'Had it been a case of Diet Coke, I'd have been all over it'
| 'Had it been a case of Diet Coke, I'd have been all over it'  It sounds like a job for Sherlock Holmes: the case of the missing Japanese whiskey.
A $5,800 bottle of the brown stuff given as a gift by Japan to ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has gone missing, and State Department investigators are hot on the trail. The former top US diplomat says he knows nothing about the dram(a) and has offered to help sniff the bottle out. "I assume it wasn't ever touched. It never got to me," Pompeo said during an appearance on Fox News, but couldn't resist taking a shot at the former career officials with whom he often feuded. "I have no idea how the State Department lost this thing, although I saw enormous incompetence at the State Department during my time there," he said. "Had it been a case of Diet Coke, I'd have been all over it."
Missing gifts are no laughing matter. Government officials can accept personal presents from foreign governments valued at up to $390 but if they want to keep anything more valuable, they must pay for it. Failure to disclose gifts could result in prosecution. Alas, most of these presents are destined for life in government warehouses since accepting them could pose conflicts of interests while turning them down could offend foreign dignitaries. Some do end up in museum displays or eventually turn up in presidential libraries.
The missing whiskey is only a small sample of Pompeo's haul that includes valuable presents including a silver letter opener, an eagle statue and a book of the writings by Pope Francis from the man himself. Bahrain gave Pompeo a clock worth more than $1,300 and the UAE gifted him a large carpet worth nearly $10,000, according to just released annual State Department disclosures for 2019. Former first lady Melania Trump got plenty of earrings and other jewelry that year during her travels — but didn't appear to like any of it enough to buy any items off the government.
And what do you give a President who already has everything? Foreign governments presented ex-President Donald Trump with a bounty of porcelain, statues and artifacts and even an Ottoman Empire rifle. But top marks to the leaders of Australia, Egypt and Vietnam who really knew the way into Trump's heart — they got him pictures of himself. The world and America Iran swore in its new hardline president Ebrahim Raisi.
And the Dixie wildfire wiped out an entire town in Northern California.  Sao Paulo's tallest building, the Mirante do Vale, opened a transparent box on its 42nd level for those willing to brave the dizzying height. (Reuters)  'Polluting the public debate with disinformation, lies, hatred and conspiracy theories' When worried American experts warn that former President Donald Trump's lies about election fraud could have a dangerous ripple effect around the world, this is what they meant.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is falling further and further behind in polls, has been ramping up baseless claims that Brazil's 2022 elections could be tainted. In a press conference last week, he promised to prove that the country's electronic voting system could be rigged, then showed a series of inconclusive YouTube videos and media reports. This week, he doubled down his claims, releasing confidential documents from the 2018 election – which he won – purporting to show that the voting system was "invaded, and therefore violated."
Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, which oversees elections, responded both times, describing the videos as misleading, and explaining that because Brazil's ballot machines are not connected to the internet, the alleged 2018 hacking "had no impact on the outcome of the elections." But the court is clearly getting tired of chasing down baseless claims. "The threat against elections, polluting the public debate with disinformation, lies, hatred and conspiracy theories is an anti-democratic behavior," wrote TSE President Luis Barroso.
Bolsonaro has been indulging in such behavior for a long time. In the wake of the January 6 Capitol insurrection that Trump incited in Washington, he told supporters that Brazil could face even worse repercussions unless it implements paper ballots. "If Brazil doesn't have a printed vote in 2022, a way of auditing the vote, we will have a worse problem than the US," he declared in front of Brasilia's Alvorada Palace. Brazil's electronic voting system has had no documented instances of fraud since it was implemented in 2000.
According to Wallace Corbo, professor of constitutional law at Getúlio Vargas Foundation University, the breadth of the president's complaints about the electoral process suggest a deeper "disposition to rupture and reject the ballot results if they are not in his favor – as happened with Trump in the USA -- which at the end of the day is a coup threat," Corbo said.
Unlike Trump, however, Bolsonaro could pay a political price in advance for his inflammatory rhetoric. The TSE has already opened an administrative inquiry into the president's statements, and also requested that Bolsonaro be personally investigated as part of a larger ongoing probe into the proliferation of "fake news" and disinformation campaigns in Brazil.
If the TSE inquiry finds that the president abused his position to spread misinformation and create unsubstantiated doubts about the electoral system, Bolsonaro could be barred from running for office for eight years, according to Corbo. "As president, Bolsonaro is allowed and expected to take part in public discussions," he said. "What he cannot do -- and has been doing -- is systematically attack the electoral system by which he was elected." -- journalists Marcia Reverdosa and Juliana Koch write to Meanwhile from Sao Paulo Thanks for sticking with us through the week.
Friday is the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Italy's coronavirus green pass will allow people who have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to attend crowded events and enter indoor gatherings such as bars, restaurants, cinemas and museums. Salute!
On Saturday, people who have received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine in Wales will no longer have to isolate after contact with someone who has tested positive. And Sunday is the last day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The 2032 host, Brisbane, Australia, plans to lift its lockdown. View in browser | All CNN Newsletters
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