The Overnight News Digest is a nightly series chronicling the eschaton and the fall of the Republic.
157,544 PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS IN THE U.S.
86 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY
The Washington Post
Postal Service overhauls leadership as Democrats press for investigation of mail delays
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s mail service, displacing the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations, according to a reorganization memo released Friday. The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections.
Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of … Trump, and de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles.
The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays — the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail — and wary of the Trump administration’s influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November’s election draws near.
The U.S. economy is on the verge of a ‘lost year’
[…] The U.S. economy is facing one of its most uncertain moments ever as the deadly coronavirus remains a constant threat. According to Pew Research, people are growing more pessimistic about how America’s leaders have handled the virus and the nation’s ability to contain it, which only digs a deeper hole for the economy. As soon as the virus flares in a part of the country, cellphone data show people immediately stay home instead of instead of venturing out to restaurants, stores and entertainment. […]
Businesses live in fear they will be shut down again or customers won’t return. Managers are struggling to keep up with changing safety guidelines. School districts are grappling with whether to reopen this fall — or if they’ll be able to stay open. Parents are straining to juggle full-time jobs with kids at home. And supply chains are showing worrying signs of shortages again. For many, there’s a growing sense it’s a “lost year.”
As so much hangs in the balance, the bulk of the federal government aid for small businesses and unemployed has expired. Congress and … Trump have been unable to come to a deal on more relief, adding to the uncertainty. The recovery is stalling on many fronts, and economists warn there’s heightened risk of backsliding.
Bloomberg
Mnuchin Says Trump to Take Executive Action After Talks Stall
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he’ll recommend … Donald Trump move ahead with executive action on unemployment aid, evictions and student loans after another round of negotiations with Democrats on a virus relief plan ended without any agreement.
“The president would like to make a deal. Unfortunately, we did not make any progress today,” Mnuchin said after leaving a meeting Friday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
Because talks are at a standstill, Mnuchin said the president should follow through with plan to restore a few of the provisions of the last stimulus bill that have expired.
U.S. Intelligence Agencies Say China and Iran Want Trump to Lose
China and Iran are working to sway U.S. voters against … Donald Trump while Russia is working against his rival, Joe Biden, intelligence agencies said Friday.
“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer,” National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina said in a statement.
The statement provides the latest intelligence-community assessments of threats by foreign actors to disrupt and influence the election less than three months ahead of the vote. […]
The assessment says Russia, which worked on behalf of Trump and against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign, sees Biden as part of an anti-Russia establishment and will use social media and television to denigrate his candidacy.
Los Angeles Times
California colleges can reopen with a ton of restrictions, limited dorms, online classes
As California colleges and universities reopen this fall they must adhere to strict limits on in-person classes and greatly restrict dorm and campus life, state public health officials said Friday in long-awaited guidance for how campuses can operate amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The delay in state guidance had frustrated campuses, which have scrambled to create varying reopening plans without knowing what ultimately would be approved by county and state public health officials and how that would affect thousands of students just days from starting fall semester.
Most colleges, including the vast UC and Cal State systems, have already announced they were planning to start the fall with mostly online classes. The state’s strict rules prohibit indoor lectures for campuses located within the 38 counties on the COVID-19 monitoring list.
Trump, losing his grip on Republican Party, wields less influence as crises mount
Less than three months before election day, evidence is mounting that … Trump is losing political influence in Washington and facing the early onset of “lame duck” status as Republican leaders in Congress increasingly appear willing to defy or rebuff him.
In recent days, GOP lawmakers who once saluted — or at least didn’t publicly oppose — Trump initiatives have thrown cold water on some of his ideas and proposals — rejecting his suggestion to delay the Nov. 3 election, repudiating his unsubstantiated claims that mail-in-voting leads to mass fraud, eliminating funds for a new FBI headquarters across from his hotel, and snubbing his calls for a payroll tax cut.
Although the nation is in a deep economic slump, with more than 31 million Americans seeking jobless benefits, Trump has shown little interest in twisting arms in Congress to negotiate another coronavirus financial relief package that would extend unemployment benefits and help school districts struggling during the pandemic.
The Guardian
Beirut recovery effort gathers pace amid growing anger at Lebanon's leaders
Search and rescue teams, firefighters and medics continued to comb through what remains of Beirut port on Friday, competing for space with men who were not wearing uniforms or displaying official status, and who several observers said were directing clean-up efforts.
As international rescue teams arrived in the Lebanese capital to help with the recovery, the scene of the explosion appeared increasingly frantic, with ambulances and unmarked vans repeatedly entering the site. A Dutch team that had just arrived in Lebanon was initially kept away by Lebanese officials who insisted the sniffer dogs they brought with them were not allowed.
