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AP News
Breathing room for Biden: Big summer wins ease 2024 doubts
President Joe Biden and his allies hope big recent wins on climate, health care and more will at least temporarily tamp down questions among top Democrats about whether he will run for reelection. […]
Fellow Democrats running for reelection … now … have a fresh agenda they can campaign on heading into the November midterms.
The president has increased his Democratic fundraising efforts, and next week in Maryland he’s holding his first rally for the party of the fall campaign season. He also plans to travel aggressively to boost candidates. […]
Cedric Richmond, one of Biden’s closest White House advisers before leaving for a senior Democratic National Committee job, said he wasn’t sure the spate of positive news would put an end to 2024 questions, “but it should.”
For “tried and true Democrats, the answer was a simple, ‘Yes, he should run. Yes he’ll be our nominee. Yes he’ll win.’”
NBC News
McConnell says Republicans may not win Senate control, citing ‘candidate quality’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday downplayed expectations of Republicans capturing control of the Senate in the fall elections, describing “candidate quality” as an important factor.
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they're statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” he said in Florence, Kentucky, at a Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce luncheon when asked about his projection for the 2022 election.
“Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate, either our side up slightly or their side up slightly.”
Cleveland plain Dealer
National Republican group plans massive ad buy boosting J.D. Vance, signaling deepening GOP focus on Ohio’s Senate race
A political action committee with close ties to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is launching a massive new ad campaign in Ohio, a clear sign that national Republicans are shifting more toward playing defense in the Buckeye State.
The Senate Leadership Fund is reserving $28 million worth of TV and radio ads that will air statewide, the group announced Thursday. That’s a huge escalation of the roughly $5 million national Republicans have spent in Ohio so far in the race between Republican J.D. Vance and Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan. The ads will start after Labor Day, the unofficial start of the most intense part of a general-election campaign season. […]
In a statement, Izzi Levy, a Ryan campaign spokesperson, said the new influx of Republican cash shows Vance is a weak candidate who needs propping up.
“Even Republicans admit Vance is a terrible candidate, and McConnel’s multi-million dollar bailout isn’t going to change that,” Levy said.
New York Daily News
Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to all charges in tax fraud scam
The Trump Organization’s long-serving financial gatekeeper pleaded guilty to 15 felonies Thursday and directly implicated … Donald Trump’s family real estate business in a multi-year criminal tax fraud scheme.
Allen Weisselberg admitted to receiving more than $1.7 million in off-the-books perks while chief financial officer of the Trump Organization on top of his hefty salary, defrauding the taxpayer and Uncle Sam by disguising the fringe benefits as work expenses.
As part of his plea deal, the CFO, whose June 2021 indictment came after he refused to flip on Trump, will have to testify against the family’s real estate business when it goes on trial for a host of financial crimes this fall.
If prosecutors and the court are satisfied with Weisselberg’s testimony, he’ll be sentenced to five months max on Rikers Island and five years probation, said state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
“[If] you fail to testify truthfully at the upcoming trial of the Trump Organization, or if you fail to fully repay the taxes due … those will be considered violations of the plea agreement,” Merchan warned.
The New York Times
Judge May Release Affidavit in Trump Search, but Only After Redaction
A federal judge ordered the government on Thursday to propose redactions to the highly sensitive affidavit that was used to justify a search warrant executed by the F.B.I. last week at … Donald J. Trump’s private home and club, saying he was inclined to unseal parts of it.
Ruling from the bench, the judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, said it was “very important” that the public have as “much information” as it can about the historic search at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida residence. He noted later in a written order that the government “had not met its burden of showing that the entire affidavit should remain sealed.”
Judge Reinhart went on to say that he was leaning toward releasing portions of the document, adding that “whether those portions would be meaningful for the public or the media” was not for him to decide. He also acknowledged that the redaction process could often be extensive and sometimes turned documents into “meaningless gibberish.”
CNN
Former Trump officials say his claim of 'standing order' to declassify is nonsense
In the days since the FBI seized classified and top secret documents from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, the [Trump] and his allies have claimed that [he] had a "standing order" to declassify documents he took from the Oval Office to the White House residence.
But 18 former top Trump administration officials tell CNN they never heard any such order issued during their time working for Trump, and that they believe the claim to be patently false.
Several officials laughed at the notion. One senior administration official called it "bullsh*t." Two of Trump's former chiefs of staff went on the record to knock down the claim.
"Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given," said John Kelly, who served as Trump's chief of staff for 17 months from 2017 to 2019. "And I can't imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp accuses Fulton DA’s office of playing politics as he fights subpoena
A long-simmering clash between two branches of Georgia government exploded into public view on Wednesday, when an attorney for Gov. Brian Kemp moved to kill a subpoena seeking the Republican’s testimony before the Fulton County special grand jury studying potential criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections.
The 121-page motion, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, details a communication breakdown between the governor’s staff and prosecutors at the Fulton District Attorney’s office, which is advising the jury. […]
Both sides agreed to a July 25 date for Kemp to answer prosecutors’ questions under oath. But that video appearance was abruptly cancelled, [Brian F. McEvoy, Kemp’s lawyer,] said, after prosecutors appeared to change their minds about a pre-interview meeting known as an attorney proffer to lay out the scope of the governor’s testimony and address evidentiary and privilege concerns.
Kemp was subpoenaed shortly thereafter…
Houston Chronicle
Texas Republicans file lawsuit to sweep 23 Libertarians off 2022 ballot as polls forecast tight races
Nearly two dozen Republican candidates and officials are seeking to boot their Libertarian opponents from the November ballot, arguing in a petition before the Texas Supreme Court that the third-party candidates are disqualified because they failed to pay their filing fees or gather required petition signatures.
Among the Republicans signing onto the lawsuit, filed earlier this month, are Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and congressional candidate Monica de la Cruz, who is running for a key battleground seat that runs from McAllen to the San Antonio area.
San Francisco Chronicle
Newsom wants California legislators to pass the state’s most aggressive climate package ever. Is there enough time?
Two weeks before state legislators must adjourn for the year, Gov. Gavin Newsom is pleading with them to pass the most ambitious climate change package in state history. Newsom has asked the California Legislature to sign off on a slate of bills that would require the state to dramatically reduce heat-trapping emissions in all sectors and become carbon-neutral by 2045.
The Democratic governor’s assertive foray into climate policy started in early August, when he made a rare visit to the Capitol to meet with the Senate and Assembly Democratic caucuses. Last week, he unveiled five proposed bills and declared the state “isn’t waiting a minute longer” to take bold action.
His effort, while it has been welcomed by environmentalists, has also perplexed many longtime advocates and policy experts, in part because legislators have so little time left to tackle it before their session ends at midnight on Aug. 31.
The Atlantic
America Is Going to Have a ‘Heat Belt’
When the heat index—a figure that takes into account both temperature and humidity—reaches 80 degrees, the National Weather Service advises Americans to take caution. When it reaches 90, that advisory gets bumped to possibly dangerous; at 100, it’s likely so. At a heat index of 125 or above, the National Weather Service warns of “extreme danger” and describes its effect on the body concisely: “heat stroke highly likely.”
Until now, that kind of extreme heat has been limited to relatively small parts of the country. But that might not always be the case. According to a new heat model released yesterday by the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit organization that assesses future climate risk, more than 100 million Americans live in counties that are expected to experience at least one day with a heat index of 125 degrees or above in the next 30 years. That’s 13 times more than the 8 million people who are forecasted to experience such world-melting temperatures this year, the group notes. And it helps to illustrate just how much of the country will need to start preparing today for more regular periods of intense heat.
The nonprofit, which has previously modeled wildfire and flood risk, predicts that an “Extreme Heat Belt” will form along the Mississippi River, enveloping most of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana—as well as portions of Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
NPR News
Federal judges deal the oil industry another setback in climate litigation
A federal appeals court has ruled that a pair of lawsuits that seek to hold oil companies accountable for the effects of climate change should be heard in state courts, striking down efforts by the fossil fuel industry to get the cases in front of federal judges.
While climate change "is an important problem with national and global implications," cases cannot be transferred to federal courts "just because they are important," the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said August 17.
Lawyers representing the state of Delaware and the city of Hoboken, N.J., sued more than a dozen oil companies and an industry trade group in 2020 for allegedly misleading the public about the role that fossil fuels play in causing climate change. The Delaware and Hoboken lawsuits are among more than 20 similar cases filed across the United States in the last several years.
Vox
The Colorado River drought is so bad you can see it from space
The extraordinary drought across the Western United States is only getting worse, and the images have been stunning: boats listing on dry lake beds, yellowing vegetation, and “bathtub rings” around reservoirs showing just how much water levels have fallen. It’s led to historic water rationing measures, including a new round of cuts announced this week from the federal government after seven states along the Colorado River failed to meet a deadline to come up with a plan to voluntarily reduce their water use.
