July 2022 News, Views

Editor's Choice: Scroll below for our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative news and view in July 2022

July 31

Top Headlines

• Politico, Manchin to Sinema: Believe in this bill, Burgess Everett
• Axios, Sinema indicates she may want to change Schumer-Manchin deal
• New York Times, The Wind Is at Biden’s Back for a Change. Will Voters Care?
• Washington Post, Millions will be affected if Inflation Reduction Act becomes a reality. Here’s what it would do
• New York Times, As Latin America Shifts Left, Leaders Face a Short Honeymoon
• Washington Post, Exclusive: Hot mic captured Gaetz assuring Stone of pardon, discussing Mueller redactions, Jon Swaine and Dalton Bennett

Ukraine War

• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Zelensky Urges Mass Evacuation; Red Cross Kept From Prison Blast Site
• New York Times, The Kremlin is forcing Ukrainians to adopt Russian ways of life. Here’s how
• Washington Post, Ukraine Live Updates: Putin trumpets new hypersonic missiles; Russian Navy HQ hit in drone attack
• Associated Press, Drone explosion hits Russia's Black Sea Fleet HQ

Bill Russell Dies

• CelticsBlog, Commentary: Bill Russell dies at 88, Keith P. Smith

U.S. Politics, Governance, Elections

• Politico, Toomey defends delay of veterans health bill, says he will back it if amendment passes
• Washington Post, 3 more GOP impeachers face their primary juries, Paul Kane

Missing DHS Messages, Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

• Washington Post, Investigation: Homeland Security watchdog halted plan to recover Secret Service texts, records show, Maria Sacchetti and Carol D. Leonnig
• Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli
• World Crisis Radio, Commentary: Concrete signals emerge that Department of Justice is finally investigating the actions of Trump and his faction! Webster G. Tarpley
• Washington Post, The status of key investigations involving former president Donald Trump, Matt Zapotosky, Matthew Brown, Shayna Jacobs, Devlin Barrett and Jacqueline Alemany
• Politico, The RNC ‘election integrity’ official appearing in DOJ’s Jan. 6 subpoenas, Betsy Woodruff Swan
• Palmer Report, Commentary: The Trump Secret Service text message, Bill Palmer
• HuffPost, Ex-DHS Aide Suggests She 'Went Very Public' Because She Didn't Trust Inspector General
• New York Times, 2016 Campaign Looms Large as Justice Dept. Pursues Jan. 6 Inquiry

 Trump Watch

• New York Times, Fox News, Once Home to Trump, Now Often Ignores Him
• Washington Post, The Murdochs and Trump aligned for mutual benefit. That may be changing
• New York Times, On Golf: At LIV Tournament, Thin Crowds and a Tense Start
• Washington Post, Trump uses presidential seal at N.J. golf club amid ethics complaints
• Vicky Ward Investigates: “He's Setting Himself Up as a Shadow President,” Vicky Ward

Energy, Climate, Environment, Disasters

• New York Times, When There’s Arsenic in the Water, but ‘We Have Nowhere to Go’
• New York Times, New Mexico Governor Declares State of Emergency for Drinking Water
• Washington Post, U.S. solar industry ready for revival
• Washington Post, Federal office for climate change has no funding
• Washington Post, Fire danger increases in Northern California as McKinney blaze erupts
• New York Times, Democrats Got a Climate Bill. Joe Manchin Got Drilling, and More
• Washington Post, Special Report: He’s been called a deforester and a killer. Now he’s running the government, Terrence McCoy and Cecília do Lago, Photos and videos by Rafael Vilela
• New York Times, Heavy Rain Causes Deadly Flooding Across Iran
• Associated Press, Floods strike new blow in place that has known hardship
• Axios, 25 dead in Kentucky after catastrophic flooding in Appalachia
• New York Times, Search for Victims Continues in Kentucky After Floods Kill at Least 25

World News, Human Rights Analysis

• Washington Post, Nancy Pelosi announces Asia trip itinerary with no mention of Taiwan
• Washington Post, Guatemalan journalist arrested in growing crackdown on political dissent
• New York Times, ‘Haitians Are Hostages’: Gangs Advance on the Seat of Government Power
• Associated Press via HuffPost, Pope Francis Says He May 'Think About' Stepping Aside
• New York Times, Fidel Ramos, Philippine President Who Broke With Marcos, Dies at 94
• New York Times, Biden and Xi Conduct Marathon Call During Time of Rising Tensions

U.S. Economic News 

• Washington Post, Corporations on the front lines of the economy say cracks are forming

U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

• New York Times, Trained, Armed and Ready. To Teach Kindergarten
• New York Times, Studies on school employees carrying guns have been limited, and research so far has found little evidence that it is effective
• Washington Post, Alex Jones’s media company files for bankruptcy during Sandy Hook trial
• New York Times, House Passes Assault Weapons Ban That Is Doomed in Senate
• New York Times, At the Parkland Trial, Families Must Endure Grisly Evidence on Repeat

U.S. Law, Immigration, Crime

• Law&Crime, Gambler Left Puppy in Vehicle Amid Intense Las Vegas Heat While He Went to Casino: Police
• Law&Crime, 52-Year-Old Man Went on Stabbing Spree, Killing 17-Year-Old Boy While Tubing on Wisconsin River: Sheriff,
• Law&Crime, Maryland Woman Who Said Her Baby Was Stillborn Has Been Sentenced for Murdering the Boy with a Ziploc Ba
• Law&Crime, Tattoo on Arm of Florida Mother Found Dead in a Lake Led Police to Charge Her Boyfriend with Murder

• Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: Alito undermines U.S. in Rome speech mocking allied leaders, Wayne Madsen
• HuffPost, Justice Alito Mocks World Leaders Who Criticized Court's Abortion Ruling
• New York Times, Pain Doctor Is Found Guilty of Sexually Assaulting Patients

Pandemic, Public Health 

• New York Times, Opinion: In the I.C.U., Dying Sometimes Feels Like a Choice, Daniela J. Lamas
• Washington Post, Conservatives skeptical of covid vaccines fight to lead a Florida hospital
• Axios, President Biden tests positive for "rebound" COVID
• Associated Press, New York City declares monkeypox a public health emergency
• New York Times, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest

U.S. Abortion, Contraception, Privacy, Trafficking

• Politico, Opinion: More Republican Women Than You Think Have Had Abortions. Here’s How I Know, Samantha Zaleski
• Washington Post, States may revive abortion laws from a time when women couldn’t vote
• New York Times, Kansas Abortion Vote Tests Political Energy in Post-Roe America
• Washington Post, Some Republicans fear party is too extreme on abortion and gay rights
• New York Times, A New Yorker’s Opposition to Abortion Clouds Her House Re-Election Bid

Media, Education, Sports, Pop Culture

• New York Times, Will the Biggest Publisher in the United States Get Even Bigger?
• New York Times, White House Communications Director to Stay After Announcing Departure
• Washington Post, Shakira faces over 8 years in prison if convicted of tax fraud in Spain

Top Stories

Politico, Manchin to Sinema: Believe in this bill, Burgess Everett, July 31, 2022. All eyes have now turned to the Arizona Democrat to see if she will support the legislation agreed to last week.

Attention Kyrsten Sinema: The deal between Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin reflects your “tremendous input,” doesn’t raise taxes and is altogether an “all-American bill.” That’s, at least, according to Manchin (shown at right in a file photo with the Arizona senator).

As Sinema (D-Ariz.) weighs whether to support the party-line energy, tax, deficit reduction and health care legislation, the West Virginia senator fanned out across all five Sunday shows to make the case for his deal. The moment reflected how intensely Manchin is now pressing to pass a package that only a few weeks ago he was lukewarm on, at best — and why he thinks Sinema should support it.

And Manchin had plenty of work to do during his quintet of appearances, with hosts pressing him whether the bill really fights inflation and how imposing a new minimum tax on large corporations might affect the economy. Faced with those questions, Manchin said simply on “Fox News Sunday": “We did not raise taxes. We closed loopholes.”

He also made sure to credit Sinema with cajoling Democrats into that tax-skeptic position after many in her party weighed surtaxes on high earners and pushed for rate increases. Though Sinema’s stayed quiet since Manchin and Schumer announced the deal on Wednesday, Manchin said that he “would like to think she’d be favorable to it.”

“Kyrsten Sinema is a friend of mine, and we work very close together. She has a tremendous, tremendous input in this legislation,” Manchin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “She basically insisted [on] no tax increases, [we’ve] done that. And she was very, very adamant about that, I agree with her. She was also very instrumental” on prescription drug reform.

Manchin and Sinema were aligned for months last year on pushing back against Democrats’ plans to spend as much as $3.5 trillion. Sinema worked on the prescription drug piece and helped shape the revenue package significantly late last year before Manchin rejected what was once called Build Back Better.

Now they are in different places. Manchin negotiated the deal one-on-one with Majority Leader Schumer while Sinema was caught completely off guard by its announcement, particularly the inclusion of a provision narrowing the so-called carried interest loophole, which brings in $14 billion of the bill’s $739 billion in new revenues.

Manchin said he didn’t brief Sinema or anyone else in the Democratic Caucus on his negotiations because of the very real possibility they would fall apart. He said on CNN that when Sinema “looks at the bill and sees the whole spectrum of what we’re doing and all of the energy we’re bringing in, all of the reduction of prices and fighting inflation by bringing prices down, by having more energy, hopefully, she will be positive about it.”

Axios, Sinema indicates she may want to change Schumer-Manchin deal, Hans Nichols, July 30, 2022. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had a message for her Democratic colleagues before she flew home to Arizona for the weekend: She's preserving her options.

Why it matters: Sinema has leverage and she knows it. Any potential modification to the Democrat's climate and deficit reduction package — like knocking out the $14 billion provision on carried interest — could cause the fragile deal to collapse.

Her posture is causing something between angst and fear in the Democratic caucus as senators wait for her to render a verdict on the secret deal announced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin last Thursday.

Driving the news: Sinema has given no assurances to colleagues that she’ll vote along party lines in the so-called “vote-a-rama” for the $740 billion bill next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

 New York Times, The Wind Is at Biden’s Back for a Change. Will Voters Care? Michael D. Shear, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). Ahead of the midterm elections, President Biden’s challenge is to make sure his successes resonate with Americans who remain skeptical about the future. Recent wins include reduced gas prices and legislation to bolster competition with China. But the economy continues to hurt his approval ratings.

President Biden and his top advisers have tried for months to press forward amid a seemingly endless drumbeat of dispiriting news: rising inflation, high gas prices, a crumbling agenda, a dangerously slowing economy and a plummeting approval rating, even among Democrats.

But Mr. Biden has finally caught a series of breaks. Gas prices, which peaked above $5 a gallon, have fallen every day for more than six weeks and are now closer to $4. After a yearlong debate, Democrats and Republicans in Congress passed legislation this past week to invest $280 billion in areas like semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research to bolster competition with China.

And in a surprise turnabout, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a Democrat who had single-handedly held up Mr. Biden’s boldest proposals, agreed to a deal that puts the president in a position to make good on promises to lower drug prices, confront climate change and make corporations pay higher taxes.

“The work of the government can be slow and frustrating and sometimes even infuriating,” Mr. Biden said at the White House on Thursday, reflecting the impatience and anger among his allies and the weariness of his own staff. “Then the hard work of hours and days and months from people who refuse to give up pays off. History is made. Lives are changed.”

Even for a president who has become used to the highs and lows of governing, it was a moment to feel whipsawed. Since taking office 18 months ago, Mr. Biden has celebrated successes like passage of the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and slogged through crises like the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Gas prices soared; now they are coming down. Unemployment is at record lows even as there are signs of a looming recession.

The president’s brand of politics is rooted in a slower era, before Twitter, and sometimes it can pay off to have the patience to wait for a deal to finally emerge. But now, with congressional elections coming up in a few months, the challenge for Mr. Biden is to make sure his latest successes resonate with Americans who remain deeply skeptical about the future.

Washington Post, Millions will be affected if Inflation Reduction Act becomes a reality. Here’s what it would do, Jeff Stein, Maxine Joselow and Rachel Roubein, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The package, if smaller than Democrats’ initial ambitions, would transform huge sectors of the U.S. economy.

Major changes to the Affordable Care Act. The nation’s biggest-ever climate bill. The largest tax hike on corporations in decades. And dozens of lesser-known provisions that will affect millions of Americans.

If enacted, the legislation released Wednesday night in a surprise agreement between Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), above, would represent one of the most consequential pieces of economic policy in recent U.S. history — though still far smaller than the $3 trillion the Biden administration initially sought.

• $260 billion in clean-energy tax credits
• $80 billion in new rebates for electric vehicles, green energy at home and more
• $1.5 billion in rewards for cutting methane emissions
• $27 billion ‘green bank’
• Support for fossil fuel projects
• Agriculture, steel, ports and more
• $313 billion from a 15 percent corporate minimum tax
• $124 billion from major enforcement increases at the IRS
• Changing special tax treatment for private equity
• Lowering prescription drug prices
• Extending health insurance subsidies
• What’s missing?

• Washington Post, Manchin says he has reached deal with Schumer on climate, health-care costs
• Washington Post, Democrats race to adopt climate, health deal
• RollCall, ‘Chips and science’ bill on way to Biden’s desk

New York Times, As Latin America Shifts Left, Leaders Face a Short Honeymoon, Julie Turkewitz, Mitra Taj and John Bartlett, July 31, 2022. All six of the largest economies in the region could soon be run by leftist presidents. Their challenges? Inflation, poverty and the war in Europe.

After years of tilting rightward, Latin America is hurtling to the left, a watershed moment that began in 2018 with the election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, right, in Mexico and could culminate with a victory later this year by a leftist candidate in Brazil, leaving the region’s six largest economies run by leaders elected on leftist platforms.

A combination of forces have thrust this new group into power, including an anti-incumbent fervor driven by anger over chronic poverty and inequality, which have only been exacerbated by the pandemic and have deepened frustration among voters who have taken out their indignation on establishment candidates.

But just as new leaders settle into office, their campaign pledges have collided with a bleak reality, including a European war that has sent the cost of everyday goods, from fuel to food, soaring, making life more painful for already suffering constituents and evaporating much of the good will presidents once enjoyed.

Washington Post, Exclusive: Hot mic captured Gaetz assuring Stone of pardon, discussing Mueller redactions, Jon Swaine and Dalton Bennett, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). Shortly before Trump confidant Roger Stone's 2019 trial on charges of obstructing the Mueller investigation, Rep. Matt Gaetz assured him "the boss" would likely grant him clemency.

As Roger Stone prepared to stand trial in 2019, complaining he was under pressure from federal prosecutors to incriminate Donald Trump, a close ally of the president repeatedly assured Stone that “the boss” would likely grant him clemency if he were convicted, a recording shows.

At an event at a Trump property that October, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) predicted that Stone would be found guilty at his trial in Washington the following month but would not “do a day” in prison. Gaetz was apparently unaware they were being recorded by documentary filmmakers following Stone, who special counsel Robert S. Mueller III had charged with obstruction of a congressional investigation.

“The boss still has a very favorable view of you,” said Gaetz, stressing that the president had “said it directly.” He also said, “I don’t think the big guy can let you go down for this.”

Gaetz at one point told Stone he was working on getting him a pardon but was hesitant to say more backstage at the event, in which speakers were being filmed for online broadcast. “Since there are many, many recording devices around right now, I do not feel in a position to speak freely about the work I’ve already done on that subject,” Gaetz said.

The lawmaker also told Stone during their conversation that Stone was mentioned “a lot” in redacted portions of Mueller’s report, appearing to refer to portions that the Justice Department had shown to select members of Congress confidentially in a secure room. “They’re going to do you, because you’re not gonna have a defense,” Gaetz told Stone.

The 25-minute recording was captured by a microphone that Stone was wearing on his lapel for a Danish film crew, which was making a feature-length documentary on the veteran Republican operative. The filmmakers allowed Washington Post reporters to review their footage in advance of the release of their film, “A Storm Foretold,” which is expected later this year.

Ukraine War

New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Zelensky Urges Mass Evacuation; Red Cross Kept From Prison Blast Site, Marc Santora and Ivan Nechepurenko, July 31, 2022. The region has been on the front lines of some of the war’s fiercest fighting. The Red Cross said it was being kept from a prison blast site. Follow updates.

The Red Cross said it had not been granted access to a Russian prison camp where dozens of Ukrainian soldiers were killed, an entitlement under the Geneva Conventions. President Volodymyr Zelensky asked civilians to leave eastern Ukraine, where there is a near complete absence of electricity and gas supply.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The more people leave Donetsk now, Zelensky says, ‘the fewer people the Russian Army will have time to kill.’
• Russia accuses Ukraine of conducting a drone attack on the Crimean base of its Black Sea Fleet.
• Russia sets the stage for annexation votes as early as September.
• Ukrainian officials compile evidence that they say shows Russia was behind prison camp blast.
• Prisoners describe harsh treatment in the Russian camp where an explosion killed dozens.
• A mother of six is intent on not leaving her Donetsk home.

New York Times, The Kremlin is forcing Ukrainians to adopt Russian ways of life. Here’s how, Anton Troianovski, Valerie Hopkins, Marc Santora and Michael Schwirtz, Updated July 31, 2022. In Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine, local leaders are forcing civilians to accept Russian rule. Next come sham elections that would formalize Vladimir V. Putin’s claim that they are Russian territories.

They have handed out Russian passports, cellphone numbers and set-top boxes for watching Russian television. They have replaced Ukrainian currency with the ruble, rerouted the internet through Russian servers and arrested hundreds who have resisted assimilation.

In ways big and small, the occupying authorities on territory seized by Moscow’s forces are using fear and indoctrination to compel Ukrainians to adopt a Russian way of life. “We are one people,” blue-white-and-red billboards say. “We are with Russia.”

Now comes the next act in President Vladimir V. Putin’s 21st-century version of a war of conquest: the grass-roots “referendum.”

Washington Post, Ukraine Live Updates: Putin trumpets new hypersonic missiles; Russian Navy HQ hit in drone attack, Robyn Dixon, David Walker and Kendra Nichols, July 31, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin (shown above in a file photo from this spring), said at the country’s annual Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg that new hypersonic missiles will be deployed in the coming months.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the country’s annual Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg, said new hypersonic missiles will be deployed in the coming months — as the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet was hit by a drone. Here’s the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine and its ripple effects across the globe.

Key developments

• Putin said Zircon hypersonic missiles “have no equivalent in the world” and could get evade any defense, and vowed to respond “with lightning speed to anyone who decides to encroach on our sovereignty and freedom.” Russia said earlier this year it had used a type of hypersonic missile — which fly at five times the speed of sound — against Ukraine. The development of the Zircon missile has been underway for some years.
• The attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters, in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, sent a defiant message on Russia’s Navy Day. The attack forced the cancellation of celebrations of Navy Day in Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 where the Black Sea Fleet in headquartered.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a mandatory evacuation order for civilians still living in the war-torn eastern region of Donetsk, saying many were refusing to leave. “There are hundreds of thousands of people, tens of thousands of children … many people refuse to leave … but it really needs to be done,” he said in his nightly address. Russian forces have seized large areas of Donetsk but observers say its offensive has slowed.

Battlefield updates

• Russia says it has invited representatives of the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the deaths of Ukrainian prisoners of war — many of whom were members of the Azov Regiment who surrendered in Mariupol — at a detention center in Olenivka, in a Russian-occupied sector of Donetsk. Kyiv insists Russia was behind the deaths while Russian-backed separatists allege more than 50 prisoners of war were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack.
• Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies showed damaged sections of the center. In before and after shots, Maxar said the pictures showed “one part of a building within the prison compound can be seen with extensive damage on today’s imagery, reportedly part of a destroyed barracks at the prison.”
• A combination photo shows satellite images of a prison before a strike on a facility in Olenivka, Ukraine on July 27, 2022 (top) and after an attack on July 30, 2022 (bottom), amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Maxar Technologies/Via Reuters)
• One of Ukraine’s richest men and his wife were killed in overnight attacks on the southern city of Mykolaiv, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said. Oleksiy Vadatursky owned the Nibulon agricultural company. The latest barrage of strikes on Mykolaiv, close to the Black Sea, hhit a hotel, a sports complex, residential buildings and educational facilities, Kim said.

Global impact

• Grain shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports could restart as early as Monday, a spokesperson for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said. Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement brokered by the U.N. and Turkey last week to allow grain exports to resume.

From our correspondents on the ground

• ‘Horrific’ video apparently showing castration of Ukrainian fighter condemned. Amnesty International and the European Union have backed Kyiv in calling for an investigation into footage circulating online that appears to show pro-Russian forces castrating and executing a captive Ukrainian fighter, write The Washington Post’s Dalton Bennett and Ellen Francis.

Associated Press, Drone explosion hits Russia's Black Sea Fleet HQ, Staff Reports, July 31, 2022.  A drone-borne explosive device detonated Sunday at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, injuring six people, officials said.

The explosion at the headquarters in the city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 caused cancellation of observances of Russia’s Navy Day holiday.

The Black Sea Fleet’s press service said the drone appeared to be homemade. It described the explosive device as “low-power” but Sevastopol mayor Mikhail Razvozhaev said six people were injured in the blast.

There was no immediate information on where the drone began its flight; Sevastopol is about 170 kilometers (100 miles) south of the Ukrainian mainland and Russian forces control much of the mainland area along the Black Sea.

Fighting continued elsewhere in Ukraine. The mayor of the major port city of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, said shelling killed one of Ukraine’s richest men, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife. Vadatursky headed a grain production and export company.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Ukraine Updates: Russia accused of ‘deliberate mass murder’; Blinken and Lavrov discuss Griner deal, Hari Raj, David Walker and Dalton Bennett
• Washington Post, Ukraine and Russia trade blame for strike reportedly killing Mariupol prisoners
• New York Times, Critic's Notebook: Why a Vogue Cover Created a Controversy for Olena Zelenska, Vanessa Friedman
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine President Says Ports Are Ready to Ship Grain Under U.N. Deal
• Washington Post, Russia: No deal yet on releasing Americans Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan
• Washington Post, This American teacher also sits in a Russian jail, worried nobody cares
• Washington Post, Ukraine could be turning the tide of war again as Russian advances stall
• Washington Post, Analysis: Russia’s war in Ukraine escalates on the ground and in Congress
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Points to Added Urgency as Russia Reinforces Southern Front

U.S. Politics, Governance, Education, Economy

Politico, Toomey defends delay of veterans health bill, says he will back it if amendment passes, Allie Bice, July 31, 2022. He explained why he blocked the passage of the the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, which aims to expand health care access to veterans exposed to burn pits.

Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday defended his decision and that of his Republican colleagues’ last week to block the passage of a bill that aims to expand health care access to veterans exposed to burn pits.

The bill — the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — was approved in the Senate in June by a vote of 84-14. It went back to the Senate again for a procedural vote last week and was expected to pass with its broad bipartisan support.

In a surprise effort, Republicans blocked the legislation. Toomey (R-Pa.) said he wanted to amend the bill to make technical changes in terms of the accounting of VA funds. That vote drew criticism from veterans groups as well as comedian Jon Stewart, who has made the passage of the legislation a special cause of his.

Defending his actions Sunday, Toomey said he’s working to amend the bill in a way that would “not change by one penny any spending on any veterans program,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

“What I’m trying to do is change a government accounting methodology that is designed to allow our Democratic colleagues to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree that has nothing to do with veterans and won’t be in the veterans space,” he said.

“My change, honest people acknowledge, will have no effect on the amount of money or the circumstances under which the money for veterans is being spent,” he said. “What I want to do is treat it for government accounting purposes the way we’ve always treated it for government accounting purposes.”

On the same CNN program, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said Toomey’s delaying action was petty and unnecessary.

McDonough said the accounting changes that Toomey is seeking could harm veterans’ care. “I can’t in good conscience do that, because the outcome of that will be rationing of care for vets, which is something I just can’t sign up for,” he said.

Burn pits have been used by the U.S. military to dispose waste at military sites outside the United States. The smoke from those disposal sites has been seen to cause long-term respiratory illness in the exposed soldiers.

“They don’t have to hear it, they don’t have to see it,” Stewart said after Senate Republicans blocked the legislation. “They don’t have to understand that these are human beings.”

Washington Post, 3 more GOP impeachers face their primary juries, Paul Kane, July 31, 2022. Reps. Peter Meijer, Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse have not grabbed the same type of headlines that other Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump in January 2021.

The Republican trio have remained steadfast in support of their votes against Trump but have otherwise mostly kept their heads down and tried to work hard on issues they have long focused on.

Meijer, an Army intelligence officer in the Iraq War from Michigan, has been a major critic of the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Herrera Beutler, from a massive rural district in southwestern Washington, just got a bill passed to transfer land from the U.S. Forest Service to a local county government.

And Friday, Newhouse took to the House floor to speak out against Democratic legislation as “bureaucratic red tape” that would fail to combat wildfires, a perennial issue in his vast district in eastern Washington.

On Tuesday, all three will learn their political fate with Republican voters back home, helping determine if there was ever a path to victory for a Republican who so directly rebuked Trump. And it will go a long way to determining whether there will be one, two or more pro-impeachment Republicans left when the new Congress is sworn in next January.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Opinion: Rising GOP anger at Mitch McConnell offers a lesson for Democrats, Greg Sargent
• New York Times, After Clash, Manchin and Schumer Rushed to Reset Climate and Tax Deal
• New York Times, U.S. Prices Surged in June, and Pay Growth Struggled to Keep Up
• Washington Post, GOP Pa. governor nominee under fire for ties to white-nationalist site
• Washington Post, Wis. anti-voting-fraud activist ordered absentee ballots in others names, he says, to make a point
• HuffPost, Veterans, Same-Sex Couples Stand To Lose In GOP Hissy Fit Over Democratic Deal
• Washington Post, Opinion: Most third parties have failed. Here’s why ours won’t, David Jolly, Christine Todd Whitman and Andrew Yang
• New York Times, Opinion: Why Andrew Yang’s New Third Party Is Bound to Fail, Jamelle Bouie
• Washington Post, House Democrats delay votes on police, guns after internal infighting
• Washington Post, Adam Schiff is jockeying to lead House Democrats. It won’t be easy
• Washington Post, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw makes sure reporters feel the burn, Paul Farhi
• New York Times, Class Divisions Harden Into Battle Lines in Arizona’s Republican Primary

Bill Russell Dies

Boston Celtics star Bill Russell was regarded as the top winner in terms of championships in major U.S. sports history, as well as a barrier-breaking professional in sports management and related social justice issues. In 2011, President Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's top civilian honor (Photo by Dick Raphael for NBAE via Getty Images).

CelticsBlog, Commentary: Bill Russell dies at 88, Keith P. Smith (Boston Celtics writer for CelticsBlog), July 31, 2022. Russell was an 11-time champion with the Boston Celtics.

If you’re here on CelticsBlog, you know who Bill Russell was. Many of you reading this can probably rattle off a catalog of stats, facts and figures about the greatest winner in the history of team sports simply from memory.

A lot you probably also know that Bill Russell wasn’t beloved by all in Boston. That some did everything they could to run him out of town. And they didn’t do it because Russell didn’t win enough. Russell won championships in 11 of his 13 years as a player.

Many in Boston hated Russell simply because he was Black. And not only was Bill Russell Black, but he wasn’t a silent Black man either. He spoke up often about injustices he faced, his teammates faced, his family faced, his friends faced and his fellow Black Americans faced.

If you cruise social media today, you’ll see a lot of people talking about Russell’s accolades as a player and a coach. You’ll see even more talking about what an incredible person Russell was in his non-basketball life.

That’s a life well lived.

Russell was synonymous with those early Boston Celtics teams. When Russell showed up in 1956, he was fresh off back-to-back NCAA championships at the University of San Francisco. In the summer between winning the 1956 NCAA title and starting his rookie year with the Celtics, Russell helped lead Team USA to the gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

In a matter of a year, Russell won an NCAA title, an Olympic gold medal and an NBA title.

And then he never really stopped winning.

Russell was never about individual accolades, though. He was always about the team. But the individual accolades came anyway.

12 All-Star nods. 11 All-NBA teams. Five MVP awards. Member of the 25th, 50th and 75th NBA Anniversary teams.

Russell was also the first Black head coach in NBA history. He won two championships for the Celtics in the player-coach role.

Getting to meet Russell just once, very briefly, to tell him that he was my dad’s favorite player was a memory I’ll always have. And his reply of “Your dad was a smart kid then”, followed by that big smile and that unique laugh was the best of all.

The world is a little less full today, but so much fuller for having had you in it.

Missing DHS Messages, Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical U.S. Riots, Election Probes

House Jan. 6 Select Investigating Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS.) ((Photo via NBC News).

Washington Post, The status of key investigations involving former president Donald Trump, Matt Zapotosky, Matthew Brown, Shayna Jacobs, Devlin Barrett and Jacqueline Alemany, Updated July 30, 2022. Probes of the ex-president’s conduct in politics, government and business are underway in multiple places.

Donald Trump is facing historic legal and legislative scrutiny for a former president, under investigation by U.S. lawmakers, local district attorneys, a state attorney general and the Justice Department. Authorities are looking into Trump and his family business for a medley of possible wrongdoing, including his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and how he valued his various assets for loan and tax purposes.

The probes threaten Trump with criminal or financial penalties, or plain old public embarrassment, as he remains a dominant presence in his party and weighs a 2024 bid to return to the White House. Here’s a list of the key investigations and where they stand.

• Justice Department criminal probe of Jan. 6
• Georgia election results investigation
• The Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation
• The Mar-a-Lago boxes investigation
• Trump business practices, criminal and civil probes in New York
• Westchester, N.Y., golf club

 Washington Post, Investigation: Homeland Security watchdog halted plan to recover Secret Service texts, records show, Maria Sacchetti and Carol D. Leonnig, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The Homeland Security watchdog came up with a plan to recover text messages exchanged around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the Capitol, and then abandoned it.

The Department of Homeland Security’s chief watchdog scrapped its investigative team’s effort to collect agency phones to try to recover deleted Secret Service texts this year, according to four people with knowledge of the decision and internal records reviewed by The Washington Post.

In early February, after learning that the Secret Service’s text messages had been erased as part of a migration to new devices, staff at Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari’s office planned to contact all DHS agencies offering to have data specialists help retrieve messages from their phones, according to two government whistleblowers who provided reports to Congress.

But later that month, Cuffari’s office decided it would not collect or review any agency phones, according to three people briefed on the decision.

The latest revelation comes as Democratic lawmakers have accused Cuffari’s office of failing to aggressively investigate the agency’s actions in response to the violent attack on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.

Cuffari wrote a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security committees this month saying the Secret Service’s text messages from the time of the attack had been “erased.” But he did not immediately disclose that his office first discovered that deletion in December and failed to alert lawmakers or examine the phones. Nor did he alert Congress that other text messages were missing, including those of the two top Trump appointees running the Department of Homeland Security during the final days of the administration.

Late Friday night, Cuffari’s spokesman issued a statement declining to comment on the new discovery.

“To preserve the integrity of our work and consistent with U.S. Attorney General guidelines, DHS OIG does not confirm the existence of or otherwise comment about ongoing reviews or criminal investigations, nor do we discuss our communications with Congress,” the statement read.

Cuffari, a former adviser to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), has been in his post since July 2019 after being nominated by Trump.

DHS spokeswoman Marsha Espinosa said the agency is cooperating with investigators and “looking into every avenue to recover text messages and other materials for the Jan. 6 investigations.”

Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli

After discovering that some of the text messages the watchdog sought had been deleted, the Federal Protective Service, a DHS agency that guards federal buildings, offered their phones to the inspector general’s investigators, saying they lacked the resources to recover lost texts and other records on their own, according to three people familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive investigation.

A senior forensics analyst in the inspector general’s office took steps to collect the Federal Protective Service phones, the people said. But late on the night of Friday, Feb. 18, one of several deputies who report to Cuffari’s management team wrote an email to investigators instructing them not to take the phones and not to seek any data from them, according to a copy of an internal record that was shared with The Post.

Staff investigators also drafted a letter in late January and early February to all DHS agencies offering to help recover any text messages or other data that might have been lost. But Cuffari’s management team later changed that draft to say that if agencies could not retrieve phone messages for the Jan. 6 period, they “should provide a detailed list of unavailable data and the reason the information is unavailable,” the three people said.

Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli, Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Text messages for former President Donald Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, right, and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to four people briefed on the matter and internal emails.

This discovery of missing records for the senior-most homeland security officials, which has not been previously reported, increases the volume of potential evidence that has vanished regarding the time around the Capitol attack.

It comes as both congressional and criminal investigators at the Department of Justice seek to piece together an effort by the president and his allies to overturn the results of the election, which culminated in a pro-Trump rally that became a violent riot in the halls of Congress.

The Department of Homeland Security notified the agency’s inspector general in late February that Wolf’'s and Cuccinelli’s texts were lost in a “reset” of their government phones when they left their jobs in January 2021 in preparation for the new Biden administration, according to an internal record obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and shared with The Washington Post.

The office of the department’s undersecretary of management also told the government watchdog that the text messages for its boss, undersecretary Randolph “Tex” Alles, the former Secret Service director, were also no longer available due to a previously planned phone reset.

The office of Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, above, did not press the department leadership at that time to explain why they did not preserve these records, nor seek ways to recover the lost data, according to the four people briefed on the watchdog’s actions. Cuffari also failed to alert Congress to the potential destruction of government records.

The revelation comes on the heels of the discovery that text messages of Secret Service agents — critical firsthand witnesses to the events leading up to Jan. 6 — were deleted more than a year ago and may never be recovered.

The news of their missing records set off a firestorm because the texts could have corroborated the account of a former White House aide describing the president’s state of mind on January 6. In one case, the aide, Cassidy Hutchinson said a top official told her that Trump had tried to attack a senior Secret Service agent who refused to take the president to the Capitol with his supporters marching there.

In a nearly identical scenario to that of the DHS leaders’ texts, the Secret Service alerted Cuffari’s office seven months ago, in December 2021, that the agency had deleted thousands of agents’ and employees’ text messages in an agency-wide reset of government phones. Cuffari’s office did not notify Congress until mid-July, despite multiple congressional committees’ pending requests for these records.

The telephone and text communications of Wolf and Cuccinelli, left, in the days leading up to Jan. 6 could have shed considerable light on Trump’s actions and plans. In the weeks before the attack on the Capitol, Trump had been pressuring both men to help him claim the 2020 election results were rigged and even to seize voting machines in key swing states to try to “re-run” the election.

“It is extremely troubling that the issue of deleted text messages related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not limited to the Secret Service, but also includes Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, who were running DHS at the time,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement.

 “It appears the DHS Inspector General has known about these deleted texts for months but failed to notify Congress,” Thompson said. “If the Inspector General had informed Congress, we may have been able to get better records from Senior administration officials regarding one of the most tragic days in our democracy’s history.”

Neither Cuccinelli nor Wolf responded to requests for comment. DHS’s Office of Inspector General did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

World Crisis Radio, Commentary: Concrete signals emerge that Department of Justice is finally investigating the actions of Trump and his faction! Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D., right, July 30, 2022. Pence staffers Short and Jacob testify to federal grand jury; contents of Eastman’s phone under FBI scrutiny; ex-Pentagon chief Miller says Defense Department never got order to post 10,000 guardsmen on Hill for January 6;

Under Trump’s court of miracles, Secret Service deep-sixed critical emails; Communications of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and deputy Cuccinelli have also disappeared; Many subpoenas needed to restore order; Dems call for ouster of DHS IG Joseph Cuffari, left.

A right-wing extremist government in Rome with Meloni-Salvini-Berlusconi would be worse than the Orban regime in Hungary; Orban’s tirade against the so-called mongrelization of the races has been condemned by one of his former associates as worthy of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels; But the Magyar dictator will be welcome to cavort with Trump at CPAC Texas next week!

GOP has antagonized women, parents, blacks, gays, veterans, golfers, 9/11 families, while gratifying MAGAt hooligans, armed militias and racist fanatics; Trump snubbed by Fox News, who declined to carry his latest rally, while the ever-faithful OANN may soon cease to exist;

Synthesis of recent polls suggests that Senate is leaning Democratic, with promising leads in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia and other states; House generic ballot gives Democrats more than a fighting chance; Radical Trump stooge Mastriano in Pennsylvania falls behind Shapiro;

$280 billion CHIPS bill will guarantee US leadership in semiconductors, AI, and other strategic production; This bill formally marks the end of Globalization (1990-2022);

Manchin-Schumer anti-inflation measure contains kilowatt-hour subsidy to keep existing US nuclear power plants producing; Bill includes a nuclear power production credit based on plant revenue;

Xi threatens Biden with old saw that those who play with fire will perish; Arrogance and impudence of chauvinist butchers of Beijing grows intolerable; Pelosi should feel free to visit Taiwan during her Asia trip!

Yale research group led by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld shows crippling impact of departure of 1,000 foreign firms representing 40% of GDP plus toughest economic sanctions on Putin’s war economy; Russia’s position as a commodity exporter is permanently weaker, while imports have collapsed; Pipelines go to Europe, not China; Performance of Moscow financial markets is world’s worst!

Politico, The RNC ‘election integrity’ official appearing in DOJ’s Jan. 6 subpoenas, Betsy Woodruff Swan, July 30, 2022. In addition to a group of former President Donald Trump’s top lawyers, the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 probe is also seeking communications to and from a Republican National Committee staffer in a sensitive role.

At least three witnesses in DOJ’s investigation of so-called alternate electors in the 2020 election — two in Arizona and another in Georgia — have received subpoenas demanding communications to and from Joshua Findlay, who is now the RNC’s national director for election integrity.

Politico reviewed the subpoena sent to the Georgia witness after the Washington Post published copies of two Arizona subpoenas. Findlay’s appearance in the documents means the Justice Department has taken interest in his communications as part of its probe related to pro-Trump GOP officials and activists who presented themselves as legitimate electors from states where Joe Biden won.

