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Other Security News
COVID-19 Pandemic News

Other Security News

• Acting Secretary Wolf Establishes China Working Group to Address Intensifying Threat Department of Homeland Security 24 Jul 2020 -- Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F. Wolf recently hosted the inaugural meeting of the Department's China Working Group. The Group's purpose is to holistically articulate, prioritize, and coordinate the Department's response to evolving threats to the Homeland posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
• Statement by NCSC Director William Evanina: 100 Days Until Election 2020 Director of National Intelligence 24 Jul 2020 -- Election security remains a top priority for the Intelligence Community and we are committed in our support to DHS and FBI, given their leadership roles in this area. In recent months, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has been providing robust intelligence-based briefings on election security to the presidential campaigns, political committees, and Congressional audiences.
• US Intelligence Official Warns of Foreign Interference in US Elections VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- The director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center has warned that Russia, China, Iran and other countries are meddling in U.S. political campaigns as the November 3 general election draws closer.
• Portland Riots Read-Out: July 24 Department of Homeland Security 24 Jul 2020
• Federal agents fire teargas as Portland hit by fresh protests Press TV 24 Jul 2020 -- Fresh anti-racism protests have erupted in the US city of Portland amid growing public outrage over the excessive use of force by federal agents.
• Renewed Clashes Involving Federal Agents, Protesters Erupt in Portland VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- Disturbances erupted again Friday in Portland, Oregon, where the presence and actions of federal officers are raising concerns of a possible constitutional crisis on the grounds the agents have been deployed without local consent.
• USS Shamal Shows Fury in Interdicting Go-Fast Vessel NNS 24 Jul 2020 -- The Cyclone-class patrol ship USS Shamal (PC 13) with embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) recovered more than 3,900 pounds of suspected marijuana July 4.
• Austrian Court Sentences Chechen Man On Terrorism Charges RFE/RL 24 Jul 2020 -- A court in Vienna has sentenced a 32-year old man from Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya to 10 years in prison for fighting along with militants of the now-defunct group Caucasus Emirate (Imarat Kavkaz) against Russian federal troops.
• Arizona Woman Arrested for Attempting to Provide Material Support to Al Qaeda US Dept. of Justice 24 Jul 2020 -- John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Michael Bailey, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Jill Sanborn, Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, and Sean Kaul, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Phoenix Field Office, announced that on July 22, 2020, Jill Marie Jones was arrested for attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

COVID-19 Pandemic News

• Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation report - 186 WHO 24 Jul 2020

United States

• State Officials Announce Latest COVID-19 Facts California Department of Public Health 24 Jul 2020
• DOD Announces $77.3 Million in Defense Production Act Title III COVID-19 Actions DoD 24 Jul 2020 -- Today, the Department announces three Defense Production Act Title III actions to help sustain and strengthen essential domestic industrial base capabilities and defense-critical workforce in the aviation, rare earth materials, and electronics industries.
• Texas Hospitals Send COVID-19 Patients Home Amid Bed Shortage as Georgia Facilities Near Capacity Sputnik 24 Jul 2020 -- As COVID-19 cases surge in Texas, a hospital in Starr County is so overwhelmed that health officials are creating guidelines and an ethics committee to help health workers decide which patients to use the facility's resources on. Elsewhere in nearby Georgia, hospitals are reaching capacity.
• Trump Administration Officials Press Schools to Reopen VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- U.S. President Donald Trump's administration continued to make the case Friday for schools to reopen for the academic year, saying schools and teachers are "essential" despite a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases.
• Remarks by Vice President Pence at a Roundtable on Safely Reopening Schools | Indianapolis, IN The White House 24 Jul 2020
• US COVID-19 Expert Advises States to Pause Reopening Plans VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- The top U.S. infectious-disease expert called on U.S. states with a resurgence of COVID-19 infections to pause their reopening plans to prevent the further spread of the ailment caused by the novel coronavirus.
• US COVID-19 cases surpass 4 mln as Trump pushes to reopen schools Global Times 24 Jul 2020 -- US COVID-19 cases passed the 4 million mark with more than 140,000 deaths on Thursday as President Donald Trump pushes to reopen schools in the fall.
• U.S. COVID-19 cases surpass 4 mln as Trump pushes to reopen schools People's Daily 24 Jul 2020 -- U.S. COVID-19 cases passed the 4 million mark with more than 140,000 deaths on Thursday as President Donald Trump pushes to reopen schools in the fall.

