Here are some of today's top stories:
- California recall results closely linked to COVID-19 vaccination rates
- Wildfire smoke latest climate crisis.
- Democrats try persuading Sen. McConnell on debt ceiling.
- The Justice Department is fighting for an emergency order to block Texas abortion ban enforcement.
- The Supreme Court is drunk on its own power and “the Court has no formal constitutional authority to strike down laws”.
- Olympic gymnasts testify before Congress about botched FBI probe of sexual abuse from Larry Nassar.
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considering putting gray wolves under federal Endangered Species Act protection.
- GM tells some Chevy Bolt drivers to park 50 feet away from other vehicles.
- Squirrels have human-like personality traits according to researchers at University of California — Davis.
- The United Nations calls for moratorium on Artificial Intelligence that threatens human rights.
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.
665,364 PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS IN THE U.S. 210.4 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.S. HAVE RECEIVED A VACCINATION DOSE
Los Angeles Times
California recall results closely linked to COVID-19 vaccination rates
The results in California’s historic recall election are in, and Gov. Gavin Newsom survived.
A closer look at the county-level results, which are still preliminary as late-arriving mail ballots are tallied, reveals a strong relationship between the governor’s support and COVID-19 vaccination rates, according to a data analysis by The Times.
Counties with the lowest vaccination rates were most eager to oust Newsom. Conversely, those with higher vaccination coverage supported the governor at higher rates.
The data reveal a clear divide by geography along the two measures, with residents in smaller, more rural places less likely to support Newsom and getting vaccinated, according to the analysis.
U.S. will share nuclear submarine technology with Australia in new defense partnership
The United States will arm Australia with nuclear submarine technology as part of a new defense partnership announced Wednesday, one of many steps that President Biden is taking to strengthen alliances as a bulwark against China.
The agreement includes the United Kingdom, and it will also involve closer cooperation on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. The centerpiece, however, is the decision to make Australia one of a handful of nations to field submarines powered by nuclear reactors.
AP News
Democrats could reform ‘weaponized’ California recall system
Hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom beat back a recall election that could have removed him, his fellow Democrats in the state Legislature said Wednesday they will push for changes to make it more difficult to challenge a sitting governor.
Those reforms could include increasing the number of signatures needed to force a recall election, raising the standard to require wrongdoing on the part of the officeholder and changing the process that could permit someone with a small percentage of votes to replace the state’s top elected official.
“I think the recall process has been weaponized,” Newsom said a day after his decisive victory. He added that the recall rules affect not just governors but school boards, city councils, county supervisors and district attorneys, notably in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where liberal prosecutors are being challenged.
Ex-House Speaker settles child sexual abuse payments suit
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and a man who accused him of child sexual abuse reached a tentative out-of-court settlement Wednesday over Hastert’s refusal to pay the man $1.8 million — the outstanding balance in hush money that the Illinois Republican agreed to pay the man in 2010. […]
The hush-money deal would eventually lead to a federal criminal case against Hastert five years later and to public disgrace for the a GOP stalwart who, for eight years as House speaker, was second in the line of succession to the presidency. In the federal case, prosecutors said Hastert sexually abused at least four male students between the ages of 14 and 17 throughout his years at Yorkville High School. Hastert was in his 20s and 30s.
The Seattle Times
Seattle homelessness nonprofits struggle to hire, complicating plans to expand shelters and housing
When Aaliyah Bains was hired as a building assistant at the Bob and Marcia Almquist Place in July 2020, she knew it would be a tough job. She knew it was home to more than 100 newly housed, disabled people, most of whom had moved in after years in homeless shelters or the street. […]
Many nonprofit leaders have wished their whole careers that the federal government would step in and put more money into addressing homelessness, and now at the same time there’s more federal money pouring into the city and county to house people than in recent memory, they’re watching their workforce melt down. […]
Even after Bains was promoted to housing case manager and started making closer to $45,000, she had to pay for her own masks for much of 2020; she was responsible for persuading COVID-19-positive tenants to quarantine, then delivering food and filling any needs for the few who did; and when a few troubled tenants would brandish knives or threaten to hurt someone, she’d call the police and they often wouldn’t come.
For all this, the 21-year-old and her co-workers lived paycheck to paycheck.
The Oregonian
Wildfire smoke latest climate crisis to hit southern Oregon
[…] While Portland has largely been spared from the extremely smoky days that characterized last year’s intense fire season, parts of southern Oregon have been suffering under a pall of wildfire smoke with severely diminished air quality throughout much of the summer.