“Then they sent them to parts that didn’t really matter,” said one senior official. “It has raised the suspicions of many here. Hezbollah have sent their people, and everyone is speculating why?”
Covid-19 lockdown will have 'negligible' impact on climate crisis – study
The draconian coronavirus lockdowns across the world have led to sharp drops in carbon emissions, but this will have “negligible” impact on the climate crisis, with global heating cut by just 0.01C by 2030, a study has found.
But the analysis also shows that putting the huge sums of post-Covid-19 government funding into a green recovery and shunning fossil fuels will give the world a good chance of keeping the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C. The scientists said we are now at a “make or break” moment in keeping under the limit – as compared with pre-industrial levels – agreed by the world’s governments to avoid the worst effects of global heating.
The research is primarily based on newly available Google and Apple mobility data. This gives near-real-time information on travel and work patterns and therefore gives an idea of the level of emissions. The data covered 123 countries that together are responsible for 99% of fossil fuel emissions. The researchers found that global CO2 emissions dropped by more than 25% in April 2020, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 30%.
Deutsche Welle
Canada's last Arctic ice shelf breaks apart due to warming
Canada's 4,000-year-old Milne Ice Shelf has broken apart due to melting from both hotter air above and warmer water below. Much of the Earth's ice shelves have collapsed because of rising temperatures in both poles.
Climate change and the effects of a hot summer have caused Canada's Milne Ice Shelf to collapse, scientists said this week. Located on the northwestern edge of Ellesmere Island in the territory of Nanavut, Milne was the country's last intact ice shelf in its Arctic.
Ice analyst Adrienne White of the Canadian Ice Service noted that satellite photos pointed to about 43% of the ice shelf having broken off and the rupture likely happened between July 30 or 31.
Coronavirus digest: European nations see infection spike
European countries have reimposed restrictive measures, as infections continue to rise. Latin America and the Caribbean is now the hardest-hit region by coronavirus deaths.
French Health Ministry chief Jerome Salomon issued a warning Friday about a clear uptick in COVID-19 cases. "The virus continues to circulate very actively worldwide. There is an upward trend in France and Europe," Salomon told a news conference.
Coronavirus infections in France rose by more than 1,600 over 24 hours for the second day in a row. The rise represented levels not seen since late May, while the number of affected patients in intensive care units has also risen.
AP News
Mauritius declares emergency as stranded ship spills fuel
The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius declared a “state of environmental emergency” late Friday after a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground offshore days ago began spilling tons of fuel.
Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced the development as satellite images showed a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near environmental areas that the government called “very sensitive.”
Mauritius has said the ship was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel and cracks have appeared in its hull.
US hiring slows amid signs of longer-lasting economic damage
U.S. hiring slowed in July as the coronavirus outbreak worsened, and the government’s jobs report offered signs Friday that the economic damage from the pandemic could last far longer than many observers originally envisioned.
The United States added 1.8 million jobs in July, a pullback from the previous two months. At any other time, hiring at that level would be seen as a blowout gain. But after employers shed a staggering 22 million jobs in March and April, much larger increases are needed to heal the job market. The hiring of the past three months has recovered 42% of the jobs lost to the pandemic-induced recession, according to the Labor Department’s report.
Though the unemployment rate fell last month from 11.1% to 10.2%, that level still exceeds the highest rate during the 2008-2009 Great Recession.
The Atlantic
The Supreme Court Is Avoiding Talking About Race
Supreme Court justices typically write opinions that say more than what is strictly necessary to decide the case before them. In those opinions, the justices also communicate with their colleagues, other courts, and the country about the issues, values, and people they deem especially important. When it comes to the possibility and history of racism, however, most of the current justices—with the important exception of Justice Sonia Sotomayor—tend to respond the way so many white people do: More often than not, they would rather just not talk about it.
That tendency was evident this past term in most of the cases potentially implicating the subject of race.
In Kansas v. Glover, the Court held that a police officer could lawfully stop a vehicle about which the officer knew only that its owner had a revoked driver’s license. In 2016, an officer in Lawrence, Kansas, ran a license-plate check on a moving pickup truck and found that the license of the registered owner—Charles Glover—had been revoked. The officer stopped the truck, which Glover was driving, and Kansas charged him with driving as a habitual violator. In his defense, Glover argued that the stop violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects people against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” and the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in his favor, arguing that the officer had not adequately justified the stop and instead had “only a hunch” that Glover was driving.
One wouldn’t know it from the several opinions written by the justices, but the defendant appears Black. Does racial profiling explain the officer’s decision to run the vehicle’s license plate? One cannot know.
CNN
Riders begin to gather in South Dakota for 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Hundreds of motorcycle riders and enthusiasts are arriving in Sturgis, South Dakota, for the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally despite objections from a majority of its residents.