Findlay worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign in multiple capacities. In January 2019, the campaign announced he was joining the team that would handle the 2020 Republican National Convention. After the convention, he worked as an attorney on the Trump campaign’s legal team.

Recent Headlines

• HuffPost, Ex-DHS Aide Suggests She 'Went Very Public' Because She Didn't Trust Inspector General
• Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli, Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti
• Palmer Report, Commentary: The Trump Secret Service text messages, Bill Palmer

Trump Watch

Washington Post, The Murdochs and Trump aligned for mutual benefit. That may be changing, Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). In the frenzied coverage of the Jan. 6 House committee hearings, Fox News has been the outlier. While every other major network carried the first public testimony live in prime time in June, Fox relegated the feed to its little-watched business channel.

The network has aired midday hearings live, but Trump-boosting opinion hosts have tended to downplay revelations. When former White House aide Cassidy Hutchison gave bombshell testimony a month ago, Laura Ingraham called it “bad acting.”

But the owner of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, right, has been watching the hearings with a less dismissive eye. And there are signs that the proceedings have helped convince him that the former president is losing his political expediency.

Speculation over the 91-year-old media executive’s thinking crescendoed after the first set of hearings concluded this month and two of his papers published nearly simultaneous editorials. “Trump’s silence on Jan. 6 is damning,” the New York Post declared. “Character is revealed in a crisis,” the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board concluded. “Mr. Trump utterly failed his.”

Murdoch’s support for Donald Trump has been crucial to his political career and at times to his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss. But as Trump inches closer to a third presidential run under the glare of criminal, civil and governmental investigations, multiple associates of Murdoch told The Washington Post that it appears he has lost his enthusiasm for Trump.

But Murdoch, who controls a vast swath of the political media world, has spent decades learning to ride the waves of U.S. politics and hedge his bets on candidates. Fox has tried to pull away from the 45th president before, only to return in the face of Trump’s fury.

New York Times, Fox News, Once Home to Trump, Now Often Ignores Him, Jeremy W. Peters, July 29, 2022. Former President Trump hasn’t been interviewed on the network in more than 100 days, and other Republicans often get the attention he once did.

The network, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch and boosted Mr. Trump’s ascension from real estate developer and reality television star to the White House, is now often bypassing him in favor of showcasing other Republicans.

In the former president’s view, according to two people who have spoken to him recently, Fox’s ignoring him is an affront far worse than running stories and commentary that he has complained are “too negative.” The network is effectively displacing him from his favorite spot: the center of the news cycle.

On July 22, as Mr. Trump was rallying supporters in Arizona and teasing the possibility of running for president in 2024, saying “We may have to do it again,” Fox News chose not to show the event — the same approach it has taken for nearly all of his rallies this year.

Instead, the network aired Laura Ingraham’s interview with a possible rival for the 2024 Republican nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. It was the first of two prime-time interviews Fox aired with Mr. DeSantis in the span of five days; he appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show shortly after talking to Ms. Ingraham.

When Mr. Trump spoke to a gathering of conservatives in Washington this week, Fox did not air the speech live. It instead showed a few clips after he was done speaking. That same day, it did broadcast live — for 17 minutes — a speech by former Vice President Mike Pence.

Mr. Trump has complained recently to aides that even Sean Hannity, his friend of 20 years, doesn’t seem to be paying him much attention anymore, one person who spoke to him recalled.

Donald Trump greets Phil Mickelson on the driving range during Day One of the LIV Golf Invitational—Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 29, 2022 (Photo by Charles Laberge for LIV Golf via Getty Images).

New York Times, On Golf: At LIV Tournament, Thin Crowds and a Tense Start, Bill Pennington, Photographs by Doug Mills, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The controversy over the series, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, isn’t going away. But fans enjoyed the camaraderie among players.

Standing over his ball on Friday, Phil Mickelson, the prized acquisition of the new, Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, lined up his opening tee shot in the breakaway circuit’s event at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

Just as Mickelson, who reportedly received an upfront $200 million signing bonus to join the insurgent tour, was set to begin his swing, a fan 15 yards to his right yelled: “Do it for the Saudi royal family!”

Mickelson backed away from the shot as a security official approached the fan and told him he would be removed from the grounds if there was another outburst.

Donald Trump and Yasir al-Rumayyan, head of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, look on from the second tee during the pro-am prior to the LIV Golf Invitational—Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 28, 2022 (Photo by Cliff Hawkins via Getty Images).

Washington Post, Trump uses presidential seal at N.J. golf club amid ethics complaints, Mariana Alfaro, Rick Maese and Ellen Francis, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). Former president Donald Trump was spotted using the presidential seal on multiple items during the LIV Golf tournament at his Bedminster, N.J., golf course.

The seal was plastered on towels, golf carts and other items as the former president participated in the pro-am event of the Saudi-sponsored tournament Thursday.

It is against federal law to use the presidential and vice-presidential seals in ways that could convey “a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States.”

While violating this law could result in imprisonment of “not more than six months,” a fine or both, these punishments are rarely doled out.

This is not the first time the display of the seal has been reported at Trump properties. The logo appeared on a marker at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., in an Instagram post earlier this year, according to Forbes. WNYC and ProPublica reported in 2018 that the Trump Organization ordered golf course tee markers with the emblem on them.

Last year, a D.C.-based watchdog group accused his Bedminster golf club of profiting from using images of the presidential seal.

“Unlawful use of the presidential seal for commercial purposes is no trivial matter, especially when it involves a former president who is actively challenging the legitimacy of the current president,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said when it filed the 2021 complaint.

As Trump teed off Thursday in the pro-am at the latest LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament, the event was closed to the public but open to media. This week marks the third event of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, with which Trump has joined forces in Bedminster in the face of criticism, and its second in the United States.

Former president Donald Trump's golf bag and towel are seen during the pro-am of the LIV Golf tournament at his club in Bedminster, N.J. (Photo by Seth Wenig for the Associated Press).

Vicky Ward Investigates: “He's Setting Himself Up as a Shadow President,” Vicky Ward, above, July 29, 2022. Former White House Ethics Czar Richard Painter on why it matters that Donald Trump is reportedly using the presidential seal for the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour.

I’ve been fascinated by the tensions caused by the emergence of the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour, a tournament currently being hosted at Bedminster, one of Donald Trump’s courses. This is partly because Trump’s long-standing feud with the PGA (who broke with him over January 6) is in my reporting wheelhouse, but also simply because I love playing the game of golf.

It’s occurred to me as I’ve read the reporting about the rifts between golfers such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Bryson DeChambeau—who have reportedly taken individual payments between $90 million and $200 million from LIV Golf (whose major shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia)—and those who have stuck with the PGA that, if you’re not a golfer, you might not understand the full thorniness of this.

But complicating all this, in the way that only he can complicate things, is Trump. His alliance with LIV and his bad-mouthing of the PGA (after their desertion of his golf courses) has led to accusations of blood-money and complaints from families of victims of 9/11.

And now we have today’s news: Trump has reportedly plastered the presidential seal on towels, on golf carts, and on other items at Bedminster—which the Washington ethics group CREW believes to be a federal crime.

But what does this mean? Will anything happen as a result? Or like so many of the ethics breaches we saw in the Trump administration—and which I reported on—will everyone just carry on as if nothing had happened?

I turned, as usual, to former Bush ethics czar Richard Painter for his opinion. If you read what Painter says closely, you’ll see he says that what matters is who is in attendance at Bedminster. Are there any foreign leaders? If there are, “it’s serious,” says Painter.

What follows is edited and condensed for clarity. Take a read.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Trump uses presidential seal at N.J. golf club amid ethics complaints
• Vicky Ward Investigates: “He's Setting Himself Up as a Shadow President,” Vicky Ward
• National Press Club, Statement By National Press Club On LIV Golf Event At Trump Course

Energy, Climate, Disasters, Environment

New York Times, Democrats Got a Climate Bill. Joe Manchin Got Drilling, and More, Brad Plumer and Lisa Friedman, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). Along the way to the $369 billion package, the West Virginia senator secured an array of concessions for his state and for the fossil fuel industry.

In a twist of fate, Congress is suddenly poised to pass the most ambitious climate bill in United States history, largely written by a senator from a coal state who became a millionaire from his family coal business and who has taken more campaign cash from the oil and gas industry than any of his colleagues have.

That senator, Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, managed to win several major concessions for the fossil fuel industry in the $369 billion climate and energy package, which was made public on Wednesday by Senate Democrats. Mr. Manchin’s vote is critical in the evenly divided chamber because no Republicans support the bill.

The measure requires the federal government to auction off more public lands and waters for oil drilling. It expands tax credits for carbon capture technology that could allow coal or gas-burning power plants to keep operating with lower emissions. Mr. Manchin also secured a promise from Democratic leaders to vote on a separate measure to speed up the process of issuing permits for energy infrastructure, potentially smoothing the way for projects like a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia.

 New York Times, When There’s Arsenic in the Water, but ‘We Have Nowhere to Go,’ Ana Facio-Krajcer and Jill Cowan, Photographs by Alex Welsh, July 31, 2022. Water at a California mobile home park contained almost 10 times the allowable limit of arsenic. Housing alternatives are hard to find.

The Environmental Protection Agency found that water at a mobile home park that mostly serves agricultural workers contained almost 10 times the allowable limit of arsenic. But housing alternatives are hard to find.

Three times a week, Pascual Campos Ochoa, 26, loads up a duffel bag with a brown fleece blanket and a plastic container of oatmeal. A van picks him up from the dusty trailer park where he lives — where stray dogs wander among the carcasses of old cars and working electricity is not a given — and takes him to a clinic for kidney dialysis.

Mr. Campos Ochoa is the youngest person to require the treatment at the clinic; he has been on dialysis since he was 18 and is waiting for a kidney donor.

Still, it was not until recently, he said, that he considered that his health problems may be tied to the trailer he has shared with his family for 16 years at the Oasis Mobile Home Park — and the water tainted with high levels of arsenic that spewed for years from its aging pipes.

 New York Times, New Mexico Governor Declares State of Emergency for Drinking Water, McKenna Oxenden, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (shown at right in a file photo) declared a state of emergency in the northeastern New Mexico city of Las Vegas on Friday, after the area’s drinking water supply was threatened by damage from an out-of-control prescribed fire burn.

While the water was safe to drink, the authorities warned that there was only a two-month supply available for Las Vegas, a city of about 13,000 people.

The Gallinas River, which serves as the primary drinking source for the city, is covered with ash and soot from the Calf Canyon/Hermit’s Peak fire, which is now nearly contained after burning more than 341,000 acres.

New York Times, Opinion: In the I.C.U., Dying Sometimes Feels Like a Choice, Daniela J. Lamas (a contributing Opinion writer and a pulmonary and critical-care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston), July 31, 2022.

Was her husband dying?

You might think this is an easy question to answer. And yet here in the intensive care unit, it is not. Our medicines and machines extend the lives of patients who would otherwise have died.

But what happens when it becomes clear that a patient is not actively dying, but not getting better either? How do doctors and family members navigate death when it is not imminent and unavoidable, but is instead a decision?

Washington Post, U.S. solar industry ready for revival, Evan Halper, July 31, 2022. China's dominance in solar manufacturing leaves the United States vulnerable. The climate package on a path to President Biden's desk could help U.S. firms. The bill, negotiated in part by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), would deliver billions of dollars in tax and other incentives to U.S. solar manufacturers, equipping them with government support on a scale of those China used to corner the market.

Washington Post, Federal office for climate change has no funding, Maxine Joselow, July 31, 2022. The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity launched almost a year ago.

A week after taking office, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order that established a new federal office focused on addressing the health consequences of climate change, which disproportionately affects poor communities and communities of color.
10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint

The administration had grand plans for the office. For the first time, it would marshal the full powers of the federal government to help Americans sweltering under deadly heat waves, breathing in dangerous wildfire smoke, fleeing from massive flooding and struggling to access clean drinking water amid a historic drought parching the West.

“Many climate and health calamities are colliding all at once,” Biden said at the time, adding, “Just like we need a unified national response to covid-19, we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis.”

But nearly a year after the Department of Health and Human Services launched the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, Congress has not provided any funding, forcing it to operate without any full-time staff at a time of worsening climate disasters across the country, according to interviews with four officials there.

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster last summer

“Right now, it is an unfunded office,” said Adm. Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health. “What we really need is funding to have a permanent staff.”

In his budget plan released in March, Biden requested $3 million to support eight full-time positions in the climate office. The government funding package that passed the House last week would deliver the full $3 million. So would the spending bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled on Thursday.

However, the government spending bills that lawmakers released last year also included $3 million for the climate office — until that money was stripped from the legislation at the last minute as part of an agreement brokered behind the scenes. That has fostered apprehension among officials in the climate office.

Washington Post, Fire danger increases in Northern California as McKinney blaze erupts, Diana Leonard, July 31, 2022. The western wildfire season is shifting into a higher gear on the heels of a searing and prolonged heat wave in the Pacific Northwest.

The Western wildfire season is poised to shift into a higher gear on the heels of a searing and prolonged heat wave in the Pacific Northwest.

Meteorologists are warning about a fire weather pattern beginning this weekend that could bring abundant lightning and erratic winds to portions of California, Oregon and the Northern Rockies.
10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint

“There’s definitely concern anytime you have a heat wave followed by lightning, especially in midsummer in the Western U.S.,” said Nick Nauslar, a fire meteorologist with the National Interagency Fire Center. “We think that we’ll see ignitions and potentially a number of significant fires as well.”

In an ominous sign of conditions on the ground, a new wildfire — the McKinney Fire — is spreading rapidly near the California-Oregon border after an initial bout of thunderstorms Friday. It grew explosively Friday night and Saturday with extreme fire behavior, forming a towering pyrocumulonimbus cloud, or a fire-generated thunderstorm. Radar detected lightning unleashed by the storm.

Incredibly, the fire had already grown to 30,000 to 40,000 acres by Saturday afternoon, according to the Klamath National Forest.

Washington Post, Special Report: He’s been called a deforester and a killer. Now he’s running the government, Terrence McCoy and Cecília do Lago, Photos and videos by Rafael Vilela, July 31, 2022 (interactive). Terrence McCoy, who covers Brazil for The Washington Post, visited a remote, illegally built town within Indigenous territory for this story.

Kawore Parakanã, a leader of the Parakanã people, had ventured miles into the jungle in May with three warriors to track the invasions that have made this Indigenous land in Pará state one of the Amazon’s most deforested. Up ahead lay an illegal clearing.

They considered their options. One was to fight, to take back the land. But they had traveled unarmed, and Kawore believed they’d be killed. Another was to seek help — but from whom? He couldn’t go to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who says restrictions within Indigenous territory have impeded the country’s economic development. He couldn’t go to the surrounding communities, populated by newcomers who eye his territory with avarice.

But most of all, he couldn’t go to the mayor, one of the most powerful and feared men in the Amazon, known by some as “the god of São Félix.”

It’s not just that Mayor João Cleber Torres had aligned himself with the land grabbers. It’s that he has been described — by federal attorneys, police, news reporters, government-funded researchers and a federal judge — as one himself.

New York Times, Heavy Rain Causes Deadly Flooding Across Iran, Farnaz Fassihi, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The monsoon-like rains, unusual for the typical dry season in the region, have killed more than 50 people, caused heavy damage and shut down major roadways.

Heavy rains in Iran that began Wednesday have set off flash floods and landslides in 21 of the country’s 31 provinces, killing at least 53 people, heavily damaging hundreds of villages, cutting off access to major roads and forcing the evacuation of an ancient city, officials say.

With the death toll expected to rise — at least 16 people are still missing — the flood is the deadliest water-related episode in a decade. The national crisis center said heavy rainstorms and flood risk would continue until Monday, and it issued a nationwide warning to stay away from riverbanks and valleys.

Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, placed governors nationwide on high alert and ordered the emergency relief agencies to prepare for the possibility that reservoirs and dams would overflow, official media reported.

Associated Press, Floods strike new blow in place that has known hardship, Bruce Schreiner, Andrefw Selsky and Dylan Lovan, July 31, 2022.  Evelyn Smith lost everything in the floods that devastated eastern Kentucky, saving only her grandson’s muddy tricycle. But she’s not planning to leave the mountains that have been her home for 50 years.

Like many families in this dense, forested region of hills, deep valleys and meandering streams, Smith’s roots run deep. Her family has lived in Knott County for five generations. They’ve built connections with people that have sustained them, even as an area long mired in poverty has hemorrhaged more jobs with the collapse of the coal industry.

After fast-rising floodwaters from nearby Troublesome Creek swamped her rental trailer, Smith moved in with her mother. At age 50 she is disabled, suffering from a chronic breathing disorder, and knows she won’t be going back to where she lived; her landlord told her he won’t put trailers back in the same spot. Smith, who didn’t have insurance, doesn’t know what her next move will be.

“I’ve cried until I really can’t cry no more,” she said. “I’m just in shock. I don’t really know what to do now.”

For many people who lost their homes, connections with family and neighbors will only grow in importance in the aftermath of the floods, which wiped out homes and businesses and engulfed small towns. Still, in a part of the state that includes seven of the 100 poorest counties in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, they may not be enough for people already living on the margins.

Axios, 25 dead in Kentucky after catastrophic flooding in Appalachia, Herb Scribner, July 30-31, 2022. More heavy rains are forecast after catastrophic flooding across Appalachia left at least 25 people dead in Kentucky as of Saturday afternoon.

The latest: The death toll "is likely to increase," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a press conference Saturday. Search and rescue teams could be recovering bodies for weeks to come, he added.

New York Times, Search for Victims Continues in Kentucky After Floods Kill at Least 25, Mike Ives, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). As the weather clears in flood-stricken areas of the state, rescuers are still searching for victims. Officials expect the death toll to rise. A family lost four children to the flood: “I know they hung on to each other till the very end.”

The response to some of the worst flooding in Kentucky’s history was entering a pivotal phase on Saturday morning, with the confirmed death toll at 25 and the search for victims poised to accelerate over a battered stretch of central Appalachia.

A cold front is expected to bring clearer weather to flood-stricken areas on Saturday, giving rescue personnel one less obstacle to contend with as they work to pluck more residents off rooftops. Nearly 300 people have been rescued in Kentucky so far, about 100 of them by aircraft, Gov. Andy Beshear, right, told reporters on Friday.

But state officials expect the death toll to keep growing, possibly for weeks, as rescue efforts continue across rugged hills and valleys that remain hard to reach. And with rain in the forecast for Sunday, they feel urgency to make more progress before water levels have a chance to rise again.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Multiple deaths reported as massive flooding in eastern Kentucky engulfs homes
• Washington Post, Opinion: Manchin’s climate deal isn’t enough, but it’s still a miracle, Eugene Robinson
• New York Times, Germany Counts on Chilled Gas to Keep Warm Over Winter
• New York Times, Anti-U.N. Protests in Congo Leave 15 Dead, Including 3 Peacekeepers
• New York Times, ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’: Congo to Sell Land for Drilling
• Washington Post, Heat to wane in Northeast as Pacific Northwest prepares to roast
• New York Times, Heat Records Expected to Be Broken in the U.S. on Sunday
• Washington Post, A drought in Italy’s risotto heartland is killing the rice
• Washington Post, As Europe’s heat wave melts roads, Tour de France races into an uncertain future
• Washington Post, Heat scorches Northeast as temperatures skyrocket to dangerous levels
• New York Times, E.U. officials want lower natural gas consumption. Here are four strategies that nations could use
• Washington Post, Western Japan volcano, Sakurajima, erupts; alert level raised

World News, Analysis

Washington Post, Nancy Pelosi announces Asia trip itinerary with no mention of Taiwan, Annabelle Timsit and Christian Shepherd, July 31, 2022. Reports that the California Democrat was planning to visit the contested, self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own had sparked anger and threats in China, where officials vowed to do what was necessary to “firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Pelosi, left, on Sunday set off for the Indo-Pacific, where she is leading a delegation of five Democratic lawmakers focused on “mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance” in the region, according to a news release from her office.

The delegation will visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, according to the release.

Ever since the Financial Times reported earlier this month that the American delegation would visit Taiwan, Pelosi has not confirmed whether she is going, citing security.

Washington Post, Guatemalan journalist arrested in growing crackdown on political dissent, Rachel Pannett, July 31, 2022. An award-winning journalist in Guatemala has gone on a hunger strike to protest his arrest by authorities amid growing signs of a crackdown on political dissent in the country.

José Rubén Zamora was arrested at his home in Guatemala City on Friday night as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering, blackmail and influence peddling, according to prosecutors. Zamora denounced the charges against him as a conspiracy, describing his arrest as “political persecution.”

Zamora is president and founder of the newspaper elPeriódico, which has reported on suspected corruption within the administration of President Alejandro Giammattei, including in the prosecutor’s office.

In a video posted on Twitter on Saturday, Zamora said he would begin a hunger strike protesting his detention. Authorities also raided his newspaper’s headquarters.

In a separate post, elPeriódico said it would not be silenced despite what it said were “constant” attacks, persecutions and threats against the paper and its president. “We have always believed in freedom of expression and worked to control power through journalism, against all odds,” the paper wrote.

Zamora’s arrest was condemned by human rights groups and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which gave Zamora its International Press Freedom Award in 1995 for his work advocating for press freedoms and fighting censorship in Guatemala.

New York Times, ‘Haitians Are Hostages’: Gangs Advance on the Seat of Government Power, Maria Abi-Habib and Andre Paultre, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). More than 470 people have been killed, injured or are missing in recent violence, according to the U.N., as gangs threaten the presidential palace.

Gangs are increasing their chokehold on Haiti’s capital, using bulldozers to raze entire neighborhoods, overwhelming poorly armed police and taking their violence to within blocks of the seat of government.

While Haitians have endured relentless bloodshed and tragedy for years, the escalation of lawlessness in recent weeks and the government’s inability to exert control has terrified the nation.

In just a nine-day period in July, more than 470 people were killed, injured or missing as a result of gang warfare in Cité Soleil, the country’s largest slum, according to the United Nations.

Government agencies and ministries have urged employees to stay home as gangs expand their territory and are now close to the presidential palace, interior ministry, the central bank and the national penitentiary, where hungry prisoners are threatening to riot, officials warn.

In Cité Soleil, home to about 300,000 people, gangs fighting for control are using bulldozers to topple homes, gang-rape women and girls, and kill at random, according to interviews with residents.

One woman, Wislande Pierre, said she lost nearly everything during a single day, one of over 3,000 people who fled Cité Soleil in July, according to the U.N. The gang clashes started in Ms. Pierre’s neighborhood before spreading to downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Associated Press via HuffPost, Pope Francis Says He May 'Think About' Stepping Aside, Nicole Winfield, July 30, 2022. Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that he can no longer travel like he used to because of his strained knee ligaments, saying his weeklong Canadian pilgrimage was “a bit of a test” that showed he needs to slow down and one day possibly retire.

Speaking to reporters while traveling home from northern Nunavut, the 85-year-old Francis (shown above in an AFP photo after receiving an honorary headdress from his hosts) stressed that he hadn’t thought about resigning but said “the door is open” and there was nothing wrong with a pope stepping down.

“It’s not strange. It’s not a catastrophe. You can change the pope,” he said while sitting in an airplane wheelchair during a 45-minute news conference.

Francis said that while he hadn’t considered resigning until now, he realizes he has to at least slow down.

“I think at my age and with these limitations, I have to save (my energy) to be able to serve the church, or on the contrary, think about the possibility of stepping aside,” he said.

New York Times, Fidel Ramos, Philippine President Who Broke With Marcos, Dies at 94, Robert D. McFadden, July 31, 2022. Considered a ruthless Marcos henchman, he was later hailed as a national hero for breaking with the dictator, and went on to preside over an economic boom.

Fidel V. Ramos, a military leader who succeeded Corazon C. Aquino as president of the Philippines, and from 1992 to 1998 presided over robust economic growth, exceptional political stability and reconciliations with Communist insurgents and Muslim separatists, died on Sunday in Manila. He was 94.

The defense ministry confirmed his death in a statement Sunday.

A longtime aide, Norman Legaspi, told The Associated Press that Mr. Ramos died at the Makati Medical Center and that he had suffered from a heart condition and dementia.

In a nation battered by the corrupt dictatorship of Ferdinand E. Marcos, who was ousted in a popular uprising in 1986, Ms. Aquino and Mr. Ramos led a struggle, in back-to-back six-year terms under a banner of “People Power,” to re-establish democracy, reform a prostrate economy and make peace with extremists.

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Biden and Xi Conduct Marathon Call During Time of Rising Tensions
• New York Times, Analysis: China Has Leapfrogged the U.S. in Key Technologies. Can a New Law Help? David E. Sanger
• Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip
• New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan
• Washington Post, Hungary’s Viktor Orban faces outrage after saying Europeans shouldn’t become ‘mixed race’
• Washington Post, Opinion: A hero of the Trump right shows his true colors: Whites only, Dana Milbank
• New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People
• Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its ownW

U.S. Economic News

Washington Post, Corporations on the front lines of the economy say cracks are forming, Gerrit De Vynck, Rachel Lerman and Caroline O'Donovan, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). Big tech, retail companies and consumer giants painted a mixed picture of a consumer economy where spending is still strong but beginning to wane.

In Silicon Valley, profits at tech companies like Google and Apple generally beat expectations, but executives said there are signs of some niche slowing in consumer spending. Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble said it is expecting a tougher 2023, although it’s still raising prices. Mastercard said spending was steady among the wealthy, but slowing among lower-income customers.

Meanwhile, both Walmart and Best Buy warned that when they report earnings in August, it will be worse than expected — in large part because of changes in consumer habits.

“We’re seeing strong growth,” said Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky. “But we’re cognizant things could change quickly.”

People are still spending their money, but inflation means more of it is going to gas and necessities and less to categories like clothing and electronics. Unemployment remains low, but some companies are slowing hiring and a few are beginning to lay people off outright.

New York Times, After Clash, Manchin and Schumer Rushed to Reset Climate and Tax Deal, Emily Cochrane and Annie Karni, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The West Virginia Democrat said he had relented and agreed to sign on to a climate, energy and tax package after returning to negotiations to draft a version that would combat inflation.

Headquarters of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, designed by Marriner Eccles and located on Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, DC.

New York Times, U.S. Prices Surged in June, and Pay Growth Struggled to Keep Up, Jeanna Smialek, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). A wage growth measure that the Federal Reserve watches closely climbed swiftly in the three months through June and prices increased sharply last month, fresh economic reports showed on Friday, developments that are likely to keep the central bank on track for future rate increases even as the economy shows some signs of cooling.

Prices climbed by 6.8 percent in the year through June, the fastest for the Personal Consumption Expenditures index since 1982. Inflation also jumped by 4.8 percent over the past year after removing food and fuel — which economists do to get a sense of underlying trends — a slightly larger increase than the 4.7 percent increase that economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected.

At the same time, a separate report showed that wages climbed briskly, albeit not enough to keep up with inflation. The Employment Cost Index climbed by 5.1 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, and the index’s measure of wages and salaries also picked up strongly.

That combination is likely to reinforce the Fed's determination to cool down the economy and wrestle inflation back under control. Central bank officials on Wednesday made their second supersized rate increase in a row — three-quarters of a percentage point — as they try to slow down the economy by making money more expensive to borrow.

“Wage increases and labor costs are still showing strong upward pressures, and that’s likely to keep the Fed raising interest rates over the next few meetings,” said Alan Detmeister, an economist at UBS who was formerly a central bank researcher. The employment cost number, he said, “was hot.”

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Fed Fights Inflation With Another Big Rate Increase
• New York Times, Experts said the risk of a U.S. recession was rising after the economy declined for a second straight quarter
• Washington Post, U.S. economy shrinks again in second quarter, reviving recession fears
• New York Times, Opinion: We Are Not in a Recession, Paul Krugman

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

Washington Post, A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail, Brittany Shammas, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a flag-waving crowd gathered outside the Florida jail where an alleged participant was being held.

Jeremy Michael Brown, a retired Special Forces soldier charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted Capitol grounds, addressed them through a phone call played over loudspeaker. The 47-year-old Tampa resident and member of the extremist Oath Keepers group decried the “tyrannical government,” read a lengthy passage from the Bible and portrayed himself as engaged in a fight for “the liberty of every American.”

Then Brown made an announcement that sent the crowd into cheers.

“Today, Jan. 6, 2022, from the maximum security section of the Pinellas County jail,” he said, “I, Jeremy Brown, announce my candidacy for Florida state House of Representatives.”

Within a few months of that speech, he had collected enough signatures to qualify as a candidate and run a long-shot campaign for Florida’s District 62 — all from jail. As the sole Republican candidate, Brown, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial on felony and misdemeanor charges, is set to run against the winner of the August Democratic primary. The newly drawn district includes heavily blue areas; about 72.4 percent of voters there went for Biden, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which reported on Brown’s campaign this week.

It’s unclear whether legal issues could impede Brown’s candidacy or ability to hold public office while he remains in jail. Lawyers are reviewing that question, the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections told the Tampa Bay Times.

“We don’t know, the state office doesn’t know and to be honest, I don’t care,” Brown said in an interview with the newspaper. “I’m gonna run until they tell me no. It’s almost like our government is incompetent.”

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot
• Washington Post, A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail
• Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors
• Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
• Washington Post, Opinion: Here’s a test to see whether Supreme Court justices are above the law, Jennifer Rubin

More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

New York Times, Trained, Armed and Ready. To Teach Kindergarten, Sarah Mervosh, July 31, 2022. More school employees are carrying guns to defend against school shootings. In Ohio, a contentious new law requires no more than 24 hours of training.

Mandi, a kindergarten teacher in Ohio, had already done what she could to secure her classroom against a gunman.

She positioned a bookcase by the doorway, in case she needed a barricade. In an orange bucket, she kept district-issued emergency supplies: wasp spray, to aim at an attacker, and a tube sock, to hold a heavy object and hurl at an assailant.

But after 19 children and two teachers were killed in Uvalde, Texas, she felt a growing desperation. Her school is in an older building, with no automatic locks on classroom doors and no police officer on campus.

“We just feel helpless,” she said. “It’s not enough.”

She decided she needed something far more powerful: a 9 millimeter pistol.

So she signed up for training that would allow her to carry a gun in school. Like others in this article, she asked to be identified by her first name, because of school district rules that restrict information about employees carrying firearms.

A decade ago, it was extremely rare for everyday school employees to carry guns. Today, after a seemingly endless series of mass shootings, the strategy has become a leading solution promoted by Republicans and gun rights advocates, who say that allowing teachers, principals and superintendents to be armed gives schools a fighting chance in case of attack.

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At least 29 states allow individuals other than police or security officials to carry guns on school grounds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. As of 2018, the last year for which statistics were available, federal survey data estimated that 2.6 percent of public schools had armed faculty. The count has likely grown.

In Florida, more than 1,300 school staff members serve as armed guardians in 45 school districts, out of 74 in the state, according to state officials. The program was created after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018.

In Texas, at least 402 school districts — about a third in the state — participate in a program that allows designated people, including school staff members, to be armed, according to the Texas Association of School Boards. Another program, which requires more training, is used by a smaller number of districts. Participation in both is up since 2018.

And in the weeks after the Uvalde shooting, lawmakers in Ohio made it easier for teachers and other school employees to carry guns.

The strategy is fiercely opposed by Democrats, police groups, teachers’ unions and gun control advocates, who say that concealed carry programs in schools — far from solving the problem — will only create more risk. Past polling has shown that the vast majority of teachers do not want to be armed.

The law in Ohio has been especially contentious because it requires no more than 24 hours of training, along with eight hours of recertification annually.

• New York Times, Studies on school employees carrying guns have been limited, and research so far has found little evidence that it is effective.

Washington Post, Alex Jones’s media company files for bankruptcy during Sandy Hook trial, Timothy Bella, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). The parent company for Alex Jones’s Infowars website filed for bankruptcy, his attorney announced Friday, as parents of victims in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School are seeking $150 million in defamation damages against the right-wing conspiracy theorist who falsely claimed the massacre was a “giant hoax.”

As the first week of the civil trial in Austin concluded, Jones’s attorney, F. Andino Reynal, told the courtroom that his client’s media company, Free Speech Systems, had filed for bankruptcy but that it would not interfere with the defamation lawsuit.

While details surrounding the bankruptcy for Infowars’ parent company were not immediately available, Reynal said the filing was made so that Jones’s company could “put this part of the odyssey behind us so that we have some numbers” for potential defamation damages, according to the Associated Press.

It’s the second time in recent months that a bankruptcy filing related to Jones (shown above in a file photo on air) has come up during litigation from Sandy Hook families brought against the conspiracy theorist. Infowars and two other of Jones’s business entities filed for bankruptcy protection in April. The spring filing for bankruptcy protection delayed the start of the trial in Texas, where Infowars is headquartered.

Reynal did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Saturday. Mark Bankston, an attorney for the Texas families suing Jones, slammed the Infowars personality for having his media company file for bankruptcy during the defamation damages trial.

“The world is currently watching the final chapter of Mr. Jones’ pathetic exit from the American stage, and true to form, he will try to grab some cash on his way out,” Bankston said in a statement to The Washington Post. “We don’t intend to allow it.”

Christopher Mattei, an attorney representing some of the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut, echoed Bankston and criticized the timing of the bankruptcy filing.

“Just two days before jury selection is due to begin in Connecticut, Mr. Jones has once again fled like a coward to bankruptcy court in a transparent attempt to delay facing the families that he has spent years hurting,” Mattei said in a statement to The Post. “These families have an endless well of patience and remain determined to hold Mr. Jones accountable in a Connecticut court.”

The bankruptcy filing represents the latest financial blow to Jones after he said the deadliest elementary school shooting in U.S. history — in which 26 people were killed in Newtown, Conn., 20 of them young children — was a “false flag” operation carried out by “crisis actors.” Although Jones has since acknowledged that the shooting took place and blamed his false claims on “a form of psychosis,” he has been banned from major platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Spotify for violating their hate-speech policies.

Judges in Connecticut and Texas have found Jones liable for damages in lawsuits stemming from his false claims. In default judgments against Jones and Infowars last October, District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Travis County, Tex., ruled that Jones did not comply with court orders to give information in a pair of 2018 lawsuits brought against him by the families of two children killed in the 2012 massacre. Jones repeatedly did not hand over documents and evidence to the court supporting his damaging and erroneous claims.

Jones has been previously ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to families who have sued him. Nine families have sued him over the years.

As Sandy Hook defamation trial begins, Alex Jones might be absent

During jury selection this week, Reynal told the Austin courtroom that the founder of Infowars “has medical issues” that could keep him from showing up during parts of the trial, even though he “has no obligation to be here.” While Reynal did not specify what “medical issues” could prevent the 48-year-old from attending the trial in person, Jones has previously blamed stress and cardiovascular effects from his coronavirus infection for missing depositions in the Connecticut trial last year. Jones has also faced daily fines of $25,000 from a Connecticut judge for failing to show up for court-ordered depositions in March.

“I started getting sick after I got covid last year … like everybody else. It attacked the cardiovascular system, okay?” Jones said in an audio message posted in March. “I’m 48, and I’m under a lot of stress.”

Jurors in Austin are determining how much in compensatory and punitive damages Jones must pay the victims’ families, who are pushing for $150 million. While Jones has claimed in court filings that he has a net worth of negative $20 million, attorneys for the Sandy Hook families have pointed to records showing that Jones’s Infowars store made more than $165 million between 2015 and 2018.

The first week of the trial featured fireworks in and out of the courtroom. The trial is expected to conclude next week.

New York Times, House Passes Assault Weapons Ban That Is Doomed in Senate, Annie Karni and Julian E. Barnes, July 29, 2022. Coming on the heels of a spate of mass shootings, the vote gave Democrats another opportunity to draw a sharp distinction with Republicans before the midterm elections.

Responding to a string of mass shootings, a divided House passed a ban on assault weapons on Friday, moving over the near-unanimous opposition of Republicans to reinstate a prohibition that expired nearly two decades ago.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the measure, which passed 217 to 213, as a “crucial step in our ongoing fight against the deadly epidemic of gun violence in our nation.” Only two Republicans, Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Chris Jacobs of New York, joined Democrats in supporting the bill.

Five Democrats voted against the measure: Representatives Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Kurt Schrader of Oregon.

The legislation would make it illegal to sell, manufacture, transfer, possess or import assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices. It stands no chance of passing in the evenly divided Senate, where such a sweeping gun control measure would not be able to win over the 10 Republicans it would need to overcome a filibuster.

Still, the vote provided a way for Democrats to demonstrate to voters months before the midterm elections that they were trying to address the epidemic of gun violence in America. The action in the House came after a spate of mass shootings, including one in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman wielding an AR-15-style weapon killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers.

Convicted mass murder defendant Nikolas Cruz, now on trial in Florida in the death penalty phase of his guilt for 17 murders and 17 attempted murders at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

New York Times, At the Parkland Trial, Families Must Endure Grisly Evidence on Repeat, Patricia Mazzei, July 29, 2022. The nature of the death-penalty trial requires documenting the school shooting in painful detail, even when the defendant’s guilt has never been in doubt.

To shield heartsick families from the most macabre details of how their loved ones were murdered in a mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the court handling the gunman’s sentencing trial has taken an extraordinary step: Graphic videos and photographs are shown only to the jury, so that victims’ relatives and others in the courtroom gallery do not have to endure them.

But the horrifying particulars, conveyed in emotional witness testimony, chilling audio recordings and dispassionate forensic accounts, are impossible to avoid altogether: How a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tied a baby blanket around a wounded student’s arm as a tourniquet. How the gunfire from a semiautomatic rifle boomed inside a classroom under attack. How the high-powered bullets ravaged children’s bodies.

Prosecutors argue that the grisly specifics, while painful, are necessary to prove to the jury that the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, who has pleaded guilty to 17 murders and 17 attempted murders, deserves the death penalty instead of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge has allowed the evidence over the objections of defense lawyers, who say that it is repetitive, gruesome and intended to prejudice the jury against their client.