The smoke -- layered on top of a housing crisis wrought by last year’s wildfires, a resurgent strain of COVID-19 and a crippling drought -- has left many in the region teetering on the brink. Among the most vulnerable to the overlapping crises: people experiencing homelessness and those who work in the agriculture industry. […]The rise in smoky days is the continuation of a trend building over the last several years, said Tom Roick, the air quality monitoring manager at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
“We had wildfires before but they were fairly discrete, short events. Since 2015, it’s not just that there’s one wildfire, but multiple fires that are resulting in greater impacts,” he said. “We now have a wildfire season that is starting earlier and extending into the early fall.”
San Francisco Chronicle
California now the only state that's advanced out of CDC's 'high' COVID transmission category
California no longer has “high” community levels of coronavirus transmission, according to data published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an achievement a top state health official credited to broad vaccination uptake and public compliance with restrictions such as mask-wearing.
The state is now the only one in the country to reach the “substantial” tier of the agency’s risk chart, for the first time since the rapid spread of the delta coronavirus variant brought the summer COVID-19 surge, state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said Tuesday.
According to the CDC’s color-coded map, all the other states have fallen back into the worst category, red, as California advances to the second-highest risk category, orange, along with Puerto Rico.
Arizona Republic
Arizona sues over federal vaccine rules for workers
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Tuesday filed a legal challenge to the federal requirements for businesses to require COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing at companies with 100 or more employees, calling it an overreach. […]
"This lawsuit is about the power of the federal government," said Brnovich, who is running for the Republican nomination for next year's U.S. Senate race.
The New York Times
Democrats Try Shaming McConnell on Debt Ceiling
With the government’s full faith and credit on the line, the Democratic leadership’s strategy for raising the federal borrowing limit seems to be this: Try to shame the impervious Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, into capitulating.
They unsuccessfully tried this strategy in 2016, when Mr. McConnell blockaded the nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland to the Supreme Court, maintaining that voters should decide who would name the next justice when they picked a president that November. They tried and failed again late last year, weeks before a presidential election, when the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opened a Supreme Court seat for Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill, no matter what voters had to say a month and a half later.
Now, with a potential government default weeks away, Democrats are again demanding that Mr. McConnell back down — this time from his vow to lead Republicans in opposition to raising the statutory limit on the Treasury Department’s authority to borrow.
Austin American-Statesman
Justice Department to fight for emergency order to block Texas abortion ban enforcement
The U.S. Justice Department is seeking an emergency court order to block the enforcement of a new Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks.
Government lawyers sought the relief late Tuesday, days after suing the state over the restrictive abortion law decried by the Biden administration as a denial of basic reproductive health care for women.
In the Tuesday filing, the Justice Department argued that urgent action was necessary because the state had "devised an unprecedented scheme that seeks to deny women and providers the ability to challenge (the law) in federal court."
"This attempt to shield a plainly unconstitutional law from review cannot stand," the filing said.
Balls and Strikes
The Brutal Efficiency of the Supreme Court's Shadow Docket
[…] The currency the Court uses to pull off this self-aggrandizing sleight of hand is legitimacy. The Court has no formal constitutional authority to strike down laws, nor money nor manpower nor guns to enforce its proclamations. But it enjoys its power anyway because the rest of the government—the people who do have soldiers and tax breaks to deploy—agree that the Court is a legitimate check on their own “force” and “will.”
Throughout history, the Court has carefully guarded its legitimacy using a variety of tools. It moves slowly. It hews towards formalistic standards of briefing, argument, and deliberation. Its opinions are couched in heavy jargon, as inscrutable to the common eye as a wizard’s spell. And it rarely gets out too far ahead of the popular will or the men with guns. Even its most so-called “controversial” opinions regarding human rights—which are controversial only if you don’t accept that minorities, women, and the LGBTQ community deserve the same fundamental rights as cishet white bros—often come years (or decades) after overall public sentiment has moved towards greater equality and inclusion.
At least, that’s how the Court tried to operate until the Roberts Court. This version, chock full of jurists hand-picked by the Federalist Society and emboldened by Mitch McConnell’s manipulation of the judicial nomination process, has gleefully eschewed the traditional ways the Court used to build up its legitimacy. In its place is the jurisprudential equivalent of the Fyre Festival’s immortal tagline: “Let’s just do it and be legends.”
