(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department will no longer apply the “compulsory legal process” to journalists acting in their capacity of news gathering, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a memo released on Monday, but he did not rule out using the legal process completely on reporters, only in “limited circumstances.”
That legal process consists of subpoenas, warrants and court orders, the memo explains.
Garland said that the prohibition will not apply to reporters who are under criminal investigation for activities outside of newsgathering, such as insider trading and breaking and entering to obtain
Garland said that in the “limited circumstance” in which DOJ has to use the legal process for records on a member of the news media, it will be approved by the deputy attorney general, and that he or she will be consulted before the process is initiated.
“The prohibition does apply when a member of the media, has in the course of news gathering, only possessed or published government information, including classified information,” Garland writes. “This does not however affect the Department’s traditional ability to use the compulsory legal process to obtain information from or records of, for example, a government employee who has unlawfully disclosed government information.”
The prohibition on using the legal process also does not apply when an entity or individual comes in contact with a foreign terrorist group or agent of a foreign power, or when there is “serious bodily harm” or an imminent risk of death.
The attorney general is also tasking the deputy attorney general with reviewing, developing and codifying the policy and will examine what is already on the books.
The memo came about because major media outlets reporters had records subpoenaed by the Trump Justice Department on stories relating to the Russia investigation.
Those three media outlets met with the attorney general earlier this summer.
(NEW YORK) — Health experts, including an influential group of pediatricians, are pushing back on federal guidance that vaccinated Americans can go without masks, warning that the honor system has failed to keep many people safe in the face of the delta variant.
The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates because so many kids won’t be protected by fall and schools have no way of verifying COVID vaccine status yet.
“AAP recommends universal masking because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking is proven to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect those who are not vaccinated,” the AAP wrote in a statement. “Many schools will not have a system to monitor vaccine status of students, teachers and staff, and some communities overall have low vaccination uptake where the virus may be circulating more prominently.”
People who are fully vaccinated – a term used to describe a person two weeks after their last shot – are still considered safe from serious illness or death, even if they are exposed to the delta variant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 99.5 percent of hospitalizations are people who weren’t immunized.
Because vaccinated people are considered to be safe, the CDC has said immunized adults and teens can go without a mask, including inside schools.
The public health agency has noted, however, that local officials should still decide to enforce mask mandates if COVID cases climb and vaccination numbers are low. And the CDC notes that schools can still embrace universal masking if they can’t verify vaccinations or have large numbers of students too young to qualify.
But it’s this approach – allowing states and local communities to decide and essentially putting Americans on the honor system – that’s in question after COVID cases have risen in all 50 states.
Dr. Jerome Adams, who was Surgeon General under President Donald Trump, said he made a mistake early on in the pandemic urging people not to mask up because he feared a shortage of masks for health care workers. Adams said he’s afraid the CDC is making another mistake now by not putting more pressure on everyone to wear a mask.
“Instead of vax it OR mask it, the emerging data suggests CDC should be advising to vax it AND mask it in areas with cases and positivity- until we see numbers going back down again,” Adams tweeted.
“CDC was well intended, but the message was misinterpreted, premature, & wrong. Let’s fix it,” he added.
Instead of vax it OR mask it, the emerging data suggests CDC should be advising to vax it AND mask it in areas with ⬆️ cases and positivity- until we see numbers going back down again.
CDC was well intended, but the message was misinterpreted, premature, & wrong. Let’s fix it.
The Biden administration though is in a tough spot. The CDC had been under extraordinary pressure earlier this year to show skeptical Americans the benefits of vaccination, including being able to go without a mask and not having to quarantine after being exposed.
And so far, number studies have shown that all three vaccines – Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna – protect people against all known variants. The vaccines also are shown to provide more durable protection than a natural infection.
Also, any federal mandate for vaccines or masks would no doubt trigger a swift backlash among conservatives.
Responding to the former Surgeon General calling on CDC to bring back masks, conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted: “No. No. No. Hell no.”
For his part, President Joe Biden on Friday suggested he wasn’t worried about the science of the vaccinations and masks, only the people who were choosing to ignore it.
“Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” said Biden.
It’s seems Kanye West‘s highly-anticipated album, DONDA, might finally see the light of day.
On Sunday, Justin Laboy shared to social media that the oft-delayed record would be released this week. Alongside a meme that read, “He kills every beat, every hook, and every verse who is he?,” Laboy answered, “LETS ARGUE His name is @kanyewest & this week he’s dropping another classic album. DONT @ ME #Respectfully.”
In two prior tweets, Laboy shared that he’d already heard the album, courtesy of Kanye.
“Kanye played his new album for me & @KDTrey5 last night in Vegas,” Laboy wrote. “Man listen! The production is light years ahead of it’s [sic] time, and the bars sound like he’s broke & hungry trying to get signed again. Any artist who plan on dropping soon should just push it back #Respectfully.”
