon 30 percent a standard part of its offerings. But as the company creates mixes that reduce carbon by 50 percent, the concrete could cost 5 percent more, Mr. Moreau said.
Central said it had kept the price of its low-emissions concrete on a par with conventional concrete, hoping to attract customers that want to reduce the carbon footprint of their buildings.
“We see it as a market differentiator and a way to win more projects,” Mr. Burton said.
Video
Researchers Show Mathematically How to Best Reopen Your Business After COVID-19 Lockdown
In the USA, where the curve of infections has not yet flattened since the beginning of the pandemic, 158,000 people have died from Covid-19 already. And despite the choice by all US states to gradually ease lockdown from late May onwards to save the economy, 14 million Americans have lost their job, while the economic output in the second quarter of 2020 dropped by 9.5%. To help entrepreneurs decide on how they can safely reopen their business, mathematicians and statisticians here develop a model for the spread of infections within companies and the economic payoff of safety measures. Their findings are published today in Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics.
“Our aim was to provide a quantitative yet simple modeling tool for business executives to plan for reopening their workplace,” says lead author Prof Hongyu Miao, Director of the Center for Biostatistics Collaboration and Data Services at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas.
The authors show mathematically that, under a wide range of parameters, reopening your business will only be feasible if at least these safety measures are adopted: wearing goggles, gloves, and masks (when employees aren’t alone); frequent hand washing; routine sanitation of the workfloor; social distancing; monitoring body temperature; and quarantine of exposed and sick employees. These measures won’t only control the spread of Covid-19 within the company, but also increase your net profit under the assumptions of the model.
“We show that a business entity may stand a good opportunity to generate positive net profit after reopening only if necessary protection measures are strictly implemented,” warns Miao. “It is also very important to monitor the number of infections through virus testing and contact tracing, especially at the early stage of reopening.”
About the model
Miao and colleagues first developed — and (approximately) solved numerically — five differential equations for the numbers of susceptible, infectious, quarantined, deceased, and recovered employees within a company. These assumed that all workers who can work from home do so, and that workers self-quarantine as soon as they present symptoms, or if they have been in close contact with a known carrier. They further assumed that infected employees who aren’t detected — because they are asymptomatic or only mildly symptomatic cases, in the early stages of the disease, or apparently recovered but still infectious — can continue to infect their susceptible coworkers as “silent spreaders,” and that sick and quarantined workers receive their full pay.
In addition, the authors modeled the net profit, based on the average salary and productivity of US workers, the cost of PPE and other safety measures, and the reduction in productivity expected from a limit on working hours and the need for distancing. They estimated values for key parameters from the literature, for example the effectiveness of PPE in preventing transmission, the expected pricetag of these measures, and the dynamics of infection.
Four scenarios compared
The authors then took a large, well-known Texan company as a hypothetical example. Under the least safe scenario, where no safety measures are taken, the prevalence of Covid-19 within the company steadily rises to become 30-fold higher than in the general US population, indicating that reopening won’t be feasible. Under the safest scenario, where all possible safety measures are adopted, its prevalence falls to 104-fold lower than in the population, resulting in a higher and more stable net profit. Results are similar under the second-safest scenario, where only the most expensive measures are omitted — non-contact sensors for real-time fever detection, reducing working hours by 30% to limit exposure, and UV purification or High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters that prevent viral transmission in aerosols. Finally, under the third-safest scenario, where employees further drop the use of PPE, the workplace again quickly becomes a “hot spot” of infection, resulting in a lower net profit.
Reference: 11 August 2020, Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics.
DOI: 10.3389/fams.2020.00035
Antiviral Treatment for COVID-19 Could Come Much Sooner Thanks to Malaria Breakthrough
Pompeo Heads to Central Europe as US Looks to Confront Russian, Chinese Influence
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarks on a weeklong trip to central Europe on Monday, as the United States looks to confront Russian and Chinese economic and geopolitical competition in Europe.
The top U.S. diplomat is traveling to Prague and Pilsen in the Czech Republic; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Vienna, Austria; and Warsaw, Poland, from August 11 to 15.
Pompeo will become the first secretary of state since 2011 to visit Slovenia, where he will sign a Joint Declaration on 5G technology as Washington is countering risks posed by communist China’s “infiltration into high-tech networks” in the region.
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.
Ambassador Philip Reeker, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, said Pompeo will discuss with his counterparts the just-completed U.S.-Poland Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that “provides a framework” to further strengthen “the broad transatlantic security.”