“In order to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the Colorado River System and a future of uncertainty and conflict, water use in the Basin must be reduced,” said Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of the Interior, in a statement this week.
The full scale of the drought, however, can only be seen from space. NASA satellites have been monitoring waterways in the West for years and documenting how the region is drying up. It’s part of a trend lasting almost two decades, making it the worst drought in 1,200 years. Part of the severity of this “megadrought” has been worsened by climate change.
Mongabay
Forest fires are getting worse, 20 years of data confirm
Across Russia, Europe, Indonesia, the Amazon Basin, North America, Australia, and beyond, we have watched fires blaze across landscapes, causing immense damage to life and land. Now, a new analysis confirms what many have witnessed firsthand and in the news: forest fires are getting worse.
Researchers at Global Forest Watch, an environmental monitoring platform developed by the World Resources Institute, reviewed 20 years of satellite data on tree cover loss to identify what they call stand-replacing fires, those that burn all or most of a forest’s living overstory trees. These may be caused by wildfires, fires escaped from agricultural burning, or fires set by humans.
Compared to 2001, fires are now causing 3 million more hectares (7.4 million acres) of tree cover loss per year, amounting to an area larger than Belgium. In 2021, fires were responsible for more than one-third of all tree cover loss for the year, making it one of the worst years on record.
The Washington Post
Glaciers in Europe are experiencing the most severe melting on record
Pascal Egli has run on trails winding through the Alps for nearly two decades, but until this summer, he had never seen the mountains so bare.
Extreme heat waves had transformed the mountain landscape. Routes once considered easy were now dangerous. Snow bridges over crevasses collapsed, making certain areas impassable. Rocks had tumbled unexpectedly from glaciers and bare mountainsides, injuring and even killing some in their path.
“By mid-June, it was really, really kind of shocking,” said Egli, who received his PhD in glaciology from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland this summer. “It was getting so hot and things are melting so fast, you couldn’t safely do certain 4,000-meter [13,000-feet] peak routes anymore because some crevasse bridges were a bit unsure.”
UPI
Erdogan warns of 'Chernobyl' risk amid fighting at Ukraine nuclear plant
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned people on Thursday about "another Chernobyl," referencing Russian occupation of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia power plant, which has seen fighting amid Russia's months-long invasion of its neighbor.
Russia also allegedly told workers at the nuclear plant not to report for work on Friday, NBC News reported, citing exclusive military intelligence sources. That fueled speculation over some kind of planned operation.
"We do not rule out the possibility of massive Russian provocations on the territory of the ZNPP tomorrow. This is confirmed by their propaganda, information from our sources, and the behavior of the Russians at the station," Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Andriy Yusov told NBC.
Al Jazeera
Finland says Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated its airspace
Two Russian MiG-31 fighter jets are suspected of violating Finnish airspace near the coastal city of Porvoo on the Gulf of Finland.
The suspected violation happened at 06:40 GMT on Thursday and the jets were westbound, the defence ministry’s communications chief Kristian Vakkuri said, adding the aircraft were in Finnish airspace for two minutes.
Reuters
Finland's leader slams leaked video of her dancing at private parties
Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday said she was upset that videos of her dancing at private parties were published online as they were meant to be seen only by friends.
Marin, 36, spoke after a two-minute video of her singing and dancing with well-known local influencers and artists spread on social media and in Finnish media on Wednesday. […]
"These videos are private and filmed in a private space. I resent that these became known to the public," Marin told reporters. She said she did not know who leaked them. […]
Marin in January told Reuters she and her fellow young female ministers have been targeted with extensive hate speech for their gender and appearance while in office.
Cybernews
Russian hackers target Finland parliament’s website
Pro-Russian hackers took down the website of Finland’s parliament, citing Helsinki’s NATO application as the reason behind the DDoS attack.
The website of the Finnish parliament went down for several hours yesterday after a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack launched by Russian threat actors.
“A denial-of-service attack is directed against the Parliament’s external websites. […] The Parliament takes steps to limit the attack together with service providers and the Cybersecurity Center,” the Finnish parliament said in a statement.
BBC News
Ukraine war: Thousands of Jews quit Russia amid fears of persecution
Russia is facing the mass migration abroad of large numbers of its Jewish population, with at least one in eight leaving the country since its war with Ukraine began.
The Jewish Agency helps Jews around the world move to Israel. It says an astonishing 20,500 of Russia's estimated total of 165,000 Jews have gone since March. Thousands more have moved to other countries.