Such is the nature of capital punishment: Pursuing a death sentence, even against a defendant whose guilt has never been in doubt, requires putting a community that has already survived an unthinkable tragedy through more agony.

Trials of gunmen who have killed so many people in mass shootings are extremely rare, because they have almost always died during the attack. The public is hardly ever forced to confront grim evidence from autopsy reports, surveillance video and survivors’ testimony in proceedings held years after the deadly rampage.

Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career, Joanna Slater, July 29, 2022 (print ed). Buffalo Rep. Chris Jacobs was once considered a rising star in the GOP. But his support of an assault weapons ban cost him

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career
• New York Times, Assault Rifle Makers Earned Over $1 Billion as Violence Surged, Report Says
• Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics
• New York Times, With Gun Bill and Attack Ads, Newsom Raises Profile Using Hardball Tactics
• New York Times, 4 Dead After Iowa State Park Shooting, Authorities Say
• Washington Post, Congress wants more red-flag laws. But GOP states, gun groups resist
• New York Times, Jury Weighs Death Penalty for Gunman in Parkland School Massacre

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime

Law&Crime, Gambler Left Puppy in Vehicle Amid Intense Las Vegas Heat While He Went to Casino: Police, Alberto Luperon, July 31, 2022. A man left his husky locked in his vehicle while he went gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada, say local police. The temperature that day July 20 hit a high of 113 degrees Fahrenheit with a low of 92, according to Accuweather.

As seen on body cam footage, the arresting officer laid out the allegation in curt fashion during the arrest.

“You realize how hot it is outside?” he said before shutting his cruiser door on the man, identified as defendant Raul Carbajal, 50. “You had the vehicle off, windows up, and you had tape around your dog’s mouth.”

Officers described the husky as just a puppy at three months old.

Law&Crime, 52-Year-Old Man Went on Stabbing Spree, Killing 17-Year-Old Boy While Tubing on Wisconsin River: Sheriff, Alberto Luperon, July 31, 2022. A middle-aged man went on a stabbing spree, killing a teenage boy and injuring four other people–all while they were tubing on a river, say authorities in St. Croix County, Wisconsin. Sheriff Scott Knudson did not name the people involved during his press conference on Saturday, but he described the suspect as being 52-years-old, and the slain victim as a 17-year-old boy (h/t KMSP). Both were from Minnesota, he said.

Law&Crime, Maryland Woman Who Said Her Baby Was Stillborn Has Been Sentenced for Murdering the Boy with a Ziploc Bag, Colin Kalmbacher, July 30, 2022. A Maryland woman convicted of suffocating her newborn baby boy in a Ziploc bag was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday.

A jury agreed that Moira Akers, 41, was guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in April of this year. She was facing life in prison. Howard County Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. McCrone sentenced her to a slightly lesser time behind bars.

“This was an extraordinarily difficult case from beginning to end,” Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson told Law&Crime. “What we want people to remember is that Baby Akers’ life, no matter how brief, mattered. I’m proud of the investigative efforts of our local police department and the dedicated prosecution of our attorneys who were able to give this innocent newborn a voice and some justice.”

The underlying incident was the birth of the child in November 2018.

After the unnamed boy was born, Akers called for medical attention and was taken to a nearby hospital. But she apparently intended on keeping the birth a secret – at least until she was confronted about her state of health by medical staff at Howard County General.

Law&Crime, Tattoo on Arm of Florida Mother Found Dead in a Lake Led Police to Charge Her Boyfriend with Murder, Colin Kalmbacher, July 30, 2022. A Florida man has been arrested in connection with the death of his girlfriend whose body was found in a lake earlier this month.

Dedric Jaquan Rashan Wesley, 26, stands accused of murder in the second degree (without premeditation) over the death of 24-year-old Beverly Febres, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

The deceased woman was found by a pedestrian walking their dog in San Marco, Fla. during the mid-morning hours on July 13, 2022.

That dog walker made a sad discovery in Marco Lake: a woman’s body floating on the water near an inlet of the St. Johns River, according to law enforcement cited by Jacksonville television station WJXT.

Febres had been shot twice in the head.

“I saw something, and it appears to be [redacted] body,” the person said in a 911 call. “And there also does appear to be some [redacted] on the street, so, I don’t know. It just does not look good.”

Before making an identification, however, police were reportedly already sure that foul play had occurred.

But the investigation was quickly helped along by a tattoo on one of the victim’s arms, according to an arrest warrant obtained by WTLV and WJXX, the respective Jacksonville, Fla. NBC and ABC affiliates who broadcast collectively as First Coast News.

That tattoo, police say, contained Wesley’s first and last name.

Six days after the woman’s body was discovered, police found her car in a vacant lot some six miles away from the lake, according to Jacksonville CBS and Fox affiliates WJAX and WFOX, who broadcast as Action News Jax. A spent 9mm casing was found inside the car as well that is said to match bullet fragments found inside Febres’ body.

 The passenger seat of her car was reportedly “covered in blood.”

According to the warrant obtained by WTLV, Febres’ family told detectives that Wesley was recently attempting to buy a new iPhone. Police followed up, they say, and the manager of a T-Mobile store said the defendant indicated “his girlfriend went crazy and stole his phone.” The defendant allegedly added that he wanted to suspend his account so that his girlfriend wouldn’t receive his communications.

Wesley was arrested late last week without incident, the JSO says.

According to WJXT, the victim’s family did not know Wesley but had heard about him through her friends. There were reportedly no allegations of domestic violence prior to the alleged murder.

Febres leaves behind a 1-year-old and 3-year-old child. Her alleged killer is not the father, the victim’s family reportedly said.

“Her life was taken from her at the age of 24 and she leaves behind two handsome little boys who she loved more than anything in this world,” Nadya Febres reportedly wrote in a GoFundMe that has since stopped accepting donations.

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: Alito undermines U.S. in Rome speech mocking allied leaders, Wayne Madsen, left, July 29-30, 2022. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito took it upon himself to mock the leaders of U.S. allies in a keynote speech delivered on July 21 in Rome, Italy.

Acting like a mobbed-up comedian performing a churlish stand-up routine on the Las Vegas Strip, Alito lambasted foreign leaders for publicly criticizing the Supreme Court's decision to overturn abortion rights previously guaranteed by the 1973 Roe v. Wade case.

Alito displayed a total disregard for judicial temperament and diplomatic protocol expected of Supreme Court justices. Speaking to the 2022 Religious Liberty Summit sponsored by Notre Dame Law School's Religious Liberty Initiative, Alito launched pointed barbs at foreign leaders by name.

Alito stated that one foreign leader, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was forced to resign a few days after he criticized the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Crossing into Qanon conspiracy territory, Alito suggested that it was Johnson's criticism of the Supreme Court that led to his resignation. In fact, Johnson remains as caretaker prime minister until a new leader of his Conservative Party is chosen and it was an ethics scandal that drove Johnson to resign, not his comments on the Supreme Court.

Alito also ridiculed the stances taken by French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in condemning the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Alito was particularly scornful of Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex.

Rather than act like a senior American jurist, Alito chose to emulate other political jabronis, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, House Minoroty Whip Steve Scalise, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former acting Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Alito's comments only serve to embolden Russia, which sees another opportunity to drive a wedge between the members of NATO and the European Union and the United States. The Supreme Court should also investigate whether any of its members, concerned about adverse international reaction to their pending decision to overturn abortion rights, sought foreign signatures on an amicus curiae brief.

If Chief Justice John Roberts has any effective control over what is now a runaway far-right Supreme Court, he should instruct Alito to publicly and in writing apologize to the world leaders he criticized directly by name and indirectly by insinuation.

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Pandemic Public Health, Disasters

New York Times, Opinion: In the I.C.U., Dying Sometimes Feels Like a Choice, Daniela J. Lamas (a contributing Opinion writer and a pulmonary and critical-care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston), July 31, 2022.

Was her husband dying?

You might think this is an easy question to answer. And yet here in the intensive care unit, it is not. Our medicines and machines extend the lives of patients who would otherwise have died.

But what happens when it becomes clear that a patient is not actively dying, but not getting better either? How do doctors and family members navigate death when it is not imminent and unavoidable, but is instead a decision?

Washington Post, Conservatives skeptical of covid vaccines fight to lead a Florida hospital, Tim Craig, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). The battle for control of one of Florida’s largest public health systems has turned political.

When his blood oxygen dropped to what he described as a critically low level in September, Victor Rohe knew he had “a bad case of covid.”

But like growing numbers of conservatives here in southwest Florida, Rohe didn’t trust the doctors at Sarasota Memorial Hospital to treat him, even though it’s part of one of the state’s largest and highest ranked medical systems.

Rohe, a longtime Republican activist and self-described strict “constitutionalist,” instead rented his own oxygen unit and hooked it up at home. For the next several days, Rohe battled his coronavirus infection in his living room, relying on medical advice from friends and family members.

“If I went to the hospital, I believed I would die,” said Rohe, pointing to online videos and conspiracy theories he watched raising questions about the care some coronavirus patients received at the hospital.

Now a year later, Rohe is part of a slate of four conservative candidates trying to take over control of the board that oversees Sarasota’s flagship public hospital, highlighting how once-obscure offices are emerging as a new front in the political and societal battles that have intensified across the country since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

Although the contenders are considered underdogs to win on Aug. 23, health policy experts say the campaign is a troubling sign of how ideological divisions are spilling into the world of medical care as fights over abortion, the coronavirus and vaccines increasingly fall across party lines — alarming doctors, hospital administrators and medical experts.

“All you need to do is look at how [school boards] have now become very political … and how boards of education have ignored the science of education,” said Michele Issel, a public health professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “There’s this new disregard for the professional training that medical people have, and a disregard for the science of what is best for the population.”

Axios, President Biden tests positive for "rebound" COVID, Herb Scribner, July 30-31, 2022. President Biden tested positive for a rebound case of COVID-19 on Saturday morning after being treated with Paxlovid, his physician said in a letter.

Driving the news: Biden is not experiencing new symptoms and "continues to feel quite well," Dr. Kevin O'Connor said. "This being the case, there is no reason to reinitiate treatment at this time, but we will obviously continue close observation."

Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the positive test Saturday.
The president will go into "strict isolation," O'Connor said.

What he's saying: "This happens with a small minority of folks," Biden tweeted. "I’ve got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me. I’m still at work, and will be back on the road soon."

Catch up quick: The president’s case likely stemmed from the Omicron subvariant BA.5, currently the most dominant strain of the virus in the U.S., Axios' TuAnh Dam writes.

Earlier this week, Biden completed a five-day course of Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment that helped resolve his COVID-19 symptoms. His runny nose and cough improved after the first full day of taking the pill.

The big picture: "Rebound" cases of COVID are possible for those who take Paxlovid, but it remains relatively rare, a Mayo Clinic study released in June found.

Associated Press, New York City declares monkeypox a public health emergency, Staff Reports, July 31, 2022. Officials in New York City declared a public health emergency due to the spread of the monkeypox virus Saturday, calling the city “the epicenter” of the outbreak.

The announcement Saturday by Mayor Eric Adams and health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said as many as 150,000 city residents could be at risk of infection. The declaration will allow officials to issue emergency orders under the city health code and amend code provisions to implement measures to help slow the spread.

In the last two days, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency declaration and the state health department called monkeypox an “imminent threat to public health.”

New York had recorded 1,345 cases as of Friday, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California had the second-most, with 799.

“We will continue to work with our federal partners to secure more doses as soon as they become available,” Adams and Vasan said in the statement. “This outbreak must be met with urgency, action, and resources, both nationally and globally, and this declaration of a public health emergency reflects the seriousness of the moment.”

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U.S. Abortion Rights, Privacy, Trafficking

Politico, Opinion: More Republican Women Than You Think Have Had Abortions. Here’s How I Know, Samantha Zaleski, Sam Zaleski had an abortion in the last few weeks of her senior year at a Catholic school in southeast Michigan. "It took my own pregnancy for me to accept that I was in a controlling relationship," she writes.

We pretend my story is rare among conservatives. It's not, and Republicans should stop acting like it.

In the last few weeks of the school year during my senior year at a respected Catholic school in southeast Michigan, our religion teacher had our class watch “Juno.” In my Catholic community, “Juno” was seen as a pro-life story: The main character learns she is pregnant at 16 and ultimately chooses adoption.

It was during that class, watching “Juno,” that I first experienced the nausea. In the next few weeks, that nausea turned into vomiting, and then into dehydration. I was hospitalized, and soon learned the reason for these vomiting spells. I was pregnant.

I ultimately had an abortion, and I don’t regret the decision. It made me a firm believer in the importance of abortion rights — for economic mobility, for autonomy, for mental health. I did choose life when I chose to have an abortion — my own life.

That decision ended up setting me on a path where I’d spend the better part of my career committed to helping Republicans win elections as a pollster, data analyst and strategist. As a result, I know numbers, and I know politics. And I know that statistically, I can’t be that rare; many women who have supported Republicans have had abortions. Many women who agree with various conservative policies, too, have had abortions. There are men and women in the party, too, who might not have personal experience with abortion, but still have complicated feelings about the procedure.

Sam Zaleski has a decade of experience working in political campaigns and advocacy with expertise in media, research, and analytics. In 2018, she was named a rising star by Campaigns & Elections magazine.

Washington Post, States may revive abortion laws from a time when women couldn’t vote, Gillian Brockell, July 31, 2022. When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, it invalidated antiabortion laws in many states. Now that the Supreme Court has struck it down, these states face questions about whether and how the old laws will take effect again.

Some states avoided this confusion by taking preemptive action. In the half-century that the Supreme Court guaranteed the right to abortion, a number of states passed trigger laws automatically restricting abortion if Roe were ever overturned; now those laws are going into effect. Other states passed laws codifying abortion rights in the event Roe was reversed.

But a few states did nothing at all, and now confusion reigns about whether the old laws are kicking in again.

In Arizona, a 15-week abortion ban will go into effect this fall, but the Republican state attorney general is trying to enforce a stricter 1901 law immediately.

In West Virginia, a law from 1849 — before West Virginia was even a state — which makes providing an abortion a felony, is enforceable, according to the Republican state attorney general.

And in Wisconsin, the Democratic attorney general is fighting enforcement of a law, also from 1849, making it a felony to provide an abortion unless it is needed to save the life of the mother. The Democratic governor has said he’ll grant clemency to anyone charged under it.

For many women, it’s jarring to contemplate resurrecting laws from a bygone era when women’s rights were drastically curtailed.

In 1849, West Virginia was still part of Virginia. (The Trans-Allegheny region didn’t break off until the Civil War.) Women of any race or class had difficult lives and few rights.

In 1850, there were about 10,000 enslaved Black women in the counties that became West Virginia. These women had no control over their financial, professional, political or sexual lives. They could not legally marry, and there was no legal protection against sexual assault. Many enslaved women, particularly in Virginia, were subjected to rape and forced breeding. They had no right to travel, so they could not have crossed state lines for an abortion. Some enslaved people brought recipes for abortion-inducing drinks with them from Africa, but access to these would have been inconsistent at best.

Washington Post, Some Republicans fear party is too extreme on abortion and gay rights, Hannah Knowles, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). West Virginia legislature inches toward abortion ban with few exceptions. Following the end of Roe v. Wade, many in the GOP have embraced uncompromising positions and loaded rhetoric out of step with mainstream public opinion.

Republicans in Congress this month blocked a bill protecting the ability to cross state lines for an abortion, despite strong public support for such a measure.

The Texas attorney general said he would be willing to defend the state’s defunct anti-sodomy law, while a GOP Senate candidate in Arizona has called for a nationwide abortion ban — two positions also out of step with public opinion.

And some of the party’s most vocal members traffic in extreme and inflammatory rhetoric — from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) claiming that heterosexual people will disappear while denouncing “trans terrorist” educators, to Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) calling abortion rights protesters ugly, “Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.”

Uncompromising positions and loaded rhetoric on key social issues are escalating concerns within GOP circles that the party is moving too far out of sync with popular opinion, projecting new hostility to gay people and potentially alienating women voters in high-stakes races. The Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and ending a nationwide right to abortion last month has spawned strict new bans and stirred fears that gay rights and access to contraception could be next — shifting the focus from other culture-war battles where Republicans felt they had a winning message.

New York Times, A New Yorker’s Opposition to Abortion Clouds Her House Re-Election Bid, Jesse McKinley, July 31, 2022. As the lone Republican in the New York City congressional delegation, Representative Nicole Malliotakis has adopted certain stances that would make her an understandable outlier in a deeply Democratic city.

Just days after taking office in early 2021, she voted to discard the legitimate 2020 election results, voting for a debunked conspiracy theory that claimed President Donald J. Trump actually won the election. She followed up by voting against Mr. Trump’s second impeachment as a result of the deadly Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021.

But as she seeks re-election in November, Ms. Malliotakis, right, has tried to tread a finer line around guns and abortion, two polarizing social issues that have taken on added prominence in light of recent Supreme Court decisions. (In June, the court overturned the federal right to abortion, as well as a New York law governing concealed weapons.)

On guns, for example, Ms. Malliotakis has voiced some support for new regulations, even voting for several Democratic gun control bills proffered in the wake of the massacres in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas. She later, however, voted against the omnibus bill package, contending that it was “constitutionally suspect” and “represented a partisan overreach.”

Ms. Malliotakis opposes abortion rights, favoring restrictions on using taxpayer funding for the procedure and on late-term abortions. But she has said that she believes that abortion should be allowed under certain circumstances, such as when the life of the mother is at risk.

But Ms. Malliotakis has also tried to maintain some distance from the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, saying in a recent interview that she “didn’t weigh in on it.” Yet earlier this month, the congresswoman voted against a pair of bills that would have banned states from restricting abortions and prohibited them from blocking access to out-of-state abortion services.

Republicans, who are expected to fare well in November’s midterm elections, have long fought to overturn Roe. Yet some of the party’s candidates have not rushed to embrace the Dobbs ruling, wary of alienating voters who, according to polls, may be swayed by social issues in ways that help Democrats.

Ms. Malliotakis is a prime example. Her district encompasses Staten Island and a swath of southwest Brooklyn, some of the city’s most conservative areas. Yet New York remains an overwhelmingly Democratic city, and the recent Supreme Court rulings were profoundly unpopular here.

Ms. Malliotakis is expected to easily win her Republican primary next month against John Matland, a badly underfunded rival, setting her up for a likely rematch against Max Rose, the former Democratic congressman whom she unseated in 2020.

Mr. Rose, (shown in 2018 photos with Ms. Malliotakis) a combat veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan and awarded the Bronze Star, has sought to tie Ms. Malliotakis to the extreme elements of the Republican Party, including Mr. Trump, and to the Capitol riot by the president’s supporters, saying he is running to protect “the soul of America.”

“Everything that our country was built upon wasn’t just spit at: They tried to destroy it,” he said during a campaign walkabout on July 11 in Bay Ridge. “And even after — even after — Nicole, and everyone else in Congress who were almost killed, they still voted to decertify.”

New York Times, Kansas Abortion Vote Tests Political Energy in Post-Roe America, Katie Glueck, July 31, 2022. On Tuesday, Kansans will decide whether to pass a constitutional amendment that could lead to far-reaching abortion restrictions or an outright ban on the procedure.

In the final days before Kansans decide whether to remove abortion rights protections from their State Constitution, the politically competitive Kansas City suburbs have become hotbeds of activism.

In neighborhoods where yard signs often tout high school sports teams, dueling abortion-related messages now also dot front lawns. A cafe known for its chocolates and cheese pie has become a haven for abortion rights advocates and a source of ire for opponents. Signs have been stolen, a Catholic church was vandalized earlier this month and tension is palpable on the cusp of the first major vote on the abortion issue since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June.

“I’m really sad that that happened,” said Leslie Schmitz, 54, of Olathe, speaking of the abortion access landscape. “And mad. Sad and mad.”

HuffPost, Justice Alito Mocks World Leaders Who Criticized Court's Abortion Ruling, Sara Boboltz, July 28, 2022. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito used part of the keynote speech on religious liberty he gave last week to joke about the criticisms he received from world leaders for overturning abortion rights in the United States.

Speaking from Rome at an event hosted by Notre Dame Law School, Alito said the abortion rights case prompted “a few second thoughts” on his belief that American judges have no business critiquing other countries’ court rulings.

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Media, Religion, Education, Sports News

New York Times, Will the Biggest Publisher in the United States Get Even Bigger? Alexandra Alter, Elizabeth A. Harris and David McCabe, July 31, 2022. The Biden administration is suing to block Penguin Random House from buying Simon & Schuster. A federal court will decide if the sale can proceed.

When the largest publisher in the country, Penguin Random House, struck a deal in the fall of 2020 to acquire its rival Simon & Schuster, publishing executives and antitrust experts predicted that the merger would draw intense scrutiny from government regulators.

The merger would dramatically alter the literary landscape, shrinking the number of major publishing houses — known in the industry as the Big Five — to four. (Or, as one industry analyst put it, it could create the Big One and the other three.)

Such a shift could ripple through the industry, potentially impacting smaller publishers, authors, and ultimately, the books that reach readers, said in an email the novelist Stephen King, who was called by the government to testify in the trial.

“The more the big publishers consolidate, the harder it is for indie publishers to survive,” King said. “And that is where the good writers are currently starting out and learning their chops.”

Last fall, the Biden administration sued to block the $2.18 billion sale as part of its new and more aggressive stance against corporate consolidation. The trial will start on Monday, with oral arguments at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where Judge Florence Pan will preside.

New York Times, Russian National Charged With Spreading Propaganda Through U.S. Groups, Patricia Mazzei July 30, 2022 (print ed.). Federal authorities say the man recruited several American political groups and used them to sow discord and interfere with elections.

The Russian man with a trim beard and patterned T-shirt appeared in a Florida political group’s YouTube livestream in March, less than three weeks after his country had invaded Ukraine, and falsely claimed that what had happened was not an invasion.

“I would like to address the free people around the world to tell you that Western propaganda is lying when they say that Russia invaded Ukraine,” he said through an interpreter.

His name was Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, and he described himself as a “human rights activist.”

But federal authorities say he was working for the Russian government, orchestrating a yearslong influence campaign to use American political groups to spread Russian propaganda and interfere with U.S. elections. On Friday, the Justice Department revealed that it had charged Mr. Ionov with conspiring to have American citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government.

Mr. Ionov, 32, who lives in Moscow and is not in custody, is accused of recruiting three political groups in Florida, Georgia and California from December 2014 through March, providing them with financial support and directing them to publish Russian propaganda. On Friday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions against him.

David Walker, the top agent in the F.B.I.’s Tampa field office, called the allegations “some of the most egregious and blatant violations we’ve seen by the Russian government in order to destabilize and undermine trust in American democracy.”

In 2017 and 2019, Mr. Ionov supported the campaigns of two candidates for local office in St. Petersburg, Fla., where one of the American political groups was based, according to a 24-page indictment. He wrote to a Russian official in 2019 that he had been “consulting every week” on one of the campaigns, the indictment said.

“Our election campaign is kind of unique,” a Russian intelligence officer wrote to Mr. Ionov, adding, “Are we the first in history?” Mr. Ionov later referred to the candidate, who was not named in the indictment, as the one “whom we supervise.”

In 2016, according to the indictment, Mr. Ionov paid for the St. Petersburg group to conduct a four-city protest tour supporting a “Petition on Crime of Genocide Against African People in the United States,” which the group had previously submitted to the United Nations at his direction.

“The goal is to heighten grievances,” Peter Strzok, right, a former top F.B.I. counterintelligence official, said of the sort of behavior Mr. Ionov is accused of carrying out. “They just want to fund opposing forces. It’s a means to encourage social division at a low cost. The goal is to create strife and division.”

The Russian government has a long history of trying to sow division in the U.S., in particular during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Strzok said the Russians were known to plant stories with fringe groups in an effort to introduce disinformation into the media ecosystem.

Federal investigators described Mr. Ionov as the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia and said it was funded by the Russian government. They said he worked with at least three Russian officials and in conjunction with the F.S.B., a Russian intelligence agency.

The indictment issued on Friday did not name the U.S. political groups, their leaders or the St. Petersburg candidates, who were identified only as Unindicted Co-conspirator 3 and Unindicted Co-conspirator 4. And Mr. Ionov is the only person who has been charged in the case.

But leaders of the Uhuru Movement, which is based in St. Petersburg and part of the African People’s Socialist Party, said that their office and chairman’s home had been raided by federal agents on Friday morning as part of the investigation.

“They handcuffed me and my wife,” the chairman, Omali Yeshitela, said on Facebook Live from outside the group’s new headquarters in St. Louis. He said he did not take Russian government money but would not be “morally opposed” to accepting funds from Russians or “anyone else who wants to support the struggles for Black people.”

The indictment said that Mr. Ionov paid for the founder and chairman of the St. Petersburg group — identified as Unindicted Co-conspirator 1 — to travel to Moscow in 2015. Upon his return, the indictment said, the chairman said in emails with other group leaders that Mr. Ionov wanted the group to be “an instrument” of the Russian government, which did not “disturb us.”

“Yes, I have been to Russia,” Mr. Yeshitela said in his Facebook Live appearance on Friday, without addressing when he went and who paid for his trip. He added that he has also been to other countries, including South Africa and Nicaragua.

In St. Petersburg, Akilé Anai of the Uhuru Movement said in a news conference that federal authorities had seized her car and other personal property.

She called the investigation an attack on the Uhuru Movement, which has long been a presence in St. Petersburg but has had little success in local politics.

“We can have relationships with whoever we want to,” she said, adding that the Uhuru Movement has made no secret of backing Russia in the war in Ukraine. “We are in support of Russia.”

Ms. Anai ran for the City Council in 2017 and 2019 as Eritha “Akilé” Cainion. She received about 18 percent of vote in the 2019 runoff election.

Mr. Ionov is also accused of directing an unidentified political group in Sacramento that pushed for California’s secession from the United States. The indictment said that he helped fund a 2018 protest in the State Capitol and encouraged the group’s leader to try to get into the governor’s office.

And Mr. Ionov is accused of directing an unidentified political group in Atlanta, paying for its members to travel to San Francisco this year to protest at the headquarters of a social media company that restricted pro-Russian posts about the invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Ionov even provided designs for protest signs, according to the indictment.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the indictment said that Mr. Ionov told his Russian intelligence associates that he had asked the St. Petersburg group to support Russia in the “information war unleashed” by the West.

New York Times, White House Communications Director to Stay After Announcing Departure, Peter Baker, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). At this point in an administration, with the president’s poll numbers in the tank and a daunting midterm election on the horizon, the usual staff news around the White House is a roster of who is leaving. But in an unusual twist, the news on Friday was who is not leaving after all.

After announcing in early July that she would step down, Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director and an adviser to President Biden for years, abruptly changed her mind. She had been nursing second thoughts after her original decision, colleagues said, and Mr. Biden and Ron Klain, the chief of staff, asked her to reconsider.

“After much thought, discussion and reflection, I’ve decided to stay,” Ms. Bedingfield told colleagues in an email on Friday. “I’m not done here and there is so much more good work to do with all of you. I couldn’t be happier and more excited about this awesome — if admittedly last-minute! — development. The work is too important and too energizing and I have a lot of gas left in the tank.”

Ms. Bedingfield’s about-face, which was reported earlier by CNN, came as turnover in the West Wing has picked up, although it is still nowhere comparable to the revolving door of President Donald J. Trump’s administration.

Michael LaRosa, the press secretary for Jill Biden, the first lady, left on Friday. Others who have departed in recent months include Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary; Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden; Dana Remus, the White House counsel; and various White House lawyers and press aides as well as advisers to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr. Klain wanted anyone planning to leave to do so by the end of July to have a stable staff heading into the campaign season.

Washington Post, The next youth sports arms race, Roman Stubbs, July 31, 2022. As youth sports has exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry, communities are building sprawling sports complexes to attract teams, tournaments – and revenues.

New York Times, F.T.C. Chair Upends Antitrust Standards With Meta Lawsuit, Celia Kang, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Lina Khan (shown above) may set off a shift in how Washington regulates competition by filing cases in tech areas before they mature. She faces an uphill climb.

Early in her tenure as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan declared that she would rein in the power of the largest technology companies in a dramatically new way.

“We’re trying to be forward looking, anticipating problems and taking fast action,’’ Ms. Khan said in an interview last month. She promised to focus on “next-generation technologies,” and not just on areas where tech behemoths were already well established.

This week, Ms. Khan took her first step toward stopping the tech monopolies of the future when she sued to block a small acquisition by Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, of the virtual-reality fitness start-up Within. The deal was significant for Meta’s development of the so-called metaverse, which is a nascent technology and far from mainstream.

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: For the Republicans, overturning Loving v. Virginia is most certainly in the offing, Wayne Madsen, left, July 29-31, 2022 (print ed.). As Republicans turn back the clock by outlawing abortions -- even in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother being at stake -- same gender marriages and sex, and access to contraceptives, another right stands to be obliterated by that party that is enacting what the America First Committee, German-American Bund, and Ku Klux Klan could have only dreamed about in the 1930s: a ban on interracial marriage.

In 1958, Virginia residents Richard and Mildred Loving were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. The couple was found guilty of violating Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between white and those deemed by the state to be "colored." After their conviction was upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court, the Lovings appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, the court found that the Virginia law outlawing miscegenation violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 2015, the Loving decision was cited by the Supreme Court as precedent in its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.to legalize same-sex marriages.

If next week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas is any indication of the ultimate fate of Loving v. Virginia, legal interracial marriage may be on the chopping block. That is because keynoting the Dallas event will be Hungary's fascist prime minister Viktor Orban, an avowed opponent of racial "mixing."

New York Times, How The L.A. Times Handled an Exposé Becomes the Talk of the Town, John Koblin, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). A book by a reporter from the newspaper has ignited debate about the way editors dealt with an explosive article he helped write in 2017.

Five years ago, Paul Pringle and Matthew Doig were on the same team. Mr. Pringle, a veteran reporter at The Los Angeles Times, and Mr. Doig, an editor at the newspaper, were working on an article that would ultimately expose the drug abuse of a powerful former dean at the University of Southern California.

That report would lead to a series of other investigations involving U.S.C., culminating in a Pulitzer Prize for Mr. Pringle and two other reporters in 2019.

Behind the scenes, however, there was bad blood. Last week, Mr. Pringle published a book, Bad City, which, in part, claimed that top editors at The Times, including Mr. Doig, tried to slow-walk and defang that initial groundbreaking article, which detailed how the dean of U.S.C.’s medical school used drugs with young people, including a woman who had to be rushed to the hospital after an overdose.

Mr. Doig, currently an investigations editor at USA Today, snapped back last week on Medium, calling Mr. Pringle “a fabulist who is grossly misrepresenting the facts to support his false narrative.”

Washington Post, Jared Kushner alleges chief of staff shoved Ivanka Trump at White House, Ashley Parker, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). In a forthcoming memoir, Donald Trump's son-in-law and former presidential adviser, portrays John F. Kelly as having a bullying, “Jekyll-and-Hyde” demeanor. Kelly denies the allegations.

Washington Post, Now on the tee for LIV Golf: Trump National and the polarizing former president, Josh Dawsey and Rick Maese, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Former president Donald Trump joins hands this week with the biggest controversy in sports when his New Jersey golf club hosts the latest event in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, further cementing his relationship with Saudi Arabia and angering families of 9/11 victims who have decried the start-up venture as “sportswashing.”

While the renegade golf circuit has staged two other events, including another in the United States, this week’s event at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., promises to be an even more glaring flash point, given its proximity to Manhattan and the involvement of the ex-president.

In recent days, Trump has publicly and privately dismissed human rights concerns about the Saudi kingdom and railed against the professional golf establishment. He is expected to attend every day of this weekend’s event and has been in contact for months with organizers on event details, according to an adviser, who said Trump remains livid with PGA of America officials who moved the 2022 PGA Championship from his Bedminster club following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Doral, his club outside Miami, will host another LIV Golf event in October.

Washington Post, Shakira faces over 8 years in prison if convicted of tax fraud in Spain, Amy Cheng, July 31, 2022 (print ed.). Spanish prosecutors have called for more than eight years in prison and a fine of about $24 million for Shakira over alleged tax fraud, as the authorities push ahead with their years-long case against the Colombian pop star.

Shakira’s legal woes began in 2018 when Spanish authorities accused her of evading taxes amounting to 14.5 million euros, or nearly $15 million, between 2012 and 2014 — a three-year period during which she claimed she had not yet officially moved to Spain. A judge concluded last year that prosecutors had gathered sufficient evidence to pursue tax fraud charges in court.

On Friday, prosecutors unveiled six charges against Shakira, 45, after she rejected a settlement deal earlier this week, El País reported. According to the Spanish newspaper, authorities highlighted the substantial amount of taxes she allegedly owed, as well as her record of using offshore tax havens, as aggravating factors in the case.

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July 30

Top Headlines

• Washington Post, Investigation: Homeland Security watchdog halted plan to recover Secret Service texts, records show, Maria Sacchetti and Carol D. Leonnig
• Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli
• World Crisis Radio, Commentary: Concrete signals emerge that Department of Justice is finally investigating the actions of Trump and his faction! Webster G. Tarpley
• Washington Post, Millions will be affected if Inflation Reduction Act becomes a reality. Here’s what it would do
• New York Times, The Wind Is at Biden’s Back for a Change. Will Voters Care?
• Axios, President Biden tests positive for "rebound" COVID
• Associated Press via HuffPost, Pope Francis Says He May 'Think About' Stepping Aside
• Washington Post, Exclusive: Hot mic captured Gaetz assuring Stone of pardon, discussing Mueller redactions, Jon Swaine and Dalton Bennett

Ukraine War

• Washington Post, Ukraine Live Updates: Russia accused of ‘deliberate mass murder’; Blinken and Lavrov discuss Griner deal, Hari Raj, David Walker and Dalton Bennett
• Washington Post, Ukraine and Russia trade blame for strike reportedly killing Mariupol prisoners
• New York Times, Critic's Notebook: Why a Vogue Cover Created a Controversy for Olena Zelenska, Vanessa Friedman

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Top Stories

Washington Post, Investigation: Homeland Security watchdog halted plan to recover Secret Service texts, records show, Maria Sacchetti and Carol D. Leonnig, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The Homeland Security watchdog came up with a plan to recover text messages exchanged around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the Capitol, and then abandoned it.

The Department of Homeland Security’s chief watchdog scrapped its investigative team’s effort to collect agency phones to try to recover deleted Secret Service texts this year, according to four people with knowledge of the decision and internal records reviewed by The Washington Post.

In early February, after learning that the Secret Service’s text messages had been erased as part of a migration to new devices, staff at Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari’s office planned to contact all DHS agencies offering to have data specialists help retrieve messages from their phones, according to two government whistleblowers who provided reports to Congress.

But later that month, Cuffari’s office decided it would not collect or review any agency phones, according to three people briefed on the decision.

The latest revelation comes as Democratic lawmakers have accused Cuffari’s office of failing to aggressively investigate the agency’s actions in response to the violent attack on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.

Cuffari wrote a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security committees this month saying the Secret Service’s text messages from the time of the attack had been “erased.” But he did not immediately disclose that his office first discovered that deletion in December and failed to alert lawmakers or examine the phones. Nor did he alert Congress that other text messages were missing, including those of the two top Trump appointees running the Department of Homeland Security during the final days of the administration.

Late Friday night, Cuffari’s spokesman issued a statement declining to comment on the new discovery.

“To preserve the integrity of our work and consistent with U.S. Attorney General guidelines, DHS OIG does not confirm the existence of or otherwise comment about ongoing reviews or criminal investigations, nor do we discuss our communications with Congress,” the statement read.

Cuffari, a former adviser to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), has been in his post since July 2019 after being nominated by Trump.

DHS spokeswoman Marsha Espinosa said the agency is cooperating with investigators and “looking into every avenue to recover text messages and other materials for the Jan. 6 investigations.”

Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli

After discovering that some of the text messages the watchdog sought had been deleted, the Federal Protective Service, a DHS agency that guards federal buildings, offered their phones to the inspector general’s investigators, saying they lacked the resources to recover lost texts and other records on their own, according to three people familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive investigation.

A senior forensics analyst in the inspector general’s office took steps to collect the Federal Protective Service phones, the people said. But late on the night of Friday, Feb. 18, one of several deputies who report to Cuffari’s management team wrote an email to investigators instructing them not to take the phones and not to seek any data from them, according to a copy of an internal record that was shared with The Post.

Staff investigators also drafted a letter in late January and early February to all DHS agencies offering to help recover any text messages or other data that might have been lost. But Cuffari’s management team later changed that draft to say that if agencies could not retrieve phone messages for the Jan. 6 period, they “should provide a detailed list of unavailable data and the reason the information is unavailable,” the three people said.

Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli, Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Text messages for former President Donald Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, right, and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to four people briefed on the matter and internal emails.

This discovery of missing records for the senior-most homeland security officials, which has not been previously reported, increases the volume of potential evidence that has vanished regarding the time around the Capitol attack.

It comes as both congressional and criminal investigators at the Department of Justice seek to piece together an effort by the president and his allies to overturn the results of the election, which culminated in a pro-Trump rally that became a violent riot in the halls of Congress.

The Department of Homeland Security notified the agency’s inspector general in late February that Wolf’'s and Cuccinelli’s texts were lost in a “reset” of their government phones when they left their jobs in January 2021 in preparation for the new Biden administration, according to an internal record obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and shared with The Washington Post.

The office of the department’s undersecretary of management also told the government watchdog that the text messages for its boss, undersecretary Randolph “Tex” Alles, the former Secret Service director, were also no longer available due to a previously planned phone reset.

The office of Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, above, did not press the department leadership at that time to explain why they did not preserve these records, nor seek ways to recover the lost data, according to the four people briefed on the watchdog’s actions. Cuffari also failed to alert Congress to the potential destruction of government records.

The revelation comes on the heels of the discovery that text messages of Secret Service agents — critical firsthand witnesses to the events leading up to Jan. 6 — were deleted more than a year ago and may never be recovered.