He added, “ALBUM OF THE YEAR. DONT @ ME.”
Laboy isn’t the only one to tease Kanye’s new music. On Saturday, Consequence shared a muted clip of the rapper and Tyler, the Creator in the studio. He captioned the clip, “ConsTV Exclusive Ye x Tyler Epic Level Summer 21.”
Fans also noticed what appeared to be a track list of about 10 songs in the background of the video, some of which were the same as the track list that surfaced over a year ago, including “24” and “Hurricane,” as Hiphop-N-More notes.
Kanye first announced DONDA would be released on July 24, 2020, before several delays plagued the project. The title of the album, which is a follow-up to 2019’s Jesus Is King, honors his late mother, Donda West, who died in 2017 from surgery complications.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Final Tampa Bay 7 Atlanta 5
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Toronto 5 Texas 0
Final Detroit 7 Minnesota 0
Final Chicago White Sox 4 Houston 0
Final Baltimore 5 Kansas City 0
Final Toronto 10 Texas 0
Final Cleveland 4 Oakland 2
Final Seattle 7 L.A. Angels 4
Final N.Y. Yankees 9 Boston 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final Milwaukee 8 Cincinnati 0
Final Philadelphia 4 Miami 2
Final San Diego 10 Washington 4
Final N.Y. Mets 7 Pittsburgh 6
Final St. Louis 2 San Francisco 1
Final Philadelphia 7 Miami 4
Final Colorado 6 L.A. Dodgers 5
Final Washington 8 San Diego 7
Final Arizona 6 Chicago Cubs 4
(LONDON) — Europe’s death toll from catastrophic flooding rose to at least 199 on Monday with hard-hit west Germany and Belgium reeling from the devastation.
Nearly 300 people remain unaccounted for in Germany and Belgium, officials said.
There are at least 163 dead in Germany, according to authorities. The hardest-hit areas in Germany are Rhineland-Palatinate, where 117 have been killed in the flooding and in North Rhine-Westphalia, where at least 46 people died and 138 remain unaccounted for, the Koblenz Police and the German Ministry of Interior said.
In Belgium, at least 36 are dead and 160 others remain unaccounted, according to the Belgian prime minister’s office.
Western countries in Europe have been hit with days of record rainfall that caused rivers to burst banks and triggered deadly flooding throughout Germany and Belgium and southern parts of the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Horrific images showed entire communities, some with buildings dating back to Medieval times, inundated with water, collapsed edifices and rescue workers combing through the wreckage.
The waters started to recede in some parts of Western Europe as of Saturday and efforts were launched to clean up the leftover debris and potentially discover more bodies.
Residents in many flooded areas were still grappling without electricity or telephone service on Monday.
“It’s madness,” said a resident in the hard-hit district of Ahrweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, as search-and-rescue crews rappelled from helicopters to reach people stranded in their homes.
Belgian broadcaster RTBF reported that some 17,150 houses in Belgium were without power over the weekend and roughly 30,000 households did not have access to drinking water. About 3,500 homes had no gas and officials warned that a shortage of emergency supplies may last for several weeks.
Officials said 85% of the homes inspected in the Liege region of Belgium are at risk of collapsing.
As the water receded in some parts of Germany, an ABC News crew was able to reach Ahrweiler, which had been cut off by flooding and where numerous homes dating back to the 16th century were damaged.
A large, concrete bridge leading into the Ahrweiler was destroyed by the flooding and some homes along the Ahr River were split in half. Uprooted trees littered the river.
Surrounded by medieval fortress walls, residents in the town were out over the weekend shoveling thick mud off of cobblestone street. Residents pointed out a water line that was well over six feet tall.
One man in Ahrweiler told ABC News he saved his elderly mother from the floodwaters. He said the water rose so quickly he sought refuge on the roof of his home where he watched as the flood carried cars down the street.
The severe weather triggered widespread evacuations. Some 700 people were evacuated from part of the German town of Wassenberg after the breach of a dike on the Run River. Thousands of residents in several Dutch towns evacuated Thursday and Friday were allowed to return home over the weekend morning unsure of what they would find.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier traveled over the weekend to Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne.
Caretaker Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte visited impacted towns Friday and said the region had been through “three disasters.”
“First, there was corona, now these floods, and soon people will have to work on cleanup and recovery,” he said. “It is disaster after disaster after disaster. But we will not abandon Limburg,” the southern province hit by the floods. His government has declared the flooding a state of emergency, opening up national funds for those affected.
German and Belgian officials said rescue and recovery efforts are now underway and crews are working to shore up dikes and protect roads.
In Germany, more than 19,000 emergency forces are conducting rescue operations in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, according to the regional government. In the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, police said they received reports of 618 people injured, DPA reported.
