The Overnight News Digest is a nightly series chronicling the eschaton.
130,339 PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS IN THE U.S.
115 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY
Bloomberg
Biden Offers ‘Build Back Better’ Plan to Revive Economy
Joe Biden launched his plan on Thursday to revive the economy from the coronavirus-related recession with a promise to “build back better” than what existed before the crisis. […]
A centerpiece of Biden’s plan is intended to foster manufacturing and encourage innovation, adopting some ideas from his progressive primary rivals, as well as a buy-American focus, but avoiding the big-ticket proposals like the Green New Deal. […]
Biden also said the idea that U.S. companies only bear responsibility to their shareholders is “an absolute farce” because corporations have a duty to workers and their country.
“It’s time corporate America pay their fair share of taxes,” Biden said, reiterating his plan to raise the current corporate tax rate back to the 28% it was during the Obama administration from the current 21%.
Patients Swamp Sun Belt Hospitals With Covid-19 on a Rampage
The coronavirus pandemic’s merciless march through the Sun Belt is killing record numbers of Americans there, overrunning hospitals and exhausting supplies. But even as some leaders fall ill themselves, they have failed to contain the disease’s spread.
On Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis offered no new restrictions as Florida joined Texas and California in reporting record deaths. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey promised more testing and limited restaurant capacity after the state announced the most cases in six days. In Mississippi, where many lawmakers had resisted wearing masks in the Capitol, 26 of them tested positive, including the leaders of both legislative chambers.
New U.S. virus cases topped 60,000 in a day for the first time Thursday. And in states where the disease rages, a nightmarish paralysis hit institutions filling with the sick and dying. Quinn Snyder, an emergency physician in Mesa, near Phoenix, said patients were flooding in from other parts of Arizona and as far as New Mexico as smaller hospitals near the saturation point.
The Washington Post
CDC feels pressure from Trump as rift grows over coronavirus response
The June 28 email to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was ominous: A senior adviser to a top Health and Human Services Department official accused the CDC of “undermining the President” by putting out a report about the potential risks of the coronavirus to pregnant women.
The adviser, Paul Alexander, criticized the agency’s methods and said its warning to pregnant women “reads in a way to frighten women . . . as if the President and his administration can’t fix this and it is getting worse.”
As the country enters a frightening phase of the pandemic with new daily cases surpassing 57,000 on Thursday, the CDC, the nation’s top public health agency, is coming under intense pressure from … Trump and his allies, who are downplaying the dangers in a bid to revive the economy ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. In a White House guided by the president’s instincts, rather than by evidence-based policy, the CDC finds itself forced constantly to backtrack or sidelined from pivotal decisions.
Top military officer labels Confederacy as treasonous as Pentagon takes ‘hard look’ at rebel ties
The military’s top officer on Thursday described Confederate leaders as traitors and said he is taking a “hard look” at renaming 10 Army installations that honor them, despite … Trump’s opposition to any changes.
“The Confederacy, the American Civil War was fought, and it was an act of rebellion,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, told members of the House Armed Services Committee. “It was an act of treason at the time against the Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the U.S. Constitution, and those officers turned their back on their oath.”
The Army is now about 20 percent black, he said.
Los Angeles Times
Supreme Court deals Trump a defeat, upholding demand for his tax returns
The Supreme Court dealt a defeat to … Trump on Thursday by rejecting his claims of presidential immunity and upholding subpoenas from New York prosecutors seeking his tax returns and financial records.
In one of the most anticipated rulings on presidential privilege in years, the justices by a 7-2 vote ruled the nation’s chief executive is not above the law and must comply with legitimate demands from a grand jury in New York that is investigating Trump’s alleged hush money payments to two women who claimed to have had sex with him.
But because the grand jury operates in secret, it is unlikely the general public will see Trump’s financial records before the November election, if ever.
CDC director sticking with school reopening guidelines that Trump criticized
Federal health officials won’t revise their coronavirus guidelines for reopening schools despite criticism from … Trump, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. What they will do, he said, is provide additional information to help states, communities and parents decide what to do and when.
“Our guidelines are our guidelines,” Dr. Robert Redfield declared.
In draft CDC documents obtained by the Associated Press, the agency says there are steps that schools can take to safely reopen but that it “cannot provide one-size-fits-all criteria for opening and closing schools or changing the way schools are run.”