China

• Imports may carry coronavirus: expert Global Times 24 Jul 2020 -- Chinese health experts warned that packages from abroad, such as food and drugs, may contain coronavirus regardless of whether they were transported in cold chain, and enhance viral tests of imported products at all ports are necessary after Northeast China's coastal city Dalian reported a new COVID-19 cluster linked to a seafood processing company.
• New COVID-19 cases in Dalian mostly related to seafood company: health commission Global Times 24 Jul 2020 -- The Dalian Health Commission said on Friday that the recent surge of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city is largely related to the Dalian Kaiyang Seafood Company. The health commission has asked residents not to leave the city.
• Central govt offers HK help to fight COVID-19 Global Times 24 Jul 2020 -- The central government will provide the necessary support to Hong Kong to fight COVID-19, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Friday, as the region saw a new record number of confirmed cases in a single day on Friday amid the third wave of coronavirus infections.
• Newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong hit another new high of 123 Global Times 24 Jul 2020 -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) Friday reported 123 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, hitting a new daily high.
• HK makeshift hospital put into use on Friday amid worsening coronavirus situation Global Times 24 Jul 2020 -- A resort-converted community quarantine facility for COVID-19 patients, also known as the Hong Kong makeshift hospital, was put into use on Friday after the city reported a record number of confirmed cases in a single day on Thursday amid the region's third wave of coronavirus infections.
• Hong Kong to use community isolation facility to receive patients as COVID-19 cases hit new high People's Daily 24 Jul 2020 -- Hong Kong's Hospital Authority announced on Thursday to start using a community isolation facility to receive mild patients of COVID-19 as the daily additional cases hit another new high of 118.

Europe

• France Advises Citizens Not to Travel to Catalonia VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- France's prime minister Friday strongly recommended French citizens not travel to the Spanish region of Catalonia after a surge in COVID-19 cases there in recent weeks.
• PM makes comments while promoting extension of free winter flu jabs Press TV 24 Jul 2020 -- Boris Johnson, while promoting an expanded programme of flu jabs that ministers hope will ease pressure on the NHS if there is a second wave of coronavirus this winter, has said that people opposed to vaccinations are "nuts.
• Britain PM Calls Anti-Vaccination Activists 'Nuts' VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- As he visited a London medical center to promote a flu immunization program Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson referred to opponents of vaccinations as "nuts."
• Will Europe's Recovery Fund Cause More Problems for the EU? VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- After five days of grueling and at times ill-tempered talks, European countries this week finally agreed on an $870 billion recovery package to help the weaker members of the European Union weather what's shaping up to be the most testing recession in the bloc's history.

Russia

• Human Trials of Russia's Second COVID-19 Vaccine to Start July 27 Sputnik 24 Jul 2020 -- Russian State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology Vector received permission to conduct clinical trials of a vaccine against coronavirus, the first volunteers will receive it on July 27, Russian healthcare watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said on Friday.
• Russia's Coronavirus Case Tally Passes 800,000 SPA 24 Jul 2020 -- The total number of cases of the novel coronavirus in Russia passed 800,000 on Friday, as the country reported 5,811 new infections in the past 24 hours, Reuters reported.

India

• Pandemic Triggers Reverse Migration from India Cities to Villages VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- Rearing cows is not the kind of work Rapani Bhatt was accustomed to doing – like many young people in his village in northern India, he quit the traditional occupation of farming to work in a city.
• Cabinet Secretary reviews the management of COVID-19 in nine States with high active case load India PIB 24 Jul 2020 -- A graded, proactive, progressive and well coordinated strategy of COVID-19 management between the centre and States/UTs has resulted in ever-increasing Recoveries in the country, with progressively falling Case Fatality Rate. There are, however, some States which have in the recent past shown high rise in daily number of active cases and are emerging as concern areas from COVID management point of view.
• Dr. Harsh Vardhan speaks on India's novel COVID containment strategy at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Health Minister's Digital Meet India PIB 24 Jul 2020 -- Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare digitally participated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Health Minister's Digital Meet at Nirman Bhawan today. The meet was chaired by Mr. Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation. The ongoing COVID crisis was the key topic of discussion.
• Highest single day recovery for the third consecutive day - 34,602 COVID patients discharged in last 24 hours India PIB 24 Jul 2020 -- The trend of highest ever single day recoveries of COVID-19 patients continues unabated. For the third day in a row, the last 24 hours have recorded another high with 34,602 patients recovering. This has significantly bolstered the total number of recovered patients to cross 8 lakh and currently stands at 8,17,208. This has strongly boosted the recovery rate to reach a new high of 63.45% among COVID-19 patients.
• Accelerated increase in lab infrastructure continues to drive the 'Test Track and Treat' strategy India PIB 24 Jul 2020 -- More than 1.5 crore COVID samples (1,54,28,170) have been tested, till now. In the last 24 hours 3,52,801 samples have been tested for COVID-19 identification.