The news of their missing records set off a firestorm because the texts could have corroborated the account of a former White House aide describing the president’s state of mind on January 6. In one case, the aide, Cassidy Hutchinson said a top official told her that Trump had tried to attack a senior Secret Service agent who refused to take the president to the Capitol with his supporters marching there.

In a nearly identical scenario to that of the DHS leaders’ texts, the Secret Service alerted Cuffari’s office seven months ago, in December 2021, that the agency had deleted thousands of agents’ and employees’ text messages in an agency-wide reset of government phones. Cuffari’s office did not notify Congress until mid-July, despite multiple congressional committees’ pending requests for these records.

The telephone and text communications of Wolf and Cuccinelli, left, in the days leading up to Jan. 6 could have shed considerable light on Trump’s actions and plans. In the weeks before the attack on the Capitol, Trump had been pressuring both men to help him claim the 2020 election results were rigged and even to seize voting machines in key swing states to try to “re-run” the election.

“It is extremely troubling that the issue of deleted text messages related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not limited to the Secret Service, but also includes Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, who were running DHS at the time,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement.

 “It appears the DHS Inspector General has known about these deleted texts for months but failed to notify Congress,” Thompson said. “If the Inspector General had informed Congress, we may have been able to get better records from Senior administration officials regarding one of the most tragic days in our democracy’s history.”

Neither Cuccinelli nor Wolf responded to requests for comment. DHS’s Office of Inspector General did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

World Crisis Radio, Commentary: Concrete signals emerge that Department of Justice is finally investigating the actions of Trump and his faction! Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D., right, July 30, 2022. Pence staffers Short and Jacob testify to federal grand jury; contents of Eastman’s phone under FBI scrutiny; ex-Pentagon chief Miller says Defense Department never got order to post 10,000 guardsmen on Hill for January 6;

Under Trump’s court of miracles, Secret Service deep-sixed critical emails; Communications of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and deputy Cuccinelli have also disappeared; Many subpoenas needed to restore order; Dems call for ouster of DHS IG Joseph Cuffari, left.

A right-wing extremist government in Rome with Meloni-Salvini-Berlusconi would be worse than the Orban regime in Hungary; Orban’s tirade against the so-called mongrelization of the races has been condemned by one of his former associates as worthy of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels; But the Magyar dictator will be welcome to cavort with Trump at CPAC Texas next week!

GOP has antagonized women, parents, blacks, gays, veterans, golfers, 9/11 families, while gratifying MAGAt hooligans, armed militias and racist fanatics; Trump snubbed by Fox News, who declined to carry his latest rally, while the ever-faithful OANN may soon cease to exist;

Synthesis of recent polls suggests that Senate is leaning Democratic, with promising leads in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia and other states; House generic ballot gives Democrats more than a fighting chance; Radical Trump stooge Mastriano in Pennsylvania falls behind Shapiro;

$280 billion CHIPS bill will guarantee US leadership in semiconductors, AI, and other strategic production; This bill formally marks the end of Globalization (1990-2022);

Manchin-Schumer anti-inflation measure contains kilowatt-hour subsidy to keep existing US nuclear power plants producing; Bill includes a nuclear power production credit based on plant revenue;

Xi threatens Biden with old saw that those who play with fire will perish; Arrogance and impudence of chauvinist butchers of Beijing grows intolerable; Pelosi should feel free to visit Taiwan during her Asia trip!

Yale research group led by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld shows crippling impact of departure of 1,000 foreign firms representing 40% of GDP plus toughest economic sanctions on Putin’s war economy; Russia’s position as a commodity exporter is permanently weaker, while imports have collapsed; Pipelines go to Europe, not China; Performance of Moscow financial markets is world’s worst!

Washington Post, Millions will be affected if Inflation Reduction Act becomes a reality. Here’s what it would do, Jeff Stein, Maxine Joselow and Rachel Roubein, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The package, if smaller than Democrats’ initial ambitions, would transform huge sectors of the U.S. economy.

Major changes to the Affordable Care Act. The nation’s biggest-ever climate bill. The largest tax hike on corporations in decades. And dozens of lesser-known provisions that will affect millions of Americans.

If enacted, the legislation released Wednesday night in a surprise agreement between Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), above, would represent one of the most consequential pieces of economic policy in recent U.S. history — though still far smaller than the $3 trillion the Biden administration initially sought.

• $260 billion in clean-energy tax credits
• $80 billion in new rebates for electric vehicles, green energy at home and more
• $1.5 billion in rewards for cutting methane emissions
• $27 billion ‘green bank’
• Support for fossil fuel projects
• Agriculture, steel, ports and more
• $313 billion from a 15 percent corporate minimum tax
• $124 billion from major enforcement increases at the IRS
• Changing special tax treatment for private equity
• Lowering prescription drug prices
• Extending health insurance subsidies
• What’s missing?

• Washington Post, Manchin says he has reached deal with Schumer on climate, health-care costs
• Washington Post, Democrats race to adopt climate, health deal
• RollCall, ‘Chips and science’ bill on way to Biden’s desk

New York Times, The Wind Is at Biden’s Back for a Change. Will Voters Care? Michael D. Shear, July 30, 2022. Ahead of the midterm elections, President Biden’s challenge is to make sure his successes resonate with Americans who remain skeptical about the future. Recent wins include reduced gas prices and legislation to bolster competition with China. But the economy continues to hurt his approval ratings.

President Biden and his top advisers have tried for months to press forward amid a seemingly endless drumbeat of dispiriting news: rising inflation, high gas prices, a crumbling agenda, a dangerously slowing economy and a plummeting approval rating, even among Democrats.

But Mr. Biden has finally caught a series of breaks. Gas prices, which peaked above $5 a gallon, have fallen every day for more than six weeks and are now closer to $4. After a yearlong debate, Democrats and Republicans in Congress passed legislation this past week to invest $280 billion in areas like semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research to bolster competition with China.

And in a surprise turnabout, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a Democrat who had single-handedly held up Mr. Biden’s boldest proposals, agreed to a deal that puts the president in a position to make good on promises to lower drug prices, confront climate change and make corporations pay higher taxes.

“The work of the government can be slow and frustrating and sometimes even infuriating,” Mr. Biden said at the White House on Thursday, reflecting the impatience and anger among his allies and the weariness of his own staff. “Then the hard work of hours and days and months from people who refuse to give up pays off. History is made. Lives are changed.”

Even for a president who has become used to the highs and lows of governing, it was a moment to feel whipsawed. Since taking office 18 months ago, Mr. Biden has celebrated successes like passage of the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and slogged through crises like the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Gas prices soared; now they are coming down. Unemployment is at record lows even as there are signs of a looming recession.

The president’s brand of politics is rooted in a slower era, before Twitter, and sometimes it can pay off to have the patience to wait for a deal to finally emerge. But now, with congressional elections coming up in a few months, the challenge for Mr. Biden is to make sure his latest successes resonate with Americans who remain deeply skeptical about the future.

Axios, President Biden tests positive for "rebound" COVID, Herb Scribner, July 30, 2022. President Biden tested positive for a rebound case of COVID-19 on Saturday morning after being treated with Paxlovid, his physician said in a letter.

Driving the news: Biden is not experiencing new symptoms and "continues to feel quite well," Dr. Kevin O'Connor said. "This being the case, there is no reason to reinitiate treatment at this time, but we will obviously continue close observation."

Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the positive test Saturday.
The president will go into "strict isolation," O'Connor said.

What he's saying: "This happens with a small minority of folks," Biden tweeted. "I’ve got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me. I’m still at work, and will be back on the road soon."

Catch up quick: The president’s case likely stemmed from the Omicron subvariant BA.5, currently the most dominant strain of the virus in the U.S., Axios' TuAnh Dam writes.

Earlier this week, Biden completed a five-day course of Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment that helped resolve his COVID-19 symptoms. His runny nose and cough improved after the first full day of taking the pill.

The big picture: "Rebound" cases of COVID are possible for those who take Paxlovid, but it remains relatively rare, a Mayo Clinic study released in June found.

Associated Press via HuffPost, Pope Francis Says He May 'Think About' Stepping Aside, Nicole Winfield, July 30, 2022. Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that he can no longer travel like he used to because of his strained knee ligaments, saying his weeklong Canadian pilgrimage was “a bit of a test” that showed he needs to slow down and one day possibly retire.

Speaking to reporters while traveling home from northern Nunavut, the 85-year-old Francis (shown above in an AFP photo after receiving an honorary headdress from his hosts) stressed that he hadn’t thought about resigning but said “the door is open” and there was nothing wrong with a pope stepping down.

“It’s not strange. It’s not a catastrophe. You can change the pope,” he said while sitting in an airplane wheelchair during a 45-minute news conference.

Francis said that while he hadn’t considered resigning until now, he realizes he has to at least slow down.

“I think at my age and with these limitations, I have to save (my energy) to be able to serve the church, or on the contrary, think about the possibility of stepping aside,” he said.

Washington Post, Exclusive: Hot mic captured Gaetz assuring Stone of pardon, discussing Mueller redactions, Jon Swaine and Dalton Bennett,  Shortly before Trump confidant Roger Stone's 2019 trial on charges of obstructing the Mueller investigation, Rep. Matt Gaetz assured him "the boss" would likely grant him clemency.

As Roger Stone prepared to stand trial in 2019, complaining he was under pressure from federal prosecutors to incriminate Donald Trump, a close ally of the president repeatedly assured Stone that “the boss” would likely grant him clemency if he were convicted, a recording shows.

At an event at a Trump property that October, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) predicted that Stone would be found guilty at his trial in Washington the following month but would not “do a day” in prison. Gaetz was apparently unaware they were being recorded by documentary filmmakers following Stone, who special counsel Robert S. Mueller III had charged with obstruction of a congressional investigation.

“The boss still has a very favorable view of you,” said Gaetz, stressing that the president had “said it directly.” He also said, “I don’t think the big guy can let you go down for this.”

Gaetz at one point told Stone he was working on getting him a pardon but was hesitant to say more backstage at the event, in which speakers were being filmed for online broadcast. “Since there are many, many recording devices around right now, I do not feel in a position to speak freely about the work I’ve already done on that subject,” Gaetz said.

The lawmaker also told Stone during their conversation that Stone was mentioned “a lot” in redacted portions of Mueller’s report, appearing to refer to portions that the Justice Department had shown to select members of Congress confidentially in a secure room. “They’re going to do you, because you’re not gonna have a defense,” Gaetz told Stone.

The 25-minute recording was captured by a microphone that Stone was wearing on his lapel for a Danish film crew, which was making a feature-length documentary on the veteran Republican operative. The filmmakers allowed Washington Post reporters to review their footage in advance of the release of their film, “A Storm Foretold,” which is expected later this year.

Ukraine War

Washington Post, Ukraine Live Updates: Russia accused of ‘deliberate mass murder’; Blinken and Lavrov discuss Griner deal, Hari Raj, David Walker and Dalton Bennett, July 30, 2022. Ukraine, Russia trade blame for strike reportedly killing at least 53 prisoners. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of the “mass murder” of Ukrainian prisoners of war in an occupied area of the eastern Donetsk region. Grain shipments from Ukrainian ports could resume soon.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

• Zelensky said his diplomats had sent data about the attack on a prison in Olenivka to the U.N. and reiterated calls for Russia to be recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism. Officials in the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic accused Ukraine of attacking the facility, but Kyiv denied any involvement and said Russia was destroying evidence of the torture of prisoners. On Saturday the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had requested access to the site.

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to accept a U.S. proposal for the return of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan in a call on Friday. Blinken, addressing reporters at the State Department, did not indicate whether the discussion was fruitful. There is speculation that the U.S. is seeking to swap Whelan and Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence in Illinois.

• Grain shipments from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea could restart very soon. Ukraine says it is ready to resume exporting grain as part of a U.N.-brokered deal, once the routes for vessels leaving its ports are confirmed. More than 20 million tons of grain have been stuck in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February.

Battlefield updates

Ukrainian and E.U. officials have condemned Russia after a graphic series of videos appeared on pro-Russian telegram channels. The videos showed a group of men, one whom was seen wearing pro-Russian symbols, castrate and execute a prisoner dressed in military fatigues with Ukrainian military insignia. E.U. diplomat Josep Borrell described it as a “heinous atrocity.” The Washington Post was unable to confirm the date or location of where the videos were filmed.

Explosions have been heard for a second consecutive night in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, according to state broadcaster Suspilne. There was no immediate word on casualties. Russian shelling early on Friday hit a two-story building and a university.
One person was killed and six others injured when rockets hit districts of the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said in a Telegram post.

Russia intends to “dismantle Ukraine as a geopolitical entity and dissolve it from the world map entirely,” U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Friday. Russian-installed authorities in newly occupied territories in southern Ukraine are likely under increasing pressure from Moscow to prepare for referendums on joining Russia later in the year, the U.K. defense ministry said Saturday.

Global impact

Russian energy giant Gazprom said Saturday it had suspended supplies to neighboring Latvia, citing “violations of the conditions” of purchase. The statement did not give details on what conditions had been allegedly violated. Russia has already cut supplies to countries including Poland, the Netherlands and Denmark after energy companies there refused to pay for supplies in rubles. On Friday, Latvian energy firm Latvijas Gaze said it was buying gas from Russia, although not from Gazprom, and paying in euros. It declined to name its supplier.

Blinken will travel to South Africa, Congo and Rwanda next month with an itinerary that includes trade, human rights, food security and climate. Lavrov toured several countries on the continent this week to court favor and drag them into the war with Ukraine, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Washington Post, Ukraine and Russia trade blame for strike reportedly killing Mariupol prisoners, David Walker, July 30, 2022 (print ed.).  Ukraine and Russia traded accusations Friday over the shelling of a prison in the eastern Donetsk region that allegedly killed and wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war, including those captured after the fall of the port city of Mariupol in May.

A spokesman for the Russian-backed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said a Ukrainian strike using U.S.-supplied HIMARS — High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — hit a prison in the town of Olenivka, killing at least 53 captive Ukrainian troops and wounding about 75.

Ukrainian authorities, however, denied any involvement and in turn accused Russian forces of carrying out the attack, which they described as a war crime.

In posts on Telegram, DPR spokesman Daniil Bezsonov referred to the casualties as “prisoners of Azovstal” — the steel plant in Mariupol that finally fell to Russian forces after a protracted siege. Unverified video shared on Telegram showed charred human remains in the burned-out shell of what was purported to be the prison.

Russia’s Defense Ministry framed the incident as “a bloody provocation” intended to discourage Ukrainian soldiers from surrendering.

The Ukrainian military, however, accused Russian forces of carrying out “a targeted artillery shelling of a correctional institution in the settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held.”

“In this way, the Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals — to accuse Ukraine of committing ‘war crimes,’ as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executions which they carried out there,” it said in a statement.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, writing on Twitter, accused Russia of committing a war crime and called for condemnation from the international community.

“I call on all partners to strongly condemn this brutal violation of international humanitarian law and recognize Russia [as] a terrorist state,” he said.

None of the claims could be independently verified.

Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian first lady (Photographed for Vogue by Annie Leibovitz).

New York Times, Critic's Notebook: Why a Vogue Cover Created a Controversy for Olena Zelenska, Vanessa Friedman, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Is the magazine romanticizing war, or is the first lady weaponizing glossies?

Another season, another Vogue story on a politician causing a kerfuffle. After the hoo-ha over the magazine not giving Melania Trump a cover (even though Michelle Obama got three) and the to-do over Kamala Harris’s “relaxed” portrait being chosen over her more formal cover try, comes a new controversy, related to a “digital cover” released online featuring Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian first lady.

Entitled “Portrait of Bravery,” the article is a collaboration between the Condé Nast Vogues (pretty much all of them) and Ukrainian Vogue (a licensed magazine owned by Media Group Ukraine).

It has moody, graceful portraits of Ms. Zelenska by Annie Leibovitz: sitting on the marble steps of the presidential palace, staring grimly ahead; holding hands with her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky; and standing next to female soldiers at Antonov Airport, clutching the lapels of a long navy overcoat. The photos [including one below of the presidential couple0 are accompanied by a lengthy interview and some BTS video footage of the first couple and Ms. Leibovitz. It will appear in print later this year.

New York Times, Ukraine Updates: Ukraine President Says Ports Are Ready to Ship Grain Under U.N. Deal, Michael Schwirtz and Matina Stevis-Gridneff, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed hope that grain exports could begin in the coming days, fulfilling a deal signed last week with Russia. Follow updates.On a visit to a port in the Odesa region, Ukraine’s president expressed hope that grain exports could begin in the coming days. Ambassadors from Europe and the United States called on Russia to heed a deal signed last week to ensure the safe export of grain.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Zelensky says he’s hopeful that grain will start moving from Ukraine’s ports soon.
• Russia’s foreign minister says he will propose a time for a phone call about a prisoner exchange.
• Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of striking a prison in Donetsk, killing dozens.
• With Russia using energy as leverage, the quest in many parts of Europe is to shrink demand.
• Rocket attack on a crowded bus stop kills five people, Ukrainian officials say.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, visiting a port in the Odesa region on Friday, expressed hope that grain exports could begin within the coming days, as U.S. and European ambassadors called on Russia to heed a deal to get the grain moving.

Mr. Zelensky said his visit to the Black Sea port of Chernomorsk, where the first shipment of grain since the beginning of the war was being loaded onto a Turkish freighter, was meant to convey that Ukraine’s ports were ready, the president’s press service said.

The visit came less than a week after Russian cruise missiles struck at the nearby Port of Odesa, threatening to upend a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to allow Ukraine to begin exporting grain to countries hit hard by food shortages. Ukrainian ports have been sealed by a Russian naval blockade of the Black Sea since troops invaded the country on Feb. 24.

“Our side is fully ready,” Mr. Zelensky said. “We’ve given our partners, the U.N. and Turkey, the signal and our military will guarantee security.”

His visit followed a trip Friday to the Port of Odesa by ambassadors from the United States and Europe, who, together with Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, Oleksandr Kurbakov, pressed Russia to abide by the deal and said it was possible that the shipments could get underway as early as Friday.

“Millions of people around the world are waiting for grain to come out of this and other Ukrainian ports,” said Bridget Brink, the American ambassador to Ukraine, who was making her first visit to Odesa. “It’s very important for Russia to live up to its commitments and to allow this grain to be exported.”

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine President Says Ports Are Ready to Ship Grain Under U.N. Deal
• Washington Post, Russia: No deal yet on releasing Americans Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan
• Washington Post, This American teacher also sits in a Russian jail, worried nobody cares
• Washington Post, Ukraine could be turning the tide of war again as Russian advances stall
• Washington Post, Analysis: Russia’s war in Ukraine escalates on the ground and in Congress
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Points to Added Urgency as Russia Reinforces Southern Front
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukrainian missiles struck a bridge in Kherson that is critical in Russia’s effort to hold the city
• New York Times, A little-known special military cell is keeping Ukraine’s troops equipped as battlefield needs become complicated
• Associated Press, Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime’
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Is Poised for Major Southern Offensive
• New York Times, As Prices Soar in Ukraine, War Adds Economic Havoc to the Human Toll

Trump Watch

House Jan. 6 Select Investigating Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS.) ((Photo via NBC News).

Washington Post, The status of key investigations involving former president Donald Trump, Matt Zapotosky, Matthew Brown, Shayna Jacobs, Devlin Barrett and Jacqueline Alemany, Updated July 30, 2022. Probes of the ex-president’s conduct in politics, government and business are underway in multiple places.

Donald Trump is facing historic legal and legislative scrutiny for a former president, under investigation by U.S. lawmakers, local district attorneys, a state attorney general and the Justice Department. Authorities are looking into Trump and his family business for a medley of possible wrongdoing, including his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and how he valued his various assets for loan and tax purposes.

The probes threaten Trump with criminal or financial penalties, or plain old public embarrassment, as he remains a dominant presence in his party and weighs a 2024 bid to return to the White House. Here’s a list of the key investigations and where they stand.

• Justice Department criminal probe of Jan. 6
• Georgia election results investigation
• The Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation
• The Mar-a-Lago boxes investigation
• Trump business practices, criminal and civil probes in New York
• Westchester, N.Y., golf club

Politico, The RNC ‘election integrity’ official appearing in DOJ’s Jan. 6 subpoenas, Betsy Woodruff Swan, July 30, 2022. In addition to a group of former President Donald Trump’s top lawyers, the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 probe is also seeking communications to and from a Republican National Committee staffer in a sensitive role.

At least three witnesses in DOJ’s investigation of so-called alternate electors in the 2020 election — two in Arizona and another in Georgia — have received subpoenas demanding communications to and from Joshua Findlay, who is now the RNC’s national director for election integrity.

Politico reviewed the subpoena sent to the Georgia witness after the Washington Post published copies of two Arizona subpoenas. Findlay’s appearance in the documents means the Justice Department has taken interest in his communications as part of its probe related to pro-Trump GOP officials and activists who presented themselves as legitimate electors from states where Joe Biden won.

Findlay worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign in multiple capacities. In January 2019, the campaign announced he was joining the team that would handle the 2020 Republican National Convention. After the convention, he worked as an attorney on the Trump campaign’s legal team.

Palmer Report, Commentary: The Trump Secret Service text messages, BIll Palmer, right, July 29, 2022. When it was revealed that the Secret Service had deleted January 6th-related text messages after Congress asked for them, the Homeland Security Inspector General launched a criminal investigation into the matter.

But even after that, multiple congressional committee chairs demanded the resignation of the Homeland Security Inspector General, alleging that he’d failed to do his job. Now we’re getting a clearer sense of just how badly the Inspector General failed at his job – and just how deep this rabbit hole goes.

Congress is alleging that the Inspector General knew months ago that the Secret Service had deleted the text messages in question, and that the Inspector General waited until just recently to finally inform Congress about it. Now it’s even uglier.

The Washington Post is reporting that the January 6th-related text messages from Donald Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and his top deputy Ken Cuccinelli are also conveniently missing. More to the point, the Homeland Security Inspector General has reportedly known about this since February, but failed to notify Congress.

The implications here are staggering. Who deleted the January 6th text messages of the top two Homeland Security officials, and why? These guys are both staunch Trump loyalists. What were they texting about? After all, in their role as the leaders of Homeland Security, they oversaw the Secret Service. And why would the Homeland Security Inspector General, of all people, help cover up the fact that these text messages were deleted?

This all just keeps getting uglier, in terms of who all might have been involved, what all was covered up, and who might have covered it up. The January 6th Committee (and at this point presumably the DOJ) will get to the bottom of this one way or the other, because conspiracies and coverups that involve this many people always start crumbling once it’s discovered that a coverup took place. At this rate Donald Trump’s election plot is going to end up making the Watergate scandal look like a mere overdue library book in comparison.

HuffPost, Ex-DHS Aide Suggests She 'Went Very Public' Because She Didn't Trust Inspector General, Marco Margaritoff, July 30, 2022. Olivia Troye, who quit the administration in 2020, appeared to call out the same Trump official now embroiled in the Secret Service text-deletion scandal.

Olivia Troye, right, a former Department of Homeland Security and counterterrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, said Friday there’s a reason she “went very public” about quitting her job in 2020 ― and suggested current investigations into the missing Secret Service text messages involve the same person.

Troye appeared on CNN as part of a panel alongside former CIA agent Phil Mudd and government ethics expert Norm Eisen when she made these claims. News anchor Jim Sciutto asked Troye why the missing messages, which are linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, weren’t actively preserved.

“It’s a little surprising,” said Troye. “I have worked technical migrations in the government, and I find it a little bit confusing that people were not aware that these messages were going to disappear, especially with the amount of planning that goes into these migrations. I can tell you that firsthand having done it.”

While DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s office planned to contact all Homeland Security agencies to assist in recovering the missing messages in February 2021, sources told The Washington Post it decided not to collect the phones or review any data later that month.

“I came from DHS,” Troye told CNN. “When you work at the senior levels in the Trump administration … you know exactly where people’s loyalties lie. I know [Ken] Cuccinelli and Chad Wolf and all these people and Cuffari very well.” (Cuccinelli and Wolf were the acting leaders at DHS at the time.)

Cuffari notably waited more than one year to report that messages were missing to the House Jan. 6 committee. However, he first learned of the messages in May 2021 — seven months before alerting them, according to CNN.

Troye, who famously quit the Trump administration in 2020 over its lacking COVID-19 pandemic response, then linked that experience to the DHS inspector general’s office ― which was led by Cuffari at the time.

“There is a reason that I went very public with my concerns about the Trump administration, rather than going through the traditional whistleblower process, which would have led me through the inspector general’s office at DHS,” Troye said Friday on CNN.

“And I’ll just say that. So, there’s a level of trust there that you understand.”

As for the missing messages, the texts were seemingly lost when the Secret Service switched devices and migrated to a new internal data system.

A senior forensics analyst in Cuffari’s office had already prepared to collect some of the relevant phones when one of the deputies who “report to Cuffari’s team” emailed investigators on Feb. 18 and instructed them not to move forward, sources told The Washington Post.

Washington Post, The Murdochs and Trump aligned for mutual benefit. That may be changing, Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr, July 30, 2022. In the frenzied coverage of the Jan. 6 House committee hearings, Fox News has been the outlier. While every other major network carried the first public testimony live in prime time in June, Fox relegated the feed to its little-watched business channel.

The network has aired midday hearings live, but Trump-boosting opinion hosts have tended to downplay revelations. When former White House aide Cassidy Hutchison gave bombshell testimony a month ago, Laura Ingraham called it “bad acting.”

But the owner of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, right, has been watching the hearings with a less dismissive eye. And there are signs that the proceedings have helped convince him that the former president is losing his political expediency.

Speculation over the 91-year-old media executive’s thinking crescendoed after the first set of hearings concluded this month and two of his papers published nearly simultaneous editorials. “Trump’s silence on Jan. 6 is damning,” the New York Post declared. “Character is revealed in a crisis,” the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board concluded. “Mr. Trump utterly failed his.”

Murdoch’s support for Donald Trump has been crucial to his political career and at times to his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss. But as Trump inches closer to a third presidential run under the glare of criminal, civil and governmental investigations, multiple associates of Murdoch told The Washington Post that it appears he has lost his enthusiasm for Trump.

But Murdoch, who controls a vast swath of the political media world, has spent decades learning to ride the waves of U.S. politics and hedge his bets on candidates. Fox has tried to pull away from the 45th president before, only to return in the face of Trump’s fury.

New York Times, Fox News, Once Home to Trump, Now Often Ignores Him, Jeremy W. Peters, July 29, 2022. Former President Trump hasn’t been interviewed on the network in more than 100 days, and other Republicans often get the attention he once did.

The network, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch and boosted Mr. Trump’s ascension from real estate developer and reality television star to the White House, is now often bypassing him in favor of showcasing other Republicans.

In the former president’s view, according to two people who have spoken to him recently, Fox’s ignoring him is an affront far worse than running stories and commentary that he has complained are “too negative.” The network is effectively displacing him from his favorite spot: the center of the news cycle.

On July 22, as Mr. Trump was rallying supporters in Arizona and teasing the possibility of running for president in 2024, saying “We may have to do it again,” Fox News chose not to show the event — the same approach it has taken for nearly all of his rallies this year.

Instead, the network aired Laura Ingraham’s interview with a possible rival for the 2024 Republican nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. It was the first of two prime-time interviews Fox aired with Mr. DeSantis in the span of five days; he appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show shortly after talking to Ms. Ingraham.

When Mr. Trump spoke to a gathering of conservatives in Washington this week, Fox did not air the speech live. It instead showed a few clips after he was done speaking. That same day, it did broadcast live — for 17 minutes — a speech by former Vice President Mike Pence.

Mr. Trump has complained recently to aides that even Sean Hannity, his friend of 20 years, doesn’t seem to be paying him much attention anymore, one person who spoke to him recalled.

Donald Trump greets Phil Mickelson on the driving range during Day One of the LIV Golf Invitational—Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 29, 2022 (Photo by Charles Laberge for LIV Golf via Getty Images).

New York Times, On Golf: At LIV Tournament, Thin Crowds and a Tense Start, Bill Pennington, Photographs by Doug Mills, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The controversy over the series, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, isn’t going away. But fans enjoyed the camaraderie among players.

Standing over his ball on Friday, Phil Mickelson, the prized acquisition of the new, Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, lined up his opening tee shot in the breakaway circuit’s event at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

Just as Mickelson, who reportedly received an upfront $200 million signing bonus to join the insurgent tour, was set to begin his swing, a fan 15 yards to his right yelled: “Do it for the Saudi royal family!”

Mickelson backed away from the shot as a security official approached the fan and told him he would be removed from the grounds if there was another outburst.

Donald Trump and Yasir al-Rumayyan, head of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, look on from the second tee during the pro-am prior to the LIV Golf Invitational—Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 28, 2022 (Photo by Cliff Hawkins via Getty Images).

Washington Post, Trump uses presidential seal at N.J. golf club amid ethics complaints, Mariana Alfaro, Rick Maese and Ellen Francis, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). Former president Donald Trump was spotted using the presidential seal on multiple items during the LIV Golf tournament at his Bedminster, N.J., golf course.

The seal was plastered on towels, golf carts and other items as the former president participated in the pro-am event of the Saudi-sponsored tournament Thursday.

It is against federal law to use the presidential and vice-presidential seals in ways that could convey “a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States.”

While violating this law could result in imprisonment of “not more than six months,” a fine or both, these punishments are rarely doled out.

This is not the first time the display of the seal has been reported at Trump properties. The logo appeared on a marker at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., in an Instagram post earlier this year, according to Forbes. WNYC and ProPublica reported in 2018 that the Trump Organization ordered golf course tee markers with the emblem on them.

Last year, a D.C.-based watchdog group accused his Bedminster golf club of profiting from using images of the presidential seal.

“Unlawful use of the presidential seal for commercial purposes is no trivial matter, especially when it involves a former president who is actively challenging the legitimacy of the current president,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said when it filed the 2021 complaint.

As Trump teed off Thursday in the pro-am at the latest LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament, the event was closed to the public but open to media. This week marks the third event of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, with which Trump has joined forces in Bedminster in the face of criticism, and its second in the United States.

Former president Donald Trump's golf bag and towel are seen during the pro-am of the LIV Golf tournament at his club in Bedminster, N.J. (Photo by Seth Wenig for the Associated Press).

Vicky Ward Investigates: “He's Setting Himself Up as a Shadow President,” Vicky Ward, above, July 29, 2022. Former White House Ethics Czar Richard Painter on why it matters that Donald Trump is reportedly using the presidential seal for the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour.

I’ve been fascinated by the tensions caused by the emergence of the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour, a tournament currently being hosted at Bedminster, one of Donald Trump’s courses. This is partly because Trump’s long-standing feud with the PGA (who broke with him over January 6) is in my reporting wheelhouse, but also simply because I love playing the game of golf.

It’s occurred to me as I’ve read the reporting about the rifts between golfers such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Bryson DeChambeau—who have reportedly taken individual payments between $90 million and $200 million from LIV Golf (whose major shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia)—and those who have stuck with the PGA that, if you’re not a golfer, you might not understand the full thorniness of this.

But complicating all this, in the way that only he can complicate things, is Trump. His alliance with LIV and his bad-mouthing of the PGA (after their desertion of his golf courses) has led to accusations of blood-money and complaints from families of victims of 9/11.

And now we have today’s news: Trump has reportedly plastered the presidential seal on towels, on golf carts, and on other items at Bedminster—which the Washington ethics group CREW believes to be a federal crime.

But what does this mean? Will anything happen as a result? Or like so many of the ethics breaches we saw in the Trump administration—and which I reported on—will everyone just carry on as if nothing had happened?

I turned, as usual, to former Bush ethics czar Richard Painter for his opinion. If you read what Painter says closely, you’ll see he says that what matters is who is in attendance at Bedminster. Are there any foreign leaders? If there are, “it’s serious,” says Painter.

What follows is edited and condensed for clarity. Take a read.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Trump uses presidential seal at N.J. golf club amid ethics complaints
• Vicky Ward Investigates: “He's Setting Himself Up as a Shadow President,” Vicky Ward
• Palmer Report, Commentary: The Trump Secret Service text message, Bill Palmer

U.S. Economic News

New York Times, After Clash, Manchin and Schumer Rushed to Reset Climate and Tax Deal, Emily Cochrane and Annie Karni, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The West Virginia Democrat said he had relented and agreed to sign on to a climate, energy and tax package after returning to negotiations to draft a version that would combat inflation.

Headquarters of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, designed by Marriner Eccles and located on Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, DC.

New York Times, U.S. Prices Surged in June, and Pay Growth Struggled to Keep Up, Jeanna Smialek, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). A wage growth measure that the Federal Reserve watches closely climbed swiftly in the three months through June and prices increased sharply last month, fresh economic reports showed on Friday, developments that are likely to keep the central bank on track for future rate increases even as the economy shows some signs of cooling.

Prices climbed by 6.8 percent in the year through June, the fastest for the Personal Consumption Expenditures index since 1982. Inflation also jumped by 4.8 percent over the past year after removing food and fuel — which economists do to get a sense of underlying trends — a slightly larger increase than the 4.7 percent increase that economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected.

At the same time, a separate report showed that wages climbed briskly, albeit not enough to keep up with inflation. The Employment Cost Index climbed by 5.1 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, and the index’s measure of wages and salaries also picked up strongly.

That combination is likely to reinforce the Fed's determination to cool down the economy and wrestle inflation back under control. Central bank officials on Wednesday made their second supersized rate increase in a row — three-quarters of a percentage point — as they try to slow down the economy by making money more expensive to borrow.

“Wage increases and labor costs are still showing strong upward pressures, and that’s likely to keep the Fed raising interest rates over the next few meetings,” said Alan Detmeister, an economist at UBS who was formerly a central bank researcher. The employment cost number, he said, “was hot.”

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Fed Fights Inflation With Another Big Rate Increase
• New York Times, Experts said the risk of a U.S. recession was rising after the economy declined for a second straight quarter
• Washington Post, U.S. economy shrinks again in second quarter, reviving recession fears
• New York Times, Opinion: We Are Not in a Recession, Paul Krugman

Energy, Climate, Disasters, Environment

New York Times, Democrats Got a Climate Bill. Joe Manchin Got Drilling, and More, Brad Plumer and Lisa Friedman, July 30, 2022. Along the way to the $369 billion package, the West Virginia senator secured an array of concessions for his state and for the fossil fuel industry.

In a twist of fate, Congress is suddenly poised to pass the most ambitious climate bill in United States history, largely written by a senator from a coal state who became a millionaire from his family coal business and who has taken more campaign cash from the oil and gas industry than any of his colleagues have.

That senator, Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, managed to win several major concessions for the fossil fuel industry in the $369 billion climate and energy package, which was made public on Wednesday by Senate Democrats. Mr. Manchin’s vote is critical in the evenly divided chamber because no Republicans support the bill.

The measure requires the federal government to auction off more public lands and waters for oil drilling. It expands tax credits for carbon capture technology that could allow coal or gas-burning power plants to keep operating with lower emissions. Mr. Manchin also secured a promise from Democratic leaders to vote on a separate measure to speed up the process of issuing permits for energy infrastructure, potentially smoothing the way for projects like a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia.

Axios, 25 dead in Kentucky after catastrophic flooding in Appalachia, Herb Scribner, July 30, 2022. More heavy rains are forecast after catastrophic flooding across Appalachia left at least 25 people dead in Kentucky as of Saturday afternoon.

The latest: The death toll "is likely to increase," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a press conference Saturday. Search and rescue teams could be recovering bodies for weeks to come, he added.

New York Times, Search for Victims Continues in Kentucky After Floods Kill at Least 25, Mike Ives, July 30, 2022. As the weather clears in flood-stricken areas of the state, rescuers are still searching for victims. Officials expect the death toll to rise. A family lost four children to the flood: “I know they hung on to each other till the very end.”

The response to some of the worst flooding in Kentucky’s history was entering a pivotal phase on Saturday morning, with the confirmed death toll at 25 and the search for victims poised to accelerate over a battered stretch of central Appalachia.

A cold front is expected to bring clearer weather to flood-stricken areas on Saturday, giving rescue personnel one less obstacle to contend with as they work to pluck more residents off rooftops. Nearly 300 people have been rescued in Kentucky so far, about 100 of them by aircraft, Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters on Friday.

But state officials expect the death toll to keep growing, possibly for weeks, as rescue efforts continue across rugged hills and valleys that remain hard to reach. And with rain in the forecast for Sunday, they feel urgency to make more progress before water levels have a chance to rise again.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Multiple deaths reported as massive flooding in eastern Kentucky engulfs homes
• Washington Post, Opinion: Manchin’s climate deal isn’t enough, but it’s still a miracle, Eugene Robinson
• New York Times, Germany Counts on Chilled Gas to Keep Warm Over Winter
• New York Times, Anti-U.N. Protests in Congo Leave 15 Dead, Including 3 Peacekeepers
• New York Times, ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’: Congo to Sell Land for Drilling
• Washington Post, Heat to wane in Northeast as Pacific Northwest prepares to roast
• New York Times, Heat Records Expected to Be Broken in the U.S. on Sunday
• Washington Post, A drought in Italy’s risotto heartland is killing the rice
• Washington Post, As Europe’s heat wave melts roads, Tour de France races into an uncertain future
• Washington Post, Heat scorches Northeast as temperatures skyrocket to dangerous levels
• New York Times, E.U. officials want lower natural gas consumption. Here are four strategies that nations could use
• Washington Post, Western Japan volcano, Sakurajima, erupts; alert level raised

World News, Analysis

New York Times, ‘Haitians Are Hostages’: Gangs Advance on the Seat of Government Power, Maria Abi-Habib and Andre Paultre, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). More than 470 people have been killed, injured or are missing in recent violence, according to the U.N., as gangs threaten the presidential palace.

Gangs are increasing their chokehold on Haiti’s capital, using bulldozers to raze entire neighborhoods, overwhelming poorly armed police and taking their violence to within blocks of the seat of government.

While Haitians have endured relentless bloodshed and tragedy for years, the escalation of lawlessness in recent weeks and the government’s inability to exert control has terrified the nation.

