The News Roundup — International (The 1A) 2020-07-31

The United States is shifting 12,000 troops out of Germany to other NATO countries and domestic bases. The Pentagon says the move is meant to serve as deterrence against Russia. But the decision comes after the president’s claims of “tremendous delinquencies” by Germany. This shift illustrates growing tension between the U.S., Germany, and Russia following the Trump administration’s sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

In Turkey, parliament has passed controversial social media legislation. The new law would require platforms with over one million daily users to have open offices in the country and comply with the government’s demands to block and remove posts, among other measures. Failure to comply could result in hefty fines and cuts to their bandwidths that would make them unusable. Some critics say the new law will empower Turkey to silence political opposition and control social media.

Reports of a cyberattack on the Vatican have emerged in the days ahead of negotiations to appoint Catholic bishops in China. A security firm determined that China targeted Vatican computers in a hack. The attack on the Vatican’s computer network appears to be an espionage effort to gather sensitive information on the Catholic Church, similar to previous attacks on Muslim Uighurs and Buddhists Tibetans.

And the COVID-19 pandemic is still devastating countries around the world.
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