Stars and Stripes
AP: Feds feared Epstein confidante might kill herself, official says
Federal officials were so worried Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell might take her own life after her arrest that they took away her clothes and sheets and made her wear paper attire while in custody, an official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The steps to ensure Maxwell’s safety while she’s locked up at a federal jail in New York City extend far beyond the measures federal officials took when they first arrested her in New Hampshire last week.
The Justice Department has implemented additional safety protocols, and federal officials, outside the Bureau of Prisons, have been specifically tasked with ensuring that there is adequate protection and that the prisons protocols are being followed, the official said. The protections are in case she harms herself and in case other inmates wish to harm her.
Denver Post
Colorado governor stands firm against issuing statewide mask mandate
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis declined Thursday to issue a statewide order mandating mask-wearing in public, despite increased calls for the state to intervene.
“I don’t think there’s too many people sitting around saying, ‘I’m not going to wear a mask until there’s some piece of paper,” Polis said at a news conference.
But, he said he hasn’t ruled it out, either. More than half of Colorado has face-covering ordinances, and officials estimate 70% of Coloradans are wearing them. That’s not enough, the governor said.
Public health experts agree on the efficacy of masks in reducing transmission. Polis said masks not only save lives but help the economy.
“Wear a damn mask,” he said.
The Kansas City Star
Missouri devotes $122.7 million in CARES relief to reopen colleges and universities
Missouri is spending $80 million of its federal COVID-19 relief money to ensure that the state’s public colleges and universities reopen safely for the fall semester, state officials announced Thursday.
“We know that we need PPE. We know that we need to modify our physical spaces. We know that we need testing capability. We know that we need resources to comply with local health orders,” Higher Education Commissioner Zora Mulligan said at Gov. Mike Parson’s afternoon press briefing.
Even with added precautions, Parson acknowledged, until there is a vaccine, the “virus will be in the schools… It will be in the universities as that happens. You just got to be prepared for it,” Parson said.
Last month, Parson made a $41 million cut to Missouri’s higher education budget in addition to a $131 million cut from the state’s K-12 budget.
Houston Chronicle
Texas continues to set new records in COVID-19 hospitalizations
Texas continues to set new records in COVID-19 hospitalizations while the average number of new cases climbs statewide, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis.
On Thursday, there were 9,689 patients hospitalized for lab-confirmed COVID-19 in the state, a record high and a 0.82% percent increase in hospitalizations from the previous record, set Wednesday. There are 11,296 beds available statewide, including 953 in ICU. This is the first time since March 13 that the state has had less than 1,000 ICU beds available.
The statewide case total jumped by 10,214 cases from 225,701 to 235,915 — the second highest daily case increase since the pandemic began. Another 106 deaths — the second-highest death increase so far— makes a total of 2,976 statewide. This is the second time the state has gone over 10,000 new cases and the second straight day with more than 100 deaths.
The Oklahoman
US Supreme Court rules against Oklahoma in Creek Nation case
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s reservation was not officially terminated at Oklahoma statehood, as justices issued a decision that may upend state jurisdiction in much of eastern Oklahoma.
“The federal government promised the Creek a reservation in perpetuity,” the 5-4 decision states.
“Over time, Congress has diminished that reservation. It has sometimes restricted and other times expanded the Tribe’s authority. But Congress has never withdrawn the promised reservation.”
Mvskoke Media
SCOTUS Opinion Upholds Tribal Treaties Promises
After nearly three years the Supreme Court of the United States has delivered their opinion on the reservation jurisdiction question posed in the McGirt and Murphy cases.
The opinion delivered by Justice Gorsuch with a 5-4 vote, on tribal jurisdiction was the first to be delivered in an extended session of SCOTUS on July 7.
The opinion said, ‘Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law.’
‘Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.’
‘For purposes of the Major Crimes Act, land reserved for the Creek Nation since the 19th century remains Indian Country,’ the opinion states.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Abrams’ voting rights group has raised $26 million since 2018 election
While Stacey Abrams was being talked up as a possible Democratic vice presidential pick this spring, the voting rights organization she founded was collecting more donations than all of the state primary candidates and two major political parties in Georgia combined.
