The Overnight News Digest is a nightly series chronicling the eschaton and the fall of the Republic.
148,888 PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS IN THE U.S.
94 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY
The Washington Post
Former president Barack Obama delivered a call to action in his eulogy Thursday of late congressman John Lewis, urging Congress to pass new voting rights laws and likening tactics by … Trump and his administration to those used by racist Southern leaders who fought the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Obama, speaking for 40 minutes at the pulpit where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, tied Lewis’s early life as a Freedom Rider to the nationwide protests that followed the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. He compared today’s federal agents using tear gas against peaceful protesters, an action that Trump has cheered on, to the same attacks Lewis faced on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
“Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans,” the nation’s first Black president said at Lewis’s final memorial service. “George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here there are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting.”
Trump encounters broad pushback to his suggestion to delay the Nov. 3 election
Trump drew immediate rebukes from across the political spectrum Thursday after proposing a delay to the November election and claiming without evidence that widespread mail balloting would be a “catastrophic disaster” leading to fraudulent results.
The suggestion represented Trump’s latest, and most dramatic, attempt to undermine public faith in the Nov. 3 election, a trend that has grown more frequent and emphatic as polls have shown his political fortunes declining…
Thursday’s tweet came on the heels of a devastating report showing that the economy shrank nearly 10 percent from April through June, the largest quarterly decline since the government began publishing such data 70 years ago.
Public health experts issue urgent call for change of course as U.S. economy tanks
Public health experts called for urgent new measures Thursday to halt the spread of the coronavirus amid warnings the U.S. economy is in a historic and devastating contraction as covid-19 is killing Americans at the rate of about one every minute.
The stock market took a dive after the Commerce Department reported the economy shrank by 9.5 percent in the second quarter, the biggest recorded decline since the government began keeping track 70 years ago. The government also reported jobless claims climbing again last week by 1.4 million, another sign the recovery is fizzling. GDP shrank at an annual rate of 32.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The dismal statistics underscored the fragility of any economic recovery, as many states are reversing their attempts to reopen for business and have imposed new restrictions.
Bloomberg
U.S. Economy’s Rebound Looks Shakier After Worst Quarter Yet
The full scope of the pandemic’s toll on the U.S. economy was on display Thursday, when government officials reported that gross domestic product shrank the most on record in the second quarter and 17 million Americans claimed state unemployment benefits in mid-July.
While the GDP drop -- an astounding 32.9% when annualized -- was widely anticipated at this point, the jobless claims figure was not. The almost 900,000 increase in the number of people claiming continued benefits provides the latest evidence that the nascent recovery from the collapse is being undermined by the resurgence of the virus across much of the U.S.
Over 150 Firms That Got U.S. Relief Aid Plan Layoffs, S&P Says
More than 150 U.S. businesses that received financing from the Paycheck Protection Program have announced plans to lay off employees, undercutting efforts to preserve jobs at pandemic-hit companies, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The companies, which include arts organizations, real estate firms and manufacturers, are estimated to have received between $291.6 million to $647.5 million in total PPP loans, S&P said in a report Thursday. And yet they had plans to cut 15,814 employees from May 1 to July 17.
Los Angeles Times
Apple smashes revenue estimates in record third quarter
Apple Inc. reported quarterly revenue that crushed Wall Street forecasts after locked down consumers snapped up new iPhones, iPads and Mac computers to stay connected during the pandemic. The stock jumped as much as 6.3% in extended trading.
The world’s largest technology company also announced a four-for-one stock split after its shares surged more than 80% in the last year, and confirmed that the next iPhones will launch a “few weeks later” than usual.
Breonna Taylor graces Oprah Winfrey’s O magazine cover in historic first
Oprah Winfrey has penned a powerful column demanding justice for Breonna Taylor and honoring her memory in the September edition of O, the Oprah Magazine, which features Taylor on the cover.
On Thursday, O published Winfrey’s essay explaining the decision not to feature Winfrey on the cover of her magazine for the first time in 20 years. The moving piece also quotes Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, as she continues to seek consequences for the police officers involved in her daughter’s shooting.
The Oregonian
Starting Thursday afternoon, state troopers will be stationed outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland wearing their standard police uniforms and iconic campaign-style hats -- not riot or tactical gear.
Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton said he wants his troopers to present an “Officer Friendly look around the courthouse,” which he hopes will set a new tone for the night ahead as Portland’s demonstrations against police brutality enter their 64th straight night.
“You will find these Oregon State Police troopers are not easily provoked,” he said. “They will have a very measured and proportional response.”
Portland officials say they expect less deployment of tear gas at nightly downtown demonstrations with the arrival of Oregon State Police troopers and the mayor apologized to nonviolent protesters gassed by city officers.
