Our picksCountries Stuck in Coronavirus Purgatory | Studying Unidentified Aerial Phenomena | Asylum Seekers’ Re-application, and more

Published 24 June 2021

·  Pelosi Creates Panel to ‘Seek the Truth’ on Capitol Attack

·  Capitol Rioters Are Breathing a Sigh of Relief After Slap on Wrist for Grandma

·  The Countries Stuck in Coronavirus Purgatory

·  Inside the Extraordinary Effort to Save Trump from Covid-19

·  Americans Should Worry More about China than Russia. The New Space Race Shows Why.

·  U.S. to Allow Some Asylum Seekers Rejected Under Trump to Reopen Cases

·  Trump Rule Tightening EB-5 Visa Program Struck Down by Federal Judge

·  America Needs a Whole-of-Government Approach to Studying Unidentified Aerial Phenomena

Pelosi Creates Panel to ‘Seek the Truth’ on Capitol Attack  (Associated Press / VOA News)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it official Thursday that she is creating a special committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol, saying it is “imperative that we seek the truth.”
The new committee comes after Republican senators blocked legislation that would have set up a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack.

Capitol Rioters Are Breathing a Sigh of Relief After Slap on Wrist for Grandma  (Pilar Melendez, Daily Beast)
Anna Morgan-Lloyd was sentenced to probation Wednesday in connection to Jan. 6, the first rioter to get her punishment. Lawyers for the accused are celebrating.

The Countries Stuck in Coronavirus Purgatory  (Timothy McLaughlin, The Atlantic)
Much of Asia cannot (or will not) yet get jabbed, so the region is still having to rely on suppression tactics.

Inside the Extraordinary Effort to Save Trump from Covid-19  (Damian Paletta and Yasmeen Abutaleb, Washington Post)
His illness was more severe than the White House acknowledged at the time. Advisers thought it would alter his response to the pandemic. They were wrong.

Americans Should Worry More about China than Russia. The New Space Race Shows Why.  (James Hohmann, Washington Post)
The Chinese didn’t put an astronaut into space until 2003, 42 years after the Soviets, but Beijing has been making cosmic strides that, unlike the Kremlin’s advances during the Cold War, have yet to rouse Washington out of its relative complacency.
Last month, China landed a rover on Mars — becoming the only nation besides ours to do so. Last September,the Chinese launched and recovered a spaceplane that spent two days in low-Earth orbit. In 2019, China became the first country to land a craft on the far side of the moon.
In April, the U.S. intelligence community’s annual threat assessment warned that “Beijing is working to match or exceed US capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership.”

Pentagon Leaders Testily Defend Efforts on Racism, Extremism  (Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press / U.S. News)
Top Pentagon leaders on Wednesday passionately defended the military’s approach to addressing racism and extremism, pushing back against accusations by Republican lawmakers that the effort is creating division and hurting morale. The testy exchanges showed that the political dimension of a national debate over racism and extremism weighs on the military even as it attempts to address social problems within its own ranks. At a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican, said the U.S. Military Academy at West Point offers instruction in critical race theory and on “understanding whiteness and white rage.” Critical race theory centers on the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions and that they function to maintain white dominance in society. Waltz called these offerings at West Point destructive, and he demanded that Pentagon leaders “get to the bottom of what is going on.” In an extraordinary response, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took direct aim at the accusations by Waltz and similar, separate comments earlier in the hearing by Rep. Matt Gaetz, another Florida Republican. Milley said the military need not apologize for fostering open-mindedness.

U.S. to Allow Some Asylum Seekers Rejected Under Trump to Reopen Cases  (Eileen Sullivan, New York Times)
The move could provide tens of thousands of people enrolled in a program that sent applicants to wait in Mexico a way to return to the United States to pursue their claims again.

Trump Rule Tightening EB-5 Visa Program Struck Down by Federal Judge  (Michelle Hackman, Wall Street Journal)
The Biden administration endorsed the rule raising the investment threshold in the immigrant investor program; judge says rules were improperly issued

America Needs a Whole-of-Government Approach to Studying Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (Dillon Guthrie, The Hill)
Revelations about unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, expose the hubris of ridiculing a topic worthy of scientific study. UAPs, better known as UFOs, exist, with Navy pilots reporting them routinely violating our restricted military airspace. Yet our government evidently has ignored, quashed or compartmentalized information about UAPs for decades — jeopardizing scientific progress, national security and democratic accountability.
Fortunately, NASA is now investigating UAPS, and the Pentagon is examining its handling of the matter. Congress awaits a report on UAPs from the director of national intelligence, and many expect the report largely to rule out UAPs being U.S. or foreign technology. If so, policymakers should consider how America can better understand these potentially paradigm-changing phenomena.