Since February, the political action committee for Fair Fight has raised about $6.3 million, most of it from out-of-state donors and a good bit of it funnelled to 18 state Democratic parties to help efforts to make sure people can vote and their vote is counted this fall, according to new reports filed Wednesday.
About $4.2 million was raised just in the past two months — during the coronavirus pandemic — and the group said it took in a record $1.5 million in online donations in June.
The Guardian
Bolivia's president and Venezuela's Socialist party leader test positive for Covid-19
Two more leading Latin American politicians – from Bolivia and Venezuela – have said they have tested positive for Covid-19 in the same week Brazil’s president announced he had contracted coronavirus.
Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s number two official and the leader of the Socialist party, announced his diagnosis on social media on Thursday evening and said he was in self-isolation. “We will prevail!!” tweeted the influential Chavista.
Jeanine Añez, Bolivia’s rightwing interim president, said she had received the same diagnosis. “I’ve tested positive for Covid-19,” tweeted Añez, who controversially took power after Evo Morales was forced into exile last year.
“I’m OK, I will work in isolation. Together, we will get through this.”
European hamster and caterpillar fungus on brink of extinction
Hamsters and fungi may not be poster species among those threatened with extinction but are no less important in ecosystems, according to an updated list of the world’s most fragile species.
The European hamster once scurried across much of Europe and Russia but has now vanished from most of its original range and on current trends will go extinct within 30 years, according to the update of the IUCN red list, the global database of species on the brink.
The key reason for the decline is that there has been a drastic reduction in the birth rate. Whereas previously female hamsters gave birth to more than 20 young every year, now they produce only about five or six pups annually.
BBC News
Park Won-soon: Mayor of Seoul found dead after going missing
Police in the South Korea's capital Seoul have found the body of the city's mayor after he went missing on Thursday. Park Won-soon's daughter reportedly told police he had left a message before leaving the house, leading her to raise the alarm.
His body was found at Mount Bugak in northern Seoul, near where his phone signal was last detected. No cause of death has yet been released.
It has emerged that a female employee had filed a sexual harassment claim against Mr Park in the hours before he went missing, but there has been no confirmation that this was a factor.
Deutsche Welle
Germany security report: Number of right-wing extremists sharply rose in 2019
Right-wing extremism poses the biggest threat to security in Germany, the country's interior minister said Thursday at the presentation of the 2019 report by Germany's domestic intelligence agency.
In Berlin, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and the head of Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) Thomas Haldenwang presented the organization's most recent findings, which showed that right-wing extremism in Germany sharply increased last year.
According to the report, the BfV identified 32,080 right-wing extremists in Germany in 2019, up from 24,100 the year before.
The BfV classified 13,000 of these cases as prepared to use violence, 300 more than in 2018.
Macron approves restoration of Notre Dame spire 'as it was'
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday gave his blessing for the reconstruction of the spire of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after the structure was destroyed in a fire last year.
The spire will resemble its original form, marking a change of heart for Macron who previously proposed that the spire should be replaced with a work of modern architecture. He changed his mind after consultations and an advisory opinion from France's National Commission on Architecture and Heritage, according to the Elysee Palace.
The cathedral's chief architect, Philippe Villeneuve, also called for the 96-meter (315-foot) spire to be rebuilt as it was.
The Atlantic
Why the Iowa Senate Race Is Suddenly Competitive
Theresa greenfield was 24 years old and four months pregnant with her second child when a priest rang her doorbell with terrible news: Her husband, Rod, a lineman at the local power company, had been killed in an accident at work. Greenfield, a Democrat who is challenging Senator Joni Ernst in Iowa this year, tells the story at every virtual campaign event she holds, but she generally leaves out the smaller details: how, just hours before, she’d packed a Snickers bar in Rod’s lunch box as a treat. How the clergyman sat with her on the sofa and held her hands as he explained that Rod had been electrocuted. The way that the panic, in those first few days, consumed her: As a single parent with no income, how would she survive?
Greenfield’s answer came in the form of Social Security survivor’s benefits, a regular check that she and her sons subsisted on for many months, along with Rod’s union benefits. Her family didn’t get rich, she is careful to note, but they survived. Greenfield went on to get a degree in urban planning, and became the president of a Des Moines-based commercial real-estate firm. The story provides the foundational message of her Senate campaign: She argues that she will protect Social Security, organized labor, and the social safety net, even as Republicans like Ernst try to tear them apart. “Social Security gave me the ability to pay the rent and put milk in the refrigerator and fall asleep at night,” Greenfield told me in a Zoom interview this week from her kitchen in Des Moines, a slight glare bouncing off her plastic-rimmed cat-eye glasses. “It gave me that second chance.”
