Here are some of tonight’s other top stories:
- Trump allies pressed Department of Justice to act on his lies.
- President Biden met with the former guy’s handler in Geneva.
- House passes Juneteenth bill.
- President Biden cancels $500 million in student debt.
- Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan bear the wars’ ongoing toll, often alone.
- Unvaccinated Americans, many Trump supporters, are prolonging the pandemic.
- Western U.S. is having a heat wave, fire season could be explosive.
- Trumps lies continue to endanger election poll workers.
- Indigenous Canadians win the right to use original names after forced assimilation.
- Democrats want to deTrumpify the Department of Justice while Atty. General Garland drags his heels.
Details and links to sources below the fold.
This is an open thread. Everyone is encouraged to share articles, stories, and tweets in your comments.
600,125 PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS IN THE U.S. 175.1 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.S. HAVE RECEIVED A VACCINATION DOSE
The Washington Post
Earth is now trapping an ‘unprecedented’ amount of heat, NASA says
The amount of heat Earth traps has roughly doubled since 2005, contributing to more rapidly warming oceans, air and land, according to new research from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“The magnitude of the increase is unprecedented,” said Norman Loeb, a NASA scientist and lead author of the study, which was published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “The Earth is warming faster than expected.”
Using satellite data, researchers measured what is known as Earth’s energy imbalance — the difference between how much energy the planet absorbs from the sun, and how much it’s able to shed, or radiate back out into space.
The Justice Department leaders were losing their patience.
For weeks, … Donald Trump and his allies had been pressing them to use federal law enforcement’s muscle to back his unfounded claims of voter fraud and a stolen election.
They wanted the Justice Department to explore false claims that Dominion Voting Systems machines had been manipulated to alter votes in one county in Michigan. They asked officials about the U.S. government filing a Supreme Court challenge to the results in six states that Joe Biden won. The president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, even shared with acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen a link to a YouTube video that described an outlandish plot in which the election had been stolen from Trump through the use of military satellites controlled in Italy.
“Pure insanity,” Rosen’s deputy Richard Donoghue wrote to him privately.
The Atlantic
Trump’s DOJ Was More Dangerous Than We Knew
Sometimes, the actions a government takes look bad at the time, but posterity treats them kindly. Other times, a president might look good in the moment but see his reputation sink in retrospect. Then there’s the Trump administration, and especially its Justice Department, which looked bad when it was in power and now looks even worse.
Late yesterday, The New York Times reported that the Justice Department subpoenaed Apple to try to obtain data from accounts belonging to Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, their aides, and even one of their children as part of an investigation into leaks about Trump associates’ ties to Russia. Even after the probes produced few results, Attorney General Bill Barr insisted that prosecutors keep them alive.
This is only the latest ugly revelation about the Trump Justice Department to emerge since January 20—sometimes despite the best efforts of the Biden team to keep things secret.
How America Fractured Into Four Parts
People in the United States no longer agree on the nation’s purpose, values, history, or meaning. Is reconciliation possible?
Nations, like individuals, tell stories in order to understand what they are, where they come from, and what they want to be. National narratives, like personal ones, are prone to sentimentality, grievance, pride, shame, self-blindness. There is never just one—they compete and constantly change. The most durable narratives are not the ones that stand up best to fact-checking. They’re the ones that address our deepest needs and desires. Americans know by now that democracy depends on a baseline of shared reality—when facts become fungible, we’re lost. But just as no one can live a happy and productive life in nonstop self-criticism, nations require more than facts—they need stories that convey a moral identity. The long gaze in the mirror has to end in self-respect or it will swallow us up.
Los Angeles Times
Biden says Putin meeting was ‘frank,’ but Russian leader deflects criticism
President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin both emerged from more than three hours of direct talks declaring their first meeting a success, despite making little tangible progress toward immediately improving the strained relationship between Washington and Moscow.
Noting the “hype” around the summit, Biden said his aim was “straightforward” — to be frank with Putin about the Kremlin’s trampling of human rights, military adventurism in Ukraine and attacks on democracy, including interference in U.S. elections.
“I want President Putin to understand why I say what I say and why I do what I do and how I will respond to certain actions that harm American interests,” said Biden, who said the summit was about establishing “some rules of the road.”
House moves quickly to send Biden a bill creating Juneteenth federal holiday
The House on Wednesday passed legislation designating June 19 as a new federal holiday, just a day after the Senate voted unanimously to approve a mirror bill commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S.
The rare bipartisan legislation, which passed 415 to 14, will now go to President Biden’s desk just days before the date arrives.