In just a nine-day period in July, more than 470 people were killed, injured or missing as a result of gang warfare in Cité Soleil, the country’s largest slum, according to the United Nations.

Government agencies and ministries have urged employees to stay home as gangs expand their territory and are now close to the presidential palace, interior ministry, the central bank and the national penitentiary, where hungry prisoners are threatening to riot, officials warn.

In Cité Soleil, home to about 300,000 people, gangs fighting for control are using bulldozers to topple homes, gang-rape women and girls, and kill at random, according to interviews with residents.

One woman, Wislande Pierre, said she lost nearly everything during a single day, one of over 3,000 people who fled Cité Soleil in July, according to the U.N. The gang clashes started in Ms. Pierre’s neighborhood before spreading to downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital.

New York Times, Heavy Rain Causes Deadly Flooding Across Iran, Farnaz Fassihi, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). The monsoon-like rains, unusual for the typical dry season in the region, have killed more than 50 people, caused heavy damage and shut down major roadways.

Heavy rains in Iran that began Wednesday have set off flash floods and landslides in 21 of the country’s 31 provinces, killing at least 53 people, heavily damaging hundreds of villages, cutting off access to major roads and forcing the evacuation of an ancient city, officials say.

With the death toll expected to rise — at least 16 people are still missing — the flood is the deadliest water-related episode in a decade. The national crisis center said heavy rainstorms and flood risk would continue until Monday, and it issued a nationwide warning to stay away from riverbanks and valleys.

Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, placed governors nationwide on high alert and ordered the emergency relief agencies to prepare for the possibility that reservoirs and dams would overflow, official media reported.

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Biden and Xi Conduct Marathon Call During Time of Rising Tensions
• New York Times, Analysis: China Has Leapfrogged the U.S. in Key Technologies. Can a New Law Help? David E. Sanger
• Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip
• New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan
• Washington Post, Hungary’s Viktor Orban faces outrage after saying Europeans shouldn’t become ‘mixed race’
• Washington Post, Opinion: A hero of the Trump right shows his true colors: Whites only, Dana Milbank
• New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People
• Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its ownW

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

Washington Post, A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail, Brittany Shammas, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a flag-waving crowd gathered outside the Florida jail where an alleged participant was being held.

Jeremy Michael Brown, a retired Special Forces soldier charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted Capitol grounds, addressed them through a phone call played over loudspeaker. The 47-year-old Tampa resident and member of the extremist Oath Keepers group decried the “tyrannical government,” read a lengthy passage from the Bible and portrayed himself as engaged in a fight for “the liberty of every American.”

Then Brown made an announcement that sent the crowd into cheers.

“Today, Jan. 6, 2022, from the maximum security section of the Pinellas County jail,” he said, “I, Jeremy Brown, announce my candidacy for Florida state House of Representatives.”

Within a few months of that speech, he had collected enough signatures to qualify as a candidate and run a long-shot campaign for Florida’s District 62 — all from jail. As the sole Republican candidate, Brown, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial on felony and misdemeanor charges, is set to run against the winner of the August Democratic primary. The newly drawn district includes heavily blue areas; about 72.4 percent of voters there went for Biden, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which reported on Brown’s campaign this week.

It’s unclear whether legal issues could impede Brown’s candidacy or ability to hold public office while he remains in jail. Lawyers are reviewing that question, the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections told the Tampa Bay Times.

“We don’t know, the state office doesn’t know and to be honest, I don’t care,” Brown said in an interview with the newspaper. “I’m gonna run until they tell me no. It’s almost like our government is incompetent.”

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot
• Washington Post, A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail
• Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors
• Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
• Washington Post, Opinion: Here’s a test to see whether Supreme Court justices are above the law, Jennifer Rubin

U.S. Politics, Governance, Education, Economy

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania's governor's race, celebrates his primary victory (Associated Press photo by Carolyn Kaster via MSNBC).

 Washington Post, GOP Pa. governor nominee under fire for ties to white-nationalist site, Colby Itkowitz, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). CEO of Gab praised Doug Mastriano for leading ‘an explicitly Christian movement’ in antisemitic screeds posted online.

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, is facing intense criticism for his ties to a far-right social media site, Gab, that traffics in white-nationalist rhetoric and whose founder has made overtly antisemitic comments in recent days.

Mastriano, who will face a Jewish Democrat on the ballot in November, paid the site $5,000 for “campaign consulting” in April ahead of the state’s May 17 primary. Since Media Matters for America, a liberal group, first surfaced the expenditure in April, Mastriano has evaded growing concerns about his association with the site.

On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported that Gab CEO Andrew Torba responded to the criticism during a live stream in which he said that neither he nor Mastriano do interviews with non-Christian media.

“My policy is not to conduct interviews with reporters who aren’t Christian or with outlets who aren’t Christian and Doug has a very similar media strategy where he does not do interviews with these people. He does not talk to these people. He does not give press access to these people,” Torba said.“These people are dishonest. They’re liars. They’re a den of vipers and they want to destroy you. My typical conversation with them when they email me is ‘repent and accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior.’ I take it as an opportunity to try and convert them.”

HuffPost, Veterans, Same-Sex Couples Stand To Lose In GOP Hissy Fit Over Democratic Deal, Amanda Terkel, July 28, 2022. GOP senators are so mad about a surprise Democratic deal on climate change that they may just drop their support for doing anything.

It seemed like a smooth path for the veterans’ benefits bill.

The bipartisan legislation would extend health care benefits to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits while serving overseas. The initial bill passed the Senate last month with 34 Republicans joining every single Democrat in favor. Veterans’ groups planned a news conference for Thursday, which was widely expected to be a declaration of victory.

But on Wednesday night, Republicans blocked the revised measure from moving forward, failing to get the 10 GOP senators needed. Only eight voted to end debate and proceed.
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It came right after Democrats outmaneuvered Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his party and announced a surprise deal to revive President Joe Biden’s domestic legislative agenda.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) insisted that there was no connection between the two events ― he said he was concerned about the bill’s funding ― but it was hard to ignore the sudden turnaround for so many Republicans who seemed humiliated at being caught off-guard by the Democratic deal.

“This is total bullshit. This is the worst form of over-politicization I’ve literally ever seen,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a sponsor of the veterans legislation, said Thursday.

McConnell initially thought he had gotten the best of Democrats. He said Republicans wouldn’t go along with a bipartisan bill to boost computer chip production in the United States ― a priority for the Biden administration ― if Democrats revived their “Build Back Better” agenda.

It didn’t look like McConnell had anything to worry about ― at first. In mid-July, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he wouldn’t support any new climate spending or tax hikes on the wealthy because he was very worried about inflation. Democrats figured their grand ambitions were dead.

And on Wednesday, the Senate passed the computer chips bill with the backing of McConnell and 16 other Republicans.

But just hours later, Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced they had reached a deal on a sweeping $740 billion package to increase taxes on the wealthy and invest in climate change and health care while also reducing the deficit.

And in a smart framing shift, they were calling it the Inflation Reduction Act. Under Senate rules, this “reconciliation” bill can pass with just a majority of senators, meaning Democrats don’t need the cooperation of any Republicans ― as long as all of their members stick together.

Republicans, of course, were furious at being outfoxed.

“It was obviously a double-cross by Joe Manchin,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Wednesday evening on Fox News. “Just two weeks ago, he said he wasn’t going to support a bill like this.”

“They stiffed us on this,” Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the chamber’s second-ranking Republican, told reporters.

In a call with reporters Thursday, Manchin insisted he wasn’t trying to trick Republicans.

“There was no malice intended whatsoever,” he said. “We had a bill that was almost completed, we were able to get it completed by Wednesday,

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Media, Religion, Education, Sports News

New York Times, Russian National Charged With Spreading Propaganda Through U.S. Groups, Patricia Mazzei July 30, 2022 (print ed.). Federal authorities say the man recruited several American political groups and used them to sow discord and interfere with elections.

The Russian man with a trim beard and patterned T-shirt appeared in a Florida political group’s YouTube livestream in March, less than three weeks after his country had invaded Ukraine, and falsely claimed that what had happened was not an invasion.

“I would like to address the free people around the world to tell you that Western propaganda is lying when they say that Russia invaded Ukraine,” he said through an interpreter.

His name was Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, and he described himself as a “human rights activist.”

But federal authorities say he was working for the Russian government, orchestrating a yearslong influence campaign to use American political groups to spread Russian propaganda and interfere with U.S. elections. On Friday, the Justice Department revealed that it had charged Mr. Ionov with conspiring to have American citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government.

Mr. Ionov, 32, who lives in Moscow and is not in custody, is accused of recruiting three political groups in Florida, Georgia and California from December 2014 through March, providing them with financial support and directing them to publish Russian propaganda. On Friday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions against him.

David Walker, the top agent in the F.B.I.’s Tampa field office, called the allegations “some of the most egregious and blatant violations we’ve seen by the Russian government in order to destabilize and undermine trust in American democracy.”

In 2017 and 2019, Mr. Ionov supported the campaigns of two candidates for local office in St. Petersburg, Fla., where one of the American political groups was based, according to a 24-page indictment. He wrote to a Russian official in 2019 that he had been “consulting every week” on one of the campaigns, the indictment said.

“Our election campaign is kind of unique,” a Russian intelligence officer wrote to Mr. Ionov, adding, “Are we the first in history?” Mr. Ionov later referred to the candidate, who was not named in the indictment, as the one “whom we supervise.”

In 2016, according to the indictment, Mr. Ionov paid for the St. Petersburg group to conduct a four-city protest tour supporting a “Petition on Crime of Genocide Against African People in the United States,” which the group had previously submitted to the United Nations at his direction.

“The goal is to heighten grievances,” Peter Strzok, right, a former top F.B.I. counterintelligence official, said of the sort of behavior Mr. Ionov is accused of carrying out. “They just want to fund opposing forces. It’s a means to encourage social division at a low cost. The goal is to create strife and division.”

The Russian government has a long history of trying to sow division in the U.S., in particular during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Strzok said the Russians were known to plant stories with fringe groups in an effort to introduce disinformation into the media ecosystem.

Federal investigators described Mr. Ionov as the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia and said it was funded by the Russian government. They said he worked with at least three Russian officials and in conjunction with the F.S.B., a Russian intelligence agency.

The indictment issued on Friday did not name the U.S. political groups, their leaders or the St. Petersburg candidates, who were identified only as Unindicted Co-conspirator 3 and Unindicted Co-conspirator 4. And Mr. Ionov is the only person who has been charged in the case.

But leaders of the Uhuru Movement, which is based in St. Petersburg and part of the African People’s Socialist Party, said that their office and chairman’s home had been raided by federal agents on Friday morning as part of the investigation.

“They handcuffed me and my wife,” the chairman, Omali Yeshitela, said on Facebook Live from outside the group’s new headquarters in St. Louis. He said he did not take Russian government money but would not be “morally opposed” to accepting funds from Russians or “anyone else who wants to support the struggles for Black people.”

The indictment said that Mr. Ionov paid for the founder and chairman of the St. Petersburg group — identified as Unindicted Co-conspirator 1 — to travel to Moscow in 2015. Upon his return, the indictment said, the chairman said in emails with other group leaders that Mr. Ionov wanted the group to be “an instrument” of the Russian government, which did not “disturb us.”

“Yes, I have been to Russia,” Mr. Yeshitela said in his Facebook Live appearance on Friday, without addressing when he went and who paid for his trip. He added that he has also been to other countries, including South Africa and Nicaragua.

In St. Petersburg, Akilé Anai of the Uhuru Movement said in a news conference that federal authorities had seized her car and other personal property.

She called the investigation an attack on the Uhuru Movement, which has long been a presence in St. Petersburg but has had little success in local politics.

“We can have relationships with whoever we want to,” she said, adding that the Uhuru Movement has made no secret of backing Russia in the war in Ukraine. “We are in support of Russia.”

Ms. Anai ran for the City Council in 2017 and 2019 as Eritha “Akilé” Cainion. She received about 18 percent of vote in the 2019 runoff election.

Mr. Ionov is also accused of directing an unidentified political group in Sacramento that pushed for California’s secession from the United States. The indictment said that he helped fund a 2018 protest in the State Capitol and encouraged the group’s leader to try to get into the governor’s office.

And Mr. Ionov is accused of directing an unidentified political group in Atlanta, paying for its members to travel to San Francisco this year to protest at the headquarters of a social media company that restricted pro-Russian posts about the invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Ionov even provided designs for protest signs, according to the indictment.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the indictment said that Mr. Ionov told his Russian intelligence associates that he had asked the St. Petersburg group to support Russia in the “information war unleashed” by the West.

New York Times, White House Communications Director to Stay After Announcing Departure, Peter Baker, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). At this point in an administration, with the president’s poll numbers in the tank and a daunting midterm election on the horizon, the usual staff news around the White House is a roster of who is leaving. But in an unusual twist, the news on Friday was who is not leaving after all.

After announcing in early July that she would step down, Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director and an adviser to President Biden for years, abruptly changed her mind. She had been nursing second thoughts after her original decision, colleagues said, and Mr. Biden and Ron Klain, the chief of staff, asked her to reconsider.

“After much thought, discussion and reflection, I’ve decided to stay,” Ms. Bedingfield told colleagues in an email on Friday. “I’m not done here and there is so much more good work to do with all of you. I couldn’t be happier and more excited about this awesome — if admittedly last-minute! — development. The work is too important and too energizing and I have a lot of gas left in the tank.”

Ms. Bedingfield’s about-face, which was reported earlier by CNN, came as turnover in the West Wing has picked up, although it is still nowhere comparable to the revolving door of President Donald J. Trump’s administration.

Michael LaRosa, the press secretary for Jill Biden, the first lady, left on Friday. Others who have departed in recent months include Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary; Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden; Dana Remus, the White House counsel; and various White House lawyers and press aides as well as advisers to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr. Klain wanted anyone planning to leave to do so by the end of July to have a stable staff heading into the campaign season.

New York Times, F.T.C. Chair Upends Antitrust Standards With Meta Lawsuit, Celia Kang, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Lina Khan (shown above) may set off a shift in how Washington regulates competition by filing cases in tech areas before they mature. She faces an uphill climb.

Early in her tenure as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan declared that she would rein in the power of the largest technology companies in a dramatically new way.

“We’re trying to be forward looking, anticipating problems and taking fast action,’’ Ms. Khan said in an interview last month. She promised to focus on “next-generation technologies,” and not just on areas where tech behemoths were already well established.

This week, Ms. Khan took her first step toward stopping the tech monopolies of the future when she sued to block a small acquisition by Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, of the virtual-reality fitness start-up Within. The deal was significant for Meta’s development of the so-called metaverse, which is a nascent technology and far from mainstream.

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: For the Republicans, overturning Loving v. Virginia is most certainly in the offing, Wayne Madsen, left, July 29-30, 2022 (print ed.). As Republicans turn back the clock by outlawing abortions -- even in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother being at stake -- same gender marriages and sex, and access to contraceptives, another right stands to be obliterated by that party that is enacting what the America First Committee, German-American Bund, and Ku Klux Klan could have only dreamed about in the 1930s: a ban on interracial marriage.

In 1958, Virginia residents Richard and Mildred Loving were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. The couple was found guilty of violating Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between white and those deemed by the state to be "colored." After their conviction was upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court, the Lovings appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, the court found that the Virginia law outlawing miscegenation violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 2015, the Loving decision was cited by the Supreme Court as precedent in its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.to legalize same-sex marriages.

If next week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas is any indication of the ultimate fate of Loving v. Virginia, legal interracial marriage may be on the chopping block. That is because keynoting the Dallas event will be Hungary's fascist prime minister Viktor Orban, an avowed opponent of racial "mixing."

New York Times, How The L.A. Times Handled an Exposé Becomes the Talk of the Town, John Koblin, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). A book by a reporter from the newspaper has ignited debate about the way editors dealt with an explosive article he helped write in 2017.

Five years ago, Paul Pringle and Matthew Doig were on the same team. Mr. Pringle, a veteran reporter at The Los Angeles Times, and Mr. Doig, an editor at the newspaper, were working on an article that would ultimately expose the drug abuse of a powerful former dean at the University of Southern California.

That report would lead to a series of other investigations involving U.S.C., culminating in a Pulitzer Prize for Mr. Pringle and two other reporters in 2019.

Behind the scenes, however, there was bad blood. Last week, Mr. Pringle published a book, Bad City, which, in part, claimed that top editors at The Times, including Mr. Doig, tried to slow-walk and defang that initial groundbreaking article, which detailed how the dean of U.S.C.’s medical school used drugs with young people, including a woman who had to be rushed to the hospital after an overdose.

Mr. Doig, currently an investigations editor at USA Today, snapped back last week on Medium, calling Mr. Pringle “a fabulist who is grossly misrepresenting the facts to support his false narrative.”

Washington Post, Jared Kushner alleges chief of staff shoved Ivanka Trump at White House, Ashley Parker, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). In a forthcoming memoir, Donald Trump's son-in-law and former presidential adviser, portrays John F. Kelly as having a bullying, “Jekyll-and-Hyde” demeanor. Kelly denies the allegations.

Washington Post, Now on the tee for LIV Golf: Trump National and the polarizing former president, Josh Dawsey and Rick Maese, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Former president Donald Trump joins hands this week with the biggest controversy in sports when his New Jersey golf club hosts the latest event in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, further cementing his relationship with Saudi Arabia and angering families of 9/11 victims who have decried the start-up venture as “sportswashing.”

While the renegade golf circuit has staged two other events, including another in the United States, this week’s event at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., promises to be an even more glaring flash point, given its proximity to Manhattan and the involvement of the ex-president.

In recent days, Trump has publicly and privately dismissed human rights concerns about the Saudi kingdom and railed against the professional golf establishment. He is expected to attend every day of this weekend’s event and has been in contact for months with organizers on event details, according to an adviser, who said Trump remains livid with PGA of America officials who moved the 2022 PGA Championship from his Bedminster club following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Doral, his club outside Miami, will host another LIV Golf event in October.

• National Press Club, Statement By National Press Club On LIV Golf Event At Trump Course

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More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

New York Times, House Passes Assault Weapons Ban That Is Doomed in Senate, Annie Karni and Julian E. Barnes, July 29, 2022. Coming on the heels of a spate of mass shootings, the vote gave Democrats another opportunity to draw a sharp distinction with Republicans before the midterm elections.

Responding to a string of mass shootings, a divided House passed a ban on assault weapons on Friday, moving over the near-unanimous opposition of Republicans to reinstate a prohibition that expired nearly two decades ago.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the measure, which passed 217 to 213, as a “crucial step in our ongoing fight against the deadly epidemic of gun violence in our nation.” Only two Republicans, Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Chris Jacobs of New York, joined Democrats in supporting the bill.

Five Democrats voted against the measure: Representatives Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Kurt Schrader of Oregon.

The legislation would make it illegal to sell, manufacture, transfer, possess or import assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices. It stands no chance of passing in the evenly divided Senate, where such a sweeping gun control measure would not be able to win over the 10 Republicans it would need to overcome a filibuster.

Still, the vote provided a way for Democrats to demonstrate to voters months before the midterm elections that they were trying to address the epidemic of gun violence in America. The action in the House came after a spate of mass shootings, including one in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman wielding an AR-15-style weapon killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers.

Convicted mass murder defendant Nikolas Cruz, now on trial in Florida in the death penalty phase of his guilt for 17 murders and 17 attempted murders at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

New York Times, At the Parkland Trial, Families Must Endure Grisly Evidence on Repeat, Patricia Mazzei, July 29, 2022. The nature of the death-penalty trial requires documenting the school shooting in painful detail, even when the defendant’s guilt has never been in doubt.

To shield heartsick families from the most macabre details of how their loved ones were murdered in a mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the court handling the gunman’s sentencing trial has taken an extraordinary step: Graphic videos and photographs are shown only to the jury, so that victims’ relatives and others in the courtroom gallery do not have to endure them.

But the horrifying particulars, conveyed in emotional witness testimony, chilling audio recordings and dispassionate forensic accounts, are impossible to avoid altogether: How a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tied a baby blanket around a wounded student’s arm as a tourniquet. How the gunfire from a semiautomatic rifle boomed inside a classroom under attack. How the high-powered bullets ravaged children’s bodies.

Prosecutors argue that the grisly specifics, while painful, are necessary to prove to the jury that the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, who has pleaded guilty to 17 murders and 17 attempted murders, deserves the death penalty instead of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge has allowed the evidence over the objections of defense lawyers, who say that it is repetitive, gruesome and intended to prejudice the jury against their client.

Such is the nature of capital punishment: Pursuing a death sentence, even against a defendant whose guilt has never been in doubt, requires putting a community that has already survived an unthinkable tragedy through more agony.

Trials of gunmen who have killed so many people in mass shootings are extremely rare, because they have almost always died during the attack. The public is hardly ever forced to confront grim evidence from autopsy reports, surveillance video and survivors’ testimony in proceedings held years after the deadly rampage.

Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career, Joanna Slater, July 29, 2022 (print ed). Buffalo Rep. Chris Jacobs was once considered a rising star in the GOP. But his support of an assault weapons ban cost him

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U.S. Law, Courts, Crime

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: Alito undermines U.S. in Rome speech mocking allied leaders, Wayne Madsen, left, July 29-30, 2022. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito took it upon himself to mock the leaders of U.S. allies in a keynote speech delivered on July 21 in Rome, Italy.

Acting like a mobbed-up comedian performing a churlish stand-up routine on the Las Vegas Strip, Alito lambasted foreign leaders for publicly criticizing the Supreme Court's decision to overturn abortion rights previously guaranteed by the 1973 Roe v. Wade case.

Alito displayed a total disregard for judicial temperament and diplomatic protocol expected of Supreme Court justices. Speaking to the 2022 Religious Liberty Summit sponsored by Notre Dame Law School's Religious Liberty Initiative, Alito launched pointed barbs at foreign leaders by name.

Alito stated that one foreign leader, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was forced to resign a few days after he criticized the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Crossing into Qanon conspiracy territory, Alito suggested that it was Johnson's criticism of the Supreme Court that led to his resignation. In fact, Johnson remains as caretaker prime minister until a new leader of his Conservative Party is chosen and it was an ethics scandal that drove Johnson to resign, not his comments on the Supreme Court.

Alito also ridiculed the stances taken by French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in condemning the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Alito was particularly scornful of Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex.

Rather than act like a senior American jurist, Alito chose to emulate other political jabronis, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, House Minoroty Whip Steve Scalise, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former acting Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Alito's comments only serve to embolden Russia, which sees another opportunity to drive a wedge between the members of NATO and the European Union and the United States. The Supreme Court should also investigate whether any of its members, concerned about adverse international reaction to their pending decision to overturn abortion rights, sought foreign signatures on an amicus curiae brief.

If Chief Justice John Roberts has any effective control over what is now a runaway far-right Supreme Court, he should instruct Alito to publicly and in writing apologize to the world leaders he criticized directly by name and indirectly by insinuation.

New York Times, Pain Doctor Is Found Guilty of Sexually Assaulting Patients, Troy Closson, July 29, 2022. Manhattan prosecutors said Ricardo Cruciani took advantage of his patients’ pain. A jury found him guilty on 12 counts of sexual assault and other crimes.

For more than a decade, Ricardo Cruciani built a reputation as a gifted and esteemed physician who could relieve chronic pain when other doctors could not.

But then a string of alarming claims began to surface: Dozens of patients accused him of sexually abusing them during exams after he offered sometimes dangerously high amounts of medication to maintain control over them, prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office said during a trial this month. When they resisted, he would withhold their prescriptions.

On Friday, a jury found Mr. Cruciani guilty on 12 counts of predatory sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape and other crimes, after about three days of deliberations. Mr. Cruciani’s monthlong trial centered on the stories of six women he treated around 2012 at Beth Israel Medical Center, now known as Mount Sinai Beth Israel, in Union Square and in New Jersey and Pennsylvania facilities.

The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, said in a statement Friday that Mr. Cruciani, 68, had violated the public’s trust in medical workers by abusing his power over patients and intentionally taking advantage of their pain.

“Dr. Cruciani left in his wake six survivors who continue to suffer from debilitating diseases, and now, years of trauma,” Mr. Bragg said. “Although we can never undo his horrific actions, I hope this conviction serves as a measure of justice.”

Fred Sosinsky, a lawyer for Mr. Cruciani, said in a statement Friday that he believed the trial court committed “a good number of legal errors,” and that he planned to appeal the verdict.

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Pandemic Public Health, Disasters

New York Times, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest, Benjamin Mueller, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). At the peak of the Omicron wave, Covid killed Black Americans in rural areas at a rate roughly 34 percent higher than it did white people.

The coronavirus pandemic walloped rural America last year, precipitating a surge of deaths among white residents as the virus inflamed longstanding health deficits there.

But across the small towns and farmlands, new research has found, Covid killed Black and Hispanic people at considerably higher rates than it did their white neighbors. Even at the end of the pandemic’s second year, in February 2022, overstretched health systems, poverty, chronic illnesses and lower vaccination rates were forcing nonwhite people to bear the burden of the virus.

Black and Hispanic people in rural areas suffered an exceptionally high toll, dying at far higher rates than in cities during that second year of the pandemic.

Politico, Biden tests negative, will end Covid isolation, Matt Berg, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). The president will make his first public appearance since his diagnosis later Wednesday morning.

President Joe Biden tested negative for Covid on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, his personal physician announced Wednesday, bringing to an apparent end the president’s brush with the virus.

Biden, who first tested positive for Covid late last week, will make his first public appearance since his diagnosis later Wednesday morning when he delivers remarks from the White House’s Rose Garden.

Politico, How Biden’s Covid turned Ashish Jha into the de facto White House doctor, Adam Cancryn, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Three months into the job, the Covid response coordinator is trying to turn Biden's illness into a White House success story.

In the hours after President Joe Biden contracted the coronavirus, Ashish Jha began soliciting advice on how to navigate the biggest moment of his short White House career.

As the administration’s Covid response coordinator, Jha had more than enough experience talking to the public about the health consequences of the deadly, lingering pandemic. But this task was different. Now, he was being tapped to brief the nation on the status of the pandemic’s highest-profile patient.

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U.S. Abortion Rights, Privacy, Trafficking

HuffPost, Justice Alito Mocks World Leaders Who Criticized Court's Abortion Ruling, Sara Boboltz, July 28, 2022. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito used part of the keynote speech on religious liberty he gave last week to joke about the criticisms he received from world leaders for overturning abortion rights in the United States.

Speaking from Rome at an event hosted by Notre Dame Law School, Alito said the abortion rights case prompted “a few second thoughts” on his belief that American judges have no business critiquing other countries’ court rulings.

Recent Headlines

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Global Pop Culture

Washington Post, Shakira faces over 8 years in prison if convicted of tax fraud in Spain, Amy Cheng, July 30, 2022. Spanish prosecutors have called for more than eight years in prison and a fine of about $24 million for Shakira over alleged tax fraud, as the authorities push ahead with their years-long case against the Colombian pop star.

Shakira’s legal woes began in 2018 when Spanish authorities accused her of evading taxes amounting to 14.5 million euros, or nearly $15 million, between 2012 and 2014 — a three-year period during which she claimed she had not yet officially moved to Spain. A judge concluded last year that prosecutors had gathered sufficient evidence to pursue tax fraud charges in court.

On Friday, prosecutors unveiled six charges against Shakira, 45, after she rejected a settlement deal earlier this week, El País reported. According to the Spanish newspaper, authorities highlighted the substantial amount of taxes she allegedly owed, as well as her record of using offshore tax havens, as aggravating factors in the case.

Washington Post, Winning ticket for $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot is sold in Illinois, Nick Parker and Timothy Bella, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). A winning Mega Millions ticket for the estimated $1.28 billion jackpot was sold in Illinois, a Mega Millions spokesperson told The Washington Post on Saturday morning.

More details about the winning ticket are expected on Saturday. The Mega Millions website now lists Tuesday’s estimated jackpot at $20 million.

Washington Post, Perspective: Beyoncé’s look book of fashion’s exhaustingly fabulous era, Robin Givhan, July 30, 2022 (print ed.). If the music is an homage to uninhibited movement, the still images are steeped in fashion history, high maintenance glamour and perfectionism.

The world has borne witness to the seventh coming of Beyoncé in the form of her studio album “Renaissance”  (shown above in a promotional photo by Mason Poole via AMPAS and Getty Images). The 16 tracks are an expression of her moods and desires during the height of the pandemic when she decided to record music that allowed her to dream and to escape, as she wrote on her website.

She also noted that her intention was to create a “safe space. A place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking.” And the music’s lyrics and loose-limbed grooves are a testament to that.

July 29

Top Headlines

• Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli
• Washington Post, Manchin says he has reached deal with Schumer on climate, health-care costs
• Washington Post, Millions will be affected if Inflation Reduction Act becomes a reality. Here’s what it would do
• Washington Post, Democrats race to adopt climate, health deal
• Washington Post, Republicans block bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits
• RollCall, ‘Chips and science’ bill on way to Biden’s desk
• Washington Post, Ukraine could be turning the tide of war again as Russian advances stall
• Washington Post, Ukraine and Russia trade blame for strike reportedly killing Mariupol prisoners
• Washington Post, Trump uses presidential seal at N.J. golf club amid ethics complaints

U.S. Economic News

• New York Times, After Clash, Manchin and Schumer Rushed to Reset Climate and Tax Deal
• New York Times, U.S. Prices Surged in June, and Pay Growth Struggled to Keep Up
• New York Times, Experts said the risk of a U.S. recession was rising after the economy declined for a second straight quarter
• Washington Post, U.S. economy shrinks again in second quarter, reviving recession fears
• New York Times, Opinion: We Are Not in a Recession, Paul Krugman

Ukraine War

• New York Times, Critic's Notebook: Why a Vogue Cover Created a Controversy for Olena Zelenska, Vanessa Friedman
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine President Says Ports Are Ready to Ship Grain Under U.N. Deal
• Washington Post, Russia: No deal yet on releasing Americans Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan
• Washington Post, This American teacher also sits in a Russian jail, worried nobody cares

Energy, Climate, Environment, Disasters

• Washington Post, Opinion: Manchin’s climate deal isn’t enough, but it’s still a miracle, Eugene Robinson
• New York Times, Live Updates: Death Toll in Kentucky Flooding Rises to 15

World News, Human Rights Analysis

• New York Times, Biden and Xi Conduct Marathon Call During Time of Rising Tensions
• New York Times, Analysis: China Has Leapfrogged the U.S. in Key Technologies. Can a New Law Help? David E. Sanger
• Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip
• New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan
• Washington Post, Hungary’s Viktor Orban faces outrage after saying Europeans shouldn’t become ‘mixed race’
• Washington Post, Opinion: A hero of the Trump right shows his true colors: Whites only, Dana Milbank,

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

• New York Times, 2016 Campaign Looms Large as Justice Dept. Pursues Jan. 6 Inquiry
• Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot
• Washington Post, A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail
• Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors
• Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
• Washington Post, Opinion: Here’s a test to see whether Supreme Court justices are above the law, Jennifer Rubin

U.S. Politics, Governance, Economy

• Washington Post, Opinion: Joe Manchin shocks Republicans by revealing he is a Democrat, Dana Milbank 
• Washington Post, GOP Pa. governor nominee under fire for ties to white-nationalist site
• Washington Post, Wis. anti-voting-fraud activist ordered absentee ballots in others names, he says, to make a point
• Washington Post, Opinion: Most third parties have failed. Here’s why ours won’t, David Jolly, Christine Todd Whitman and Andrew Yang
• New York Times, Opinion: Why Andrew Yang’s New Third Party Is Bound to Fail, Jamelle Bouie
• Washington Post, House Democrats delay votes on police, guns after internal infighting
• Washington Post, Adam Schiff is jockeying to lead House Democrats. It won’t be easy
• Washington Post, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw makes sure reporters feel the burn, Paul Farhi
• New York Times, Class Divisions Harden Into Battle Lines in Arizona’s Republican Primary
• Washington Post, Opinion: How to stop Trump’s sneak attack on the civil service, Gerald E. Connolly

Media, Education, Religion, Sports News

• New York Times, F.T.C. Chair Upends Antitrust Standards With Meta Lawsuit
• Politico, Court may pare back secrecy in campus sexual misconduct suits
• New York Times, How The L.A. Times Handled an Exposé Becomes the Talk of the Town
• Washington Post, Daniel Snyder faces House committee questions under oath
• Washington Post, Jared Kushner alleges chief of staff shoved Ivanka Trump at White House
• Law&Crime, Former Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann Loses Defamation Lawsuits Against CBS, ABC, NYT, and Others
• Law&Crime, Dallas Jury Hits Charter Spectrum with $7 Billion Verdict After Cable Installer Robbed and Murdered an Elderly Woman
• Washington Post, Now on the tee for LIV Golf: Trump National and the polarizing former president

More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

• New York Times, At the Parkland Trial, Families Must Endure Grisly Evidence on Repeat
• New York Times, Assault Rifle Makers Earned Over $1 Billion as Violence Surged, Report Says
• Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics
• Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career

U.S. Law, Immigration, Crime

• CT Mirror (Connecticut's Nonprofit Journalism), Biden taps Maria Araujo Kahn of CT Supreme Court for 2nd Circuit
• Law&Crime, Orphaned Girls Read ‘Moving’ Letters to Mom and Dad Before Judge Sentences the Drunk Driver Who Killed Them
• Law&Crime, California Supreme Court Affirms Death Penalty for Sadistic Serial Killer Charles Ng
• Law&Crime, 'Her Personal Space Will Be Detonated': Massachusetts Man Charged with Sending Bomb Threat Against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs
• Law&Crime, Indiana Judge Tied to Drunken White Castle Parking Lot Shooting in 2019 Resigns After Being Charged with Hitting Ex-Husband in Front of Kids
• Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: For the Republicans, overturning Loving v. Virginia is most certainly in the offing, Wayne Madsen
• Washington Post, Republicans press D.C. Circuit nominee on age, pro bono work
• CBS News, U.S. defense contractor and wife who were photographed in KGB uniforms charged with stealing identities of dead children in Texas
• Law&Crime, Mississippi Man Arrested After Viral Video Shows Driver Using Racial Slur and Laughing About ‘Points’ as He Aims His Car for 9 Black Youths Riding Bikes
• Law&Crime, Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Woman Who Left 10-Year-Old Child to Die in Locked Plastic Bin

Pandemic, Public Health 

• New York Times, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest
• Washington Post, School mask mandates return as latest coronavirus variants surge
• New York Times, In Rural America, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest
• Washington Post, Scientists hone argument that coronavirus came from Wuhan market, Joel Achenbach
• Politico, Biden tests negative, will end Covid isolation
• Politico, How Biden’s Covid turned Ashish Jha into the de facto White House doctor

U.S. Abortion, Contraception, Privacy, Trafficking

• Washington Post, Girl, 12, challenges W.Va. lawmakers on abortion: ‘What about my life?’
• New York Times, Opinion: The Anti-Abortion Movement Is in Denial, Michelle Goldberg
• Washington Post, How local journalists proved a 10-year-old’s abortion wasn’t a hoax
• Washington Post, Alito dismisses foreign criticism of Supreme Court’s abortion ruling
• Washington Post, 19-year-old turns Gaetz insult into $115,000 abortion rights fundraiser
• Washington Post, Abortion is now banned in these states. See where laws have changed

Top Stories

Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli, Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Text messages for former President Donald Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, right, and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to four people briefed on the matter and internal emails.

This discovery of missing records for the senior-most homeland security officials, which has not been previously reported, increases the volume of potential evidence that has vanished regarding the time around the Capitol attack.

It comes as both congressional and criminal investigators at the Department of Justice seek to piece together an effort by the president and his allies to overturn the results of the election, which culminated in a pro-Trump rally that became a violent riot in the halls of Congress.

The Department of Homeland Security notified the agency’s inspector general in late February that Wolf’'s and Cuccinelli’s texts were lost in a “reset” of their government phones when they left their jobs in January 2021 in preparation for the new Biden administration, according to an internal record obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and shared with The Washington Post.

The office of the department’s undersecretary of management also told the government watchdog that the text messages for its boss, undersecretary Randolph “Tex” Alles, the former Secret Service director, were also no longer available due to a previously planned phone reset.

The office of Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, above, did not press the department leadership at that time to explain why they did not preserve these records, nor seek ways to recover the lost data, according to the four people briefed on the watchdog’s actions. Cuffari also failed to alert Congress to the potential destruction of government records.

The revelation comes on the heels of the discovery that text messages of Secret Service agents — critical firsthand witnesses to the events leading up to Jan. 6 — were deleted more than a year ago and may never be recovered.

The news of their missing records set off a firestorm because the texts could have corroborated the account of a former White House aide describing the president’s state of mind on January 6. In one case, the aide, Cassidy Hutchinson said a top official told her that Trump had tried to attack a senior Secret Service agent who refused to take the president to the Capitol with his supporters marching there.

In a nearly identical scenario to that of the DHS leaders’ texts, the Secret Service alerted Cuffari’s office seven months ago, in December 2021, that the agency had deleted thousands of agents’ and employees’ text messages in an agency-wide reset of government phones. Cuffari’s office did not notify Congress until mid-July, despite multiple congressional committees’ pending requests for these records.

The telephone and text communications of Wolf and Cuccinelli, left, in the days leading up to Jan. 6 could have shed considerable light on Trump’s actions and plans. In the weeks before the attack on the Capitol, Trump had been pressuring both men to help him claim the 2020 election results were rigged and even to seize voting machines in key swing states to try to “re-run” the election.

“It is extremely troubling that the issue of deleted text messages related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not limited to the Secret Service, but also includes Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, who were running DHS at the time,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement.

“It appears the DHS Inspector General has known about these deleted texts for months but failed to notify Congress,” Thompson said. “If the Inspector General had informed Congress, we may have been able to get better records from Senior administration officials regarding one of the most tragic days in our democracy’s history.”

