Florida governor lifts ban on visits to nursing homes
Florida Gov. Ron Desantis announced Tuesday that he will lift the state’s ban on visiting nursing homes that has cut off vulnerable seniors from family since mid-march over fears of spreading the new coronavirus.
Desantis said he would act based on a recommendation from a nursing home task force that has met in recent weeks. It recommends that homes allow no more than two family members at a time to visit their loved ones, and that they wear protective gear including masks.
Facilities would need to go 14 days without a new case of COVID-19 among employees or residents to allow the visits.
More than half of Florida facilities — 62% — have not had a new onset case since Aug. 11, said Mary Mayhew, head of the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, who led the task force.
Justice Department to restrict surveillance of candidates, staffs
The Justice Department announced new restrictions Tuesday on how it conducts any secret national-security surveillance of candidates for federal office or their staffs.
The restrictions, announced by Attorney General William Barr in a pair of memos, are part of broader changes to the Justice Department’s surveillance procedures implemented in response to problems detected during the 2016 investigation into ties between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign.
One new policy would require the FBI to consider briefing a federal candidate or staff member that the person was being targeted by a foreign power before applying for a warrant from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to eavesdrop on the person’s communications.
The FBI had contemplated giving such “defensive briefings” to the Trump campaign but decided against it for fear of compromising an ongoing investigation, according to a Justice Department inspector general report.
Trump wins ruling delaying any turnover of tax returns
President Donald Trump won another delay Tuesday in the longrunning legal battle over whether he must turn over eight years of tax returns to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which subpoenaed them a year ago in a criminal investigation focused on Trump, his business and his associates.
In a brief order, a federal appeals court in New York said it would temporarily block a grand jury subpoena issued by the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, while it considers Trump’s arguments that the request was “wildly overbroad” and politically motivated.
The ruling means that prosecutors, even if they are ultimately successful, will not receive Trump’s records for at least another month, and perhaps longer if the president seeks a review in the Supreme Court.
House panel to subpoena postmaster general for records
The House Oversight Committee intends to subpoena Postmaster General Louis Dejoy for documents on disruptions in mail delivery operations that are now central to questions over the agency’s ability to handle the wave of mail-in ballots expected for the November election.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the committee chair, sent a memo Monday saying that Dejoy blew past last week’s deadline to fully respond to the committee’s request for more information. He has not provided new materials, she said.
US expects China to try to double nuclear warheads in 2020s
China probably plans to double its stockpile of nuclear warheads in this decade, including those designed to be carried atop ballistic missiles that can reach the United States, the Pentagon said in a report released Tuesday.
Even with such increases, China’s nuclear force would be far smaller than that of the United States, which has an estimated 3,800 warheads in active status and others in reserve. Unlike the U.S., China has no nuclear air force, but the report said that gap might be filled by developing a nuclear air-launched ballistic missile.
The Trump administration has been urging China to join the U.S. and Russia in negotiating a three-way deal to limit strategic nuclear arms, but China has declined. Chinese Foreign Ministry officials have said China’s arsenal is too small to be included in negotiated limits and that by pressing China to join in such talks the Trump administration has created a pretext for walking away from the existing U.s.-russia arms treaty known as New START. That deal is due to expire in February but could be renewed for up to five years if Moscow and Washington agree.
Islamic State figure in Turkey arrested, accused of plots
Turkish authorities on Tuesday announced the arrest of Mahmut Ozden, described as a top Islamic State figure in Turkey, and said they had recovered evidence that the group was planning an attack in the country.
Suleyman Soylu, Turkey’s interior minister, announced Ozden’s arrest in a post on Twitter and said Ozden had been “caught with important plans.” He cited a plot to abduct prominent figures and take them to Syria, and one to carry out an operation that “would hurt Turkey economically.”
Soylu said that Ozden had “continuously” received orders from Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. He was also leading groups of 10 to 12 people to formulate plans to carry out attacks against Turkey, according to information obtained from his computer and other digital material, Soylu said.
According to the state-run news agency, Anadolu, the security forces detained Ozden in Adana, a city in southern Turkey, after they had arrested another member of the Islamic State group who was also preparing an attack in Istanbul.