Feb 19, 2019 - Politics & Policy

Report: Trump launching global effort to decriminalize homosexuality

Photo: Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Led by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the Trump administration is launching a new push to decriminalize homosexuality around the globe, beginning Tuesday evening with a strategy dinner in Berlin with LGBTQ activists, NBC News' Josh Lederman reports.

The big picture: The effort is being framed as a means of "denouncing Iran over its human rights record," an issue that Trump officials hope will unite Europe against the administration's top adversary. Last year, the Trump administration faced backlash for adopting a policy that denied visas to same-sex domestic partners of U.N. employees and U.S. diplomats, stipulating that visas were only granted to married couples.

Go deeper: Homosexuality still criminalized in much of the world

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Axios

Updated 6 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 10 p.m. ET: 30,065,728 — Total deaths: 944,604— Total recoveries: 20,423,802 — Map
U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 10 p.m. ET: 6,674,070 — Total deaths: 197,615 — Total recoveries: 2,540,334 — Total tests: 90,710,730 — Map
Politics: Former Pence aide says she plans to vote for Joe Biden, accusing Trump of costing lives in his coronavirus response.
Health: Pew: 49% of Americans would not get COVID-19 vaccine if available today — Pandemic may cause cancer uptick — The risks of moving too fast on a vaccine — COVID-19 racial disparities extend to health coverage losses.
Business: Retail sales return to pre-coronavirus trend.

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Ina Fried, author of Login

7 hours ago - Technology

Scoop: How the Oracle-TikTok deal would work

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

An agreement between TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance and Oracle includes a variety of concessions in an effort to make the deal palatable to the Trump administration and security hawks in Congress, according to a source close to the companies.

Driving the news: The deal, in the form of a 20-page term sheet agreed to in principle by the companies, would give Oracle unprecedented access and control over user data as well as other measures designed to ensure that Americans' data is protected, according to the source.

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Zachary Basu

8 hours ago - World

How the EU plans to take on human rights abusers

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Amid a global assault on human rights stretching from Belarus to Hong Kong to Yemen, the European Union signaled yesterday that it may act to deter corrupt kleptocrats and state abusers by hitting them where it hurts: their assets.

Driving the news: Europe's chief executive Ursula von der Leyen revealed in her first-ever State of the Union speech that she will bring forth a European Magnitsky Act, a sanctions framework modeled after a U.S. law that restricts malign actors' access to travel and the global financial system.