“What I see here today is racial divide crumbling, being crushed this day under a momentous vote that brings together people who understand the value of freedom,” said Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. “And that is what Juneteenth is all about.”
CNN
Reporter confronts Putin: 'What are you so afraid of?'
ABC News reporter Rachel Scott on Wednesday confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin about his crackdown on political opponents.
"The list of your political opponents who are dead, imprisoned, or jailed is long ... and you have now prevented anyone who supports [Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny] to run for office," Scott said. "So my question is, Mr. President, what are you so afraid of?" […]
Scott rejected Putin's dodge, bluntly telling the Russian leader, "You didn't answer my question, sir."
"If all your political opponents are dead, in prison, poisoned — doesn't that send a message that you don't want a fair political fight?" Scott pressed.
Putin then invoked the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, suggesting a false equivalence between the insurrectionists arrested for rioting and the political opponents of Putin imprisoned in Russia.
Biden cancels $500 million in student debt for victims of for-profit school fraud
The Department of Education is canceling $500 million in student loan debt for 18,000 former ITT Tech students defrauded by the now defunct for-profit college, another step the Biden administration is taking to address a backlog of more than 100,000 forgiveness claims left over from the Trump administration.
ITT Tech, which shut down in 2017 after the government pulled its federal funding, misled students about how much they could expect to earn after graduating and about the ability to transfer credits, the Department of Education said Wednesday.
The announcement comes three months after the Biden administration said it would cancel $1 billion in student loan debt for about 73,000 defrauded students who were deemed eligible for the relief under former Education Secretary Betsy Devos but received only partial loan forgiveness after she changed the cancellation calculation.
NPR News
The Justice Department Overturns Policy That Limited Asylum For Survivors Of Violence
Survivors of domestic and gang violence have better odds of getting asylum in the U.S. as the Justice Department reverses controversial rulings from the Trump administration.
In a pair of decisions announced Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland is vacating several controversial legal rulings issued by his predecessors — in effect, restoring the possibility of asylum protections for women fleeing from domestic violence in other countries, and families targeted by violent gangs.
"These decisions involve important questions about the meaning of our Nation's asylum laws, which reflect America's commitment to providing refuge to some of the world's most vulnerable people," Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta wrote in a memo explaining the decisions to the country's immigration judges.
What Happens When A Nation Goes To War, And A Small Few Bear The Costs
Matt Lammers was completely alone the first time we met.
The cigarette butts and old ammunition cans clearly marked his apartment door. Camouflage netting blocked the Arizona sun, but it also sent a message: this guy was still in Iraq. I knocked on the door at 9 a.m. and woke him from the only hour of sleep he'd had all night. […]
Lammers is one of maybe 60 vets who lost three or four limbs, out of 2.7 million who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The thank-you-for-your-service anxiety is much more common though – and of course veterans have a broad range of different feelings about what civilians should or shouldn't say.
The Dissenter
Mother Of NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Describes Her Daughter's Release From Prison
NSA whistleblower Reality Winner was released from federal prison to a halfway house in San Antonio on June 2. She was released one week later to home confinement with her family.
Prior to her release from Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, the facility confined Reality with five other women in a hospital-sized room for 23 days. Reality was informed it was a COVID-19 quarantine protocol.
Billie Winner-Davis, who is Reality's mother, told The Dissenter that her daughter received both doses of the vaccine. She was past the two-week period necessary for the vaccine to become effective. Still, she was locked down with "very little contact with the outside world, no recreation, no commissary. You know, just contained to that one room for 23 days."
Bloomberg
Pockets of Unvaccinated Americans Threaten to Prolong Pandemic
As much of the country emerges from masking and social distancing, undervaccinated pockets in the U.S. still threaten to bring the virus roaring back.
Less than 25% of the population is fully vaccinated in at least 482 counties, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by Bloomberg News. Many of these counties are more rural and less economically advantaged than the rest of the U.S., and a majority of their voters in the last presidential election chose Donald Trump, according to the analysis of 2,700 U.S. counties.
Though more than 174 million Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine, accounting for about 64.6% of the adult population, such averages belie stark gaps in vaccination rates at a local level. With more contagious versions of the virus like the delta variant taking hold, this creates opportunities for further spread.
Fed Sees Two Rate Hikes by End of 2023, Inches Towards Taper
Federal Reserve officials sped up their expected pace of policy tightening amid optimism about the labor market and heightened concerns for inflation.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell told a press conference Wednesday that officials would begin a discussion about scaling back bond purchases used to support financial markets and the economy during the pandemic.
