10 things you need to know today: August 22, 2020

(Image credit: U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee via Getty Images)

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1. Postmaster general says USPS can handle universal mail-in voting
2. Global coronavirus deaths near 800,000
3. California seeks reinforcements to help battle growing wildfires
4. Democrats to continue programming to counter RNC
5. Russian opposition leader transferred to Germany after suspected poisoning
6. 'Golden State Killer' sentenced to life in prison
7. Brennan questioned for 8 hours as 'witness' in Durham investigation
8. Libyan government announces ceasefire
9. Former Green Beret charged with providing U.S. military secrets to Russian agents
10. Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in prison for college admissions scam

published 22 August 2020

1. Postmaster general says USPS can handle universal mail-in voting

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Friday after he vowed to suspend USPS operational changes until the November election is over. He said "there have been no changes in any policies in regards to election mail for the 2020 election," and insisted USPS "is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail securely and on time." While he said he didn't know about the removal of mail sorting infrastructure until there was public outcry, he said he would not replace equipment that has been removed since he took office. The House, meanwhile, will convene Saturday to vote on Democratic legislation that would prevent the functional changes, reverse the already-enacted moves, and provide $25 billion for the agency. The bill is expected to pass along party lines, but is considered dead on arrival in the Senate.

The global death toll from COVID-19 is approaching 800,000, while the number of confirmed infections across the world nears 23 million, data collected by Johns Hopkins University shows. The United States accounts for more than 175,000 of those deaths and more than 5.6 million of the cases. Elsewhere, India, which has the third-highest number of infections after the United States and Brazil, is about to surpass 3 million confirmed cases after recording a single-day increase of more than 69,000 infections. Countries that had previously slowed the spread of the virus like Spain, France, and South Korea have continued to see upticks. The latter is reinstating restrictions across the country after reporting more than 300 new cases for two consecutive days.

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More than 500 wildfires, many of them sparked by lightning storms, are burning across California. Most of those are small and remote, but two clusters of blazes in the San Francisco Bay Area and another in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties have caused extensive damage, destroying hundreds of homes and killing six people. The two Bay Area clusters became the second and third largest wildfires in recent state history, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has urged residents to "heed evacuation orders." By Friday, Cal Fire, the state's fire agency, had called out 96 percent of available engines, while Newsom has sought reinforcements, including from other countries like Canada and Australia. Firefighters and aircraft from 10 other states began arriving in California on Friday to help crews battle the blazes.

After the Democratic National Convention culminated with Joe Biden accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, the party has concluded the 4-day affair. But Democrats still have more videos on the ready, and plan to launch them next week as aggressive counter-programming to the Republican National Convention. Biden's campaign and top party officials plan to highlight what they view as the biggest failures of the Trump administration. "The party is attempting to cast everything about Trump as chaotic and disruptive," writes The Washington Post. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said "whereas our themes, our unity, and our speakers exude optimism and hope," the RNC "will be marked by chaos, chaos, chaos." The RNC begins on Monday night, when President Trump will be formally nominated for re-election.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny arrived in Berlin on Saturday morning, a day after his spokesperson said he was not permitted to be transferred from the Russian state-run hospital where he was being treated after falling ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on Thursday. Navalny remains in a coma and is reportedly in critical condition, despite previous reports indicating he was stable during the flight and upon arrival. After touching down, he was taken to a Berlin hospital where he underwent a comprehensive medical examination. Doctors reportedly would not comment on his illness or treatment until those were completed, although his supporters believe he was poisoned at the behest of the Kremlin. The Russian hospital where Navalny was previously treated said there was no sign of poisoning, but toxicology experts have expressed doubts it could have been ruled out so quickly.

Joseph James DeAngelo, the former police officer known as the Golden State Killer, on Friday was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to a series of murders and rapes in California during the 1970s and 1980s. He was arrested in 2018 thanks to the use of "innovative DNA technology." Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton described DeAngelo as a "man whose horrific unspeakable crimes devastated the lives of so many people, lives that will never be the same, lives forever changed, moments, hours of terror that can never be erased or forgotten." He spoke in the courtroom on Friday and said he is "truly sorry to everyone I've hurt." DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 murders and more than 50 rapes.

Former CIA Director John Brennan on Friday sat for an interview with John Durham at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, that lasted for eight hours. Durham, who was selected by Attorney General William Barr to lead the criminal investigation of the origins of the 2016 probe into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russian election interference, reportedly told Brennan he was neither a subject nor a target of the review, but a "witness." Brennan served in the Obama administration and was one of the officials who signed off on an intelligence assessment that determined Moscow did interfere in the election with the goal of helping Trump defeat his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Brennan's involvement in the initial investigation and his criticism of Trump has angered the president, Politico notes.

Libya's United Nations-backed government announced a nationwide ceasefire Friday. Rebel leader Gen. Khalifa Haftar did not comment on the truce directly, but Aguila Saleh, the speaker of the pro-Haftar Libyan parliament, called on the warring factions to support it in the hopes of preventing foreign military intervention. The ceasefire, though tenuous, has raised hopes for peace amid the nine-year conflict. The U.N., European Union, and Egypt all welcomed the declaration, and experts believe the ceasefire has a good chance of sticking, despite previous failed attempts. The optimism stems from the fact that there's a "military stalemate" since Turkish intervention gave the government "enough power" to stave off an offensive from Haftar.

Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, a former Army Green Beret living in Virginia, has been charged with providing U.S. military secrets to Russian intelligence agents, the Justice Department announced Friday. The info Debbins allegedly handed over concerned his unit's activities in former Soviet republics. Prosecutors, in an indictment after Debbins' arrest, said he told the Russian agents with whom he met on multiple occasions between 1996 and 2011 that he considered himself a "son of Russia" and believed the U.S. "was too dominant in the world." The indictment also alleges Debbins was motivated in part by bitterness over his Army career and a desire to establish business contacts in Russia.

Full House star Lori Loughlin on Friday was sentenced to two months in prison after she pleaded guilty to charges stemming from what prosecutors said was the largest college admissions scam in Department of Justice history. Her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five months in prison. Loughlin and Giannulli were charged for allegedly paying $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters into college as recruits to the University of Southern California's crew team. They initially pleaded not guilty, but changed course in May. Loughlin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud as part of a plea deal that included two months in prison, two years of supervised release, 100 hours of community service, and a $150,000 fine.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.