Vox
The Supreme Court is drunk on its own power
The Supreme Court of the United States is more conservative today than at any point since the 1930s. It’s also more confident in its own power than any panel of justices since the Franklin Roosevelt administration. And it is quite eager to wipe away foundational precedents that have stood for decades, sometimes without much warning that a transformational decision is around the corner. […]
As the Atlantic’s Adam Serwer wrote, “neutralizing Roe through normal channels would have taken time, and the Supreme Court’s conservatives did not want to wait.” So the five justices in the majority decided that the ordinary rules did not apply “because they felt like it, and because they don’t believe anyone can stop them.”
This sort of behavior, in which conservative justices hand down sweeping pronouncements while only barely pausing to consider what they are doing, is now a regular affair for the Supreme Court.
The fight to resettle Afghans in the US has just begun
America’s evacuation of Afghanistan is over. But that doesn’t mean the US has fulfilled its obligation to vulnerable Afghans, some of whom are still trapped in their home country.
Even if the decision to withdraw from the country was ultimately the right one, the ensuing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is the product of America’s ill-conceived and failed attempts at nation-building. The US therefore has a responsibility to ensure that Afghans facing danger or persecution as the Taliban reassert their vision of religious law can reach safety in the US or in other countries, whether or not they worked alongside American troops.
The US has taken some halting steps toward meeting that obligation. President Joe Biden plans to resettle tens of thousands of Afghans who were able to escape, and has asked Congress to allocate $6.4 billion in emergency funds to support those efforts. Congress is expected to grant that request.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin will be the new home for about 400 Afghan evacuees, after they complete their immigration process. […]
The news of resettlement plans comes as flights of Afghan evacuees coming to the U.S. have temporarily been halted, following six confirmed cases of measles in people who have already arrived. […]
The officials outlined that the majority of Afghan people who have arrived in the U.S. and who will arrive once restrictions are lifted worked directly with U.S. troops, including military, diplomatic and developmental efforts, or are a family member of someone who worked with Americans. Others were journalists, human rights activists or humanitarian workers with careers that put them at risk.
One of the officials said intelligence and defense officials from across the government are working to get people vetted quickly, but they're not sacrificing any national security in the process.
The Nation
For Joe Manchin, It’s Always About Joe Manchin
[…] Most political analysts describe Manchin as a folksy guy, who lives and entertains guests on a houseboat named “Almost Heaven,” (as in John Denver’s ode to his home state, “Country Roads”), just trying to represent conservative, working-class voters in a red state. […]
Except there’s plenty in the reconciliation bill that would help West Virginia, in particular, which ranks first in the nation in opioid addiction, second in poverty, 45th in education funding and 50th in infrastructure. And while most Democrats steer away from directly criticizing Manchin because of his pivotal role in an evenly divided Senate, that’s beginning to change. Lately some are suggesting openly that the coal magnate’s fealty is to his corporate donors, not the residents of West Virginia. And Manchin doesn’t like that one bit. […]
In his most recent Senate disclosures, Manchin reported a net worth of between $4 million and $13 million dollars. According to Open Secrets, his Senate career has been powered by lawyers, the financial industry, mining interests, and Big Pharma. All of that is much more important to understand when assessing Manchin’s motives than his fealty to his red-state voters—and it deserves much more attention.
The Dallas Morning News
U.S. Senate Democrats are pushing a new voting rights bill. If passed, what would it mean for Texas?
A new elections bill introduced Tuesday could impact balloting in Texas and other states, with several provisions potentially changing how Texans register to vote, vote by mail and in-person and drop off ballots.
A group of U.S. Senate Democrats — including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a key swing vote — introduced a new voting rights package to establish federal elections standards and counter what they see as Republican efforts at the state level to limit access to the ballot box. […]
Despite Manchin’s support — and his efforts to garner support from his fellow centrists — Republican opposition is expected, and passage looks unlikely with the filibuster still in place… […]
The new U.S. Senate bill would ban partisan gerrymandering by requiring states to adhere to specific federal criteria for congressional redistricting. This provision comes as the task of redrawing Texas Senate, Texas House and congressional district lines looms in the next special session of the Texas Legislature that convenes Monday.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Fulton election chair appointed over objections to Fair Fight ties
The embattled Fulton County elections board added Cathy Woolard as its new chairwoman Wednesday, a move that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger condemned as a “blatantly political appointment.”
Woolard, who served as Atlanta City Council President and ran for mayor in 2017, is a former lobbyist for the voting rights organization Fair Fight Action. She was nominated to head the Fulton elections board by Commission Chairman Robb Pitts.
The commission voted 4-2 in favor of the Democrat heading the board.
