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: Aïda Amer/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 9 p.m. ET: 12,220,166 — Total deaths: 553,438 — Total recoveries — 6,696,632 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 9 p.m. ET: 3,111,902 — Total deaths: 133,195 — Total recoveries: 969,111 — Total tested: 38,032,966 — Map.
  3. Public health: More young people are spreading the virus — Cases rise in 33 states — Florida reports highest single-day death toll since pandemic began.
  4. Science: World Health Organization acknowledges airborne transmission of coronavirus.
  5. 1 🐂 thing: How the world could monitor for potential pandemic animal viruses.
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Axios
8 hours ago - Podcasts

Inside Joe Biden's economic plan

Joe Biden on Thursday returned to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to give his first major speech on economic policy since becoming the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

Axios Re:Cap digs into Biden's plans, how they developed and how they may change, with former U.S. Commerce secretary and campaign surrogate Penny Pritzker.

Dave Lawler
8 hours ago - World

Countries grapple with whether to lock back down as hotspots emerge

Tokyo in the time of coronavirus. Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty

Many politicians and public health officials sounded a similar lockdown refrain in the spring: let’s do this right so we only have to do it once.

Reality check: While some countries have thus far managed to keep cases under control after opening up, dozens of countries that had initially turned a corner are now seeing a worrying rebound. They have to decide if and how to return to lockdown — and whether their populations will stand for it.

Go deeper (2 min. read)Arrow