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.
Energy security
Energy security will also top Pompeo’s discussion with leaders in central Europe as Russia’s controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that connects Russia and Germany nears completion.
“We have been very dedicated to helping those countries find alternate sources so that they can diversify from Russia,” said Reeker.
FILE – A worker puts a cap to a pipe at the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, near the town of Kingisepp, Leningrad region, Russia, June 5, 2019.
Russia has previously defended the project as economically feasible.
The U.S. has been warning about the security risks of Russian energy export pipelines, in particular Nord Stream 2. U.S. officials said if completed, these projects would undermine European security and strengthen Russia’s ability to use its energy resources to coerce the U.S.’s European partners and allies.
Czech Republic
In Prague, Pompeo will meet with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis to discuss 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 initiative gets its name from the three seas that border the region: the Baltic, Black and Adriatic.
On Wednesday, Pompeo is set to deliver a speech at the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on bilateral ties and foreign policy.
Americký ministr zahraničních věcí @SecPompeo ve středu 12. 8. v českém Senátu přednese veřejný projev a bude s předsedou @Vystrcil_Milos jednat o společných zájmech v zahraničně-politických otázkách. pic.twitter.com/ySOKmD9ftd
— Senát Parlamentu ČR (@SenatCZ) August 7, 2020
Slovenia
In Ljubljana, Pompeo will sign a Joint Declaration on 5G technology with Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar.
Over the past year, European countries, including Poland, Estonia and the Czech Republic, have signed agreements with the U.S., pledging that 5G suppliers would not be subject to control by a foreign government without independent judicial review, which effectively excludes Chinese firms.
Slovenia will join those countries in the so-called “5G Clean Networks” to use only trusted vendors to secure critical telecommunications, cloud, data analytics, and mobile apps.
Reeker told VOA it is “a reflection of the shared dedication to protecting privacy” and cybersecurity.
Austria
In Vienna, the U.S.-Austria Strategic Partnership and growing trade relationship will be high on the agenda in Pompeo’s meetings with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.
Austria hosts the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations in charge of monitoring Iran’s adherence to the 2015 nuclear deal from which the U.S. has withdrawn.
Pompeo will also hold talks with IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, as Washington is calling on other members of the U.N. Security Council to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire on Oct. 18.
Poland
In Warsaw, the chief U.S. diplomat will have talks with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz on deepening defense ties, recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, securing 5G networks, and improving regional energy and infrastructure through the Three Seas Initiative. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Pompeo will also meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who visited the White House in late June.
FILE – Poland’s President Andrzej Duda listens to U.S. President Donald Trump during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, June 24, 2020.
Poland sees Nord Stream 2, which would double Russia’s gas export capacity via the Baltic Sea, as a threat to Europe’s energy security.
“In our view, it is paying with European money for Mr. (Vladimir) Putin’s weapons, and we don’t like it,” Morawiecki said during a recent webinar hosted by the Atlantic Council.
Morawiecki said Poland, as “the most pro-European and most pro-American country” in Europe, is strengthening the transatlantic alliance.
Last month, the State Department said people making investments or engaging in activities related to Nord Stream 2, including pipe-laying vessels and engineering service in the deployment of the pipelines, could face U.S. sanctions.
“It’s a clear warning to companies: aiding and abetting Russia’s malign influence projects will not be tolerated,” said Pompeo during a July 15 press conference.
“Let me be clear. These aren’t commercial projects. They are the Kremlin’s key tools to exploit and expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies,” Pompeo said.
Trump Abruptly Escorted from White House Briefing After Shots Fired Nearby
WHITE HOUSE – U.S. President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted from a White House media briefing Monday afternoon by a U.S. Secret Service agent because of a shooting near the building.
Returning to the briefing room lectern minutes later, Trump said, “There was an actual shooting, and somebody’s been taken to the hospital.”
Tom Sullivan, chief of the Secret Service Uniformed Division, identified the person shot as a 51-year-old man who approached a uniformed Secret Service officer and said he had a weapon.
“The suspect then turned around, ran aggressively towards the officer, and in a drawing motion, withdrew an object from his clothing,” Sullivan said. “He then crouched into a shooter’s stance as if about to fire a weapon. The Secret Service officer discharged his weapon, striking the individual in the torso.”