Governor stops short of measures to address COVID-19′s rampant spread
[…] The CDC had just called for everyone in places like Georgia, with high disease transmission, to go back to wearing masks indoors.
Gov. Brian Kemp didn’t echo that call. When he went on national television to talk about the new school year, he spoke of masks as tools of government overreach, accusing the CDC of doublespeak. We don’t need mandates to know what to do, he said on Fox and Friends. […]
On Aug. 19, as COVID hospitalizations topped 5,000 and doctors from Atlanta’s major hospitals begged people to get vaccinated, Kemp signed an order allowing businesses to ignore any local COVID restrictions. Four days later, as another 500 patients filled hospitals, Kemp said he hoped more Georgians would “become comfortable getting vaccinated.” […]
It’s been a milquetoast approach, public health advocates say, and one that’s led to the worst health crisis in the state’s history. Kemp hasn’t taken aggressive measures to stem the spread of disease, instead taking piecemeal steps to help hospitals cope with the horrific consequences.
Houston Chronicle
'We deserve answers': Simone Biles testifies about botched FBI probe of Larry Nassar
Simone Biles said she was haunted for years by the abuse she suffered at the hands of Larry Nassar, including as she trained for and competed in the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
Biles, who said she was the lone competitor in the games who had been abused by Nassar, testified to a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday that the Olympic training process “meant I would be going to the gym, to training, to therapy, living daily among the reminders of this story.”
And because the games were postponed due to the pandemic, it meant another year of reminders.
Biles said she persevered because she did not want “this crisis to be ignored.” It was the same reason that Biles agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee — even as the Houston native said she could “imagine no place that I would be less comfortable” — about sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of Nassar while the FBI and other agencies failed to investigate allegations against him.
Toronto Star
Amid a raging fourth wave of COVID-19 cases, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has declared a state of public health emergency in his province and introduced a slate of new measures — including a vaccine passport system — in a major about face for the United Conservative leader.
Kenney’s announcement came at a news conference Wednesday evening that followed a trying day for Alberta, where the health-care system and its intensive-care units have been struggling to keep up with surging cases.
A person had died at a rate of one per hour Wednesday — making for 24 deaths from COVID-19 — along with 1,609 new reported cases. […]
The new clampdown also comes after Kenney’s government lifted most COVID restrictions at the beginning of July, promising residents the “best summer ever.”
Orlando Sentinel
The Biden administration is capping the supply of a COVID-19 treatment heavily promoted by Gov. Ron DeSantis as demand soars in states hit hard by the delta surge.
DeSantis has opened 25 clinics across the state that provide Regeneron’s antibody cocktail at no cost to patients, but state officials are concerned about new supply limits implemented this week by the federal government, said Christina Pushaw, the governor’s spokesperson.
Federal health officials are setting Florida’s weekly supply of monoclonal antibody treatments at 30,950 doses, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Florida’s state clinics and private providers have been ordering about 72,000 doses a week, Pushaw said. About 36,000 doses are required weekly to supply the state clinics, she said.
The Washington Post
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party refuse to correct vaccine misinformation
[…] Many high-profile Republicans have fought the pandemic by encouraging vaccinations. But few of them have been willing to take the next step: to combat the misinformation epidemic that plagues the very effort they support.
And they have done so in altogether familiar ways.
At an event Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appeared with a man who promoted a conspiracy theory common among anti-vaxxers. “The vaccine changes your RNA,” claimed the man, an employee of a utility company. “So for me, that’s a problem.”
DeSantis stood right next to him, staring at him as he said this. But when pressed on why he, as an advocate for vaccination, didn’t weigh in, DeSantis claimed he didn’t hear the man’s statement.
Mount Shasta is nearly snowless, a rare event that is helping melt the mountain’s glaciers
Deep in the northern California wilderness, nestled among rolling hills and magnificent pines, the Mount Shasta volcano towers above the landscape as a lone sentinel beckoning to those around it. Rising to 14,179 feet, Shasta is one of the tallest mountains in the Lower 48.
Given its height, snow cover is common year-round, especially after a snowy season or two. It is home to some of the largest glaciers in California and includes at least seven glaciers, some named after Native Americans in the 1800s. This year is testing the theory that snow and ice will always be found on Shasta.
“Mt. Shasta has snow on the summit year-round. This summer is different,” wrote Mt. Shasta Ski Park in late August. “The glaciers that are visible from the north side of the mountain are melting VERY quickly this year.”