The celebration -- which nearly 500,000 people attended last year -- will take place as the coronavirus pandemic remains out of control in cities across the country and health experts warn against large gatherings that help fuel the spread.
This year the city of 7,000 people is expecting about 250,000 people at the rally.
"As in most years, the opening weekend is very busy," said Christina Steele, spokeswoman
Air India plane crashes in Kerala after skidding off the runway
An Air India Express plane crashed in the South Indian state of Kerala after skidding off the runway and breaking into two while landing at Kozhikode Calicut International Airport.
At least 17 people died in the crash, including both pilots, and 46 people are seriously injured, according to CV Anand, Central Industrial Security Force's Inspector General.
The flight, number IX-1344, overshot the runway in rainy conditions, "went down 35-feet into a slope before breaking up into two pieces," Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told CNN.
Mother Jones
A court ruled on Friday that a strict abortion ban in Arkansas can move forward—and it used the recent Supreme Court decision regarding abortion rights, the one so many celebrated as a victory, to do it.
A panel of three judges—one of whom was appointed by … Donald Trump, the other two by previous Republican presidents—on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision that would have blocked a law banning the most common procedure for second-trimester abortions, dilation and evacuation. Citing Chief Justice John Roberts’ concurrent opinion in the recent June Medical Services v. Russo case, they wrote that a package of anti-abortion laws that passed through Arkansas’ legislature in 2017—one of which is inflammatorily dubbed the “Arkansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Act”—is allowed to stand because there is no established balancing test between the “undue burden” protection famously set in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey and the Chief Justice’s contention that “nothing according to Casey suggested that weighing of costs and benefits of an abortion regulation was a job for the courts,” as Roberts wrote in his opinion earlier this summer. “Pretending that we could pull that off would require us to act as legislators, not judges,” the Eighth Circuit opinion says, quoting Roberts in the June Medical decision.
NBC News
Pompeo denies congressional subpoenas in fired IG investigation
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is denying congressional subpoenas for four key witnesses in a months-long investigation into his role in the firing of State Department Inspector General Steven Linick.
The department instructed subpoenaed officials not to appear before Congress until “a mutually acceptable accommodation can be reached,” according to a letter sent late Friday to the Hill and obtained by NBC News.
“Let me express how outrageous it is for you to suggest that the Department is ‘stonewalling’ any investigation into the President’s replacing of Steve Linick,“ Pompeo wrote to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel. “For the past three months, you have refused every offer and attempt by the Department to reach a mutually agreeable accommodation to provide you with information you purport to seek.”
Esquire
Was the President* Lying About the Russian Bounties, or Just Typically Ignorant?
Is there a multi-syllabic German word for when something you knew was going to happen happens, and right on schedule? From the New York Times:
Mr. Pompeo’s warning is the first known rebuke from a senior American official to Russia over the bounties program, and it runs counter to President Trump’s insistence that the intelligence from U.S. government agencies over the matter is a “hoax.” The action indicates that Mr. Pompeo, who previously served as Mr. Trump’s C.I.A. director, believes the intelligence warranted a stern message.Mr. Pompeo delivered the warning in a call on July 13 with the minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, choosing to do so during a conversation that, officially, was about an unrelated topic — the possibility of a meeting of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. officials said in the past week...In public, Mr. Pompeo has carefully avoided answering direct questions about American intelligence on the Russian bounties. But late last month in congressional testimony, he said broadly that he had raised with Mr. Lavrov “all of the issues” that put American interests at risk.So the president* takes a few weeks of serious incoming on this issue and, suddenly, it emerges that his Secretary of State has been getting salty with the Russians over it. Has the president* been lying about this, or is he simply as ignorant on this bit of business as he has been about every other thing involved with his job? Has the SecState has been called in to smooth over some damage to the re-election campaign? And, at this point, does it even matter?
Ars Technica
Mass hijacking spree takes over subreddits to promote Donald Trump
Dozens of discussion groups on Reddit—including those dedicated to the National Football League, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Gorillaz—were hit in a Friday morning mass takeover spree that used the subreddits to spread messages promoting … Trump.
The hijacked accounts had tens of millions of combined members. The 148,000-member subreddit Supernatural, dedicated to the TV show by the same name, was emblazoned with pro-Trump images and slogans. Reddit personnel have since restored the moderator account to its rightful owner. The image above is how the subreddit appeared when the takeover was still active. The takeovers came five weeks after Reddit banned /r/The_Donald, a leading forum for fans of the president, and hundreds of other unrelated subreddits for violating recently rewritten content rules.
Reddit personnel published this post captioned, "Ongoing incident with compromised mod accounts." Reddit personnel then warned that moderator accounts were being compromised and used to vandalize subreddits. It asked moderators of affected subreddits to report them in responses.