Neither Cuccinelli nor Wolf responded to requests for comment. DHS’s Office of Inspector General did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Washington Post, Manchin says he has reached deal with Schumer on climate, health-care costs, Tony Romm, Jeff Stein, Rachel Roubein and Maxine Joselow, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Democrats hope to advance the deal in the Senate as soon as next week

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday reached a deal with Democratic leaders on a spending package that aims to lower health-care costs, combat climate change and reduce the federal deficit, marking a massive potential breakthrough for President Biden’s long-stalled economic agenda.

The new agreement, brokered between Manchin, left, and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), above opens the door for party lawmakers to try to advance the measure next week. It caps off months of fierce debate, delay and acrimony, a level of infighting that some Democrats saw as detrimental to their political fate ahead of this fall’s critical elections.

Under the deal, Schumer secured Manchin’s support for roughly $433 billion in new spending, most of which is focused on climate change and clean energy production. It is the largest such investment in U.S. history, and a marked departure from Manchin’s position only days earlier. The Democrats coupled the spending with provisions that aim to lower health-care costs for Americans, chiefly by allowing Medicare to begin negotiating the price of select prescription drugs on behalf of seniors.

The latest in Congress: Durbin is latest Senate Democrat with positive coronavirus test; House Democrats delay votes on guns, police after infighting; Adam Schiff is jockeying to lead House Democrats. It won’t be easy.

Washington Post, Democrats race to adopt climate, health deal, Tony Romm, Mike DeBonis and Marianna Sotomayor, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). With a long-elusive spending deal newly in hand, Senate Democrats set about finalizing their economic package Thursday, hoping they might be able to deliver on a central piece of President Biden’s agenda as soon as next week.

The new, urgent push toward a vote came a day after the party achieved what once felt like an impossible breakthrough: an agreement between Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on a bill that would lower health care costs, combat climate change, reduce the deficit and revise the U.S. tax code.

Now in possession of 725 pages of legislative text, Democrats eagerly began digesting the size and scope of the measure, which amounts to far less than the more ambitious, roughly $2 trillion proposal that the House adopted last year. But a wide array of party lawmakers appeared ready to embrace the new agreement anyway, having seemingly put months of acrimonious bickering with Manchin finally behind them.

“It doesn’t include everything people wanted in the earlier package,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “But compared to where we thought we were 48 hours ago, I mean, this is light-years — light-years — forward.”

The bill includes the largest investment in fighting climate change in U.S. history, aiming to boost clean-energy technology even as it delivers some of the support Manchin sought for fossil fuels. It also aims to lower health-care costs, particularly through changes to Medicare that could reduce some prescription drug prices for seniors. Speaking to reporters later Thursday, Schumer announced that Democrats plan to add other elements that target the price of insulin.

To cover its costs, the bill looks to bolster the Internal Revenue Service to pursue tax cheats while setting a minimum tax on corporations, targeting profitable firms that pay nothing to the U.S. government. And it raises more than $300 billion that can be used to reduce the federal deficit.

Speaking at the White House, Biden sounded an optimistic note about its prospects. While the new proposal, called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, omits many of his original, core priorities, the president still described it as a set of investments that put the United States on “sounder economic footing.”

“I know it can sometimes seem like nothing gets done in Washington. The work of the government can be slow, frustrating and sometimes even infuriating,” said Biden, acknowledging the painstaking discussions leading up to the deal.

Washington Post, Millions will be affected if Inflation Reduction Act becomes a reality. Here’s what it would do, Jeff Stein, Maxine Joselow and Rachel Roubein, July 29, 2022. The package, if smaller than Democrats’ initial ambitions, would transform huge sectors of the U.S. economy.

Major changes to the Affordable Care Act. The nation’s biggest-ever climate bill. The largest tax hike on corporations in decades. And dozens of lesser-known provisions that will affect millions of Americans.

If enacted, the legislation released Wednesday night in a surprise agreement between Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) would represent one of the most consequential pieces of economic policy in recent U.S. history — though still far smaller than the $3 trillion the Biden administration initially sought.

• $260 billion in clean-energy tax credits
• $80 billion in new rebates for electric vehicles, green energy at home and more
• $1.5 billion in rewards for cutting methane emissions
• $27 billion ‘green bank’
• Support for fossil fuel projects
• Agriculture, steel, ports and more
• $313 billion from a 15 percent corporate minimum tax
• $124 billion from major enforcement increases at the IRS
• Changing special tax treatment for private equity
• Lowering prescription drug prices
• Extending health insurance subsidies
• What’s missing?

Washington Post, Republicans block bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, Eugene Scott and Mike DeBonis, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Senate Republicans blocked the bill weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes, angering Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, a leading proponent to aid the community.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was particularly incensed by the turn of events. Tester, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), other lawmakers and Stewart on Thursday morning joined veterans outside the Capitol — who originally came to Washington to see the bill pass — to assail the GOP.

“It just makes the gut punch that more devastating,” Stewart said, given the number of veterans who came to Washington hoping the bill would pass. “Their constituents are dying.”

“This is a disgrace,” he added.

The bill would significantly change how the Department of Veterans Affairs cares for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances by compelling VA to presume that certain illnesses are linked to exposure to hazardous waste incineration, mostly focused on the issue of burn pits from recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would remove the burden of proof from the injured veterans.

RollCall, ‘Chips and science’ bill on way to Biden’s desk, Lindsey McPherson and Laura Weiss, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Measure backed by White House, major semiconductor companies went through various incarnations.

The House on Thursday cleared legislation to incentivize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and spur research and development in other science and technology fields, sending the long-anticipated economic competitiveness measure to President Joe Biden for his signature.

The House passed what lawmakers are now calling the “chips and science” bill by a bipartisan vote of 243-187, with 24 Republicans joining all but one Democrat in voting for the measure. That one Democrat, California Rep. Sara Jacobs, voted "present."

The measure includes $54 billion in grants for semiconductor manufacturing and design and 5G wireless deployment and $24 billion to create a 25 percent tax credit for new semiconductor manufacturing facilities.

It also includes various five-year funding authorizations to bolster U.S. scientific research, including $81 billion, or $36 billion over baseline funding, for the National Science Foundation; $11 billion, all above baseline, for the Commerce Department authorization; and $9.7 billion, or a $4 billion baseline increase, for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The measure also would authorize more than $67 billion for the Energy Department.

And although there are no authorizing funds for NASA, the measure would extend International Space Station operations through 2030 and provide the agency with a comprehensive set of congressional directives. Those include instructions for NASA to reduce risks for exploration, advance basic and applied research and create a “Moon to Mars” program to land the first human on Mars and to place the first American woman and person of color on the moon.

Washington Post, Ukraine could be turning the tide of war again as Russian advances stall, Liz Sly, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Western officials and analysts suspect that Russia is close to exhausting its capacity for further territorial gains.

Russian advances in Ukraine have slowed almost to a standstill as newly delivered Western weapons help Ukrainian forces reclaim much of the advantage they had lost in recent months, opening a window of opportunity to turn the tide of the war in their favor again.

Russian troops have made no significant territorial gains since the Ukrainian retreat on July 2 from the eastern city of Lysychansk under withering artillery fire. The retreat gave Russia full control over Luhansk, one of the two oblasts, or regions, that make up the broader eastern Donbas area, and it marked Russia’s only meaningful strategic success since its retreat from territory around Kyiv in April.

The lack of progress may be explained at least in part by the “operational pause” declared by Russia’s Defense Ministry after the seizure of Lysychansk — to allow Russian troops a chance to “rest and develop their combat capabilities,” in the words of President Vladimir Putin.

Washington Post, Ukraine and Russia trade blame for strike reportedly killing Mariupol prisoners, David Walker, July 29, 2022. Ukraine and Russia traded accusations Friday over the shelling of a prison in the eastern Donetsk region that allegedly killed and wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war, including those captured after the fall of the port city of Mariupol in May.

A spokesman for the Russian-backed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said a Ukrainian strike using U.S.-supplied HIMARS — High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — hit a prison in the town of Olenivka, killing at least 53 captive Ukrainian troops and wounding about 75.

Ukrainian authorities, however, denied any involvement and in turn accused Russian forces of carrying out the attack, which they described as a war crime.

In posts on Telegram, DPR spokesman Daniil Bezsonov referred to the casualties as “prisoners of Azovstal” — the steel plant in Mariupol that finally fell to Russian forces after a protracted siege. Unverified video shared on Telegram showed charred human remains in the burned-out shell of what was purported to be the prison.

Russia’s Defense Ministry framed the incident as “a bloody provocation” intended to discourage Ukrainian soldiers from surrendering.

The Ukrainian military, however, accused Russian forces of carrying out “a targeted artillery shelling of a correctional institution in the settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held.”

“In this way, the Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals — to accuse Ukraine of committing ‘war crimes,’ as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executions which they carried out there,” it said in a statement.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, writing on Twitter, accused Russia of committing a war crime and called for condemnation from the international community.

“I call on all partners to strongly condemn this brutal violation of international humanitarian law and recognize Russia [as] a terrorist state,” he said.

None of the claims could be independently verified.

Washington Post, Trump uses presidential seal at N.J. golf club amid ethics complaints, Mariana Alfaro, Rick Maese and Ellen Francis, July 29, 2022. Former president Donald Trump was spotted using the presidential seal on multiple items during the LIV Golf tournament at his Bedminster, N.J., golf course.

The seal was plastered on towels, golf carts and other items as the former president participated in the pro-am event of the Saudi-sponsored tournament Thursday.

It is against federal law to use the presidential and vice-presidential seals in ways that could convey “a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States.”

While violating this law could result in imprisonment of “not more than six months,” a fine or both, these punishments are rarely doled out.

This is not the first time the display of the seal has been reported at Trump properties. The logo appeared on a marker at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., in an Instagram post earlier this year, according to Forbes. WNYC and ProPublica reported in 2018 that the Trump Organization ordered golf course tee markers with the emblem on them.

Last year, a D.C.-based watchdog group accused his Bedminster golf club of profiting from using images of the presidential seal.

“Unlawful use of the presidential seal for commercial purposes is no trivial matter, especially when it involves a former president who is actively challenging the legitimacy of the current president,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said when it filed the 2021 complaint.

As Trump teed off Thursday in the pro-am at the latest LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament, the event was closed to the public but open to media. This week marks the third event of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, with which Trump has joined forces in Bedminster in the face of criticism, and its second in the United States.

U.S. Economic News

New York Times, After Clash, Manchin and Schumer Rushed to Reset Climate and Tax Deal, Emily Cochrane and Annie Karni, Updated July 29, 2022. The West Virginia Democrat said he had relented and agreed to sign on to a climate, energy and tax package after returning to negotiations to draft a version that would combat inflation.

Headquarters of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, designed by Marriner Eccles and located on Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, DC.

New York Times, U.S. Prices Surged in June, and Pay Growth Struggled to Keep Up, Jeanna Smialek, July 29, 2022. A wage growth measure that the Federal Reserve watches closely climbed swiftly in the three months through June and prices increased sharply last month, fresh economic reports showed on Friday, developments that are likely to keep the central bank on track for future rate increases even as the economy shows some signs of cooling.

Prices climbed by 6.8 percent in the year through June, the fastest for the Personal Consumption Expenditures index since 1982. Inflation also jumped by 4.8 percent over the past year after removing food and fuel — which economists do to get a sense of underlying trends — a slightly larger increase than the 4.7 percent increase that economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected.

At the same time, a separate report showed that wages climbed briskly, albeit not enough to keep up with inflation. The Employment Cost Index climbed by 5.1 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, and the index’s measure of wages and salaries also picked up strongly.

That combination is likely to reinforce the Fed's determination to cool down the economy and wrestle inflation back under control. Central bank officials on Wednesday made their second supersized rate increase in a row — three-quarters of a percentage point — as they try to slow down the economy by making money more expensive to borrow.

“Wage increases and labor costs are still showing strong upward pressures, and that’s likely to keep the Fed raising interest rates over the next few meetings,” said Alan Detmeister, an economist at UBS who was formerly a central bank researcher. The employment cost number, he said, “was hot.”

New York Times, Experts said the risk of a U.S. recession was rising after the economy declined for a second straight quarter, Ben Casselman, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Gross domestic product, in an initial reading, fell 0.2 percent in the second quarter. President Biden said any troubles would be transitory.

Washington Post, U.S. economy shrinks again in second quarter, reviving recession fears, Abha Bhattarai, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). There are still mounting concerns about the U.S. economy's resilience. Inflation is at 40-year highs, home sales are weakening and even the-red hot labor market is beginning to show cracks.

The U.S. economy shrank again for a second straight quarter, at a 0.9 percent annual rate, which has often signaled a recession.

The new figures, released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, come at a tumultuous time for the economy, though economists disagree on the likelihood of a full-fledged economic slump. In the past, six months of contraction in economic growth has usually indicated a recession, although that determination is made by a separate panel of experts.
Share with The Post: What’s one way you’ve felt the impact of inflation?

The second quarter slowdown reflected shifting consumer and business behaviors. Retailers bought fewer items, including cars, as consumers shifted their spending away from goods to services such as restaurants and hotels. Declines in residential investments and government spending also contributed to the negative reading.

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Fed Fights Inflation With Another Big Rate Increase
• New York Times, Opinion: We Are Not in a Recession, Paul Krugman

More On Ukraine War

Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian first lady (Photographed for Vogue by Annie Leibovitz).

New York Times, Critic's Notebook: Why a Vogue Cover Created a Controversy for Olena Zelenska, Vanessa Friedman, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Is the magazine romanticizing war, or is the first lady weaponizing glossies?

Another season, another Vogue story on a politician causing a kerfuffle. After the hoo-ha over the magazine not giving Melania Trump a cover (even though Michelle Obama got three) and the to-do over Kamala Harris’s “relaxed” portrait being chosen over her more formal cover try, comes a new controversy, related to a “digital cover” released online featuring Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian first lady.

Entitled “Portrait of Bravery,” the article is a collaboration between the Condé Nast Vogues (pretty much all of them) and Ukrainian Vogue (a licensed magazine owned by Media Group Ukraine).

It has moody, graceful portraits of Ms. Zelenska by Annie Leibovitz: sitting on the marble steps of the presidential palace, staring grimly ahead; holding hands with her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky; and standing next to female soldiers at Antonov Airport, clutching the lapels of a long navy overcoat. The photos [including one below of the presidential couple0 are accompanied by a lengthy interview and some BTS video footage of the first couple and Ms. Leibovitz. It will appear in print later this year.

New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine President Says Ports Are Ready to Ship Grain Under U.N. Deal, Michael Schwirtz and Matina Stevis-Gridneff, July 29, 2022. President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed hope that grain exports could begin in the coming days, fulfilling a deal signed last week with Russia. Follow updates.On a visit to a port in the Odesa region, Ukraine’s president expressed hope that grain exports could begin in the coming days. Ambassadors from Europe and the United States called on Russia to heed a deal signed last week to ensure the safe export of grain.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Zelensky says he’s hopeful that grain will start moving from Ukraine’s ports soon.
• Russia’s foreign minister says he will propose a time for a phone call about a prisoner exchange.
• Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of striking a prison in Donetsk, killing dozens.
• With Russia using energy as leverage, the quest in many parts of Europe is to shrink demand.
• Rocket attack on a crowded bus stop kills five people, Ukrainian officials say.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, visiting a port in the Odesa region on Friday, expressed hope that grain exports could begin within the coming days, as U.S. and European ambassadors called on Russia to heed a deal to get the grain moving.

Mr. Zelensky said his visit to the Black Sea port of Chernomorsk, where the first shipment of grain since the beginning of the war was being loaded onto a Turkish freighter, was meant to convey that Ukraine’s ports were ready, the president’s press service said.

The visit came less than a week after Russian cruise missiles struck at the nearby Port of Odesa, threatening to upend a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to allow Ukraine to begin exporting grain to countries hit hard by food shortages. Ukrainian ports have been sealed by a Russian naval blockade of the Black Sea since troops invaded the country on Feb. 24.

“Our side is fully ready,” Mr. Zelensky said. “We’ve given our partners, the U.N. and Turkey, the signal and our military will guarantee security.”

His visit followed a trip Friday to the Port of Odesa by ambassadors from the United States and Europe, who, together with Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, Oleksandr Kurbakov, pressed Russia to abide by the deal and said it was possible that the shipments could get underway as early as Friday.

“Millions of people around the world are waiting for grain to come out of this and other Ukrainian ports,” said Bridget Brink, the American ambassador to Ukraine, who was making her first visit to Odesa. “It’s very important for Russia to live up to its commitments and to allow this grain to be exported.”

Washington Post, Russia: No deal yet on releasing Americans Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan, Robyn Dixon and Adela Suliman, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Russia said Thursday that no concrete agreement has been reached in prisoner release negotiations with the United States, a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a “substantial proposal” was made to Moscow to free two jailed Americans: WNBA star Brittney Griner and security consultant Paul Whelan.

“There are no agreements yet which are finalized,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Blinken, right, said Wednesday that a proposal was made to the Kremlin “weeks ago” for the release of Griner and Whelan, although he did not specify its terms or say whether there had been any response. “Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal,” he added.

Peskov expressed surprise Thursday at the United States’ break with the diplomatic silence that normally surrounds prisoner release negotiations.

Blinken’s comments have fueled speculation about a potential prisoner exchange involving notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, 55, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death.”

Bout, whose exploits once inspired a Hollywood film starring Nicolas Cage, is serving a 25-year sentence in Illinois for conspiring to kill U.S. nationals and selling weapons to terrorists.

His wife, Alla Bout, wrote that their family “will keep our fingers crossed and believe that soon we will see Viktor at home.” She expressed the hope in a post Thursday on VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook.

The Kremlin has pushed for Bout’s release since his arrest in Thailand in 2008, claiming his conviction by a New York court in 2011 was “unlawful.” Blinken would not say whether Bout was part of the deal offered to Russia.

In a stark change of diplomatic behavior, Blinken also said he would be speaking to his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, “in the coming days.” It would be their first call since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, and the purpose would be to discuss the release of the detained Americans, among other pressing issues, such as the availability of grain and natural gas.

“There was a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release,” Blinken told reporters. “And I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and, I hope, move us toward a resolution.”

If it happens, the prisoner swap would be the second such deal brokered by the Biden administration.

In April, former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, who was convicted in 2020 of assaulting two Russian police officers, returned home in exchange for the release of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was jailed on drug-smuggling charges in the United States.

The swap showed that Washington and Moscow could still reach some agreements even amid the Ukraine war and efforts by the White House to economically and politically isolate Russia on the world stage.

Griner, 31, who had been playing in a Russian league during the WNBA offseason, has been detained since February on drug charges after Russian authorities found two cannabis oil vape cartridges in her luggage at Moscow’s airport.

Washington Post, This American teacher also sits in a Russian jail, worried nobody cares, Manuel Roig-Franzia, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Arrested last summer after arriving in Moscow with medical marijuana in his luggage, Marc Fogel has a case that parallels the ordeal of WNBA star Brittney Griner. But his plight has mostly gone unnoticed.

Marc Fogel, right, in a photograph taken by a friend of the family, during his Moscow trial in June. (Irina Pigman)

Fogel’s plight parallels a similar case that has played big on news websites, led cable newscasts and prompted White House pronouncements: the trial of WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, who also was arrested for attempting to enter Russia with a small amount of medical marijuana. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States has made a “substantial proposal” to Russia to secure the release

He was always just Mr. Fogel to the students he entranced with lectures about the Cold War. But he is Marc Hilliard Fogel on his well-worn passports, abundantly stamped from his many years of teaching International Baccalaureate history courses at schools attended by the children of U.S. diplomats and the global elite in Colombia, Venezuela, Oman, Malaysia and, for the past 10 years, in Russia.

For the past 11 months, Fogel has languished in Russian detention centers following his August 2021 arrest for trying to enter the country with about half an ounce of medical marijuana he’d been prescribed in the United States for chronic pain after numerous injuries and surgeries. First he endlessly awaited trial, often in crowded, smoke-choked cells. More recently, he has been serving the first weeks of an incomprehensible 14-year sentence handed down by a Russian judge in June.

Fogel’s plight parallels a similar case that has played big on news websites, led cable newscasts and prompted White House pronouncements: the trial of WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, who also was arrested for attempting to enter Russia with a small amount of medical marijuana.

Marc Fogel’s wife, Jane Fogel, said in an interview after the news broke that she’s still hoping her husband can be included in a swap. But those hopes are fading, she said, speaking publicly for the first time about her husband’s case.

“There’s a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Marc will be left behind,” Jane Fogel said Wednesday after the announcement about the possible swap including Griner and Whelan. “It’s terrifying. I would hope that President Biden and especially first lady Jill Biden, who is an educator, realize the importance of including Marc in addition to Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.”

In suburban Pittsburgh, Jane Fogel has been watching the Griner case spool out and wondered whether her husband has been forgotten. Griner’s wife, Cherelle, received a call from the president. The Fogels have been stalled at the mid-functionary level of the U.S. State Department. Speculation about a possible prisoner swap before Blinken’s announcement on Wednesday had earlier trickled into his Russian prison cell, compounding his anxiety.

New York Times, Ukraine Updates: Ukraine Points to Added Urgency as Russia Reinforces Southern Front, Michael Schwirtz, Marc Santora and Matthew Mpoke Bigg, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Russian troops around the southern city of Kherson are increasingly isolated after Ukrainian strikes disrupted key resupply routes. On the diplomatic front, the U.S. offered to trade an imprisoned Russian arms dealer for Brittney Griner and another detained American.

Major developments:

• Ukraine pushes to retake ground in the south as Russia pours in reinforcements.
• The Russian arms dealer at the center of a proposed swap for Brittney Griner has a notorious history.
• Missile strikes in northern Ukraine add urgency to a debate over hitting targets in Russia.
• As Brittney Griner stands trial, Moscow says there’s no deal yet on a prisoner exchange.
• Russia struggles to resupply its troops in western Kherson.
• Here are some prisoner swaps that freed Americans.

Ukraine expressed a heightened sense of urgency on Thursday over its looming counteroffensive in the south, saying Russia was racing to bolster its forces in the region and taking further steps to solidify its political hold in the territory it controls.

Russia directed dozens of missiles at targets across Ukraine overnight into Thursday, including 25 fired from Belarus, according to the Ukrainian military, even as it moved soldiers and equipment to the southern region of Kherson. In the east, Ukrainian forces continue to hold their defensive lines while targeting key command-and-control centers and Russian troop strongholds deep behind Russian lines.

The Ukrainians have been setting the stage for a broad counteroffensive in the south for some time, and recent long-range missile strikes have left thousands of Russian soldiers stationed west of the Dnipro River around the port city of Kherson in a precarious position, largely cut off from Russian strongholds to the east. But Russia is now moving “the maximum number” of forces to the southern front in the Kherson region, the head of Ukraine’s National Security Council told Ukrainian television late Wednesday.

The official, Oleksiy Danilov, described “a very powerful movement of their troops” to the front in Kherson.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Analysis: Russia’s war in Ukraine escalates on the ground and in Congress
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Points to Added Urgency as Russia Reinforces Southern Front
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukrainian missiles struck a bridge in Kherson that is critical in Russia’s effort to hold the city
• New York Times, A little-known special military cell is keeping Ukraine’s troops equipped as battlefield needs become complicated
• Associated Press, Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime’
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Is Poised for Major Southern Offensive
• New York Times, As Prices Soar in Ukraine, War Adds Economic Havoc to the Human Toll

Energy, Climate, Disasters, Environment

 New York Times, Live Updates: Death Toll in Kentucky Flooding Rises to 15, Derrick Bryson Taylor, July 29, 2022. The death toll in devastating flash floods that hit Kentucky this week rose to 15 on Friday and was expected to double as rescue efforts continued in the eastern region. President Biden approved a disaster declaration for Kentucky on Friday.

More rounds of excessive rainfall across parts of the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys were expected to trigger flash flooding throughout Friday, according to the Weather Prediction Center.

As of early Friday, a flood watch was in effect through the evening for large swaths of Kentucky, including several of the counties hit by storms on Thursday. The approaching front could bring persistent and heavy rainfall over soil that is already saturated, driving up concerns about additional flooding in the region. A flood warning was also in effect until the afternoon for parts of southeastern Kentucky, including several rivers.

Some of the dead will include children, the state’s governor, Andy Beshear, said in a brief statement on YouTube. “We may have even lost entire families.”

The state’s governor said he expected the number to “more than double” after heavy rain and severe flooding. Follow updates.

Washington Post, Opinion: Manchin’s climate deal isn’t enough, but it’s still a miracle, Eugene Robinson, right, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Better late than never. The $369 billion to fight climate change in the deal announced Wednesday between Senate Democrats and the White House represents the nation’s biggest investment ever in the future of our overheating planet.

Congress should pass it quickly. Like, tomorrow. Before Hamlet — I mean Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — changes his mind yet again.

For anyone who understands how desperately we need to make the transition to a clean-energy economy — and who also understands how difficult it is to do anything big in today’s dysfunctional Washington — the legislation announced by Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) looks like nothing short of a miracle.

A summary of the package released by its authors says it would “put the U.S. on a path” toward a 40 percent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 2030. Yes, climate scientists say we need to move even faster. But if you had told me as recently as last week that climate action this bold was even a remote possibility, I would have said you were delirious from this summer’s oppressive heat.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Multiple deaths reported as massive flooding in eastern Kentucky engulfs homes
• New York Times, Germany Counts on Chilled Gas to Keep Warm Over Winter
• New York Times, Anti-U.N. Protests in Congo Leave 15 Dead, Including 3 Peacekeepers
• New York Times, ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’: Congo to Sell Land for Drilling
• Washington Post, Heat to wane in Northeast as Pacific Northwest prepares to roast
• New York Times, Heat Records Expected to Be Broken in the U.S. on Sunday

World News, Analysis

New York Times, Biden and Xi Conduct Marathon Call During Time of Rising Tensions, Peter Baker and Jane Perlez, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). White House officials characterized the call between President Biden and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, as a relationship-tending mission.

President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China confronted each other over Taiwan during a marathon phone call on Thursday, but neither side reported any concrete progress on that longstanding dispute or any of the other issues that have flared between the two powers in recent months.

In their first direct conversation in four months, Mr. Xi sharply warned the United States against intervening in the conflict with Taiwan while Mr. Biden sought to reassure his counterpart that his administration was not seeking to upset the current situation between the two sides and cautioned that neither should either of them.

“President Biden underscored that the United States policy has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes anyone who will change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters after the call, which lasted two hours and 17 minutes.

• Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip

New York Times, Analysis: China Has Leapfrogged the U.S. in Key Technologies. Can a New Law Help? David E. Sanger, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). While Congress argued over whether and how to support American chip makers and research in other technologies China was surging ahead.

While Congress argued over whether and how to support American chip makers and research in other technologies China was surging ahead.In the weeks before the House and the Senate ended 13 months of arguments and passed the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, China’s main, state-supported chip maker cleared a major technological hurdle that delivered a bit of a shock to the world.

Experts are still assessing how China apparently leapfrogged ahead in its effort to manufacture a semiconductor whose circuits are of such tiny dimensions — about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair — that they rival those made in Taiwan, which supplies both China and the West. The Biden administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the highly specialized equipment to make those chips out of Chinese hands, because progress in chip manufacturing is now scrutinized as a way to define national power — much the same way nuclear tests or precision-guided missiles were during a previous cold war.

Washington Post, Hungary’s Viktor Orban faces outrage after saying Europeans shouldn’t become ‘mixed race,’ Rick Noack, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is facing backlash after a speech arguing that Europeans should not “become peoples of mixed race,” although the far-right leader is still slated to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas next week.

In the same speech, Orban, ight, also appeared to joke about Nazi gas chambers, saying in the context of a European Union proposal to ration natural gas: “the past shows us German know-how on that.”

The comments, made by Orban during an annual address to members of the Hungarian minority in Romania on Saturday, prompted immediate outrage among his critics and unease among some of his supporters. The most consequential fallout so far came on Tuesday, when Zsuzsa Hegedüs, a sociologist and longtime adviser to Orban, submitted a public resignation letter.

The Orbanization of America: How to capture a democracy

“After such a speech, which contradicts all my basic values, I was left with no other choice,” Hegedüs, who is Jewish, wrote to Orban in a letter published by the hvg.hu news site.

Orban’s views on immigration and multicultural societies were no secret: He said in 2015 that Muslims threaten Europe’s Christian identity, and in 2017 his government erected a border fence to keep Syrians and other immigrants out.

But his latest provocation appeared to have hit a nerve in a way it rarely did even at the height of the 2015 immigration influx into Europe.

Washington Post, Opinion: A hero of the Trump right shows his true colors: Whites only, Dana Milbank, right, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Thank you, Viktor Orban, for showing us where the American right is heading.

The Hungarian strongman, who derailed his country’s nascent democracy, has been a darling of the MAGA crowd for his anti-immigrant policies. He has enjoyed a fawning interview and favorable broadcasts from Budapest by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, and he has been invited as a featured speaker to next week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas alongside a who’s who of Republican senators, governors and members of Congress, as well as former president Donald Trump himself.

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People
• Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its own
• Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip
• New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan
• Washington Post, Myanmar junta executes four pro-democracy activists
• Washington Post, Pakistani election upset favors Imran Khan’s return to power
• Washington Post, At least 17 Haitian migrants dead after Miami-bound boat capsizes off Bahamas
• Washington Post, Two dead in Whistler after daylight gang shooting in Canadian resort town
• New York Times, The downfall of Italy’s prime minister has raised concerns about Europe’s unity against Russian aggression
• Associated Press, Milley: China more aggressive, dangerous to US, allies
• Associated Press, Pope heads to Canada as Indigenous groups seek full apology

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

Washington Post, A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail, Brittany Shammas, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a flag-waving crowd gathered outside the Florida jail where an alleged participant was being held.

Jeremy Michael Brown, a retired Special Forces soldier charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted Capitol grounds, addressed them through a phone call played over loudspeaker. The 47-year-old Tampa resident and member of the extremist Oath Keepers group decried the “tyrannical government,” read a lengthy passage from the Bible and portrayed himself as engaged in a fight for “the liberty of every American.”

Then Brown made an announcement that sent the crowd into cheers.

“Today, Jan. 6, 2022, from the maximum security section of the Pinellas County jail,” he said, “I, Jeremy Brown, announce my candidacy for Florida state House of Representatives.”

Within a few months of that speech, he had collected enough signatures to qualify as a candidate and run a long-shot campaign for Florida’s District 62 — all from jail. As the sole Republican candidate, Brown, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial on felony and misdemeanor charges, is set to run against the winner of the August Democratic primary. The newly drawn district includes heavily blue areas; about 72.4 percent of voters there went for Biden, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which reported on Brown’s campaign this week.

It’s unclear whether legal issues could impede Brown’s candidacy or ability to hold public office while he remains in jail. Lawyers are reviewing that question, the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections told the Tampa Bay Times.

“We don’t know, the state office doesn’t know and to be honest, I don’t care,” Brown said in an interview with the newspaper. “I’m gonna run until they tell me no. It’s almost like our government is incompetent.”

Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors, Meghann Cuniff and Adam Klasfeld, July 27, 2022. A West Virginia man previously accused of assaulting U.S. Capitol police officer who died after Jan. 6 pleaded down on Wednesday to a pair of much less serious misdemeanor offenses. Prosecutors said they offered his co-defendant a plea deal that would include felony charges of assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon.

George Tanios, 40, (shown at right in a photo at his shop by Andrew Spellman via the Associated Press) pleaded guilty before a federal judge entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly conduct inside a restricted building or grounds. Prosecutors initially charged Tanios and co-defendant Julian Khater on a raft of serious, identical charges, including assaulting Officer Brian Sicknick, shown above, who later died.

Khater faces an estimated 78 to 97 months in prison if he agrees to plead guilty to two felony charges of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon, a prosecutor told U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan on Wednesday.

Only Khater, however, was accused of actually dousing law enforcement with chemical spray, and Tanios previously stood accused of coordinating the attacks. Now, the men’s cases appear to be on the verge of vastly different outcomes. The two misdemeanor offenses Tanios pleaded guilty to each carry a maximum one-year sentence, a $100,000 fine and a year of probation, but prosecutors calculated his guidelines range at less than six months. Hogan, a Ronald Reagan appointee, scheduled sentencing for Dec. 6.

If Khater accepts the offer, and is sentenced within the proposed guidelines range, he would serve what is currently the longest sentence to date on the Jan. 6 docket. That record is currently held by Mark K. Ponder and Robert Scott Palmer, both of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement. Judge Hagan set another hearing for Khater for Aug. 24.

Authorities did not blame either of the men for Sicknick’s death, which the D.C. medical examiner later attributed to natural causes.

In their initial filings, federal authorities said that open source video showed both of the men discussing spraying police.

“Give me that bear shit,” Khater allegedly told Tanios.

“Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet… its still early,” Tanios was quoted responding.

Law&Crime, Orphaned Girls Read ‘Moving’ Letters to Mom and Dad Before Judge Sentences the Drunk Driver Who Killed Them, Meghann Cuniff, July 29, 2022. A 23-year-old California woman was sentenced Friday to at least 21 years in prison for a drunken hit-and-run crash that killed a young mother and father who were looking at Christmas lights with their three young daughters.

Two of the orphaned girls spoke briefly in court to Grace Elizabeth Coleman, above, before a judge sentenced her, reading letters they’d written their parents in what the family’s lawyer told Law&Crime was “probably the most moving thing I’ve ever seen.”

“This was the first time she had been face to face with the little girls,” Jeffrey T. Roberts said. “I know she had been hearing from the family about what they had lost. Now she was face to face with them.”

Coleman didn’t make a statement during the hearing, but she earlier privately spoke with family of Henry Saldana-Mejia, 27, and his wife, Gabriela Andrade, 28, in a rare meeting arranged at the courthouse but not attended by defense lawyers, prosecutors or a judge, said Roberts, of Roberts | Jeandron Law Firm in Newport Beach, California.

“It was just Grace Coleman and a couple of the family members,” Roberts said. “They believe she’s very remorseful. They believe she made a very, very bad choice.”

But, Roberts added, “They’re not an angry, vitriolic family. They didn’t mention hatred of any sort.”

Roberts is suing Coleman and her parents, James and Kelli Coleman, of Newport Beach, alleging wrongful death and negligence. He blames the parents for allowing her to continue driving a 2010 Land Rover Range Rover they’d gifted her even after two bouts of drunken driving in June 2019 and August 2020.

“What this girl needed was help, not a Range Rover,” Roberts said.

Law&Crime, California Supreme Court Affirms Death Penalty for Sadistic Serial Killer Charles Ng, Meghann Cuniff, July 29, 2022. The California Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a serial killer who kidnapped and sexually tortured his victims while filming them in a remote cabin, rejecting his argument that an electric stun belt forcibly strapped to him during trial violated his rights.

Charles Chitat Ng, 61, was convicted of murdering 11 people in a kidnapping spree from 1984 to ’85 that terrorized northern California, but authorities have said he and his cohort, Leonard Lake, may be responsible for more killings based on human remains found at a cabin that Lake owned that doubled as a doomsday dungeon.

Lake, described as a survivalist who feared a nuclear holocaust, committed suicide by eating cyanide pills shortly after his arrest on a gun charge in 1985. Ng fled to Canada but was arrested for shoplifting, then returned to the United States in 1991 after a lengthy extradition proceeding.

A jury in Orange County returned a death sentence against him in 1999 after eight years of legal wrangling that included a judge granting his request to represent himself, then revoking it after repeated interruptions. A unanimous opinion Thursday by the California Supreme Court affirms that sentence.

 Law&Crime, 'Her Personal Space Will Be Detonated': Massachusetts Man Charged with Sending Bomb Threat Against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, July 29, 2022. Since vocally defending the 2020 presidential election results, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) reported a fusillade of threats that began shortly after the race and ratcheted up again in the wake of a partisan “forensic audit.”

On Friday, federal authorities arrested one of the men accused of threatening to harm her — allegedly, through a bomb threat on Valentine’s Day of 2021.

Prosecutors say that James W. Clark, a 38-year-old from Falmouth, Mass., filled out the web form of the Elections Division of the Arizona Secretary of State’s office on Feb. 14, 2021.

In the message, prosecutors say, Clark wrote that if Hobbs didn’t resign within two days an “explosive device impacted in her personal space will be detonated.”

Clark’s indictment shielded the identity of the elections official as “VICTIM-1.” Though the message allegedly addressed the target as the “attorney general,” Hobbs’ office confirmed that the secretary of state was the person referenced. The message also referred to the official as a woman, and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) is a man.

Law&Crime, Indiana Judge Tied to Drunken White Castle Parking Lot Shooting in 2019 Resigns After Being Charged with Hitting Ex-Husband in Front of Kids, Aaron Keller, July 29, 2022. An embattled Indiana judge resigned this week in the midst of an ethics probe. Sabrina Bell agreed to forfeit her law license for 150 days and to not “seek or accept judicial office in Indiana state courts in the future,” according to a press release from the Indiana Judicial Branch.

Bell has been in trouble with ethics authorities multiple times. The most recent case involves allegations that she slapped her ex-husband in the face in front of two of the couple’s three children. A previous discipline case placed Bell among a group of judges who were involved in an overnight drunken parking lot brawl that happened after an attempted visit to a strip joint and ended with a shooting.

The Indiana Supreme Court suspended Bell in May after a special prosecutor filed felony charges against Bell in connection with the more recent alleged domestic dispute. That case, described in court documents as involving a charge of “domestic battery in the presence of a child,” is proceeding in Crawford County.

Bell was elected in November 2016 and took office on Jan. 1, 2017, according to the stipulation agreement.

Bell was previously suspended in November 2019. That suspension involved allegations that Bell “engaged in judicial misconduct by appearing in public in an intoxicated state and behaving in an injudicious manner and by becoming involved in a verbal altercation.”