Billings Gazette
Montana’s Largest Hospital Close to Rationing Life-Saving Care
With their ICU at 150% capacity, wards overflowing and the National Guard called in to assist Wednesday to help the hospital’s sickest, the Billings Clinic announced that they are preparing for the possibility they will have to implement “crisis standards of care” put in place by Montana’s Department of Health and Human Services. […]
At this time, Billings Clinic has not entered crisis care. The Wednesday announcement fulfilled the transparency requirement by DPHHS that the process to start changing care decisions has started.
The nationally-accepted and Gov. Greg Gianforte-approved framework requires hospitals to adhere to a continuum of care which starts with conventional care and moves to contingency care when different spaces, staff and other adaptations are necessary in order to maintain the traditional standards of care. This level has been utilized for the last few weeks at Billings Clinic.
Feds consider re-listing wolf as state hunts start
Gray wolves in the West could go back under federal Endangered Species Act protection due to the risk of “potential increases in human-caused mortality,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Wednesday.
The decision to start a 12-month review of the wolf’s status came on the same day Montana and Idaho opened hunting and trapping seasons on the predator.
In its notice, FWS cited petitioners’ claims that “recent regulatory changes in Idaho and Montana may pose a threat to wolves in these states by expanding the means and methods of harvest such that the species may become threatened or endangered.”
BuzzFeed News
A Former Minneapolis Cop's Murder Conviction In The Killing Of An Australian Woman Has Been Reversed
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the third-degree murder conviction of Mohamed Noor, a former Minneapolis police officer who was found guilty of shooting and killing an unarmed Australian woman in 2017.
Noor was convicted in 2019 of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, and sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison. At the time, he was the first police officer in Minnesota convicted in an on-duty shooting in decades.
The Minnesota Supreme Court said in its ruling that the third-degree murder conviction cannot be sustained in Noor's case because his actions were directed at the person who was killed.
Under Minnesota state law, third-degree murder is defined as when someone "causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others."
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Lumber is down from the stratosphere, but still pricey for Minnesota builders and home owners
Lumber prices, a key cost in home construction and an influence on inflation in Minnesota and the nation, have plunged from their peaks this spring but remain well above pre-pandemic levels. […]
Prices on certain types of wood products remain elevated, including special order deckings, made-to-order windows and doors, engineered lumber, roof and floor trusses. Lead times on those products are long. […]
The pandemic triggered a frenzy for forest products. Home building, a key market for lumber, was at record levels in 2019 before the onset of coronavirus. When the pandemic forced people to shelter in place in spring 2020, construction slowed only briefly. Meanwhile, many Americans took on renovation projects, emptying lumberyards and retailers.
Bloomberg
GM Tells Bolt Owners to Park 50 Feet Away From Other Cars
General Motors Co. urged some owners of Chevrolet Bolt electric cars to park and store the vehicles at least 50 feet away from other cars to reduce the risk that a spontaneous fire could spread.
The Detroit automaker has recalled all of the roughly 142,000 Bolts sold since 2016 because the battery can catch on fire. GM has taken a $1.8 billion charge so far for the cost of the recall and has been buying cars back from some disgruntled owners. The company expects to recoup much of the cost from battery supplier LG Corp.
The new advice is likely to rankle owners who are already limiting their use of the Bolt to avoid overheating the battery and risking a fire. The parking guidance -- recommending a distance of 50 feet from other parked cars -- is especially difficult for owners in urban areas. GM has confirmed 10 fires. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the agency has found 13 fires in Bolts, but the company hasn’t confirmed the additional three are part of the current recall issue.
What the U.S. Has Learned About Fighting Terror Since Sept. 11
Washington is experiencing an uncharacteristic bout of humility about the uses of military power. […] Five tentative lessons stand out.
One, learned that hard way, is that you can’t fight a war against a tactic. Just like the “war on drugs,” it was always going to be difficult to judge victory in the “war on terror.” […]
Second, boots on the ground cannot transform a society and might not even be able to stand up a reliable government. […]
The third lesson is that pivoting to other regions is hard because the Middle East has a way of pulling you back in. […]
The last two decades have taught America painful lessons about the nature of deterrence and the limitations of the country’s conventional military superiority. […]
Finally, the last two decades caution that competition isn’t just about spending enough.