Speaking alongside President Joe Biden on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock over the scope of devastation from the flooding.
“I grieve for those who have lost their lives in this disaster,” Merkel said during a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. “I fear the full extent of this tragedy will only be seen in the coming days.”
Merkel returned to Germany over the weekend and visited the hard-hit town of Schuld in the Rhineland-Palatinate region. She described the devastation as “surreal” and “terrifying” and pledged quick financial aid.
“Germany is a strong country,” Merkel told officials in Schuld. “We will stand up to this force of nature, in the short term, but also in the medium and long term.”
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report
(NEW YORK) — Simone Biles is an unstoppable force in the world of gymnastics. The 24-year-old Olympic champion, one of the greatest female gymnasts of all time, is the most decorated U.S. gymnast ever, according to Team USA.
She’s proven her unmatched skills time and time again by nailing challenging moves never done before. Biles had four signature moves named after her in three different events: on the floor, on vault, and on the balance beam.
“The demand on the body is extraordinary, and the physical conditioning that has to take place in order to be able to withstand that kind of pressure is, frankly, off the charts,” said Don Spencer, gymnastic coach and USA Gymnastics Power TeamGym Technical Committee chairman.
Here’s a look at Biles’ signature moves and what makes them so challenging:
Floor exercises
The “Biles on the floor” was first successfully completed by Biles on the world stage in 2013 at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. This move is a double layout with a half-twist, which means that her body remains straight and elongated as she flips twice. While in the air, she completes a half-twist.
What makes this move so challenging is the “blind landing,” according to Courtney Johnson, a USA Gymnastics-accredited judge. This means that Biles can’t see the floor where she will land when she comes down from the flip.
Not only does she have to be extremely high in the air to do two full, stretched-out flips, but the half-twist makes this move more difficult, Johnson said.
Her second signature move on the floor, “Biles II,” was first successfully completed on the world stage in October 2019 at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. For this move — a triple-double — Biles flips twice while twisting three times before hitting the ground.
“The timing has to be good enough for you to still get that height in the air but also move your arms to start this spin-rotation part,” Johnson told ABC News.
Biles is the first female gymnast to ever complete a triple-double.
On vault
The “Biles on the vault,” a Yurchenko half-on with two twists, was first successfully completed on the world stage at the 2018 World Championships. Yurchenko is a type of move named after Soviet gymnast Natalie Yurchenko that involves a round-off onto the spring board, followed by a back handspring on the vault.
So, Biles does a round-off, into a back hand-spring with a half turn, and completes the move by twisting twice in a somersault.
It was assigned a difficulty score of 6.4 — which makes it one of the most difficult vaults in women’s artistic gymnastics.
However, if Biles lands a Yurchenko double pike at the Tokyo Olympics — a roundoff, a back handspring and two straight-legged backflips — she will likely have a fifth move named after her. She’s already performed and successfully landed the move in competition.
On the balance beam
The “Biles on the balance beam,” which was first completed on the international stage at the 2019 World Championships, features a double-double dismount. Biles is the first gymnast to ever complete this skill, according to Team USA.
“If you’re listing the level of difficulty amongst all those skills, I would say the balance beam dismount is probably at the top of the list,” said former UCLA gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field.
The move is a double-twisting double backflip, completed on a 4-inch wide beam.
“The one that is just mind boggling to me is the dismount of balance,” Spencer said. “It’s hard enough just to get to a dismount, with multiple skills in front of it going down a straight line. To be able to execute a skill that twists twice and flips twice from a balance beam … that is just absolutely phenomenal.”
Coaches say that Biles’ genetics likely has a lot to do with her success. Johnson said her 4-foot-8-inch height and small stature gives her more time in the air to do high-difficulty skills, and it makes her unstoppable when combined with her strong, muscular build.
“She’s using her body and her muscles as efficiently as possible and it makes her that much more powerful,” Johnson said.
Her strength allows her to push her smaller body higher up into the air, Johnson said. And since she’s shorter and takes up less space — she can manage more twists, turns, and stunts than her competitors.
However, experts also say Biles’ mental strength and drive have likely played a big role in her gymnastics prowess.
“Your stress levels from the mental strain can really affect and manifest physically, so to be able to overcome those things and compete at the level that she’s competing is amazing and it just sets her apart,” Johnson said.
The pressure is on, with coaches, gymnasts and judges alike praising her focus.
“The focus has to be just razor blades sharp,” Spencer said. “The margin of error is so small, that one minor mishap — if it happens early, it can multiply and exacerbate the end, and even if it happens late, it can mess it up the landing, and so on.”
Biles is heading to her second Olympics, following a stunning set of wins in the 2016 Olympic games. Biles won the individual gold medals in all-around, vault, and floor — and now she’s ready to take on Tokyo.