Undoubtedly the spectre of historical Jewish persecution has loomed large in the minds of many of those who are a part of this sudden mass migration and those still trying to get out of Russia.
EU Today
Putin to reward Russian mothers for producing "cannon fodder"
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet-era “Mother Heroine” award for women who have ten or more children originally established by Joseph Stalin in 1944 to encourage large families after the death of tens of millions of Soviet citizens during the Second World War (which, for the benefit of Russian readers actually began in 1939, at which time Stalin had entered into a pact with Hitler - ed.).
Putin's Russia has been facing a similar demographic crisis, largely led by a "brain-drain" that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and which is now being given fresh impetus by the war in Ukraine.
Qualifying mothers are awarded a one-time payment of 1 million rubles (£13,500) as soon as their 10th living child turns one year old. According to Putin’s decree, the mothers still qualify if they lose any of their children in battle or as a result of a terrorist act or emergency situation, the decree states. They will also receive Mother Heroine gold medals.
EuroNews
Forest fires have burned a record 700,000 hectares in the EU this year Access to the comments
Forest fires have burned a record 700,000 hectares in the EU so far this year - the biggest amount since records began.
“We are facing a difficult summer in Europe, with so far for this year more than 700,000 hectares burned, the highest value at this time of the year since 2006," said Janez Lenarcic, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management. […]
Climate change has made increased the likelihood and severity of wildfires across Europe.
Deutsche Welle
EU-mediated talks fail to settle tensions between Serbia, Kosovo
Serbia and Kosovo failed to reach a solution over recent disputes in the region at EU-mediated talks in Brussels on Thursday, but the two Balkan nations did agree to continue talking, EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell said.
Borrell added that talks between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti would resume "in the coming days." […]
Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo blocked roads and erected barricades in response to a dispute over license plates. Kosovo tried to order Serbian vehicles to switch plates to ones from Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo, while routed through the country. […]
Formally, … Serbia has not accepted Kosovo's independence and still considers Kosovo part of the country.
Responsible Statecraft
US bombs Somalia for the third time this summer
The United States conducted another round of airstrikes in Somalia — the third this summer. If you were unaware that we were bombing Somalia, don’t feel bad, this is a completely under-the-radar news story, one that was curiously absent from the headlines in all of the major newspapers this morning.
Thanks to Dave DeCamp at Antiwar.com, however, we know that over a dozen of al-Shabab fighters were killed in an Aug. 14 operation by (US Africa Command) AFRICOM, as described in an official statement Wednesday.
He writes:
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced the airstrike on Wednesday and claimed it killed 13 al-Shabaab fighters. The command said the strike was launched against al-Shabaab members that were attacking Somali government forces in a remote location near Teedaan, Somalia.
The Nation
The Kenyan Kakistocracy
If you’ve noticed an eerie silence coming from the direction of Kenya, it’s because many of us are struggling to believe that what the news is telling us. William Samoei Ruto, former deputy president and International Criminal Court indictee, has been declared president-elect of Kenya. Ruto garnered 50.5 percent of the valid votes cast, while Raila Odinga received 48.9 percent. Voters in countries like the United States and Brazil will be familiar with this feeling, waking up in the days after an election watching an unapologetically dangerous figure ascend to the most powerful office in the country. What will the future look like now? […]
Outsiders are obsessed with peace as the sole metric of a successful election in Africa, leaving little meaningful room to parse who the politicians actually are. Moreover, Kenya, like many other countries in the world, has allowed elections to devolve into entertainment. Observers focus so much on the process that we forget to take stock of the inputs and outputs. Should an election be considered successful if it delivers a president credibly charged by an international tribunal of overseeing systemic murder and who has been associated with every cycle of election violence since 1992? Or if yet another election official winds up dead? Are we to celebrate if a person who has spent 10 years rolling back civic space and eroding institutions has returned to power? Is it progress if we are now under the watch of one of the co-authors of a decade of soft economic implosion and the stifling of public space? Are we supposed to be happy just because we can return to the banalities of capitalism the next day?
AP News via ABC News
China cuts power to factories, homes as reservoirs fall
Factories in China’s southwest have shut down and a city imposed rolling blackouts after reservoirs to generate hydropower ran low in a worsening drought, adding to economic strains at a time when President Xi Jinping is trying to extend his hold on power.
Companies in Sichuan province including makers of solar panels, cement and urea closed or reduced production after they were ordered to ration power for up to five days, according to news reports Wednesday. That came after reservoir levels fell and power demand for air conditioning surged in scorching temperatures.