The Atlantic
The California Recall’s Warning for Democracy
Governor Gavin Newsom of California defeated yesterday’s recall election by a large enough margin to squash earlier Republican threats to challenge the results no matter the outcome. But the proliferation of those allegations of voter fraud before the election, including ungrounded claims from … Donald Trump that the contest was “rigged,” points toward an ominous future in which more GOP candidates challenge the results of any election that they do not win. […]
“Long-term, this is becoming the new GOP party line,” Jena Griswold, the Democratic secretary of state in Colorado told me yesterday. “For races that conservatives are unlikely to win, like the California recall race, activists, pundits, candidates, and officials are preempting those losses with the idea that something is wrong with the election.” The result, Griswold said, “is it sows doubt in the entire election system to make it easier for extreme legislators to come in and suppress the vote.”
Martin Luther King Knew That Fighting Racism Meant Fighting Police Brutality
In a lesser-known part of his March on Washington speech, Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”
Many people, upon hearing this, might assume that King was simply referring to the violence wreaked by the police department in Birmingham, Alabama, and its commissioner, Bull Connor, during the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s desegregation campaign that spring. But King understood that police brutality—like segregation—wasn’t just a southern problem.
Vanity Fair
In the days following the January 6 attack on the Capitol, a narrative emerged in which Donald Trump’s longtime footstool, Mike Pence, was hailed as something of a hero for refusing to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Despite relentless pressure from the then president to block Joe Biden’s electoral win, which entailed “alternately cajoling and browbeating” the V.P. and telling him, “You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy,” Pence officially certified the results following a short interlude in which Trump’s supporters threatened to kill him.
But as it turns out, Pence came much closer to overthrowing democracy on his boss’s behalf. According to Peril, a new book out next week by veteran reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Pence, in his own telling, did “everything” he could to try and stop the certification of a free and fair election.
The Guardian
Joe Biden has ‘great confidence’ in top general Milley after Trump revelation
Joe Biden threw his weight behind the top US military officer on Wednesday, saying he had “great confidence” in the general who, according to a new book, took steps to prevent the outgoing Republican president Donald Trump from “going rogue” and launching a nuclear war or an attack on China.
Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, also defended phone calls he made to his Chinese military counterpart in the tumultuous final months of Trump’s presidency, signaling that the hitherto secret conversations were in keeping with his duties.
“I have great confidence in General Milley,” Biden said at the White House, when asked if the military leader had done the right thing by intervening.
Squirrels have human-like personality traits, says study
Animal researchers in California have discovered human-like personality traits in squirrels that anybody watching one raiding nuts from a bird table could probably have guessed: they are bold, aggressive, athletic and sociable.
The study from University of California, Davis, and published this month in Animal Behavior, claims to be the first to document personality in golden-mantled ground squirrels, prevalent in the western US and Canada.
According to the research, which included a series of scientific tests on the rodents, such as observing how they react to their mirror image, and approaching them in the wild to see how long it was before they ran away, some squirrels are more outgoing than others.
The Local (Norway)
Norway election: Is the Nordic swing to the left nothing but an illusion?
For the first time in decades, left-wing parties are set to be in power in all five Nordic countries after Norway's general election. But what does the left's success actually mean?
The last time Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden all had social democratic prime ministers was back in 2001. And if you throw in Iceland, it has not happened since the 1950s.
The resurgence of left-wing parties elsewhere – particularly Germany – has led some to believe social democrat parties are finally making their way out of the doldrums.
“At the very least it crushes the notion some people have that social democratic parties are in splinters,” Norway’s probable next prime minister, Labour leader Jonas Gahr Støre, said on Tuesday.
BBC News
Afghanistan women's youth soccer team escapes to Pakistan
Female players from Afghanistan's junior national soccer team have crossed the border into Pakistan. The girls had spent the past month in hiding amid fears of a crackdown on women's rights by the Taliban.
Members of the women's side flew out of Kabul last month but the youth team were reportedly left stranded as they lacked passports and other documents.
Thirty-two players and their families won visas after the charity "Football for Peace" lobbied Pakistan. An official with Pakistan's Football Federation said the group, totalling 81 people, would be housed at the federation's headquarters in the eastern city of Lahore. A further 34 people will arrive on Thursday he said.
Haiti PM Ariel Henry banned from leaving country amid murder inquiry
Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been banned from leaving the country amid an investigation into his alleged involvement in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
A prosecutor is seeking charges against Mr Henry, who has been asked to explain his links with a key suspect in the killing, Joseph Felix Badio.
Records show the two men had multiple phone calls just hours after the assassination, prosecutors say. Mr Moïse was killed at home on 7 July.