In emphasizing these core Democratic tenets, Greenfield is trying to convince Iowans—especially rural, older white ones—that her party has had their back all along. They may be starting to believe her. Just a few months ago, Ernst, the popular incumbent of “Make ’em squeal” fame, seemed like a lock for reelection. But all of a sudden, the sleepy Iowa Senate race has become one to watch: A poll taken in early June showed Greenfield three points ahead of the Republican senator, albeit within the margin of error.
We Can’t End AIDS Without Fighting Racism
The color of your skin should not determine the quality of your health. But in the United States, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is exacerbated by racism, bias, and discrimination. As America continues its long-overdue reckoning with racism and systemic injustice, we must address the devastating impact of the disease on the Black community. An end to the AIDS epidemic can only be achieved through dignity, respect, love, and compassion for all. […]
While Black Americans make up just 13 percent of the population, they represented 42 percent of new HIV diagnoses in 2018. If you’re a gay or bisexual Black man in the United States, you have a 50 percent lifetime chance of being diagnosed with HIV, compared with just 9 percent for gay or bisexual white men. In the American South—home to the fastest-growing rates of HIV infection in the U.S.— gay and bisexual Black men account for 60 percent of new diagnoses. Black trans women are more vulnerable still: As of last year, an estimated 44 percent of all Black trans women were living with HIV. Worst of all, Black people living with HIV/AIDS are seven times more likely than white people to die from the virus.
Vox
At last, a climate policy platform that can unite the left
The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force on climate change issued its policy recommendations on Wednesday, and they are largely in line with the recommendations of the House Special Committee on the Climate Crisis, which are in turn largely in line with the recommendations of various climate advocacy groups. In short, the broad US left-of-center coalition appears to be aligning around a common climate policy vision. That vision is described in the following piece, first published on May 27. […]
After a decade of dissolution, work on climate policy development cranked back up in earnest around 2018. States where Democrats took control passed climate and clean energy bills. Every Democratic candidate for president produced ambitious climate plans. “All of those people who ran for president, who are currently sitting electeds, had a much more expanded vision on climate by the end of their campaigns than when they started,” said Maggie Thomas, who served as deputy climate director of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s campaign and then policy advisor to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign.
How Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders joined forces to craft a bold, progressive agenda
A “unity” task force created by Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders has released a detailed set of policy recommendations for an incoming Biden administration, if he wins the November election.
The administration it imagines — while not so progressive that it would embrace plans like Medicare-for-all or a jobs guarantee — would push for one of the largest public sector investments in decades. On Wednesday night, a senior campaign aide described Biden’s forthcoming economic plan as the “largest mobilization of public investments in procurement, infrastructure and [research and development] since World War II.”
It’s also a sign of Biden’s success in his ongoing push to unite the party: Numerous progressives on the task force chosen by Sanders told Vox they were happy with the mark they made on the final product.
AP News
Watchdog details storm of political pressure in Sharpiegate
Political pressure from the White House and a series of “crazy in the middle of the night” texts, emails and phone calls caused top federal weather officials to wrongly admonish a weather office for a tweet that contradicted … Donald Trump about Hurricane Dorian in 2019, an inspector general report found.
Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson concluded in a report issued Thursday that the statement chastising the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Alabama, could undercut public trust in weather warnings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and for a short time even hindered public safety. Agency officials downplayed and disputed the findings.
Appeals court pauses lawsuit over Trump hotel profits
Financial records related to … Donald Trump’s Washington hotel can be kept on hold, a federal appeals court said Thursday, while Trump asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal in a lawsuit that accuses him of illegally profiting off the presidency.
The ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond means the records sought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia will likely not be released until after the November election.
The two jurisdictions filed a lawsuit in 2017, alleging that Trump has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by accepting profits through foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel.