Both the officer and the man the officer shot were taken to the hospital. Sullivan did not take any questions, and his statement did not specify whether the man actually had a weapon, fired it, or the nature of any injuries to the officer.
Here’s audio of the shots being fired: https://t.co/zrARtsyy6b @SecretService
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 11, 2020
According to the District of Columbia’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, its units responded to a person who had been shot in the upper body. The shooting took place near 17th Street Northwest and Pennsylvania Avenue.
The shooting took place at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the transition point between a public street with vehicular traffic and the more restricted access around the White House complex.
Two gunshots were heard by at least one reporter who was in the briefing room.
U.S. Secret Service Police stand outside the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, in Washington, as a news conference by President Donald Trump was paused, Aug. 10, 2020.
“I heard two shots in rapid succession just after you took the podium,” Fox News White House correspondent John Roberts told the president when Trump asked the journalist what he had heard.
The president said the situation “seems to be very well under control.”
“You were surprised, I was surprised also,” Trump told reporters when he returned to the briefing room, saying he had been taken to the Oval Office.
“I do want to thank the Secret Service. They are fantastic,” Trump said, adding that he was not certain the incident “had to do anything with me.”
Asked by a reporter if he was rattled by the extraordinary event, he responded. “I don’t know. Do I seem rattled?”
Trump told reporters he gave no thought to not resuming the briefing once the Secret Service told him it was safe to do so.
‘President Trump, avoid foreign price controls for medicine’
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
As America continues to dig its way out of the economic and public health impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration and state and local governments have waived or suspended hundreds of regulations.
These combined efforts have given American families, businesses and public agencies the flexibility and breathing room needed to combat the disease and the economic downturn, and many of these deregulatory efforts should be here to stay. They include several positive steps in the health care space, including increased flexibility for telehealth and loosening of restrictions for health professionals practicing across state lines.
Unfortunately, two new executive orders announced by President Trump on July 24, 2020, threaten to undermine the progress the administration has made on the deregulatory and health care fronts during the COVID-19 pandemic. One executive order mirrors an earlier proposal, called an International Pricing Index (IPI) for Medicare Part B, and another expands on the administration’s efforts to allow Americans to import prescription drugs from foreign countries.
While these proposals have been framed as helping Americans get a better deal on their prescription drug costs, they will fail to do so. Any kind of international pricing index or “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) clause for Medicare Part B would simply implement foreign countries’ bad policies, like price controls. Some of these countries have socialist health care systems, which the administration has rightly condemned.
And as a practical matter, price controls don’t work. As more than 150 economists wrote in a 2018 letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. “Setting price controls at below-market rates,” the economists wrote, “leads to shortages, squeezes the cost bubble toward some other portion of the economy, and imposes a deadweight cost on society.” This is basic economics: these kinds of price controls simply don’t work.
The White House acknowledged this in their Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 3, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s prescription drug proposal. The Council of Economic Advisers wrote that these kinds of price controls “would affect as much as one third of drugs under development,” hindering drug innovation and causing many drugs never to be developed or brought to market under this kind of regime.
This made sense then and certainly does now. It is therefore puzzling the administration is insisting on similar price controls through an IPI or MFN regime for Medicare. Neither IPI nor MFN will convince other countries to pay prescription drug prices that reflect the actual costs for bringing drugs to market. Instead, they would have the U.S. attempt to mimic the heavy-handed government price controls of other countries for Medicare, to the detriment of tens of millions of Americans in private insurance.
Medicare patients could ultimately suffer, too, since the MFN and importation executive orders would make it much more expensive for American manufacturers to research, develop and bring to market new treatments and cures. This ultimately means taxpayers foot a higher bill, too, as government health care programs shell out more for longer hospital stays, surgeries and costlier therapies that can’t rely on breakthrough drugs.
The Trump administration has gotten health policy exactly right for patients and taxpayers before. Whether it’s expanding coverage options available to consumers or making telehealth services an affordable option for millions of American seniors, policymakers in the administration have advanced initiatives that benefit patients and taxpayers. The executive orders on MFN and importation could not only undo these laudable gains but actively harm the nation’s fight against the coronavirus. The American people will not be impressed by such results. Mr. Trump should go back to the drawing board on these two executive orders and produce pro-taxpayer, pro-consumer health reforms.
• Adam Brandon is president of FreedomWorks and Tom Schatz is president of Citizens Against Government Waste. Pete Sepp contributed additional research for this piece.