During separate news conferences Thursday, Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said all leaders were in agreement when they met with Gov. Kate Brown, State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton and Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell on Tuesday “that Portlanders have been tear gassed enough.” Wheeler and Hardesty said Hampton agreed his troopers would use the toxic gas only as a last resort.
“The only reason to use tear gas when the federal government has left will be to save life, period,” Hardesty said. “No tear gas for crowd control. No tear gas because a water bottle got thrown at you and your feelings got hurt. The only reason that anybody will use tear gas will be to save someone’s life — either an officer or a community member.”
AP News
China toughens travel rules for Xinjiang capital
China is tightening travel restrictions in the capital of the Xinjiang region amid a COVID-19 outbreak in the northwestern city.
People arriving in Urumqi from regions considered to have high infection risk must undergo a two-week quarantine. Others arriving from less risky areas most show proof of good health. Locals “in principle” must stay in the city or show proof of health to be allowed to leave.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, continues to see a third wave of infections, with almost 150 new cases reported Friday to bring its total to 3,151 cases and 25 deaths.
Prosecutor: No charges for officer in Michael Brown’s death
St. Louis County’s prosecutor announced Thursday that he will not charge the former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a dramatic decision that could reopen old wounds amid a renewed and intense national conversation about racial injustice and the police treatment of people of color.
Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s decision marked the third time prosecutors investigated and opted not to charge Darren Wilson, the white officer who fatally shot Brown, a Black 18-year-old, on Aug. 9, 2014. A St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Wilson in November 2014, and the U.S. Department of Justice also declined to charge him in March 2015.
United Press International
Full D.C. appeals court takes up Michael Flynn dismissal case
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said in an order Thursday that the full body will reconsider the decision to drop the case against … Donald Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The decision is the latest turn in the case. A three-judge appeals panel in June voted 2-1 to order U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to end the case after federal prosecutors decided to drop charges against him.
Belarus authorities arrest 33 alleged Russian mercenaries for election interference
Authorities in Belarus on Thursday said that 33 Russian mercenaries were arrested on suspicion of terrorism.
Belarus' Security Council chief, Andrey Ravkov, said authorities opened a criminal investigation against the militants, identified as fighters from the Wagner private military company, who were accused of trying to "destabilize" the country's electoral process ahead of its upcoming election in August.
Law enforcement agencies in the country said Wednesday that they had received information of more than 200 militants arriving in Belarus.
NPR News
Obama Calls For Abolishing Filibuster If It Stands In Way Of Stronger Voting Rights
Former President Barack Obama called on Americans to honor the late civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis by working to expand voting rights — and if Congress has to abolish the filibuster to strengthen the Voting Rights Act, then so be it, Obama said.
"You want to honor John? Let's honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for," Obama said as he gave a eulogy Thursday for Lewis during services at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
As he delivered a passionate speech about Lewis' impact on American society and politics, Obama reeled off a list of suggestions for improving civil rights, democracy and voter participation in the United States.
Air Quality Disparities Persist Despite Overall Gains
The places with the most severe air pollution nearly 40 years ago remain among the most polluted places today, according to a new study that uses historical air pollution data to track disparities in air quality over time.
Decades of research and the lived experiences of millions of Americans have established that people in the United States do not have equal access to clean air, and that poor people and people of color are more likely to breathe polluted air than their fellow citizens who are white or rich.
But until last year, researchers did not have the data they needed to study how those disparities change over time. In 2019, a team in Canada and the U.S. published data that track soot pollution in North America between 1981 and 2016.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia politicians want John Lewis statue to replace Confederate leader in Capitol
Georgia’s top leaders have embraced the idea of removing the figure of Alexander Stephens from the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol and replacing him with a likeness of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis.
Shortly after the civil rights icon’s funeral ended Thursday, most of Georgia’s congressional delegation signed letters to Gov. Brian Kemp and state legislative leaders pushing to swap out the statue of Stephens, a white supremacist who was the vice president of the Confederacy.
“I can think of no better statue in the U.S. Capitol representing our state than one of John Lewis,” wrote U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, one of the most senior members of Georgia’s delegation. “Our nation lost a giant, and it’s up to us to work together so that John’s fight for justice and equality continues.”
Houston Chronicle
The number of oil and gas production jobs in Texas could hit bottom this fall
The number of oil and gas production jobs in Texas could fall to a 15-year low in the coming months and may never fully recover as the industry consolidates and produces more crude with fewer workers.
Battered by the coronavirus pandemic, drilling and oil-field services companies operating in Texas employed 162,350 workers in June, about half of the 297,100 workers at their peak of employment in December 2014, according to the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, which represents some 2,600 independent oil and gas producers. Texas lost 46,100 jobs in production and oil-field services from February to June as the pandemic crushed demand for crude, and oil companies cut drilling budgets and halted production amid historically low oil prices.