Mother Jones
Black Activists Warn That Facebook Hasn’t Done Enough to Stop Racist Harassment
On June 7, Khanstoshea Zingapan posted the video, sent to her by someone who witnessed the confrontation, on the Facebook page of her documentary video charity, Black Zebra Productions. “This is Sacramento, CA. This is a CHP officer with a knee on a neck! Why is this still happening?” she wrote. Zingapan released the video at the height of protests over the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Over the course of next day, Zingapan says the video continued to garner views and comments. But when she woke up on June 9, Black Zebra Productions’ Facebook page been taken down. An email from the company indicated it had been removed for “posting fraudulent or misleading content.” […]
Despite Facebook’s recent proclamations and donations designed to indicate backing for America’s swelling anti-racist movement, the company and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have been targeted by such activists largely because of the platform’s appeasement of … Donald Trump, even as he posts misinformation about voting and exhortations to violence. Meanwhile Facebook is also home to a chorus of Black people who use the site to fight racism but whose own posts and pages are often penalized for calling out bigotry, even as vitriol against them remains on the platform.
What happened to Zingapan, where a Black person’s Facebook page is taken down for mysterious reasons, is actually common.
CNN
Pentagon chief confirms he was briefed on intelligence about Russian payments to the Taliban
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper confirmed Thursday that he had been briefed on information regarding Russian payments to the Taliban, seemingly acknowledging that Russia's support for the militant group in Afghanistan is not a "hoax," as … Donald Trump has claimed. However, Esper also made clear that he has not seen intelligence that corroborates claims that American troops were killed as a result of the "bounty" payments, walking a delicate line between acknowledging a well-known threat and potentially clashing with the President. […]
Responding to a very narrow line of questioning from Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, Esper initially told lawmakers that he did not recall a briefing that included the word "bounty," but less than an hour later he clarified that answer when pressed by a Democratic member of the panel.
NPR News
An Enzyme That Increases With Exercise Can Improve Memory In Mice, And Maybe People
Scientists say they've identified an enzyme that could help explain how exercise can slow or even reverse some signs of aging in the brain. "Exercise in a bottle" isn't around the corner, but it's not out of the question either.
The idea builds on an observation a few years ago that certain parts of the brain can actually grow, even in older people.
"Just because you have an old brain, it doesn't have to stay that way," says Saul Villeda, who researches aging at the University of California, San Francisco. "And one of the best-known interventions that has a benefit on the brain is exercise. The problem is many of the elderly are frail. They can't physically do the exercise."
Lack Of Unity Is A Bigger Threat Than Coronavirus, WHO Chief Says In Emotional Speech
The COVID-19 pandemic is testing the world – and humanity is failing because of a lack of leadership and unity, the head of the World Health Organization declared in a passionate speech Thursday.
"How is it difficult for humans to unite and fight a common enemy that is killing people indiscriminately?" WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked at a briefing in Geneva, his voice rising with emotion.
"Are we unable to distinguish or identify the common enemy?" he asked.
The world's lack of solidarity — not the coronavirus — is the biggest threat we face, Tedros said, adding that divisions among countries and people give an advantage to a virus that has been holding the world hostage for months.
Gary Larson
Fresh from Larson’s Lab: First New Cartoons in 25 Years
I don’t want to mislead anyone here. This corner of the website—“New Stuff”—is not a resurrection of The Far Side daily cartoons. (Well, not exactly, anyway—like the proverbial tiger and its stripes, I’m pretty much stuck with my sense of humor. Aren’t we all?) The thing is, I thoroughly enjoyed my career as a syndicated cartoonist, and I hope, in spirit at least, we had some laughs together. But after fifteen years of meeting deadlines, well, blah blah blah … you know the rest. The day after I retired from syndication, it felt good not to draw on a deadline. And after moving on to other interests, drawing just wasn’t on my to-do list. Things change. But then a few years ago—and returning to the subject at hand—something happened in my life, and it started with a clogged pen.
Despite my retirement, I still had intermittent connections to cartooning, including my wife’s and my personal Christmas card. Once a year, I’d sit myself down to take on Santa, and every year it began with the same ritual: me cursing at, and then cleaning out, my clogged pen. (Apparently, the concept of cleaning it before putting it away each year was just too elusive for me.) As problems go, this is admittedly not exactly on the scale of global warming, but in the small world of my studio, it was cataclysmic. Okay, highly annoying.