EuroNews
UK: Dominic `Raab replaced by Liz Truss as foreign secretary in Johnson government reshuffle
Dominic Raab has lost his job as the UK's foreign secretary amid a tense government reshuffle carried out by Boris Johnson. His replacement will be Liz Truss, formerly trade secretary.
Raab's demotion to justice minister followed a long meeting with the prime minister on Wednesday afternoon, which suggested to observers there had been some disagreement. He has however also been appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor.
As chief diplomat, Raab faced strong criticism last month for delaying his return from a holiday in Greece as the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
In Italy, the Afghan exodus has sparked a heated and divisive debate
In a country like Italy, which has been a longstanding hotbed of political contestation and polarisation, it comes as no surprise that the latest global crisis -- the fall of Afghanistan and the ensuing exodus of refugees -- should serve to ignite a heated public debate.
Over the past decade, Italy has found itself at the forefront of Europe's migrant crisis. Over the past weeks, it has evacuated more than 5,000 Afghans.
While other European governments have turned their backs, Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi -- who currently leads a big tent coalition government -- has openly welcomed refugees to Italy, criticising the EU’s overall approach.
Draghi’s position has been echoed by others, especially on the left. But for the right, and a large percentage of the wider Italian public, it represents a bone of contention.
Deutsche Welle
Bloated Bundestag: Trouble for German democracy?
As Germany approaches its federal election, chances are high that the lower house of parliament could swell to more than 900 members. Only China's National People's Congress is larger. And this could lead to problems.
Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has a whopping 709 seats. This makes it the second-largest legislative body in the world. That number could balloon to well over 900 after Germany's federal elections on September 26.
The problem this poses is greater than a crunch to fit that many chairs in the chamber. How can compromises be made, and how can backbenchers be heard, in a parliament so unwieldy?
NPR News
Russian President Putin Self-Isolates After Staffers Get COVID-19
Russian President Vladimir Putin is in self-isolation because of a COVID-19 outbreak among his inner circle of staff, according to the Kremlin. Putin said he got his second COVID-19 vaccine in April, but received the shots off camera.
The information came in a readout on Tuesday from a phone meeting that Putin held with the leader of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon. Putin said he would have to join an upcoming regional summit by teleconference since he was self-isolating.
Congress Is Debating Its Biggest Climate Change Bill Ever. Here's What's At Stake
President Biden's ambitious climate change plan could soon become a reality if Democrats in Congress succeed in passing a $3.5 trillion budget package. But first Democrats, who are crafting the legislation without Republican support, must overcome powerful opposition, some of it within their own party. […]
A key element is a $150 billion Clean Electricity Performance Program, or CEPP, that would pay utilities to switch from greenhouse gas-emitting electricity sources, such as coal and natural gas, to non-emitting sources such as wind, solar, hydropower and nuclear. […]
Because Democrats lack a majority large enough to overcome the 60-vote threshold that has become all but required to pass major legislation through the Senate, they plan to use an arcane process known as budget reconciliation to pass the bill with just a simple majority vote. That would require every single Democratic vote. But some moderates have already expressed concerns about the package, and there's pressure to strip out some major elements.
Al Jazeera
UN calls for moratorium on AI that threatens human rights
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday called for a moratorium on the sale and use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that threaten human rights until adequate safeguards are in place to ensure the technology will not be abused.
“We cannot afford to continue playing catch-up regarding AI – allowing its use with limited or no boundaries or oversight, and dealing with the almost inevitable human rights consequences after the fact,” Bachelet said in a press release.
The UN human rights office released a report on Wednesday warning of the risks of AI technologies, and emphasising that while AI can serve as a force for good, it can also cause catastrophic effects if used irresponsibly.
Thailand: Migrants plead for vaccines as COVID takes lives, jobs
When the first COVID-19 case was detected in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in April last year, *Hnin Hnin, was able to keep her school for migrant children open, spending her mornings as she usually did, drawing up word games on a large whiteboard as her five-year-old pupils looked on.
Infections and deaths at the time remained in the single digits, and Hnin Hnin, a teacher from Myanmar, was cautiously optimistic that the pandemic would end soon. Her school, which runs on aid from a local charity, received ample donations of food, hygiene kits and masks.
But one year later, an outbreak driven by the highly contagious Delta variant has led to spiralling infections at factories in the area, overwhelming hospitals and prompting a prolonged lockdown of the provinces on the Thai-Myanmar border and forcing Hnin Hnin’s school to close.