Karr Ingham, the alliance’s petroleum economist, said he expects oil and gas production employment in Texas to fall to around 150,000 in the next three months, which would be the lowest since 2005. If rising coronavirus cases prompt governments to impose another round of business and travel restrictions, oil and gas extraction employment could fall further, he said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s public approval for COVID response hits 38%, poll finds
Approval for Gov. Greg Abbott’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic continues to erode, according to a new poll from a consortium of universities.
The survey, conducted through Sunday by Harvard, Northeastern, Rutgers and Northwestern universities, found that 38 percent of Texans approve of the governor’s response to the health crisis, a steep decline from the 61 percent who were supportive in a similar poll in late April.
The authors said Republican governors in states that have seen recent surges, including Abbott, have seen declining approval for their countermeasures that closely mirror those suggested by … Donald Trump. Approval for Trump’s handling of the crisis dropped to 32 percent both nationally and in Texas, according to the poll.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin governor issues a statewide mandate to wear masks indoors through the end of September
Gov. Tony Evers is requiring all Wisconsin residents to wear face masks while indoors until the end of September.
The order issued Thursday takes effect Saturday and makes Wisconsin the 32nd state to require face coverings — a tool health experts say can substantially reduce transmission of the coronavirus, which can cause serious illness and death and has no vaccine. […]
The orders could push Republican lawmakers, who successfully sued the governor in May over his stay-at-home order, to return to the state Capitol to block Evers — another showdown with the Democratic governor the senate's majority leader said he is considering.
Vox
San Francisco could have crushed the coronavirus, then Trump got in the way
On June 25, San Francisco Mayor London Breed was excited the city’s zoo would finally reopen after closing down for months in response to Covid-19. She visited the facilities, posting photos on social media with a mask on and giraffes in the background.
“I know people are eager to get back to some sense of normalcy, especially families and children,” she tweeted. And it looked like her city was taking a step toward it.
The day after the visit, Breed had to announce the sad news: San Francisco’s reopening plan — for the zoo and various other facilities, including hair salons and indoor museums — would have to be put on hold.
“COVID-19 cases are rising throughout CA. We’re now seeing a rise in cases in SF too. Our numbers are still low but rising rapidly,” she tweeted. “As a result, we’re temporarily delaying the re-openings that were scheduled for Monday.”
Amazon just posted record sales and profit in the middle of a pandemic
Amazon registered nearly $89 billion in sales and $5 billion in profit over the last three months, setting company records on both figures and blowing away Wall Street expectations as Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns pushed more shoppers online and into Amazon’s arms.
CEO Jeff Bezos had said last quarter that the company planned to spend around $4 billion on pandemic-related health and safety efforts for its workers throughout April, May, and June, and that those expenses might wipe out all of the company’s profit over the quarter. Instead, Amazon customers surprised company executives by expanding their pandemic-driven purchases beyond low-profit goods like groceries — sales of which still tripled year over year in the quarter — into more profitable “hardline” categories like electronics and “softline” goods like clothing. That’s what helped the company set a record profit, eclipsing the previous record of $3.6 billion in profit in the first quarter of 2019. […]
The record quarterly profit and sales figures, which eclipsed Wall Street analyst expectations by a staggering $8 billion, highlight Amazon’s growing power in the US economy. And it comes a day after a committee of US lawmakers grilled Bezos, the world’s richest man, on the business practices that Amazon has used to ascend to its increasingly dominant position.
The Guardian
Hong Kong: China says it will not recognise UK overseas passports
China will not recognise the British national (overseas) passport as a legal travel document, raising the prospect that the 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for the passport will be banned from leaving Hong Kong by the Chinese government.
The warning was made at a press conference by the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, in which he also warned that it was hard to imagine a global Britain that bypassed or excluded China. Decoupling from China would mean decoupling from growth and the future, he suggested. […]
Liu punctuated his online press conference with videos seeking to debunk reports that Uighur Muslims have been suppressed in Xinjiang province, saying those sent to re-education centres, which he claimed were akin to boarding schools, were only going through the same kind of anti-radicalisation training as terrorists in the west.
Ghislaine Maxwell: court unseals documents related to dealings with Epstein
A cache of documents in civil litigation against the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was unsealed on Thursday night, including early 2015 correspondence with her longtime confidant Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. […]
The documents in question stem from Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre’s 2015 civil action against Maxwell.
Giuffre has claimed that Maxwell lured her into Epstein’s orbit at 15 years old, under the guise of offering work as a masseuse. Maxwell met Giuffre at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in south Florida, where the then teen was working as a locker-room attendant.
How Trump is emboldening other countries' 'bad behavior' on the climate crisis
The origins of the world’s historic agreement to tackle climate change, in Paris in 2015, have some familiar themes. Back in 2007, there was a Republican president in the White House who had long been hostile to any action on climate change.