Luke Bryan turned 45 years old on Saturday, and the singer marked the milestone by playing a packed amphitheater show at a Bristow, Virginia stop on his Proud to Be Right Here Tour.
But if you know anything about the Bryan household, you know that the country superstar’s wife, Caroline, can’t pass up any opportunity for a prank — even if the subject of that prank is on tour and far from home.
Caroline and the rest of Luke’s family, including his two sons Bo and Tatum, surprised the singer with a mini-party onstage, complete with a table full of gag gifts. Among them were a pair of Jockey brand underwear — a nod to the Jockey commercials Luke’s recently starred in — a six-pack of his own Two Lane beer, and more.
“Alright, dammit. I got a lamp, a fire extinguisher, and more Jockey underwear. Lays potato chips…” Luke told the crowd as he surveyed his birthday haul, before suggesting they all join him and his family for a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”
“Tate, do you wanna sing me ‘Happy Birthday’? Bo?” Luke continued, jokingly turning to his sons, who are 13 and 10. “Y’all don’t wanna sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to your dad? That’s horrible. After all I’ve done for y’all.”
Of course, Luke ultimately got his birthday wish, with the crowd singing him a round of “Happy Birthday.” Onstage, the singer’s family sang along, as did his opening acts Caylee Hammack and Dylan Scott, who had returned to the stage for the surprise after performing earlier in the night.
Additional posts that Caroline shared to social media show more of the backstage birthday fun, which included a dance party on Luke’s tour bus and a cake.
Volbeat has announced their first headlining shows in nearly two years.
Kicking off September 24, the eight-date trek includes stops in Atlanta, Oklahoma City, San Diego, Los Angeles, Pasa Robles and Oakland, CA, and San Antonio and Lubbock, TX. The Hu, Twin Temple and Municipal Waste will be the openers on select dates. Dates are scheduled through October 10. Tickets go on sale July 23 at 10 a.m. local time at Volbeat’s website.
In addition, the Danish rockers will also appear at the Rebel Rock festival in Orlando, FL on September 23 and at the Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, CA on October 8.
Volbeat recently released two new songs: “Wait a Minute My Girl” and “Dagen Før.” The latter features guest vocals from Danish singer Stine Bramsen. Both tracks were written and recorded in lockdown, and were the first fresh tracks from the group since their 2019 album, Rewind, Replay, Rebound.
Journey has scheduled a one-night-only performance in Las Vegas this December.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers will take the stage at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Saturday, December 18, but what makes the show special is that they’ll be performing with a symphony orchestra.
The show will feature Journey’s new lineup, which includes former American Idol judge Randy Jackson on bass and famed producer Narada Michael Walden on drums, along with Neal Schon on guitar, Jonathan Cain and Jason Derlatka on keyboards and Arnel Pineda on vocals.
As previously reported, Journey’s classic 1981 album Escape was recently RIAA-certified Diamond for more than 10 million sales.
Journey will be one of the headliners at Lollapalooza on July 31.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Monday announced the unsealing of an indictment charging four Chinese nationals with a years-long effort to hack into computer systems of dozens of companies, universities and governments in the U.S. and at least 11 other countries.
The two-count indictment, returned by a grand jury in May but unsealed just last Friday, names four residents of China in connection to the scheme — three of whom are identified as officers with the Hainan State Security Department, an arm of China’s intelligence service.
Ding Xaioyang, Cheng Qingmin, Zhu Yunmin, and Wu Shurong had one goal, according to court documents: install malware on protected computers and steal the data on the computers.
The indictment alleges that the HSSD created a front company to “identify and recruit talented computer hackers to penetrate foreign entities (including foreign universities) and steal trade secrets, proprietary data and to recruit talented linguists to interpret the stolen material.”
Prosecutors allege that the scheme went on from July 2009 to September 2018, targeting various research universities in the United States, including the National Institutes of Health, and primarily used a phishing technique to gain access to companies and institutions data.
The Justice Department alleges that the hackers targeted infectious-disease research related to Ebola, MERS, HIV/AIDS, Marburg and tularemia.
“These criminal charges once again highlight that China continues to use cyber-enabled attacks to steal what other countries make, in flagrant disregard of its bilateral and multilateral commitments,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “The breadth and duration of China’s hacking campaigns, including these efforts targeting a dozen countries across sectors ranging from healthcare and biomedical research to aviation and defense, remind us that no country or industry is safe. Today’s international condemnation shows that the world wants fair rules, where countries invest in innovation, not theft.”
The indictment comes on the heels of the Biden administration, several allies and partners and NATO are joining forces to “expose and criticize” China for a “pattern of malicious cyber activities,” announcing on Monday that the PRC is profiting off some of the cyberattacks they’ve supported, and officially saying they were behind the Microsoft Exchange server breach in March, according to senior administration officials.