A group of other judges were also named in the matter. Those judges were Andrew Adams and Bradley B. Jacobs, both of the Clark Circuit Court. At around 3:17 a.m., Alfredo Vazquez and Brandon Kaiser drove past the group and shouted something out the window. The confrontation ended when Kaiser pulled out a gun, shot Judge Adams once, and shot Judge Jacobs twice.

Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Aadit Tambe, Sahana Jayaraman and Adrian Blanco, July 28, 2022. As of July 18, 842 suspects have been federally charged in the Justice Department’s probe of the Capitol insurrection.

Most of those cases are ongoing.116 defendants await sentencing after they either pleaded guilty or were convicted. About 1 in 4, or 218 defendants, have been sentenced so far.

• New York Times, Analysis: Urgency of Jan. 6 and Georgia Inquiries Puts Pressure on Garland, Michael S. Schmidt, July 26, 2022 (print ed).The continued revelations from the House committee and the aggressiveness of prosecutors in Georgia have left the U.S. Justice Department on the defensive.

Recent Headlines

• CBS News, U.S. defense contractor and wife who were photographed in KGB uniforms charged with stealing identities of dead children in Texas
• Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot
• Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors
• Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
• New York Times, Justice Dept. Asking Witnesses About Trump in Its Jan. 6 Investigation, Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush
• Washington Post, Key Dems want DHS inspector general removed from Secret Service probe

U.S. Politics, Governance, Education, Economy

Washington Post, Opinion: Joe Manchin shocks Republicans by revealing he is a Democrat, Dana Milbank, right, July 29, 2022 (July 31 print ed.). The news hit like a thunderclap this week. Joe Manchin is … a Democrat?

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) turned with fury on the centrist senator from West Virginia. “It was obviously a double-cross by Joe Manchin,” he declared on Fox News. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) alleged “bad faith.” Rep. Kevin Brady (Tex.), the top Republican on the Ways and Means committee, perceived “deceit.”

What terrible thing had Manchin done to deserve such howls of betrayal from Republicans? Well, it seems Manchin, the Republicans’ formerly favorite Democrat, had dared to act like a Democrat.

Manchin agreed with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on legislation lowering prescription drug prices and providing renewable energy incentives, paid for by cracking down on large, tax-dodging corporations. After two years of Manchin’s resistance to such a deal, Republicans had come to believe he would never agree (though he never said as much). So when he did, they lashed out with self-destructive rage.

Forty-one Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would help veterans who had been exposed to toxic burn pits — even though 25 of the 41 had previously supported a nearly identical bill. In the House, GOP leaders fought to defeat a bipartisan agreement helping U.S. makers of semiconductor chips compete against China, getting all but 24 House Republicans to vote against the bill. Now, Senate Republicans are saying that because of pique over Manchin’s actions, a bipartisan effort to codify marriage equality might be doomed.

Democrats, by contrast, showed rare unity, with the party’s woke wing heaping praise on the Manchin-negotiated energy and prescription drug bill. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), head of the Progressive Caucus, called it a “very, very major step forward.”

The episode is a key reminder that the supposed “polarization” in American politics is not symmetrical. Democrats, after a long struggle, are finally making a bid to hold the political center. They’ve reached near universal agreement on a bill that pays down debt, makes medicine cheaper, eliminates unfair tax breaks for the biggest corporations and the richest one-tenth of 1 percent, and implements an all-of-the-above energy policy that streamlines drilling permits while accelerating the switch to clean energy.

And Republicans responded by voting against veterans and U.S. manufacturing.

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania's governor's race, celebrates his primary victory (Associated Press photo by Carolyn Kaster via MSNBC).

 Washington Post, GOP Pa. governor nominee under fire for ties to white-nationalist site, Colby Itkowitz, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). CEO of Gab praised Doug Mastriano for leading ‘an explicitly Christian movement’ in antisemitic screeds posted online.

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, is facing intense criticism for his ties to a far-right social media site, Gab, that traffics in white-nationalist rhetoric and whose founder has made overtly antisemitic comments in recent days.

Mastriano, who will face a Jewish Democrat on the ballot in November, paid the site $5,000 for “campaign consulting” in April ahead of the state’s May 17 primary. Since Media Matters for America, a liberal group, first surfaced the expenditure in April, Mastriano has evaded growing concerns about his association with the site.

On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported that Gab CEO Andrew Torba responded to the criticism during a live stream in which he said that neither he nor Mastriano do interviews with non-Christian media.

“My policy is not to conduct interviews with reporters who aren’t Christian or with outlets who aren’t Christian and Doug has a very similar media strategy where he does not do interviews with these people. He does not talk to these people. He does not give press access to these people,” Torba said.“These people are dishonest. They’re liars. They’re a den of vipers and they want to destroy you. My typical conversation with them when they email me is ‘repent and accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior.’ I take it as an opportunity to try and convert them.”

New York Times, F.T.C. Chair Upends Antitrust Standards With Meta Lawsuit, Celia Kang, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). Lina Khan (shown above) may set off a shift in how Washington regulates competition by filing cases in tech areas before they mature. She faces an uphill climb.

Early in her tenure as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan declared that she would rein in the power of the largest technology companies in a dramatically new way.

“We’re trying to be forward looking, anticipating problems and taking fast action,’’ Ms. Khan said in an interview last month. She promised to focus on “next-generation technologies,” and not just on areas where tech behemoths were already well established.

This week, Ms. Khan took her first step toward stopping the tech monopolies of the future when she sued to block a small acquisition by Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, of the virtual-reality fitness start-up Within. The deal was significant for Meta’s development of the so-called metaverse, which is a nascent technology and far from mainstream.

Washington Post, Adam Schiff is jockeying to lead House Democrats. It won’t be easy, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). The shadow campaign to lead House Democrats next year has been underway for months — and in many ways years — as a new generation of leaders quietly makes a play for the top positions. But an eleventh-hour push by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) in recent weeks has taken Democrats by surprise and raised questions about how the caucus wants to mirror the diversity that makes up its party’s base.

Schiff, left, who gained attention investigating Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election before leading the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, is exploring a bid to lead the House Democratic caucus if Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) retires after the midterm elections, according to more than a dozen House members and top aides who have spoken directly with the congressman.

This account of Schiff’s recent efforts is based on interviews with eight lawmakers and 18 staff members and lobbyists familiar with leadership dynamics, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

If he can amass enough interest in his candidacy, Schiff would upend a race that was considered largely set, challenging a variety of Democrats gunning for the top spot, including possibly Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), right, who has positioned himself among members as Pelosi’s heir apparent and represents a new generation of Democrats.

Schiff’s overtures, which began in earnest earlier this year, have focused on consolidating support among his home base, the expansive California delegation, according to members of that group. And though he has not made an explicit ask for endorsements, he is gauging members’ interest and planting the seed that leading the caucus is his goal.

Schiff has also reached out to members in a variety of key blocs in the vast Democratic caucus, including the minority tri-caucuses made up of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. He has also reached out to the ideological factions within the Democratic caucus: both the large Progressive Caucus and the centrist New Democrat Coalition, of which he is a member, according to several people with knowledge of the outreach.

The jockeying for leadership roles comes as House Democrats are eager to take the party into the next generation, satisfying an increasingly restless progressive base while pushing back against a more conservative, but divided, opposition intent on payback for the treatment of President Donald Trump.

The debate inside the caucus mirrors the sentiment of many Democratic voters who are demanding a younger and more diverse leadership structure in the party — a tension that flared during the 2020 Democratic primaries and is resurfacing as President Biden’s poll numbers slide. Schiff, 62, represents the kind of leader many Democrats have urged the party to move beyond: older, White and in politics nearly three decades. Both Jeffries and Clyburn are Black and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, though Clyburn is older than Schiff.

Schiff’s trial balloon has been met with surprise and skepticism that he could earn enough support to win, according to several lawmakers. Jeffries, for example, has spent years assembling broad support among the House Democratic caucus.

Washington Post, Opinion: Most third parties have failed. Here’s why ours won’t, David Jolly, Christine Todd Whitman and Andrew Yang, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). David Jolly is a former Republican congressman from Florida and is executive chairman of the Serve America Movement. Christine Todd Whitman is a former Republican governor of New Jersey and co-founder of the Renew America Movement. Andrew Yang is a former Democratic presidential candidate and is co-chair of the Forward Party.

Political extremism is ripping our nation apart, and the two major parties have failed to remedy the crisis. Last week, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol led us to relive one of the darkest days in U.S. history. The chilling culmination of an attempted electoral coup in the United States was the strongest evidence yet that we are facing the potential demise of our democracy.

The United States badly needs a new political party — one that reflects the moderate, common-sense majority. Today’s outdated parties have failed by catering to the fringes. As a result, most Americans feel they aren’t represented.

New York Times, Opinion: Why Andrew Yang’s New Third Party Is Bound to Fail, Jamelle Bouie, right, July 29, 2022. Let’s not mince words. The new Forward Party announced by the former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and former Representative David Jolly is doomed to failure.

The odds that it will attract any more than a token amount of support from the public, not to mention political elites, are slim to none. It will wither on the vine as the latest in a long history of vanity political parties.

Why am I so confident that the Forward Party will amount to nothing? Because there is a recipe for third-party success in the United States, but neither Yang nor his allies have the right ingredients.

First, let’s talk about the program of the Forward Party. Writing for The Washington Post, Yang, Whitman and Jolly say that their party is a response to “divisiveness” and “extremism.”

The Forward Party, they say, will “reflect the moderate, common-sense majority.”

The most successful third parties in American history have been precisely those that galvanized a narrow slice of the public over a specific set of issues. They further polarized the electorate, changed the political landscape and forced the established parties to reckon with their influence.

This also gets to the meaning of success in the American system. The two-party system in the United States is a natural result of the rules of the game.

This is all to say that in the United States, a successful third party isn’t necessarily one that wins national office. Instead, a successful third party is one that integrates itself or its program into one of the two major parties, either by forcing key issues onto the agenda or revealing the existence of a potent new electorate.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw makes sure reporters feel the burn
• Washington Post, House Democrats delay votes on police, guns after internal infight
• Washington Post, Opinion: Pence gets dissed again — and he ‘deserves it,’ Dana Milbank
• Washington Post, Analysis: DeSantis and other GOP candidates are ditching ‘legacy media’ for friendly outlets, David Weigel
• Mississippi Today, Former Gov. Phil Bryant subpoenaed, Anna Wolfe
• Washington Post, Biden poised for big wins in Congress

Media, Religion, Education, Sports News

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: For the Republicans, overturning Loving v. Virginia is most certainly in the offing, Wayne Madsen, left, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). As Republicans turn back the clock by outlawing abortions -- even in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother being at stake -- same gender marriages and sex, and access to contraceptives, another right stands to be obliterated by that party that is enacting what the America First Committee, German-American Bund, and Ku Klux Klan could have only dreamed about in the 1930s: a ban on interracial marriage.

In 1958, Virginia residents Richard and Mildred Loving were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. The couple was found guilty of violating Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between white and those deemed by the state to be "colored." After their conviction was upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court, the Lovings appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, the court found that the Virginia law outlawing miscegenation violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 2015, the Loving decision was cited by the Supreme Court as precedent in its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.to legalize same-sex marriages.

If next week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas is any indication of the ultimate fate of Loving v. Virginia, legal interracial marriage may be on the chopping block. That is because keynoting the Dallas event will be Hungary's fascist prime minister Viktor Orban, an avowed opponent of racial "mixing."

New York Times, How The L.A. Times Handled an Exposé Becomes the Talk of the Town, John Koblin, July 29, 2022. A book by a reporter from the newspaper has ignited debate about the way editors dealt with an explosive article he helped write in 2017.

Five years ago, Paul Pringle and Matthew Doig were on the same team. Mr. Pringle, a veteran reporter at The Los Angeles Times, and Mr. Doig, an editor at the newspaper, were working on an article that would ultimately expose the drug abuse of a powerful former dean at the University of Southern California.

That report would lead to a series of other investigations involving U.S.C., culminating in a Pulitzer Prize for Mr. Pringle and two other reporters in 2019.

Behind the scenes, however, there was bad blood. Last week, Mr. Pringle published a book, Bad City, which, in part, claimed that top editors at The Times, including Mr. Doig, tried to slow-walk and defang that initial groundbreaking article, which detailed how the dean of U.S.C.’s medical school used drugs with young people, including a woman who had to be rushed to the hospital after an overdose.

Mr. Doig, currently an investigations editor at USA Today, snapped back last week on Medium, calling Mr. Pringle “a fabulist who is grossly misrepresenting the facts to support his false narrative.”

Washington Post, Jared Kushner alleges chief of staff shoved Ivanka Trump at White House, Ashley Parker, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). In a forthcoming memoir, Donald Trump's son-in-law and former presidential adviser, portrays John F. Kelly as having a bullying, “Jekyll-and-Hyde” demeanor. Kelly denies the allegations.

Washington Post, Now on the tee for LIV Golf: Trump National and the polarizing former president, Josh Dawsey and Rick Maese, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Former president Donald Trump joins hands this week with the biggest controversy in sports when his New Jersey golf club hosts the latest event in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, further cementing his relationship with Saudi Arabia and angering families of 9/11 victims who have decried the start-up venture as “sportswashing.”

While the renegade golf circuit has staged two other events, including another in the United States, this week’s event at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., promises to be an even more glaring flash point, given its proximity to Manhattan and the involvement of the ex-president.

In recent days, Trump has publicly and privately dismissed human rights concerns about the Saudi kingdom and railed against the professional golf establishment. He is expected to attend every day of this weekend’s event and has been in contact for months with organizers on event details, according to an adviser, who said Trump remains livid with PGA of America officials who moved the 2022 PGA Championship from his Bedminster club following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Doral, his club outside Miami, will host another LIV Golf event in October.

• National Press Club, Statement By National Press Club On LIV Golf Event At Trump Course

 Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Daniel Snyder faces House committee questions under oath
• Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: The new East-West Cold War is a war of dueling lists; it should be more than that, Wayne Madsen
• Law&Crime, Dallas Jury Hits Charter Spectrum with $7 Billion Verdict After Cable Installer Robbed and Murdered an Elderly Woman
• OpEd News, 10th Annual Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival Celebrates Whistleblowers from Knapp to Now!
• Law&Crime, Former Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann Loses Defamation Lawsuits Against CBS, ABC, NYT, and Others
• Washington Post, Hulu refuses to run Democrats’ ads on abortion, guns and Jan. 6
• New York Times, As Jan. 6 Panel’s Evidence Piled Up, Conservative Media Doubled Down
• Washington Post, College alumni groups spread nationally to counter ‘cancel culture’

More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

Convicted mass murder defendant Nikolas Cruz, now on trial in Florida in the death penalty phase of his guilt for 17 murders and 17 attempted murders at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

New York Times, At the Parkland Trial, Families Must Endure Grisly Evidence on Repeat, Patricia Mazzei, July 29, 2022. The nature of the death-penalty trial requires documenting the school shooting in painful detail, even when the defendant’s guilt has never been in doubt.

To shield heartsick families from the most macabre details of how their loved ones were murdered in a mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the court handling the gunman’s sentencing trial has taken an extraordinary step: Graphic videos and photographs are shown only to the jury, so that victims’ relatives and others in the courtroom gallery do not have to endure them.

But the horrifying particulars, conveyed in emotional witness testimony, chilling audio recordings and dispassionate forensic accounts, are impossible to avoid altogether: How a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tied a baby blanket around a wounded student’s arm as a tourniquet. How the gunfire from a semiautomatic rifle boomed inside a classroom under attack. How the high-powered bullets ravaged children’s bodies.

Prosecutors argue that the grisly specifics, while painful, are necessary to prove to the jury that the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, who has pleaded guilty to 17 murders and 17 attempted murders, deserves the death penalty instead of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge has allowed the evidence over the objections of defense lawyers, who say that it is repetitive, gruesome and intended to prejudice the jury against their client.

Such is the nature of capital punishment: Pursuing a death sentence, even against a defendant whose guilt has never been in doubt, requires putting a community that has already survived an unthinkable tragedy through more agony.

Trials of gunmen who have killed so many people in mass shootings are extremely rare, because they have almost always died during the attack. The public is hardly ever forced to confront grim evidence from autopsy reports, surveillance video and survivors’ testimony in proceedings held years after the deadly rampage.

Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career, Joanna Slater, July 29, 2022 (print ed). Buffalo Rep. Chris Jacobs was once considered a rising star in the GOP. But his support of an assault weapons ban cost him

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Assault Rifle Makers Earned Over $1 Billion as Violence Surged, Report Says
• Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics
• New York Times, With Gun Bill and Attack Ads, Newsom Raises Profile Using Hardball Tactics
• New York Times, 4 Dead After Iowa State Park Shooting, Authorities Say
• Washington Post, Congress wants more red-flag laws. But GOP states, gun groups resist
• New York Times, Jury Weighs Death Penalty for Gunman in Parkland School Massacre

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime

 Maria Araujo Kahn, left, and Nina F. Elgo when they were nominated in 2017 for Connecticut judiciary posts.

CT Mirror (Connecticut's Nonprofit Journalism), Biden taps Maria Araujo Kahn of CT Supreme Court for 2nd Circuit, Mark Pazniokas, July 29, 2022. President Joe Biden’s nomination Friday of Maria Araujo Kahn to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals creates the possibility of a vacancy on the Connecticut Supreme Court prior to the gubernatorial election.

Kahn, 57, an associate justice on the state’s highest court, faces confirmation by a closely divided U.S. Senate looking ahead to the summer recess and midterm elections.

The Biden administration is expected to push the Senate to fast-track the confirmation of Kahn and seven others the president nominated Friday as judges of federal trial or appeals courts.

Kahn is a former federal prosecutor and public defender who was nominated as Superior Court judge in 2006 by Gov. M. Jodi Rell and was twice promoted in 2017 by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

In a five-month period, Malloy named her to the Appellate Court and then the Supreme Court. She was born in Angola to Portuguese parents and emigrated from Africa to the U.S. as a 10-year-old.

She is a graduate of New York University and Fordham Law School.
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“An immigrant to the United States and role model for other judges across Connecticut, Justice Kahn is an inspiration that represents the best of our state,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. “As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I look forward to championing and supporting her nomination.”

The 2nd Circuit comprises New York, Connecticut and Vermont.
If confirmed to the federal appeals court, Kahn would resign from the state bench and give Lamont his third opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court justice.

His two prior choices were women with long experience as lower-court judges: Christine E. Keller, who retired this year; and Joan K. Alexander, who succeeded her.

Washington Post, Republicans press D.C. Circuit nominee on age, pro bono work, Rachel Weiner, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have questioned Justice Department official and federal appellate court nominee Bradley Garcia on his youth and past advocacy on cases involving abortion access, gun regulations and discrimination in religious schools.

Garcia, 36, a deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, was nominated last month by President Biden to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, an influential body that often serves as a path to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Republicans argued Wednesday that Garcia was too inexperienced and too political, echoing Democratic criticisms of Trump nominees to the same court. Garcia sought to differentiate himself, noting that he had clerked for a Republican appellate judge and had extensive experience with both state and federal appeals.

Law&Crime, Mississippi Man Arrested After Viral Video Shows Driver Using Racial Slur and Laughing About ‘Points’ as He Aims His Car for 9 Black Youths Riding Bikes, Colin Kalmbacher, July 27, 2022. Mark Hall, 49, above, has been charged with nine counts of misdemeanor simple assault – attempt by physical menace to create fear after allegedly driving his vehicle through a group of nine Black children who were riding their bicycles down the street.

The incident occurred at around 3:00 p.m. in Ripley, Miss. on Sunday, July 24, 2022. A video showing a man driving through the crowd of minors was uploaded to Snapchat the next day and was shared thousands of times after a copy was posted on Facebook.

In the video, the man driving accelerates to nearly 40 mph and can be heard saying something about “points” before he drives through the group of children. After causing them to rush and scatter to avoid being hit by his car, the driver laughs and says: “Stupid [N-word]s.”

Some of the teens recounted the horrific experience to local media.

Law&Crime, Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Woman Who Left 10-Year-Old Child to Die in Locked Plastic Bin, Jerry Lamb, July 27, 2022. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction and death sentence for a woman (shown above at left) who killed her 10-year-old cousin (shown above at right) by locking the child in a plastic footlocker and leaving her to suffocate as punishment for stealing a popsicle.

The justices rejected Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen’s claim that her trial was “fundamentally flawed,” reasoning, among other things, that photos of the deceased child and a videotaped conversation she had with her husband in the interrogation room after they were arrested were properly admitted during her trial.

Recent Headlines

• Law&Crime, Mississippi Man Arrested After Viral Video Shows Driver Using Racial Slur and Laughing About ‘Points’ as He Aims His Car for 9 Black Youths Riding Bikes
• Law&Crime, Dozens of Inmates Raped, Assaulted, and Harassed After Jailer Sold Male Prisoner a Key to Women's Wing
• Washington Post, National Guard member who sought out extremists, planned attack on police sentenced to prison
• Mississippi Today, Former Gov. Phil Bryant subpoenaed, Anna Wolfe
• Washington Post, Benghazi attacker’s punishment was ‘unreasonably low,’ U.S. court finds
• Politico, U.S. authorities hit former GOP Rep. Stephen Buyer with insider trading charges
• ScheerPost, Commentary: CIA Vault 7 Leaker Found Guilty. What Did He Actually Reveal? John Kiriakou
• Guardian, Ghislaine Maxwell moved to low-security prison in Florida

Pandemic Public Health, Disasters

New York Times, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest, Benjamin Mueller, July 29, 2022 (print ed.). At the peak of the Omicron wave, Covid killed Black Americans in rural areas at a rate roughly 34 percent higher than it did white people.

The coronavirus pandemic walloped rural America last year, precipitating a surge of deaths among white residents as the virus inflamed longstanding health deficits there.

But across the small towns and farmlands, new research has found, Covid killed Black and Hispanic people at considerably higher rates than it did their white neighbors. Even at the end of the pandemic’s second year, in February 2022, overstretched health systems, poverty, chronic illnesses and lower vaccination rates were forcing nonwhite people to bear the burden of the virus.

Black and Hispanic people in rural areas suffered an exceptionally high toll, dying at far higher rates than in cities during that second year of the pandemic.

Politico, Biden tests negative, will end Covid isolation, Matt Berg, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). The president will make his first public appearance since his diagnosis later Wednesday morning.

President Joe Biden tested negative for Covid on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, his personal physician announced Wednesday, bringing to an apparent end the president’s brush with the virus.

Biden, who first tested positive for Covid late last week, will make his first public appearance since his diagnosis later Wednesday morning when he delivers remarks from the White House’s Rose Garden.

Politico, How Biden’s Covid turned Ashish Jha into the de facto White House doctor, Adam Cancryn, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Three months into the job, the Covid response coordinator is trying to turn Biden's illness into a White House success story.

In the hours after President Joe Biden contracted the coronavirus, Ashish Jha began soliciting advice on how to navigate the biggest moment of his short White House career.

As the administration’s Covid response coordinator, Jha had more than enough experience talking to the public about the health consequences of the deadly, lingering pandemic. But this task was different. Now, he was being tapped to brief the nation on the status of the pandemic’s highest-profile patient.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Opinion: We must contain monkeypox before it becomes a broader threat, Leana S. Wen
• Washington Post, U.S. may need $7 billion for monkeypox, Biden administration estimates
• Washington Post, Biden, in covid isolation, aims to show that presidential work goes on
• Washington Post, Biden covid symptoms continue to improve, White House says
• New York Times, W.H.O. Declares Monkeypox Spread a Global Health Emergency
• New York Times, Covid Live Updates: Biden’s Symptoms Have Improved, White House Physician Says
• Washington Post, CDC stops reporting coronavirus cases on cruise ships
• Washington Post, Opinion: Gay men deserve the unvarnished truth about monkeypox, Benjamin Ryan
• Washington Post, Fauci says he will retire from government post by the end of Biden’s term

U.S. Abortion Rights, Privacy, Trafficking

New York Times, Opinion: The Anti-Abortion Movement Is in Denial, Michelle Goldberg, right, July 29, 2022. It is always painful to grapple with realities that contravene your most deeply held beliefs.

A major theme of recent feminist writing has been the chasm between the rhetoric of sexual liberation and many women’s depressing experience of casual sex. I’ve met many idealistic Jews, raised to always give Israel the benefit of the doubt, who’ve been floored when they saw the occupation of Palestine up close. Plenty of people convinced themselves that because the impetus behind pandemic school closures was noble, the results wouldn’t be devastating.

Perhaps some in the anti-abortion movement are wrestling with a similarly discomfiting gap between intentions and effects right now. That, at least, is the most sympathetic reading of the angry denial of prominent abortion opponents when confronted with a predictable consequence of abortion bans: delayed care for traumatic pregnancy complications.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned last month, there’s been a steady barrage of horror stories, including several of women refused abortions for life-threatening pregnancy emergencies. Rakhi Dimino, a doctor in Texas, where most abortions have been illegal since last year, told PBS that more patients are coming to her with sepsis or hemorrhaging “than I’ve ever seen before.”

Recent Headlines

• Politico, Court may pare back secrecy in campus sexual misconduct suits, Josh Gerstein
• Washington Post, 19-year-old turns Gaetz insult into $115,000 abortion rights fundraiser
• New York Times, Interstate Abortion Travel Is Already Straining Parts of the System
• Washington Post, She survived a forced sterilization. She fears more could occur post-Roe

July 28

Top Headlines

• Washington Post, Manchin says he has reached deal with Schumer on climate, health-care costs
• Washington Post, Democrats race to adopt climate, health deal
• Washington Post, Republicans block bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits
• RollCall, ‘Chips and science’ bill on way to Biden’s desk
• Washington Post, Ukraine could be turning the tide of war again as Russian advances stall
• Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli
• Washington Post, Opinion: Here’s a test to see whether Supreme Court justices are above the law, Jennifer Rubin
• Washington Post, Opinion: How to stop Trump’s sneak attack on the civil service, Gerald E. Connolly

U.S. Economic News

• New York Times, Fed Fights Inflation With Another Big Rate Increase
• Washington Post, U.S. economy shrinks again in second quarter, reviving recession fears
• New York Times, Opinion: We Are Not in a Recession, Paul Krugman

Ukraine War

• New York Times, Critic's Notebook: Why a Vogue Cover Created a Controversy for Olena Zelenska, Vanessa Friedman
• Washington Post, Russia: No deal yet on releasing Americans Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan
• Washington Post, This American teacher also sits in a Russian jail, worried nobody cares
• Washington Post, Analysis: Russia’s war in Ukraine escalates on the ground and in Congress
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Points to Added Urgency as Russia Reinforces Southern Front
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukrainian missiles struck a bridge in Kherson that is critical in Russia’s effort to hold the city
• New York Times, A little-known special military cell is keeping Ukraine’s troops equipped as battlefield needs become complicated

World News, Human Rights Analysis

• New York Times, Biden and Xi Conduct Marathon Call During Time of Rising Tensions
• Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip
• New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan
• Washington Post, Hungary’s Viktor Orban faces outrage after saying Europeans shouldn’t become ‘mixed race’
• Washington Post, Opinion: A hero of the Trump right shows his true colors: Whites only, Dana Milbank,
• New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People
• Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its own
• Washington Post, Myanmar junta executes four pro-democracy activists

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

• New York Times, 2016 Campaign Looms Large as Justice Dept. Pursues Jan. 6 Inquiry
• Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot
• Washington Post, A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail
• Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors
• Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

U.S. Politics, Governance, Economy

• Washington Post, GOP Pa. governor nominee under fire for ties to white-nationalist site
• Washington Post, Wis. anti-voting-fraud activist ordered absentee ballots in others names, he says, to make a point
• Washington Post, Opinion: Most third parties have failed. Here’s why ours won’t, David Jolly, Christine Todd Whitman and Andrew Yang
• Washington Post, House Democrats delay votes on police, guns after internal infighting
• Washington Post, Adam Schiff is jockeying to lead House Democrats. It won’t be easy
• Washington Post, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw makes sure reporters feel the burn, Paul Farhi
• New York Times, Class Divisions Harden Into Battle Lines in Arizona’s Republican Primary

Media, Education, Religion, Sports News

• New York Times, F.T.C. Chair Upends Antitrust Standards With Meta Lawsuit
• Politico, Court may pare back secrecy in campus sexual misconduct suits
• Washington Post, Daniel Snyder faces House committee questions under oath
• Washington Post, Jared Kushner alleges chief of staff shoved Ivanka Trump at White House
• Law&Crime, Former Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann Loses Defamation Lawsuits Against CBS, ABC, NYT, and Others
• Law&Crime, Dallas Jury Hits Charter Spectrum with $7 Billion Verdict After Cable Installer Robbed and Murdered an Elderly Woman
• Washington Post, Now on the tee for LIV Golf: Trump National and the polarizing former president

More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

• New York Times, Assault Rifle Makers Earned Over $1 Billion as Violence Surged, Report Says
• Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics
• Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career

U.S. Law, Immigration, Crime

• Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: For the Republicans, overturning Loving v. Virginia is most certainly in the offing, Wayne Madsen
• Washington Post, Republicans press D.C. Circuit nominee on age, pro bono work
• CBS News, U.S. defense contractor and wife who were photographed in KGB uniforms charged with stealing identities of dead children in Texas
• Law&Crime, Mississippi Man Arrested After Viral Video Shows Driver Using Racial Slur and Laughing About ‘Points’ as He Aims His Car for 9 Black Youths Riding Bikes
• Law&Crime, Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Woman Who Left 10-Year-Old Child to Die in Locked Plastic Bin

Pandemic, Public Health 

• New York Times, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest
• Washington Post, School mask mandates return as latest coronavirus variants surge
• New York Times, In Rural America, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest
• Washington Post, Scientists hone argument that coronavirus came from Wuhan market, Joel Achenbach
• Politico, Biden tests negative, will end Covid isolation
• Politico, How Biden’s Covid turned Ashish Jha into the de facto White House doctor

Energy, Climate, Environment, Disasters

• Washington Post, Opinion: Manchin’s climate deal isn’t enough, but it’s still a miracle, Eugene Robinson
• Washington Post, Multiple deaths reported as massive flooding in eastern Kentucky engulfs homes
• New York Times, Germany Counts on Chilled Gas to Keep Warm Over Winter
• New York Times, Anti-U.N. Protests in Congo Leave 15 Dead, Including 3 Peacekeepers

U.S. Abortion, Contraception, Privacy, Trafficking

• Washington Post, Girl, 12, challenges W.Va. lawmakers on abortion: ‘What about my life?’
• Washington Post, How local journalists proved a 10-year-old’s abortion wasn’t a hoax
• Washington Post, Alito dismisses foreign criticism of Supreme Court’s abortion ruling
• Washington Post, 19-year-old turns Gaetz insult into $115,000 abortion rights fundraiser
• Washington Post, Abortion is now banned in these states. See where laws have changed

Top Stories

Washington Post, Manchin says he has reached deal with Schumer on climate, health-care costs, Tony Romm, Jeff Stein, Rachel Roubein and Maxine Joselow, July 28, 2022. Democrats hope to advance the deal in the Senate as soon as next week

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday reached a deal with Democratic leaders on a spending package that aims to lower health-care costs, combat climate change and reduce the federal deficit, marking a massive potential breakthrough for President Biden’s long-stalled economic agenda.

The new agreement, brokered between Manchin, left, and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), above opens the door for party lawmakers to try to advance the measure next week. It caps off months of fierce debate, delay and acrimony, a level of infighting that some Democrats saw as detrimental to their political fate ahead of this fall’s critical elections.

Under the deal, Schumer secured Manchin’s support for roughly $433 billion in new spending, most of which is focused on climate change and clean energy production. It is the largest such investment in U.S. history, and a marked departure from Manchin’s position only days earlier. The Democrats coupled the spending with provisions that aim to lower health-care costs for Americans, chiefly by allowing Medicare to begin negotiating the price of select prescription drugs on behalf of seniors.

The latest in Congress: Durbin is latest Senate Democrat with positive coronavirus test; House Democrats delay votes on guns, police after infighting; Adam Schiff is jockeying to lead House Democrats. It won’t be easy.

Washington Post, Democrats race to adopt climate, health deal, Tony Romm, Mike DeBonis and Marianna Sotomayor, July 28, 2022. With a long-elusive spending deal newly in hand, Senate Democrats set about finalizing their economic package Thursday, hoping they might be able to deliver on a central piece of President Biden’s agenda as soon as next week.

The new, urgent push toward a vote came a day after the party achieved what once felt like an impossible breakthrough: an agreement between Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on a bill that would lower health care costs, combat climate change, reduce the deficit and revise the U.S. tax code.

Now in possession of 725 pages of legislative text, Democrats eagerly began digesting the size and scope of the measure, which amounts to far less than the more ambitious, roughly $2 trillion proposal that the House adopted last year. But a wide array of party lawmakers appeared ready to embrace the new agreement anyway, having seemingly put months of acrimonious bickering with Manchin finally behind them.

“It doesn’t include everything people wanted in the earlier package,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “But compared to where we thought we were 48 hours ago, I mean, this is light-years — light-years — forward.”

The bill includes the largest investment in fighting climate change in U.S. history, aiming to boost clean-energy technology even as it delivers some of the support Manchin sought for fossil fuels. It also aims to lower health-care costs, particularly through changes to Medicare that could reduce some prescription drug prices for seniors. Speaking to reporters later Thursday, Schumer announced that Democrats plan to add other elements that target the price of insulin.

To cover its costs, the bill looks to bolster the Internal Revenue Service to pursue tax cheats while setting a minimum tax on corporations, targeting profitable firms that pay nothing to the U.S. government. And it raises more than $300 billion that can be used to reduce the federal deficit.

Speaking at the White House, Biden sounded an optimistic note about its prospects. While the new proposal, called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, omits many of his original, core priorities, the president still described it as a set of investments that put the United States on “sounder economic footing.”

“I know it can sometimes seem like nothing gets done in Washington. The work of the government can be slow, frustrating and sometimes even infuriating,” said Biden, acknowledging the painstaking discussions leading up to the deal.

Washington Post, Republicans block bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, Eugene Scott and Mike DeBonis, July 28, 2022. Senate Republicans blocked the bill weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes, angering Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, a leading proponent to aid the community.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was particularly incensed by the turn of events. Tester, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), other lawmakers and Stewart on Thursday morning joined veterans outside the Capitol — who originally came to Washington to see the bill pass — to assail the GOP.

“It just makes the gut punch that more devastating,” Stewart said, given the number of veterans who came to Washington hoping the bill would pass. “Their constituents are dying.”

“This is a disgrace,” he added.

The bill would significantly change how the Department of Veterans Affairs cares for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances by compelling VA to presume that certain illnesses are linked to exposure to hazardous waste incineration, mostly focused on the issue of burn pits from recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would remove the burden of proof from the injured veterans.

RollCall, ‘Chips and science’ bill on way to Biden’s desk, Lindsey McPherson and Laura Weiss, July 28, 2022. Measure backed by White House, major semiconductor companies went through various incarnations.

The House on Thursday cleared legislation to incentivize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and spur research and development in other science and technology fields, sending the long-anticipated economic competitiveness measure to President Joe Biden for his signature.

The House passed what lawmakers are now calling the “chips and science” bill by a bipartisan vote of 243-187, with 24 Republicans joining all but one Democrat in voting for the measure. That one Democrat, California Rep. Sara Jacobs, voted "present."

The measure includes $54 billion in grants for semiconductor manufacturing and design and 5G wireless deployment and $24 billion to create a 25 percent tax credit for new semiconductor manufacturing facilities.

It also includes various five-year funding authorizations to bolster U.S. scientific research, including $81 billion, or $36 billion over baseline funding, for the National Science Foundation; $11 billion, all above baseline, for the Commerce Department authorization; and $9.7 billion, or a $4 billion baseline increase, for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The measure also would authorize more than $67 billion for the Energy Department.

And although there are no authorizing funds for NASA, the measure would extend International Space Station operations through 2030 and provide the agency with a comprehensive set of congressional directives. Those include instructions for NASA to reduce risks for exploration, advance basic and applied research and create a “Moon to Mars” program to land the first human on Mars and to place the first American woman and person of color on the moon.

Washington Post, Ukraine could be turning the tide of war again as Russian advances stall, Liz Sly, July 28, 2022. Western officials and analysts suspect that Russia is close to exhausting its capacity for further territorial gains.

Russian advances in Ukraine have slowed almost to a standstill as newly delivered Western weapons help Ukrainian forces reclaim much of the advantage they had lost in recent months, opening a window of opportunity to turn the tide of the war in their favor again.

Russian troops have made no significant territorial gains since the Ukrainian retreat on July 2 from the eastern city of Lysychansk under withering artillery fire. The retreat gave Russia full control over Luhansk, one of the two oblasts, or regions, that make up the broader eastern Donbas area, and it marked Russia’s only meaningful strategic success since its retreat from territory around Kyiv in April.

The lack of progress may be explained at least in part by the “operational pause” declared by Russia’s Defense Ministry after the seizure of Lysychansk — to allow Russian troops a chance to “rest and develop their combat capabilities,” in the words of President Vladimir Putin.

Trump-supporting former law school dean John Eastman, left, helps Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani inflame pro-Trump protesters in front the White House before the insurrection riot at the U.S. Capitol to prevent the presidential election certification of Joe Biden's presidency on Jan. 6, 2021 (Los Angeles Times photo). 

Washington Post, Opinion: Here’s a test to see whether Supreme Court justices are above the law, Jennifer Rubin, right, July 28, 2022. The 65 Project, a bipartisan group dedicated to disbarring lawyers who filed frivolous cases related to the 2020 election, or who otherwise participated in the coup attempt, has been very busy in recent months.

It filed a series of complaints against advisers of defeated former president Donald Trump, including Jenna Ellis, Boris Epshteyn, Cleta Mitchell, John Eastman and Joseph diGenova, as well as two lawyers who signed on to be fake electors and two lawyers who participated in the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Now, the group is making its most ambitious move yet: It is filing a specific demand with the Supreme Court to kick Eastman, the chief architect of the coup plot, out of the elite Supreme Court Bar (lawyers eligible to argue in the highest court). And it has requested that Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from the disciplinary proceeding because of the role that Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, below, played in the 2020 scheme.