“Leave power for the people,” said an order from the provincial government dated Tuesday.
El País
US and Taiwan to start formal trade talks amid tensions with China
As US-China tensions continue to simmer over Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the United States announced on Wednesday that it will begin trade talks with Taiwan under a new initiative. “The negotiating mandate announced today sets out the broad objectives shared by the two sides for the upcoming trade negotiations. It is expected that the first round of negotiations will take place early this fall,” the Office of the US Trade Representative said in a statement.
Washington and Taipei unveiled the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade in June, just days after the Biden administration excluded the Chinese-claimed island from its Asia-focused economic plan designed to counter China’s growing influence. The resumption of talks comes at a moment of heightened tensions with China. Beijing responded to Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan by carrying out threatening military drills around Taiwan. A subsequent visit by a delegation of US lawmakers to the island also triggered fresh military exercises.
The Guardian
Saudi woman given 34-year prison sentence for using Twitter
A Saudi student at Leeds University who had returned home to the kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists. […]
The case also marks the latest example of how the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has targeted Twitter users in his campaign of repression, while simultaneously controlling a major indirect stake in the US social media company through Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Salma al-Shehab, 34, a mother of two young children, was initially sentenced to serve three years in prison for the “crime” of using an internet website to “cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security”. But an appeals court on Monday handed down the new sentence – 34 years in prison followed by a 34-year travel ban – after a public prosecutor asked the court to consider other alleged crimes.
Bloomberg via The Japan Times
Japan’s bid to get young people to drink more sparks online backlash
A campaign by Japan’s tax agency to prop up alcohol revenue by encouraging young people to drink up has met fierce backlash on social media, with users criticizing the taxman for dictating people’s lifestyle choices.
The National Tax Agency’s “Sake Viva!” idea competition, which is seeking business plans from young people or groups to help “revitalize” the nation’s liquor industry, was launched in July and gained traction on Twitter this week after local and overseas media outlets reported the move. […]
Japan collected about ¥1.1 trillion in tax from liquor sales, or around 2% of total tax revenue in fiscal 2020, down 13% from 2016, according to tax agency data. The volume of alcohol taxed has steadily shrunk to 7.7 billion liters as of 2020, down nearly 10% from a decade ago, estimates from the tax agency show.
Jezebel
Louisiana Delays Critical Flood Response Funds to New Orleans Over Abortion Politics
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) successfully urged the Louisiana Bond Commission on Thursday to delay a $39 million future line of credit for the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board–which the city needs for its flood response–until city officials agree to enforce the state’s abortion ban. The move comes right at the start of hurricane season, on the same day New Orleans has issued a flood advisory.
The financing that’s being held hostage would, specifically, be used to build a power station for the Sewerage & Water Board to help combat flooding. Melinda Deslatte, a research director at Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, live-tweeted today’s meeting, in which Republican politicians decided to punish New Orleans, a Democratic stronghold in the state, for defending abortion rights in the wake of a near-total ban. (Officials in New Orleans, including even the police, have vowed not to enforce the state’s new ban, which has already pushed out all three of its abortion clinics.) […]
Landry, who’s likely running for governor in 2023, issued a direct ultimatum to New Orleans: Enforce the abortion ban, or let your residents suffer in heavy floods. “Now, the shoe is on their foot,” he said. “If they want this project to move forward, rescind the resolution.”
The Hill
Judge blocks DeSantis’s ‘Stop WOKE Act,’ says Florida feels like a ‘First Amendment upside down’
A federal judge on Thursday blocked a Florida law restricting how workplaces and schools can discuss race during required training or instruction championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida Chief Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law, known as the “Stop WOKE Act,” saying it violates free speech protections under the First Amendment and that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause for being impermissibly vague.
“Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down,” Walker wrote in the ruling, comparing the law to the fictional “upside down” in the Netflix series “Stranger Things.”
Ars Technica
For the first time ever, more people watched streaming TV than cable
A new report from market measurement firm Nielsen says that for the first time, TV viewers watched more on streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ than they did on cable TV, making streaming the most popular way to consume content.
The shift has been predicted by analysts and commentators for years, but it has only now come to fruition. Streaming had previously outpaced over-the-air broadcast TV, but cable was still beating it until July.
In July, streaming accounted for 34.8 percent of audiences' TV viewing. The runner-up was the now-dethroned cable TV, which came up narrowly behind at 34.4 percent. The relatively distant third was broadcast at 21.6 percent.