Month: June 2020

The Trump administration made it harder to export sensitive American technology to Hong Kong, escalating pressure on China as lawmakers in Beijing prepared to hand down a national security law that limits the former British colony’s autonomy. The U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement Monday that the security legislation, which China’s top…

Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence. The assessment was included in at least one…

The great documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles once said in an interview that “what a documentary is very special at doing very well is depicting somebody experiencing something, so that the viewer experiences that as well.” Given that documentaries span so many subjects, moods and time periods, they offer to us as viewers a bottomless well…

A national security law for Hong Kong was passed on Tuesday by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, amid international criticism and fear among pro-democracy figures in the former British colony. The law prohibits acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. The full text of the legislation has…

WASHINGTON — Eight Republican lawmakers attended a White House briefing Monday about explosive allegations that Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan — intelligence the president himself was said to have not been fully read in on. Members of Congress in both parties called for additional information and consequences…

Arizona’s Republican governor shut down bars, movie theaters, gyms and water parks Monday and leaders in several states ordered residents to wear masks in public in a dramatic course reversal amid an alarming resurgence of coronavirus cases nationwide. Among those implementing the face-covering orders is the city of Jacksonville, Florida, where the mask-averse President Donald…

D.J. Pierce, who is best known by his drag-queen persona, Shangela, recently spoke to TIME from his grandmother’s house in Paris, Texas where he’s been keeping busy during quarantine. The actor and performer has launched an initiative called Feed the Queens to raise money for drag performers who are unable to make a living as…

Between the protests and the pandemic, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that the Affordable Care Act is still in limbo. But the events of the last week have set the stage for Democrats and Republicans to fight a 2020 rematch of the battle over health care coverage: between the party that giveth, and the party…

This month the Supreme Court has been full of surprises, handing a completely unexpected win to supporters of abortion rights today. The ruling follows two surprising rulings issued last week, one protecting LGBTQ Americans from employment discrimination and the other preserving DACA after the Trump Administration failed to follow federal law when seeking to repeal…

Summer has just begun, but health officials are already warning Americans that the fall and winter months ahead will likely be challenging. Once flu season begins, the U.S. will have to worry about not one, but two contagious viruses. “The real risk is that we’re going to have two circulating respiratory pathogens at the same…