They also released forecasts that show they anticipate two interest-rate increases by the end of 2023 -- sooner than many thought -- and they upgraded estimates for inflation for the next three years.
“The economy has clearly made progress,” Powell said after a two-day gathering of the Federal Open Market Committee.
Houston Chronicle
Gov. Abbott signs 'constitutional carry' bill allowing Texans to carry handguns without a permit
Gov. Greg Abbott has signed Texas’ “constitutional carry” legislation, allowing Texans over age 21 to openly carry handguns in public without a license starting Sept. 1. […]
The law will remove the state’s $40 fee to obtain a handgun license, and will also take away training requirements. While gun advocates say they aren’t against safety courses, they assert the training should be voluntary.
AP News
US Army has hidden or downplayed loss of firearms for years
The U.S. Army has hidden or downplayed the extent to which its firearms disappear, significantly understating losses and thefts even as some weapons are used in street crimes.
The Army’s pattern of secrecy and suppression dates back nearly a decade, when The Associated Press began investigating weapons accountability within the military. Officials fought the release of information for years, then offered misleading answers that contradict internal records.
Military guns aren’t just disappearing. Stolen guns have been used in shootings, brandished to rob and threaten people and recovered in the hands of felons. Thieves sold assault rifles to a street gang.
Heat wave grips US West amid fear of a new, hotter normal
An unusually early and long-lasting heat wave brought more triple-digit temperatures Wednesday to a large swath of the U.S. West, raising concerns that such extreme weather could become the new normal amid a decades-long drought.
Phoenix, which is seeing some of the highest temperatures this week, tied a record for the second day in a row when it reached 115 degrees (46 Celsius) Wednesday and was expected to hit 117 (47 Celsius) each of the next two days, the National Weather Service said.
Scientists who study drought and climate change say that people living in the American West can expect to see more of the same in the coming years.
Vox
The West has all the ingredients for another terrible wildfire season
Summer has not officially started yet, but wildfire season has already arrived in the US. Now an intense heat wave coupled with extreme drought is threatening to make things worse.
Large wildfires have already burned 981,000 acres this year to date, more than the 766,000 acres burned by the same time last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. […]
It’s poised to get worse as summer officially begins. While 2021 may not beat the record-setting 2020 season, experts say it will be severe. “It’s probably going to be above-average for sure, but it’s not going to be off-the-charts,” said Craig Clements, director of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San Jose State University.
Trump’s lies about the 2020 election are endangering America’s election workers
In a speech on voting rights delivered on Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland warned that “the dramatic increase in menacing and violent threats against all manner of state and local election workers” is a threat to the country’s democracy.
Garland is right to be concerned. A new survey released by the Brennan Center for Justice found that 17 percent of local election officials in the United States have faced threats because of their job. The same survey, which was released alongside a larger report by Brennan and the Bipartisan Policy Center on threats to America’s elections, found that nearly a third of these officials — 32 percent — have “felt unsafe because of [their] job as a local election official.”
Catholic News Service
Bishops debate how long to discuss proposal to draft Communion document
Moments after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opened their spring general assembly June 16, a debate on whether to allow unlimited discussion on a proposal to draft a document to examine the “meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the church,” showcased how divided the U.S. bishops are on the topic. […]
Bishop John E. Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, said he was concerned that “some of our brother bishops want to rush” development of the document and focus on whether President Joe Biden, a Catholic, should receive holy Communion because he supports legal abortion.
Bishop Stowe cited a May 7 letter to Archbishop Gomez from Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who urged the U.S. bishops to proceed with caution in their discussions about formulating a national policy “to address the situation of Catholics in public office who support legislation allowing abortion, euthanasia or other moral evils.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Prosecutors filed a murder charge Wednesday against an unlicensed driver who admitted he accelerated toward a protest in Uptown in hopes of vaulting over a vehicle that was meant to protect the people he knew were on the other side.
Nicholas D. Kraus, 35, of St. Paul, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the crash late Sunday that killed 31-year-old Deona M. Knajdek, of Minneapolis, and injured three other protesters.
The charges come on the day that Knajdek, a project manager for a vulnerable adult service provider and a mother to two girls who also went by the last name Erickson, would have turned 32 years old.
Reuters
China launches crewed spacecraft Shenzhou-12 in historic mission
China launched a spacecraft on Thursday carrying three astronauts to part of a space station still under construction for the longest stay in low Earth orbit by any Chinese national.
A Long March 2F rocket transporting the Shenzhou-12, or "Divine Vessel", bound for the space station module Tianhe blasted off at 9:22 a.m. Beijing time (0122 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu province.