George W Bush had refused to give US backing to a new global roadmap on the climate. […]
The official delegation has been as quiet as its understated appearance suggests. Unlike the Bush administration, the Trump White House has made little attempt to disrupt the UN process, and few interventions of any kind. Supporters of Paris have greeted this somnolence with relief, eager to avoid another showdown like Bali.
Deutsche Welle
Germany urges continued US dialogue after troop pullout
The German government has urged to continue "eye level" dialogue with Washington despite the announced United States troop withdrawal from the country.
"We have to continue a trustful dialogue at a higher level," Thomas Silberhorn, a senior member of the German Defense Ministry told DW.
"For decades, the US troops did a magnificent job in Germany and Europe," Silberhorn said, adding that it is now "crucial to get a clear strategic approach to the questions of readjusting US troops not only in Germany but all over Europe."
The Daily Beast
‘America’s Dying’: Russian Media Is Giddy at Chaos in the USA
This week, … Donald Trump reiterated his intent to move forward with reducing the U.S. military presence in Germany, without any consultations with Berlin. And even as members of the U.S. Congress and America’s allies abroad expressed concerns about the drawdown, the Trump administration’s decision brought joy to the Kremlin and Russian media. […]
Meanwhile, when the intent to reduce the U.S. contingent in Germany was first announced, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Kremlin “would welcome any steps by Washington to scale down its military presence in Europe,” brazenly telling the United States to take home not only its troops, but also its tactical nuclear weapons.
The Kremlin-controlled Russian state media also sensed a precious propaganda opportunity. Sergey Brilyov, anchor of the news show Saturday Vesti on Russian state media channel Rossiya-1, pondered whether the controversial move by the Trump administration could be considered the proof that Russia no longer poses a military threat to Europe.
‘George Floyd All Over Again’: ICE Guard Drove Knee Into Detainee
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement guard at an immigration jail in Virginia knelt dangerously on the upper back of a man already bleeding from his head, two detained men who said they saw the disturbing incident told The Daily Beast.
“It was like seeing George Floyd all over again,” said one detainee, whom The Daily Beast will call Glenn.
Since the incident on Monday, July 13, the detained men said that they have not seen the beaten man, identified as 31-year old Carlos Rivas Monsano. “Right now, we don’t know where he is,” a second detainee, whom The Daily Beast will call Jerry, said on Monday. A third detainee gave a similar account.
In a statement to The Daily Beast, ICE said it was investigating what is said to have happened to Rivas.
The Atlantic
NASA Goes Looking for Tiny Ancient Martians
The very first time NASA put a robot on Mars, it was looking for one thing: life.
When scientists examined the mission’s early findings, they sent for champagne. They were convinced they’d discovered proof, quietly metabolizing, in the soil. But the data turned out to be muddled, and one experiment designed to detect organic molecules found none, not even simple ones that astronauts had found on the moon.
Nearly half a century after that mission, its latest successor, a rover called Perseverance, left Earth this morning to scour Mars’s surface for signs of alien microbes.
BBC News
Stonehenge: Sarsen stones origin mystery solved
The origin of the giant sarsen stones at Stonehenge has finally been discovered with the help of a missing piece of the site which was returned after 60 years.
A test of the metre-long core was matched with a geochemical study of the standing megaliths. Archaeologists pinpointed the source of the stones to an area 15 miles (25km) north of the site near Marlborough.
English Heritage's Susan Greaney said the discovery was "a real thrill".
The seven-metre tall sarsens, which weigh about 20 tonnes, form all fifteen stones of Stonehenge's central horseshoe, the uprights and lintels of the outer circle, as well as outlying stones.
The monument's smaller bluestones have been traced to the Preseli Hills in Wales, but the sarsens had been impossible to identify until now.
Ars Technica
“This is a very dangerous situation”: Big Tech’s day on the Hill
A bevy of tech's biggest titans—Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg—all took to their remote offices Wednesday to dial into a hotly anticipated Congressional hearing, the latest part of an in-depth investigation into their firms' behavior that began more than a year ago.
The almost six-hour hearing was nominally convened to talk about antitrust enforcement, and it had two core questions at its heart. First: do the biggest, globe-spanning US tech companies have too much power in the market? And second: did they come by the power they do have honestly, or did they somehow cheat to get it?
House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) focused his opening remarks on how bipartisan the investigation process has been to date before sketching out his belief that all four companies present have behaved anticompetitively, become monopolies, and caused harm both to consumers and the entire democratic project writ large.
"When everyday Americans learn how much of their data is being mined, they can't run away fast enough," Cicilline said. "But in many cases, there is no escape from the surveillance, because there is no alternative. People are stuck with bad options.