The Washington Post
The White House makes it clear that it sees chaos in the streets as politically useful
[Kellyanne] Conway made explicit the strategy that the president and his team have been making obvious for months now: Trump’s team sees violent protests as politically advantageous. […]
“Why is that important?” she continued. “Because the Republican president, Donald Trump, doesn't look at this as a partisan issue. He's trying to send federal reinforcements in. And you've got these governors saying, oh, no. They're putting their pride in their politics ahead of public safety."
That alone is revealing. Because eruptions of violence can be blamed on Democrats, the White House throws up its hands. That’s not only because it allows Trump to shunt away criticism but also because it allows him to make the point he wants to make: Democrats, like his general election opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, allow violence to happen. In an out-of-character move, Trump is happy to present himself as powerless here specifically because he thinks it reinforces weakness on the part of his opponents.
Congress left town and let jobless benefits lapse. Unemployed Americans say they won’t forget it.
[…] Millions of desperate Americans, many of whom have never relied on emergency government assistance before, are flabbergasted and furious, believing they have been cut loose by a Washington political structure that doesn’t care about their predicament during the pandemic. The stock market has snapped back, but the labor market remains in really bad shape. On Thursday, the Labor Department said another 1 million Americans filed jobless claims last week. About 27 million Americans are now receiving some form of unemployment aid.
The Washington Post spoke to 20 people who have lost their livelihoods in recent months, and all said they felt immense pressure to stay afloat without the extra $600, which expired at the end of July. Every person interviewed said they were furious at Washington policymakers for letting such a critical benefit lapse amid the nation’s worst economic crisis in a century. Often, the anger was directed at Republicans, who control the White House and the Senate, although a few credited … Trump for at least trying to take action on his own.
The New Orleans Advocate
Why Hurricane Laura’s storm surge wasn’t — thankfully — as bad in Lake Charles as feared
Blessedly, the catastrophic warning by the National Hurricane Center late Wednesday of a 20-foot wall of storm surge in Cameron Parish to accompany Hurricane Laura as it came ashore never materialized.
While it's still unclear how significant surge damage was along the Cameron coast, flooding in Lake Charles was not considered significant and water levels in the area, while very elevated, didn't reach the heights of other storms. And at the mouth of the Calcasieu River, water levels rose to just over 11 feet, according to tidal gauge measurements — high, but still well below the forecast.
Trump plans Louisiana trip to survey Hurricane Laura impact, his 7th visit as president
As southwest Louisiana begins to pick up the pieces in the wake of Hurricane Laura, it can soon expect a visit from … Donald Trump.
Trump, who has made several Louisiana trips during his term as president, announced in a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that he planned to visit to survey the damage in Louisiana and Texas as early as this weekend.
Laura made landfall early Thursday morning as a Category 4 storm with winds as high as 150 mph. Forecasters predicted a storm surge in some areas as high as 20 feet, which prompted mandatory evacuations for multiple parishes.
Bloomberg
Biden Says Trump Is ‘Rooting’ for More Violence to Help His Re-Election
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Thursday condemned violence stemming from protests and accused President Donald Trump of wanting it to help boost his re-election chances.
“He views this as a political benefit to him. He’s rooting for more violence,” Biden said on MSNBC. “He’s encouraging this. He’s not diminishing it at all. This is his America now.”
The former vice president quoted Trump aide Kellyanne Conway saying that chaos would be better for their side. “When has a president ever -- a spokesperson for the president ever said something like that?” Biden asked.
Kamala Harris Rebuts Republicans, Assails Trump for Mishandling Virus
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris criticized President Donald Trump for his handling of the coronavirus and sought to rebut the message Republicans have laid out this week at their party’s convention that the virus has been contained.
In a 20-minute speech in Washington, Harris assailed Trump’s leadership, criticizing him for ignoring the warning signs about the virus and prioritizing the stock market over the health of the American people.
“The Republican convention is designed for one purpose — to soothe Donald Trump’s ego,” Harris said. “To make him feel good. But it’s not supposed to be about him.”
She added: “It’s supposed to be about the health, safety and well being of the American people. And on that measure, Donald Trump has failed.”
BuzzFeed News
Yes, Hurricane Laura Really Did Tear Down A Confederate Monument
In Lake Charles, Louisiana, the fate of a Confederate monument was decided by nature.
Hurricane Laura destroyed the South's Defenders monument, which stood on the grounds of a courthouse in Lake Charles.
This summer, amid a national reckoning on Confederate monuments, protesters called for the statue to be moved to a museum, a point of view shared by Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter. The statue was dedicated in 1915, part of a wave of monuments honoring the Confederacy during the Jim Crow era.
Blanked-Out Spots On China's Maps Helped Us Uncover Xinjiang's Camps
In the summer of 2018, as it became even harder for journalists to work effectively in Xinjiang, a far-western region of China, we started to look at how we could use satellite imagery to investigate the camps where Uighurs and other Muslim minorities were being detained. At the time we began, it was believed that there were around 1,200 camps in existence, while only several dozen had been found. We wanted to try to find the rest.