Mongabay
Worked to death: How a Chinese tuna juggernaut crushed its Indonesian workers
When Sepri was growing up, life in his village began to deteriorate. In the 1990s, the village, Serdang Menang, in the south of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, was centered around fertile rice fields and rivers full of fish. But after a palm oil company drained and denuded the swampy landscape, flooding and wildfires became commonplace, damaging local livelihoods. Sepri’s father, a tenant farmer, found new work as a janitor at a police station. But when Sepri reached adulthood, he, like millions of others in the world’s fourth-most populous country, saw migration as his only chance to make a living.
With only a middle-school education, Sepri tried his hand in Jakarta, the nation’s capital, but his salary at an aging shopping mall was barely enough to meet his basic needs. He returned home disheartened after a few years. Back in the village, he spent much of his time at a loose end, watching soccer at his sister Rika’s house. She worried about her little brother. Many young men with too much time on their hands had fallen prey to methamphetamine use. Police in the village had recently shot dead one local dealer and were openly threatening to kill others. Rika, who ran a food stall with her husband, urged Sepri to take an easy job, stay out of trouble and start a family. But Sepri felt pulled toward something more.
“He wanted to make a lot of money,” Rika told us at her home in the village. “He wanted to make his cousins and me proud. That was his wish. Even though I always said the important thing was finding a job.”
Phys.org
Prehistoric winged lizard unearthed in Chile
Chilean scientists have announced the discovery of the first-ever southern hemisphere remains of a type of Jurassic-era "winged lizard" known as a pterosaur.
Fossils of the reptile, which lived some 160 million years ago in what is today the Atacama desert, were unearthed in 2009.
They have now been confirmed to be of a rhamphorhynchine pterosaur—the first such creature to be found in Gondwana, the prehistoric supercontinent that later formed the southern hemisphere landmasses.
CNBC
The wealthy family led by conservative megadonors Robert and Rebekah Mercer, whose money helped propel Donald Trump to victory in 2016, invested nearly $20 million last year into a GOP-friendly dark money fund that allows donors to keep secret the ultimate destination of their contributions.
The Mercers’ donation, delivered through their family foundation, went to the Donors Trust, according to a new 990 disclosure form. The hefty contribution reveals the Mercers played a much bigger role in financing groups during the 2020 election than previously known.
The Donors Trust takes the money it receives and funnels it to groups of their donors’ choosing. It does not legally have to publicly disclose who is giving to their group or where specific financiers targeted their donations.
Ars Technica
Biden’s baffling FCC delay could give Republicans a 2-1 FCC majority
President Joe Biden's failure to nominate a fifth Federal Communications Commission member has forced Democrats to work with a 2-2 deadlock instead of the 3-2 majority the president's party typically enjoys at the FCC. But things could get worse for Democrats starting in January. If Biden doesn't make his choice quickly enough to get Senate confirmation by the end of this year, Republicans could get a 2-1 FCC majority despite Democrats controlling both the White House and Senate.
That possibility can be easily averted if Biden and the Senate spring into action, but it's closer to becoming a reality than anyone expected when Biden became president. The reason is that acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's term expired in mid-2020. US law allows commissioners on lapsed terms to stay until "the expiration of the session of Congress that begins after the expiration of the fixed term," which means she can stay until the beginning of January 2022.
To ensure a 3-2 Democratic majority in January, Biden has to nominate a third Democrat, renominate Rosenworcel or nominate a replacement for Rosenworcel, and hope that the Senate confirms both nominations in time. As president, Biden can promote any commissioner to chair, but the Senate decides whether to confirm each newly nominated commissioner. That process usually takes a few months or longer. Tom Wheeler was confirmed as FCC chairman in October 2013, six months after his nomination.
In a first, New York passes law banning new fossil fuel vehicle sales after 2034
New York will ban the sale of fossil fuel vehicles starting in 2035 and require all new cars to produce zero emissions. The new law, signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul last week, will help slash the state’s carbon pollution by 35 percent. It would put New York well on its way to achieving its statewide carbon reduction goals of 85 percent below 1990 levels.
While the sunset date is in line with other plans from the state government, hitting the goal will still require significant planning and coordination. Though electric vehicles aren’t uncommon in New York, the state is effectively starting from zero—around 1 percent of new vehicles sold in the Empire State are fully electric.
The new law doesn’t stop at passenger vehicles. It also requires zero emissions for off-road vehicles and equipment by 2035 and for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 2045. There’s some wiggle room with these mandates should batteries or fuel cells for large trucks or construction equipment lag significantly. The law says zero emissions will only be required “where feasible.”