Shenzhou-12 is the third of 11 missions - four of which will be crewed - needed to complete China's first full-fledged space station. Construction began in April with the launch of Tianhe, the first and largest of three modules.
World Bank rejects El Salvador request for help on bitcoin implementation
The World Bank said on Wednesday it could not assist El Salvador's bitcoin implementation given environmental and transparency drawbacks.
"We are committed to helping El Salvador in numerous ways including for currency transparency and regulatory processes," said a World Bank spokesperson via email.
"While the government did approach us for assistance on bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings."
EuroNews
Why some Czechs are up in arms ova plans to drop feminised surnames
When Czech MPs this month voted to allow women to drop feminised surnames, it sparked a new culture war between liberals and conservatives.
Currently, the suffix -ova is added to their husband's family name - but women could soon be allowed to drop it.
Whereas the English have “John Doe” and “Jane Doe”, Czechs have “Jan Novak” and his wife “Jana Novakova”.
Even foreigners are ascribed this distinction, with the Czech press reporting regularly on the speeches of Germany’s Angela Merkelova.
'Almost harder than war': Refugee in Denmark on the prospect of being sent home to Syria
When Ahmad Zanon joined his family in Denmark in 2015, he adapted to his surroundings and learned to like his new country, language and life — all despite the sadness of what he was forced to leave behind.
Six years - and half a Danish law degree - later, however, and Ahmad's life has once again been turned upside down.
The 24-year-old is one of more than 200 Syrian refugees who face having their residency permits revoked after the Danish government deemed Damascus and the surrounding area safe — a move widely condemned on the international stage.
The Guardian
Hong Kong police arrest editor-in-chief of Apple Daily newspaper in morning raids
Hong Kong national security police have arrested the editor-in-chief and four other directors of the Apple Daily newspaper in early morning raids involving more than 100 officers, in the latest crackdown on the media.
The police force’s national security department said the five directors had been arrested on suspicion of collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security. All were arrested at their homes, at around 7am. […]
The owner of the paper, pro-democracy campaigner and tycoon Jimmy Lai, has been in jail since late last year on charges relating to the 2019 protests and allegations of national security offences. […]
Lai has been a vocal opponent of the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement, and Apple Daily has produced extensive critical journalism. Hong Kong’s police commissioner has accused Apple Daily of creating hatred and dividing society, while pro-Beijing media has called for it to be shut down.
Indigenous Canadians win right to use original names after forced assimilation
Indigenous people in Canada who were forced to use European names on official documents can now apply to restore their original names, in a new policy unveiled as the country’s government seeks to atone for historical abuses.
“For far too long, Canada’s colonial legacy has disrupted Indigenous peoples’ Indigenous naming practices and family connections from being recognized,” Marc Miller, minister of Indigenous services, said in a statement, adding that the new policy would allow residents to reclaim “the dignity of their Indigenous names”.
BBC News
Spider-webs blanket Australian landscape after floods
Massive spider-webs stretching across trees and paddocks have formed near towns in Australia recently hit by floods.
Residents in Victoria's Gippsland region say the gossamer-like veils appeared after days of heavy rain. In one area, a spider-web covered more than a kilometre along a road.
Experts say the veils are created by a survival tactic known as "ballooning", where spiders throw out silk to climb to higher ground.
Taishan nuclear plant: China admits damage to fuel rods
The Chinese government has acknowledged damage to fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in the south of the country, but said no radioactivity had leaked.
China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment said the problem was "common" with no need for concern. The admission comes after CNN reported that the US government was assessing a reported leak at the facility.
The French energy firm which helps operate the plant in Guangdong province earlier reported a "performance issue".
NBC News
'Dying of thirst': The Cucapá in Mexico fight against climate change and oblivion
Lucía Laguna carries her fate tattooed on her face — from the corner of her mouth to her chin, black lines surf across her coppery skin — the tribal art honoring her people will also serve an important function later on.
“After my death, it will guide me to my ancestors. With the tattoo, they will recognize me and can take me where they are," she said, as she talks on the banks of the Colorado River. […]
"Cucapá means people from the river, that's why we are fighting for it," she said, pointing to a decrease in the river's flow she is seeing every year. “We cling to the river and fight because it gives us water so that the fish can arrive and we can earn our livelihood. But it is a fight that seems that we will never win," she said, disheartened.
Mexico is experiencing the worst drought in three decades. NASA images from the recently released Landsat 8 satellite showed the extremely low levels of the Villa Victoria dam, one of the capital's main water reservoirs.