Our breakthrough came when we noticed that there was some sort of issue with satellite imagery tiles loading in the vicinity of one of the known camps while using the Chinese mapping platform Baidu Maps. The satellite imagery was old, but otherwise fine when zoomed out — but at a certain point, plain light gray tiles would appear over the camp location. They disappeared as you zoomed in further, while the satellite imagery was replaced by the standard gray reference tiles, which showed features such as building outlines and roads.
Los Angeles Times
California adopts major pollution cuts for diesel trucks and ships
California air quality officials have adopted their biggest pollution-cutting regulations in more than a decade, targeting diesel trucks and cargo ships that spew much of the state’s health-damaging pollution.
The pair of rules approved Thursday by the state Air Resources Board will be crucial in reducing smog and cancer risk to millions of Californians who, despite years of gradual improvement, still breathe the nation’s worst-polluted air. One establishes stringent new emissions standards for heavy-duty diesel trucks, and the other requires more ships docked at ports to plug into electric power or scrub their exhaust.
The measures are part of a multiyear push to clean up freight-moving industries that are both a lifeblood of California’s economy and its dominant source of harmful pollution. Diesel trucks emit nearly one-third of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and more than one-quarter of diesel particulate matter in the state. Oceangoing ships are projected to surpass trucks to become Southern California’s largest source of nitrogen oxides by 2023.
The Oregonian
Federal orders to disperse apply to journalists, legal observers at Portland protests, appeals court says
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily lifted a lower court’s preliminary injunction on federal law enforcement officers’ use of force, threats and dispersal orders against journalists and legal observers working at Portland protests.
The injunction was put in place by U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon while the federal government appeals the restriction.
The appeals court said Simon’s injunction was “without adequate legal basis.” It concluded that the government showed the order “will cause irreparable harm to law enforcement efforts and personnel.”
AP News
What virus? At GOP’s convention, pandemic is largely ignored
It was a stunning scene in a country where parents and children have been laid to rest without their loved ones present, schools have gone to online-only learning and businesses have shut their doors to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
On Thursday night, about 1,500 people gathered on the South Lawn of the White House so … Donald Trump could accept his party’s nomination for reelection in front of a roaring crowd. Masks were not required and chairs were placed inches apart from one another, with no room for social distancing, in violation of endless public health recommendations. […]
As Trump has tried to push past a pandemic that has tanked the economy and threatened his reelection chances, GOP organizers have worked to stage a convention that puts the virus in the rear view mirror and highlights the nation’s progress, even as it continues to spread. More than 42,000 new cases were reported Wednesday and 2,700 more have died since the week began.
Vigilante calls on social media before deadly Kenosha attack
Repeated calls for armed vigilantes to travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to protect businesses following the police shooting of Jacob Blake spread across social media in the hours before two people were shot to death and a third was wounded during a third night of unrest in the city.
Multiple threads on Facebook and Reddit urged militias and other armed people to head to the protests, researchers at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab said in a blog post Wednesday. The demonstrations broke out after Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was left paralyzed Sunday when he was shot from behind by officers answering a domestic dispute call.
Two people were killed by gunfire Tuesday night and Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old from nearby Antioch, Illinois, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide.
The Atlantic
The RNC Is Terrified of Losing Women Voters
… Trump is in trouble with women voters, and the GOP knows it. At the Republican National Convention last night, everyone from Vice President Mike Pence to Trump’s departing counselor, Kellyanne Conway, eagerly pointed out that they were speaking on the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, praised the president’s mentorship of women in senior administration roles, and his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, testified to his solicitude after her preventative double mastectomy. The intended message was clear: Trump is a man who supports women, no matter what you may have once heard him say on a hot mic. But will Americans buy it?
St. Paul Pioneer Press
‘Let’s rise up to this occasion’ — Walz calls for peace after night of violence in Minneapolis
Nicollet Mall was eerily quiet for a weeknight Thursday, as most Minneapolis residents appeared to be complying with an 8 p.m. curfew implemented by Mayor Jacob Frey, following overnight unrest that left dozens of businesses along the iconic street looted and vandalized.
Four hundred National Guard soldiers, 250 State Patrol troopers and dozens of officers from other law enforcement agencies flooded into Minneapolis, tasked with keeping the peace that had settled over the city after a night that saw 132 arrests and two police officers injured. […]
This latest episode of unrest grew out of a false rumor that officers had killed a Black man on Nicollet Mall in the city’s downtown Wednesday evening.
San Francisco Chronicle
As evacuated Bay Area residents begin returning to their homes, officials urge vigilance, caution
[…] Record-setting wildfires continued to burn across the Bay Area on Thursday, but major headway on containment by the more than 15,000 firefighters on the lines allowed some residents to start returning home — albeit with a warning.
“You need to be ready,” said Cal Fire Unit Chief Shana Jones. “We have probably another few months of peak wildfire season, so it’s your duty — it’s your responsibility — to be prepared (and to) help us help you.”
More than 40 new fires sparked across the state since Wednesday, each quickly extinguished, but the high fire risk remains, officials said.
More than 1.6 million acres have burned statewide, compared with 55,000 this time last year.
The Denver Post
Pine Gulch becomes largest wildfire in Colorado history
The Pine Gulch fire, burning on the Western Slope north of Grand Junction, has become the largest wildfire in Colorado history.