Iran

• COVID-19 kills 215 more Iranians over past 24 hours IRNA 24 Jul 2020 -- Iran's Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on Friday that some 215 more Iranians have died from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) over the past 24 hours.
• Prayer Imam In Iran Says Coronavirus Is Secular, Corrupting Religious Countries Radio Farda 24 Jul 2020 -- Qom's Friday Prayer Imam, Abbas Mousavi Motlaq, says some people are unduly warning that the coronavirus outbreak threatens upcoming Muharram religious ceremonies, and commemorating third Shiite Imam in October.

Saudi Arabia

• Health Ministry: More Than 215,000 Recovered from COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia SPA 24 Jul 2020 -- The Ministry of Health said in a statement today that 2,378 new confirmed cases of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) have been reported in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, bringing the total number to 262,772 cases, including 44,369 active cases receiving necessary medical care. Of these, there are 2,143 critical cases, while the health condition of the rest is stable.

Taiwan

• Taiwan to screen all arrivals from the Philippines for COVID-19 CNA 24 Jul 2020 -- All passengers arriving from the Philippines will have to undergo mandatory testing for COVID-19 starting Sunday because of the rising number of imported cases from the country, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Friday.
• Three new imported COVID-19 cases reported in Taiwan CNA 24 Jul 2020 -- Three people who recently returned from the Philippines have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in Taiwan since the start of the pandemic to 458, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Friday.

Other Countries

• Laos, Vietnam Confirm First COVID-19 Cases in Three Months Radio Free Asia 24 Jul 2020 -- Laos and Vietnam confirmed new cases of the coronavirus Friday, the first in more than three months in two countries praised for success in keeping the pandemic at bay, health officials in the Southeast Asian nations said.
• Despite Negative COVID-19 Tests, Bulgarian PM Quarantined During Parliamentary Debate RFE/RL 24 Jul 2020 -- Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was placed in quarantine late on July 23 after a test showed that his chief of staff, Denitsa Jeleva, had contracted a coronavirus infection.
• UAE Health Ministry conducts more than 46,000 additional COVID-19 tests in last 24 hours, announces 261 new cases, 387 recoveries SPA 24 Jul 2020 -- The Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, announced on Friday that it conducted over 46,000 additional COVID-19 tests over the past 24 hours, using state-of-the-art medical testing equipment, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
• Zimbabwe: COVID-19 must not be used to stifle freedoms, says UN rights office UN News 24 Jul 2020 -- The coronavirus pandemic should not be used as an excuse to clamp down on fundamental freedoms, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) reminded authorities in Zimbabwe on Friday.
• South Africa Closes Schools For a Month as Coronavirus Cases Surge VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- South Africa will close most public schools for a month and extend the 2020 school year into 2021, Cyril Ramaphosa said Thursday, as the nation's case burden of coronavirus grows past 400,000 – Africa's highest infection number.
• Coronavirus Delays Bolivia Presidential Election Until October VOA 24 Jul 2020 -- Voters in Bolivia will have to wait until October before choosing the country's next president because of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Nigeria urged to protect local Chinese amid COVID-19 Global Times 24 Jul 2020 -- China's consulate in Lagos, Nigeria issued on Friday a notice warning local Chinese nationals of increasingly frequent kidnapping and robberies as the African economy suffers from COVID-19.
• Chinese peacekeepers donate medicines, medical equipment to Lebanon PLA Daily 24 Jul 2020 -- The medical unit of Chinese peacekeeping forces, working with the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), donated medical equipment and medicines to the Lebanese Red Cross center in Hasbaya, southern Lebanon.