Manchin proposes compromise on voting bills ahead of crucial Senate vote
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., opened the door to a compromise on federal voting and campaign finance legislation Wednesday with a memo outlining provisions that he would support.
Manchin has emerged as a key figure in his party's fight to pass federal legislation aimed at protecting voting rights. The moderate Democrat has opposed his party’s voting legislation, dubbed the For the People Act (S.1), saying it’s too partisan and arguing that any voting changes should have bipartisan support. […]
On Wednesday, he reaffirmed to reporters that he still believes voting legislation — including his own proposed version — should be passed on a bipartisan basis and he doesn’t back amending the filibuster rules to pass it without Republican support.
11 Republican senators back infrastructure deal as Democrats plot two-track approach to passage
Bipartisan support for an infrastructure deal grew Wednesday, as 21 senators — including 11 Republicans — publicly backed the proposal, a signal that talks have progressed as the White House-imposed deadline looms.
“We support this bipartisan framework that provides an historic investment in our nation’s core infrastructure needs without raising taxes,” the group said in a statement. “We look forward to working with our Republican and Democratic colleagues to develop legislation based on this framework to address America’s critical infrastructure challenges.”
The Republicans who backed the proposal as part of a so-called Group of 20 were Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Todd Young of Indiana and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas added his support later Wednesday.
Politico
Senate will vote to repeal Iraq War authorization, Schumer says
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced his support on Wednesday for repealing the 2002 war authorization for Iraq, vowing to hold a vote on scrapping the outdated measure later this year.
The announcement from Schumer (D-N.Y.) comes as the House is expected to pass Rep. Barbara Lee’s (D-Calif.) bill on Thursday that would repeal the 2002 law, which served as the legal basis for several military operations in Iraq. […]
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden came out in support of Lee’s bill, becoming the first president to approve ending the authorization.
Dems want to un-Trump the DOJ — fast
Hill Democrats are intensifying pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to clean house at the Justice Department following revelations that Donald Trump’s DOJ secretly seized communication records belonging to Democratic lawmakers, congressional staffers and journalists.
Garland, who served as a federal judge for two decades, has worked to reassure Democrats that he’s taking the issue seriously and pledged to support an independent inspector general’s investigation into the matter. But Democrats are quickly growing impatient and already taking matters into their own hands — opening a formal probe this week to determine who was responsible and hold them accountable.
“We cannot wait for the inspector general to share even his preliminary findings with DOJ, some months or years from now, before Congress contemplates a response,” said House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), whose panel is spearheading the Hill's investigation.
Financial Times
Biden, Putin and the new era of information warfare
[…] For the US, the disinformation operations follow a series of cyber attacks and hacking incidents which all appear to have some level of Russian involvement. US officials and experts believe they amount to an accelerated policy of sowing discontent and mistrust among the American public, aimed at undermining institutions and faith in democracy, at a time when fierce political polarisation in the US is exposing those same fissures. […]
But few US experts on Russia believe Moscow is likely to back off in any significant way in its cyber activities. “The Russians have effectively already declared war quite a long time ago in the information sphere,” says Fiona Hill, former senior Russia director on the National Security Council during the Trump administration.
“They’ve been trying to prove that they are a major cyber force — they want to create a wartime scenario so then they can sit down and agree some kind of truce with us.”
Ars Technica
Lina Khan, Big Tech skeptic, named FTC chair mere hours after confirmation
President Joe Biden named Lina Khan chair of the Federal Trade Commission just hours after her confirmation in the Senate as one of the agency's five commissioners. It’s an unusual move—newly nominated commissioners are seldom elevated to chair immediately—and it likely signals that the Biden administration will be taking a hawkish approach to antitrust enforcement, particularly when it comes to Big Tech platform companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple.
Though Khan is certain to take a harsher view on platforms, the FTC is unlikely to begin dismantling Big Tech tomorrow. “Lina Khan has pushed the academic conversation on tech, and now she has to push the agenda at the FTC,” Shane Greenstein, a professor at Harvard Business School, told Ars. “A lot of the day to day at the FTC has little to do with tech, and a lot of the agenda is just not up to the chairman. It comes inbound from consumer complaints, merger proposals, etc. It will be interesting to see how she manages that—and with a divided Congress. That just has to be challenging.” […]
As a law student four years ago, Khan published a highly influential paper that recast the debate over anticompetitive behavior, particularly among Big Tech firms. In the paper, titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” Khan argued that using prices as the primary gauge of anticompetitive behavior was an insufficient measure of market power among certain firms, particularly Big Tech companies and their platforms.