The fire grew to 139,006 acres, or 217 square miles, on Thursday, or 217 square miles, with 77% containment, surpassing the 2002 Hayman fire, which burned 137,760 acres northwest of Colorado Springs in 2002.
Hot and dry weather continued Thursday with high temperatures climbing again into the 90s with relative humidity in the mid-teens, officials said. Ridge top winds gusted to 20 mph. Thunderstorms in the area did not directly affect the fire during the afternoon.
Business Insider
Xi Jinping could revive Mao Zedong's long-dormant title of 'Chairman' to help him maintain total control, experts say
Xi Jinping could resurrect the title of "Chairman" to consolidate power in China, as the end of his presidential term nears, experts have said.
Xi already has near-total power in China, holding the titles of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, President of China, and head of the military.
Term limits to those posts were also abolished in 2018, so Xi will not be required to step down when his second term as president ends in 2023.
The Guardian
Antarctica: 60% of ice shelves at risk of fracture, research suggests
Approximately 60% of Antarctica’s ice shelves could be vulnerable to fracture, accelerating the loss of the Antarctic ice sheet and increasing sea-level rise, according to a paper.
Antarctica’s ice shelves, floating extensions of the ice sheet, help slow the flow of ice into the ocean. But if these shelves fracture and then collapse, the flow of melting glaciers into the oceans accelerates.
A study published in the journal Nature has mapped areas where ice shelves hold back upstream ice and are susceptible to “hydrofracture”, where meltwater flows into crevasses and fissures in the ice and enlarges them, potentially triggering the collapse of the ice shelf.
Colombia sees seven massacres in two weeks as wave of violence grips country
A wave of massacres in which dozens of people have been killed across Colombia has prompted fears that the South American nation remains unable to turn the page on its decades-long civil war.
In the latest incident, the bodies of three young men were found late on Tuesday near a road outside Ocaña, a city near the country’s eastern border with Venezuela.
The discovery marked the seventh massacre in two weeks. At least 39 people have been killed in the spate of violence that has stretched across the country.
The New York Times
A Woman May Have Been Cured of H.I.V. Without Medical Treatment
A woman who was infected with H.I.V. in 1992 may be the first person cured of the virus without a risky bone-marrow transplant or even medications, researchers reported on Wednesday.
In an additional 63 people in their study who controlled the infection without drugs, H.I.V. apparently was sequestered in the body in such a way that it could not reproduce, the scientists also reported. The finding suggested that these people may have achieved a “functional cure.”
The research, published in the journal Nature, outlines a new mechanism by which the body may suppress H.I.V., visible only now because of advances in genetics. The study also offers hope that some small number of infected people who have taken antiretroviral therapy for many years may similarly be able to suppress the virus and stop taking the drugs, which can exact a toll on the body.
NPR News
Rare Meteorites Show How The Earth Got Its Life-Giving Water
Water on Earth is omnipresent and essential for life as we know it, and yet scientists remain a bit baffled about where all of this water came from: Was it present when the planet formed, or did the planet form dry and only later get its water from impacts with water-rich objects such as comets?
A new study in the journal Science suggests that the Earth likely got a lot of its precious water from the original materials that built the planet, instead of having water arrive later from afar.
The researchers who did this study went looking for signs of water in a rare kind of meteorite. Only about 2% of the meteorites found on Earth are so-called enstatite chondrite meteorites. Their chemical makeup suggests they're close to the kind of primordial stuff that glommed together and produced our planet 4.5 billion years ago.
Kenosha Shooting Suspect Charged With Six Criminal Counts, Including Homicide
Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager accused of shooting and killing protesters in Kenosha, Wis., was charged on Thursday with six criminal counts including felony charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. […]
In a video recorded before the shootings, a figure who appears to be Rittenhouse describes himself as part of a local militia whose job was to protect businesses in Kenosha.
WBEZ's
Dan Mihalopoulos has reported that Rittenhouse, a former youth police cadet, is a supporter of law enforcement and the "Blue Lives Matter" movement. […]
A criminal complaint filed Thursday details prosecutors' version of events and identifies the shooting victims as Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber… A friend of Huber's told the Chicago-Sun Times that the 26-year-old was a fearless skateboarder and great father to his girlfriend's daughter. Rosenbaum, who was 36, is remembered by his sister as a jokester and compassionate father who leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter.
Ars Technica
Vote by mail doesn’t really change much, election wise
With an uncontrolled pandemic raging, lots of states have been considering shifting to a vote-by-mail system. That's turned out to be politically controversial, as President Trump has lodged evidence-free claims that it will lead to massive fraud or provide some other unspecified advantage to Democrats. Meanwhile, the advocates of vote by mail sometimes present it as the solution to the generally low participation of US citizens in elections. Vote by mail, they contend, will boost turnout significantly.
Two researchers decided this was something they could answer. Michael Barber of BYU and John Holbein of the University of Virginia took advantage of states where vote by mail was rolled out on a county-by-county basis. Their results suggest that vote by mail doesn't provide either party with an advantage, but it also hasn't done much to boost participation.