The complaint, made available to me before it was filed, states that Eastman “bolstered and amplified” claims not backed by evidence or the law. It also alleges that Eastman “actively participated in an effort to undermine our elections – a scheme that led to the gravest attack on American democracy since the Civil War.”

The complaint describes five “spokes” in the coup plot, all of which included Eastman. They include litigating the 65 bogus lawsuits; arranging slates of phony electors in seven states; pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject electoral votes; pressuring state lawmakers to overturn votes or rescind electors; and summoning “Trump’s supporters to Washington, D.C. and, having spent months lying to them about fraud and a stolen election, sending them to the Capitol, agitated and armed, to stop the electoral vote count.”

After a detailed review of facts revealed in the Jan. 6 hearings and in reporting, the group argues that Eastman’s conduct warrants expulsion from the Supreme Court Bar as well as the loss of his California legal license. The complaint amounts to a handy guide not only to Eastman’s professional violations, but also to facts that might be the basis for criminal charges in state and federal court.

Michael Teter, the 65 Project’s managing director, tells me, “If Mr. Eastman is allowed to continue to remain a member of the highest court in the United States despite the undisputed facts regarding his actions, the American public’s quickly eroding confidence in the Supreme Court will deteriorate even faster.”

But that’s not even the most intriguing part. Citing the obligation for federal judges to recuse themselves from proceedings in which their impartiality “might reasonably be questioned” or in which the judge has personal bias or knowledge of the facts (including spouses with an interest), the complaint asks the Supreme Court — specifically Justice Thomas — to adhere to the rules (which is not mandatory for justices to follow), since the disciplinary matter concerns “public confidence in the judicial system’s integrity.”

The complaint argues that Ginni Thomas “played a significant role in pursuing many of the same post-election strategies as Mr. Eastman.” It recites her text exchanges with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and her effort to pressure Arizona lawmakers, including a former Thomas clerk, to overturn the presidential vote. The complaint also notes that Ginni Thomas attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in D.C. on Jan. 6 and later wrote to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) denigrating the House select committee’s investigation of the attack on the Capitol. (Thomas previously stated she only briefly attended the rally.)

The recusal request concludes:

In short, Ms. Thomas participated in the concerted effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. She supported Mr. Eastman’s efforts and conferred with him as Mr. Eastman engaged in scheme described by a federal court as a likely criminal conspiracy. She used her relationships with several other of Justice Thomas’s former clerks to further push the effort to subvert American democracy.

Washington Post, Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli, Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, July 28, 2022. Text messages for former President Donald Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, right, and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to four people briefed on the matter and internal emails.

This discovery of missing records for the senior-most homeland security officials, which has not been previously reported, increases the volume of potential evidence that has vanished regarding the time around the Capitol attack.

It comes as both congressional and criminal investigators at the Department of Justice seek to piece together an effort by the president and his allies to overturn the results of the election, which culminated in a pro-Trump rally that became a violent riot in the halls of Congress.

The Department of Homeland Security notified the agency’s inspector general in late February that Wolf’'s and Cuccinelli’s texts were lost in a “reset” of their government phones when they left their jobs in January 2021 in preparation for the new Biden administration, according to an internal record obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and shared with The Washington Post.

The office of the department’s undersecretary of management also told the government watchdog that the text messages for its boss, undersecretary Randolph “Tex” Alles, the former Secret Service director, were also no longer available due to a previously planned phone reset.

The office of Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, above, did not press the department leadership at that time to explain why they did not preserve these records, nor seek ways to recover the lost data, according to the four people briefed on the watchdog’s actions. Cuffari also failed to alert Congress to the potential destruction of government records.

The revelation comes on the heels of the discovery that text messages of Secret Service agents — critical firsthand witnesses to the events leading up to Jan. 6 — were deleted more than a year ago and may never be recovered.

The news of their missing records set off a firestorm because the texts could have corroborated the account of a former White House aide describing the president’s state of mind on January 6. In one case, the aide, Cassidy Hutchinson said a top official told her that Trump had tried to attack a senior Secret Service agent who refused to take the president to the Capitol with his supporters marching there.

In a nearly identical scenario to that of the DHS leaders’ texts, the Secret Service alerted Cuffari’s office seven months ago, in December 2021, that the agency had deleted thousands of agents’ and employees’ text messages in an agency-wide reset of government phones. Cuffari’s office did not notify Congress until mid-July, despite multiple congressional committees’ pending requests for these records.

The telephone and text communications of Wolf and Cuccinelli, left, in the days leading up to Jan. 6 could have shed considerable light on Trump’s actions and plans. In the weeks before the attack on the Capitol, Trump had been pressuring both men to help him claim the 2020 election results were rigged and even to seize voting machines in key swing states to try to “re-run” the election.

“It is extremely troubling that the issue of deleted text messages related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not limited to the Secret Service, but also includes Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, who were running DHS at the time,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement.

“It appears the DHS Inspector General has known about these deleted texts for months but failed to notify Congress,” Thompson said. “If the Inspector General had informed Congress, we may have been able to get better records from Senior administration officials regarding one of the most tragic days in our democracy’s history.”

Neither Cuccinelli nor Wolf responded to requests for comment. DHS’s Office of Inspector General did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Washington Post, Opinion: How to stop Trump’s sneak attack on the civil service, Gerald E. Connolly, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Gerald E. Connolly, right, a Democrat, represents Virginia’s 11th Congressional District in the House of Representatives and is the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s subcommittee on government operations.

Americans should be horrified to learn there is an active plot by a former political leader, twice impeached, to remove people he regards as his political opponents from the civil service. It’s almost too crazy to fathom in our democratic form of government. Removing policy experts because they don’t bend to a president’s will?

A report by Jonathan Swan of Axios has confirmed my worst suspicions: Donald Trump is planning, were he to be reelected as president, to replace vast swaths of government experts with his own army of tens of thousands of loyalists.

This is a direct threat to democracy and the rule of law. The only reason for Trump to do this is to make it easier to fire federal employees who dare to disagree with him.

Trump’s plan is about far more than ordinary political differences Republicans might have with some federal workers. Trump has shown he has no regard for the law when it threatens his power. He pressured his own vice president to overturn a presidential election. Now, if he gets a second term, he would seek the power to fire federal employees who won’t do his bidding.

Jonathan V. Last was right to allude to Hungary’s autocratic leader Viktor Orban when he wrote in the Bulwark: “This is no joke. Say hello to American Orbanism.”

Congress must step up. As the Jan. 6 committee has demonstrated, we need more guardrails to protect against threats to our democracy, not fewer. Trump already tried this once before. On Oct. 21, 2020, he signed Executive Order 13957 creating Schedule F in the excepted service — jobs in the federal government that, for various reasons, are excluded from certain fundamental civil-service protections. This executive order, which President Biden rescinded, would have undermined the merit system principles of our federal workforce by requiring agency heads to reclassify an estimated 50,000 “policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating” positions to a newly created Schedule F category of federal employees that removed their due process rights and civil service protections.

U.S. Economic News

Headquarters of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, designed by Marriner Eccles and located on Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, DC.

New York Times, Fed Fights Inflation With Another Big Rate Increase, Jeanna Smialek, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday, continuing its aggressive campaign to cool rapid inflation even as the economy begins to slow.

Central bankers voted unanimously to make the unusually large interest-rate move, and the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee signaled in its post-meeting statement that more is coming, saying that it “anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate.”

The Fed’s policy rate, which trickles out through the economy to affect other borrowing costs, is now set to a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent.

The Fed began raising interest rates from near-zero in March, and policymakers have picked up the pace since. After making a quarter-point move to start, they raised by half a point in May and by three-quarters of a point in June, which was the largest single step since 1994.

Fed officials made a second supersize increase on Wednesday because they are trying urgently to wrestle rapid inflation back under control.

Here are the takeaways from Wednesday’s decision and Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell’s post-meeting news conference: Another big rate move could be coming in September. Mr. Powell, right, was clear that a third, “unusually” large three-quarter-point rate increase is possible at the Fed’s next meeting. But he was clear that we have a long time between now and then, and officials will be watching each new piece of data as they make decisions.

Mr. Powell does not think the U.S. is in a recession. He highlighted evidence that the economy is slowing, but said it was not yet clear by how much. Mr. Powell also pointed to the strength of the labor market as a reason he does not think the economy is currently in a downturn. And he cautioned that fresh data on economic growth set for release on Thursday should be taken with “a grain of salt.”
A downturn is not inevitable.

Mr. Powell said that he thinks a slowdown isn’t assured, though he highlighted that it may be difficult to lower inflation without one, and noted that the path toward avoiding such a downturn has “narrowed.”
But “we need growth to slow,” Mr. Powell said.

Some slowing of the economy is good from the Fed’s perspective, Mr. Powell emphasized. While cooling off economic activity enough to lower inflation will probably involve weakening the labor market, a little bit of pain is necessary now to put the economy on a more sustainable path. “We don’t want this to be bigger than it needs to be,” Mr. Powell said, but when thinking about the medium and long term, “price stability is what makes the whole economy work.”

Washington Post, U.S. economy shrinks again in second quarter, reviving recession fears, Abha Bhattarai, July 28, 2022. There are still mounting concerns about the U.S. economy's resilience. Inflation is at 40-year highs, home sales are weakening and even the-red hot labor market is beginning to show cracks.

The U.S. economy shrank again for a second straight quarter, at a 0.9 percent annual rate, which has often signaled a recession.

The new figures, released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, come at a tumultuous time for the economy, though economists disagree on the likelihood of a full-fledged economic slump. In the past, six months of contraction in economic growth has usually indicated a recession, although that determination is made by a separate panel of experts.
Share with The Post: What’s one way you’ve felt the impact of inflation?

The second quarter slowdown reflected shifting consumer and business behaviors. Retailers bought fewer items, including cars, as consumers shifted their spending away from goods to services such as restaurants and hotels. Declines in residential investments and government spending also contributed to the negative reading.

New York Times, Opinion: We Are Not in a Recession, Paul Krugman, right, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). The U.S. economy is not currently in a recession. No, two quarters of negative growth aren’t, whatever you may have heard, the “official” or “technical” definition of a recession; that determination is made by a committee that has always relied on several indicators, especially job growth. And as Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, noted yesterday, the labor market still looks strong.

That said, the U.S. economy is definitely slowing, basically because the Fed is deliberately engineering a slowdown to bring inflation down. And it’s possible that this slowdown will eventually be severe and broad-based enough to get the R-label. In fact, on this question I think I’m a bit more pessimistic than the consensus; I think the odds are at least 50-50 that history will say that we experienced a mild recession in late 2022 or early 2023, one that caused a modest rise in the unemployment rate. But what’s in a name?

The real question is whether a moderate slowdown, whether or not it gets called a recession, will be sufficient to control inflation. And the news on that front has been fairly encouraging lately.

Obviously gasoline prices are down — almost 80 cents a gallon from their mid-June peak. (Remember those scare stories about $6 a gallon by August?) More important, business surveys — which often pick up economic turning points well before official statistics — are starting to suggest a significant drop in broader inflation. For example, a survey from S & P Global found that while private-sector companies are still raising prices, the rate of inflation is “now down to a 16-month low.”

Financial markets have noticed. The expected rate of price increase over the next year implied by inflation swap markets (don’t ask) has plunged from more than 5 percent in early June to 2.45 percent as of Thursday morning. Medium-term inflation expectations are also down.

Now, it’s much, much too soon to declare victory in the fight against inflation. There have been several false dawns on that front over the course of the past year and a half. And there’s plenty of room to argue about the level of “underlying” inflation — a vaguely defined term, but roughly speaking the part of inflation that is hard to get down once it has become elevated.

Serious economists I talk to are very anxious to see Friday’s release of the Employment Cost Index, which is supposed to measure what’s happening to, um, employment costs. Will it confirm or contradict the apparent slowing of wage growth visible in simple measures of average wages and at least one influential survey?

More On Ukraine War

Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian first lady (Photographed for Vogue by Annie Leibovitz).

New York Times, Critic's Notebook: Why a Vogue Cover Created a Controversy for Olena Zelenska, Vanessa Friedman, July 28, 2022. Is the magazine romanticizing war, or is the first lady weaponizing glossies?

Another season, another Vogue story on a politician causing a kerfuffle. After the hoo-ha over the magazine not giving Melania Trump a cover (even though Michelle Obama got three) and the to-do over Kamala Harris’s “relaxed” portrait being chosen over her more formal cover try, comes a new controversy, related to a “digital cover” released online featuring Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian first lady.

Entitled “Portrait of Bravery,” the article is a collaboration between the Condé Nast Vogues (pretty much all of them) and Ukrainian Vogue (a licensed magazine owned by Media Group Ukraine).

It has moody, graceful portraits of Ms. Zelenska by Annie Leibovitz: sitting on the marble steps of the presidential palace, staring grimly ahead; holding hands with her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky; and standing next to female soldiers at Antonov Airport, clutching the lapels of a long navy overcoat. The photos are accompanied by a lengthy interview and some BTS video footage of the first couple and Ms. Leibovitz. It will appear in print later this year.

  Washington Post, Russia: No deal yet on releasing Americans Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan, Robyn Dixon and Adela Suliman, July 28, 2022. Russia said Thursday that no concrete agreement has been reached in prisoner release negotiations with the United States, a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a “substantial proposal” was made to Moscow to free two jailed Americans: WNBA star Brittney Griner and security consultant Paul Whelan.

“There are no agreements yet which are finalized,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Blinken, right, said Wednesday that a proposal was made to the Kremlin “weeks ago” for the release of Griner and Whelan, although he did not specify its terms or say whether there had been any response. “Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal,” he added.

Peskov expressed surprise Thursday at the United States’ break with the diplomatic silence that normally surrounds prisoner release negotiations.

Blinken’s comments have fueled speculation about a potential prisoner exchange involving notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, 55, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death.”

Bout, whose exploits once inspired a Hollywood film starring Nicolas Cage, is serving a 25-year sentence in Illinois for conspiring to kill U.S. nationals and selling weapons to terrorists.

His wife, Alla Bout, wrote that their family “will keep our fingers crossed and believe that soon we will see Viktor at home.” She expressed the hope in a post Thursday on VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook.

The Kremlin has pushed for Bout’s release since his arrest in Thailand in 2008, claiming his conviction by a New York court in 2011 was “unlawful.” Blinken would not say whether Bout was part of the deal offered to Russia.

In a stark change of diplomatic behavior, Blinken also said he would be speaking to his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, “in the coming days.” It would be their first call since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, and the purpose would be to discuss the release of the detained Americans, among other pressing issues, such as the availability of grain and natural gas.

“There was a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release,” Blinken told reporters. “And I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and, I hope, move us toward a resolution.”

If it happens, the prisoner swap would be the second such deal brokered by the Biden administration.

In April, former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, who was convicted in 2020 of assaulting two Russian police officers, returned home in exchange for the release of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was jailed on drug-smuggling charges in the United States.

The swap showed that Washington and Moscow could still reach some agreements even amid the Ukraine war and efforts by the White House to economically and politically isolate Russia on the world stage.

Griner, 31, who had been playing in a Russian league during the WNBA offseason, has been detained since February on drug charges after Russian authorities found two cannabis oil vape cartridges in her luggage at Moscow’s airport.

Washington Post, This American teacher also sits in a Russian jail, worried nobody cares, Manuel Roig-Franzia, July 28, 2022. Arrested last summer after arriving in Moscow with medical marijuana in his luggage, Marc Fogel has a case that parallels the ordeal of WNBA star Brittney Griner. But his plight has mostly gone unnoticed.

Marc Fogel, right, in a photograph taken by a friend of the family, during his Moscow trial in June. (Irina Pigman)

Fogel’s plight parallels a similar case that has played big on news websites, led cable newscasts and prompted White House pronouncements: the trial of WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, who also was arrested for attempting to enter Russia with a small amount of medical marijuana. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States has made a “substantial proposal” to Russia to secure the release

He was always just Mr. Fogel to the students he entranced with lectures about the Cold War. But he is Marc Hilliard Fogel on his well-worn passports, abundantly stamped from his many years of teaching International Baccalaureate history courses at schools attended by the children of U.S. diplomats and the global elite in Colombia, Venezuela, Oman, Malaysia and, for the past 10 years, in Russia.

For the past 11 months, Fogel has languished in Russian detention centers following his August 2021 arrest for trying to enter the country with about half an ounce of medical marijuana he’d been prescribed in the United States for chronic pain after numerous injuries and surgeries. First he endlessly awaited trial, often in crowded, smoke-choked cells. More recently, he has been serving the first weeks of an incomprehensible 14-year sentence handed down by a Russian judge in June.

Fogel’s plight parallels a similar case that has played big on news websites, led cable newscasts and prompted White House pronouncements: the trial of WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, who also was arrested for attempting to enter Russia with a small amount of medical marijuana.

Marc Fogel’s wife, Jane Fogel, said in an interview after the news broke that she’s still hoping her husband can be included in a swap. But those hopes are fading, she said, speaking publicly for the first time about her husband’s case.

“There’s a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Marc will be left behind,” Jane Fogel said Wednesday after the announcement about the possible swap including Griner and Whelan. “It’s terrifying. I would hope that President Biden and especially first lady Jill Biden, who is an educator, realize the importance of including Marc in addition to Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.”

In suburban Pittsburgh, Jane Fogel has been watching the Griner case spool out and wondered whether her husband has been forgotten. Griner’s wife, Cherelle, received a call from the president. The Fogels have been stalled at the mid-functionary level of the U.S. State Department. Speculation about a possible prisoner swap before Blinken’s announcement on Wednesday had earlier trickled into his Russian prison cell, compounding his anxiety.\

Washington Post, Analysis: Russia’s war in Ukraine escalates on the ground and in Congress, Olivier Knox and Caroline Anders, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). American determination to help Kyiv faces fatigue at home and abroad as voters confront more immediate worries like inflation.

President Biden is sending a team of heavy-hitters from across many departments to an all-Senators briefing Wednesday afternoon, underscoring concerns that the next emergency funding request to bolster Ukraine will face more resistance than the previous one.

Meanwhile, Russia made explicit what pretty much everyone knew from the earliest days of the war, when Moscow tried and failed to capture Kyiv and falsely claimed the government there was run by Nazis: It wants to shove Zelensky from power.

New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Points to Added Urgency as Russia Reinforces Southern Front, Michael Schwirtz, Marc Santora and Matthew Mpoke Bigg, July 28, 2022. Russian troops around the southern city of Kherson are increasingly isolated after Ukrainian strikes disrupted key resupply routes. On the diplomatic front, the U.S. offered to trade an imprisoned Russian arms dealer for Brittney Griner and another detained American.

Major developments:

• Ukraine pushes to retake ground in the south as Russia pours in reinforcements.
• The Russian arms dealer at the center of a proposed swap for Brittney Griner has a notorious history.
• Missile strikes in northern Ukraine add urgency to a debate over hitting targets in Russia.
• As Brittney Griner stands trial, Moscow says there’s no deal yet on a prisoner exchange.
• Russia struggles to resupply its troops in western Kherson.
• Here are some prisoner swaps that freed Americans.

Ukraine expressed a heightened sense of urgency on Thursday over its looming counteroffensive in the south, saying Russia was racing to bolster its forces in the region and taking further steps to solidify its political hold in the territory it controls.

Russia directed dozens of missiles at targets across Ukraine overnight into Thursday, including 25 fired from Belarus, according to the Ukrainian military, even as it moved soldiers and equipment to the southern region of Kherson. In the east, Ukrainian forces continue to hold their defensive lines while targeting key command-and-control centers and Russian troop strongholds deep behind Russian lines.

The Ukrainians have been setting the stage for a broad counteroffensive in the south for some time, and recent long-range missile strikes have left thousands of Russian soldiers stationed west of the Dnipro River around the port city of Kherson in a precarious position, largely cut off from Russian strongholds to the east. But Russia is now moving “the maximum number” of forces to the southern front in the Kherson region, the head of Ukraine’s National Security Council told Ukrainian television late Wednesday.

The official, Oleksiy Danilov, described “a very powerful movement of their troops” to the front in Kherson.

While Western weapons continue to arrive in the country, they are needed on multiple fronts and ammunition remains limited. And Ukrainian officials have grown increasingly frustrated with what they believe is Western countries’ slow walking of weapons deliveries.

“Just give them weapons and let them work,” said Natalya Gumenyuk, the spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, which is responsible for the Kherson offensive.

“They pat us on the shoulder and say, ‘Just hang on,’” she said. “We need more than just moral support, though we are grateful for it. We need real support, real weapons, real ammunition for those weapons.”

And even though Ukraine’s Western allies are racing to train Ukrainian soldiers on new equipment, that, too, remains a work in progress. The Russians have also had months to fortify their defensive lines, and the Ukrainians have yet to launch any major land-based counteroffensive.

Mr. Danilov’s comments reflected the urgency for the government in Kyiv to show progress as it continued to build expectations in a nation hungry for positive developments after months of brutal fighting.

The Russians have also suffered grievous losses. Although casualty counts are highly speculative, the Biden administration has told lawmakers that over 75,000 soldiers fighting for Russia have been killed or injured in less than six months.

The Russians are now weakened but are actively strengthening and amassing their forces, said a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military assessments. Accordingly, the official said, Ukraine expects an increased intensity of military action from them.

The most promising front for the Ukrainians for any possible major advances is in the western part of Kherson, where they are aided by the nation’s geography.

The Dnipro River runs the length of Ukraine, bisecting the nation into east and west. The Kherson region is itself divided by the river, with the regional capital and critical port city of Kherson on the western bank.

Ukrainian officials and Western military analysts said the strikes this week on a key bridge across the Dnipro and other critical roads and bridges in recent days had left the Russian occupation forces around Kherson city particularly exposed. A British intelligence report said on Thursday that Russia’s main fighting force on the western side of the river “now looks highly vulnerable” because of the strikes on the bridge.

“Kherson city, the most politically significant population center occupied by Russia, is now virtually cut off from the other occupied territories,” the report said. “Its loss would severely undermine Russia’s attempts to paint the occupation as a success.”

The senior Ukrainian official said that Ukraine had a chance to push the Russians from Kherson with adequate weapons and equipment, but the official declined to say whether such supplies were currently sufficient for beginning a large-scale push.

New York Times, Ukraine Updates: Ukrainian missiles struck a bridge in Kherson that is critical in Russia’s effort to hold the city, Maria Varenikova and Matthew Mpoke Bigg, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Explosions lit up the sky over the southern city of Kherson overnight, and as dawn broke on Wednesday it was clear that Ukrainian long-range missiles had once again found their target: a bridge that is critical in the Russian effort to resupply the forces charged with holding the port city.

At the same time, dozens of Russian missiles struck targets across the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, hitting port and transport infrastructure, two leisure centers, houses, a parking lot and two restaurants, according to Ukraine’s southern military command.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said its forces struck Ukrainian military strongholds, killing scores of soldiers, and other key Ukrainian infrastructure. The claims could not be verified. But it was clear that both armies were trying to limit their opponents’ logistical operations.

Ukrainian forces are under pressure to demonstrate to their Western allies that they cannot only mount a muscular defense but are capable of reclaiming lost land. And Kherson has emerged as a key battlefront as Ukrainian forces set the stage for a broad offensive to retake the region’s capital city.

The Ukrainian ministry of defense said its strikes on routes in and out of Kherson had created “an impossible dilemma” for the Russian forces: “Retreat or be annihilated.”

Moscow continues to move troops and military equipment in the direction of Kherson to reinforce its defensive positions, according to the Ukrainian military high command.

Ukraine targeted the Antonivsky bridge, which spans the Dnipro River, following up on two strikes last week in which its forces hit the bridge using a HIMARS truck-mounted, multiple-rocket launcher newly supplied by the United States. The overnight strike, reported by a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, Natalia Humeniuk, punctured the road surface, according to a video released by the Ukrainian government, which said the span had been closed to traffic.

The bridge has been the main transit route for Russian supplies coming in from Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, to Kherson, the first major city that Moscow seized after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia launched his invasion five months ago. The targeting of the bridge is part of a broader effort to isolate Russian forces based west of the Dnipro river, which runs the length of Ukraine and divides the eastern and western halves of the nation.

Since long-range Western weapons systems started arriving en masse, Ukraine has pounded Russian ammunition depots and command and control center behind the front lines.

New York Times, A little-known special military cell is keeping Ukraine’s troops equipped as battlefield needs become complicated, Eric Schmitt, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). It takes a village to help Ukraine fight the Russians.

Consider a recent shipment of 105-millimeter howitzers. Britain donated the weapons, and New Zealand trained Ukrainian soldiers how to use them and provided spare parts. The United States supplied the ammunition and the vehicles to tow them and flew the load to a base near Ukraine’s border.

Choreographing the sequence was the job of dozens of military logistics specialists ensconced in a large, secure attic room at the U.S. European Command headquarters in Germany. The little-known group is playing a pivotal role in keeping the Ukrainian military armed and equipped as its battlefield needs become more complicated.

Think of the cell as a cross between a wedding registry for bombs, bullets and rocket artillery, and a military version of FedEx. Uniformed officers from more than two dozen countries try to match Ukraine’s requests with donations from more than 40 nations, then arrange to move the shipments by air, land or sea from the donor countries to Ukraine’s border for pickup. All within about 72 hours.

Recent Headlines

• Associated Press, Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime’
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Is Poised for Major Southern Offensive
• New York Times, As Prices Soar in Ukraine, War Adds Economic Havoc to the Human Toll
• New York Times, Updates: Russian Strikes on Odesa Raise Doubts About Grain Deal
• New York Times, Last Stand at Azovstal: Inside the Siege That Shaped the Ukraine War, Michael Schwirtz
• Washington Post, Odessa attack will not impede grain exports, Russia says
• Washington Post, Tensions high between Israel, Russia over looming ban of Jewish Agency
• Washington Post, Moldova ‘very worried’ Russia may invade, prime minister says
• Washington Post, Editorial: Putin attacks Odessa and a hungry world’s hopes

World News, Analysis

New York Times, Biden and Xi Conduct Marathon Call During Time of Rising Tensions, Peter Baker and Jane Perlez, July 28, 2022. White House officials characterized the call between President Biden and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, as a relationship-tending mission.

President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China confronted each other over Taiwan during a marathon phone call on Thursday, but neither side reported any concrete progress on that longstanding dispute or any of the other issues that have flared between the two powers in recent months.

In their first direct conversation in four months, Mr. Xi sharply warned the United States against intervening in the conflict with Taiwan while Mr. Biden sought to reassure his counterpart that his administration was not seeking to upset the current situation between the two sides and cautioned that neither should either of them.

“President Biden underscored that the United States policy has not changed and that the United States strongly opposes anyone who will change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters after the call, which lasted two hours and 17 minutes.

 Washington Post, Hungary’s Viktor Orban faces outrage after saying Europeans shouldn’t become ‘mixed race,’ Rick Noack, July 28, 2022. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is facing backlash after a speech arguing that Europeans should not “become peoples of mixed race,” although the far-right leader is still slated to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas next week.

In the same speech, Orban, ight, also appeared to joke about Nazi gas chambers, saying in the context of a European Union proposal to ration natural gas: “the past shows us German know-how on that.”

The comments, made by Orban during an annual address to members of the Hungarian minority in Romania on Saturday, prompted immediate outrage among his critics and unease among some of his supporters. The most consequential fallout so far came on Tuesday, when Zsuzsa Hegedüs, a sociologist and longtime adviser to Orban, submitted a public resignation letter.

The Orbanization of America: How to capture a democracy

“After such a speech, which contradicts all my basic values, I was left with no other choice,” Hegedüs, who is Jewish, wrote to Orban in a letter published by the hvg.hu news site.

Orban’s views on immigration and multicultural societies were no secret: He said in 2015 that Muslims threaten Europe’s Christian identity, and in 2017 his government erected a border fence to keep Syrians and other immigrants out.

But his latest provocation appeared to have hit a nerve in a way it rarely did even at the height of the 2015 immigration influx into Europe.

Washington Post, Opinion: A hero of the Trump right shows his true colors: Whites only, Dana Milbank, right, July 28, 2022. Thank you, Viktor Orban, for showing us where the American right is heading.

The Hungarian strongman, who derailed his country’s nascent democracy, has been a darling of the MAGA crowd for his anti-immigrant policies. He has enjoyed a fawning interview and favorable broadcasts from Budapest by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, and he has been invited as a featured speaker to next week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas alongside a who’s who of Republican senators, governors and members of Congress, as well as former president Donald Trump himself.

Several such luminaries addressed a CPAC gathering in Hungary in May, at which Trump described Orban as “a great leader, a great gentleman.”

But Orban made things awkward for his American friends a few days ago. During a July 23 address (in which he said immigration should be called “population replacement or inundation”) he gave voice to the belief underlying his nationalism: He opposes the mixing of races.

Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip, Christian Shepherd, Vic Chiang and Pei Lin Wu, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Taiwan’s military pledged it is action-ready for a Ukraine-style response to invasion during annual drills this week, even as Taiwanese security experts downplay the odds of reckless Chinese aggression over a possible visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

On Wednesday on Bali beach, Taiwanese troops practiced repelling a potential amphibious assault along the stretch of waterfront connecting Taipei Port and the Tamsui River mouth, crucial to defending the capital city of Taipei.

The mock invasion comes at a high point of tension in the Taiwan Strait after Beijing lashed out at the United States over the potential Pelosi visit, sparking concern that the situation could spiral into the worst cross-strait crisis since the 1990s.

Pentagon calls out China’s military threats as Taiwan tensions worsen

The drills, part of a five-day program of civil and military preparedness exercises, began with explosions that sent clouds of black sand into the sky. The imitation enemy assault was met with helicopters, tanks and fighter jets, while army reservists manned a network of sandbag-lined trenches.

The exercises mimic wartime more closely than ever, and were designed after “closely monitoring the international situation as well as the war in Ukraine,” said Sun Li-fang, spokesperson for Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.

Sun added that, although the visit by Pelosi was only hypothetical, the Taiwanese army was already trained for China’s possible response and was confident that Taiwan could deal with whatever the People’s Liberation Army decides to do.

China claims Taiwan as its own and threatens to seize the self-governing island of 23 million if Taipei declares formal independence. Neither the leadership nor the people of democratic Taiwan have shown any interest in submitting to Chinese Communist Party rule.

To enforce its sovereignty claims over Taiwan, China has pursued a decades-long mission to diplomatically isolate Taipei, including voicing fierce opposition to international visits by other countries’ officials or lawmakers.

Wary of China threat, Taiwanese join Ukraine’s fight against Russia

Speaking to the Taiwan-hosted Ketagalan Forum — 2022 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue on Tuesday, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen underscored how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that “authoritarian regimes will not hesitate to violate the sovereignty of other states.”

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People
• Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its own
• Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip
• New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan
• Washington Post, Myanmar junta executes four pro-democracy activists
• Washington Post, Pakistani election upset favors Imran Khan’s return to power
• Washington Post, At least 17 Haitian migrants dead after Miami-bound boat capsizes off Bahamas
• Washington Post, Two dead in Whistler after daylight gang shooting in Canadian resort town
• New York Times, The downfall of Italy’s prime minister has raised concerns about Europe’s unity against Russian aggression
• Associated Press, Milley: China more aggressive, dangerous to US, allies
• Associated Press, Pope heads to Canada as Indigenous groups seek full apology

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

Mark Ponder strikes an officer with a pole at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 (Associated Press photo via U.S. Justice Department).

Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot, Spencer S. Hsu, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). Mark K. Ponder, 56, was handed a 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot.

A District man who assaulted three police officers and shattered a riot shield with a pole was sentenced to 63 months in prison Tuesday, matching the longest sentence handed down to a defendant convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

Mark K. Ponder, 56, admitted to fighting with police in video-recorded confrontations between 2:31 p.m. and 2:48 p.m. that day in the area of the lower west terrace of the Capitol, which was overrun by a violent mob angered by President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Ponder pleaded guilty April 22 to one count of assaulting an officer using a dangerous weapon.

“He was leading the charge,” U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said, reciting at sentencing how Ponder smashed a thin pole against an officer’s riot shield so hard that the pole broke and the shield shattered, then found a thicker pole, colored red, white and blue, and resumed fighting.

“He wasn’t defending himself or anybody else. He was attempting to injure those officers, and we are lucky [someone] was not killed with the force Mr. Ponder is swinging those poles,” the judge said.

Chutkan in December handed down a similar 63-month sentence to Robert S. Palmer, 54, of Largo, Fla., who joined the front of the mob and hurled a fire extinguisher, plank and pole at police.

Like Palmer, Ponder was “part of a group who, when they couldn’t get what they wanted, decided they were going to take it. And they were going to take it with violence,” Chutkan said, saying they felt entitled “to attack law enforcement officers who were just doing their jobs.”

Ponder has a right to his political beliefs, the judge said, but in this case he participated with violent extremists in a riot that “exposed — and maybe caused — cracks in our democracy.”

Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors, Meghann Cuniff and Adam Klasfeld, July 27, 2022. A West Virginia man previously accused of assaulting U.S. Capitol police officer who died after Jan. 6 pleaded down on Wednesday to a pair of much less serious misdemeanor offenses. Prosecutors said they offered his co-defendant a plea deal that would include felony charges of assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon.

George Tanios, 40, pleaded guilty before a federal judge entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly conduct inside a restricted building or grounds. Prosecutors initially charged Tanios and co-defendant Julian Khater on a raft of serious, identical charges, including assaulting Officer Brian Sicknick, shown above, who later died.

Khater faces an estimated 78 to 97 months in prison if he agrees to plead guilty to two felony charges of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon, a prosecutor told U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan on Wednesday.

Only Khater, however, was accused of actually dousing law enforcement with chemical spray, and Tanios previously stood accused of coordinating the attacks. Now, the men’s cases appear to be on the verge of vastly different outcomes. The two misdemeanor offenses Tanios pleaded guilty to each carry a maximum one-year sentence, a $100,000 fine and a year of probation, but prosecutors calculated his guidelines range at less than six months. Hogan, a Ronald Reagan appointee, scheduled sentencing for Dec. 6.

If Khater accepts the offer, and is sentenced within the proposed guidelines range, he would serve what is currently the longest sentence to date on the Jan. 6 docket. That record is currently held by Mark K. Ponder and Robert Scott Palmer, both of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement. Judge Hagan set another hearing for Khater for Aug. 24.

Authorities did not blame either of the men for Sicknick’s death, which the D.C. medical examiner later attributed to natural causes.

In their initial filings, federal authorities said that open source video showed both of the men discussing spraying police.

“Give me that bear shit,” Khater allegedly told Tanios.

“Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet… its still early,” Tanios was quoted responding.

Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Aadit Tambe, Sahana Jayaraman and Adrian Blanco, July 27, 2022. As of July 18, 842 suspects have been federally charged in the Justice Department’s probe of the Capitol insurrection.

Most of those cases are ongoing.116 defendants await sentencing after they either pleaded guilty or were convicted. About 1 in 4, or 218 defendants, have been sentenced so far.

• New York Times, Analysis: Urgency of Jan. 6 and Georgia Inquiries Puts Pressure on Garland, Michael S. Schmidt, July 26, 2022 (print ed).The continued revelations from the House committee and the aggressiveness of prosecutors in Georgia have left the U.S. Justice Department on the defensive.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot
• Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors
• Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
• New York Times, Justice Dept. Asking Witnesses About Trump in Its Jan. 6 Investigation, Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush
• Washington Post, Key Dems want DHS inspector general removed from Secret Service probe
• Washington Post, Biden slams Trump for watching Jan. 6 riot on television as police faced ‘medieval hell’
• Axios Sneak Peek, Members of the House Jan. 6 committee are split on whether to condemn the growing trend of Democrats meddling in GOP primaries to boost pro-Trump election deniers — a tactic designed to secure more favorable matchups in the general election, Alayna Treene
• Washington Post, Trump didn’t want to call for Jan. 6 rioters’ prosecution, new video shows
• New York Times, Prosecutor Is Barred From Pursuing Criminal Case Against Trump Ally
• Washington Post, Arizona fake-electors subpoenas show breadth of DOJ Jan. 6 probe
• New York Times, Former Top Pence Aide Testifies to Grand Jury in Jan. 6 Investigation
• New York Times, Analysis: Urgency of Jan. 6 and Georgia Inquiries Puts Pressure on Garland, Michael S. Schmidt
• Washington Post, Investigation: The Claremont Institute ascended in the Trump years. Then came Jan. 6., Marc Fisher and Isaac Stanley-Becker

U.S. Politics, Governance, Education, Economy

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania's governor's race, celebrates his primary victory (Associated Press photo by Carolyn Kaster via MSNBC).

 Washington Post, GOP Pa. governor nominee under fire for ties to white-nationalist site, Colby Itkowitz, July 28, 2022. CEO of Gab praised Doug Mastriano for leading ‘an explicitly Christian movement’ in antisemitic screeds posted online.

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, is facing intense criticism for his ties to a far-right social media site, Gab, that traffics in white-nationalist rhetoric and whose founder has made overtly antisemitic comments in recent days.

Mastriano, who will face a Jewish Democrat on the ballot in November, paid the site $5,000 for “campaign consulting” in April ahead of the state’s May 17 primary. Since Media Matters for America, a liberal group, first surfaced the expenditure in April, Mastriano has evaded growing concerns about his association with the site.

On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported that Gab CEO Andrew Torba responded to the criticism during a live stream in which he said that neither he nor Mastriano do interviews with non-Christian media.

“My policy is not to conduct interviews with reporters who aren’t Christian or with outlets who aren’t Christian and Doug has a very similar media strategy where he does not do interviews with these people. He does not talk to these people. He does not give press access to these people,” Torba said.“These people are dishonest. They’re liars. They’re a den of vipers and they want to destroy you. My typical conversation with them when they email me is ‘repent and accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior.’ I take it as an opportunity to try and convert them.”

New York Times, F.T.C. Chair Upends Antitrust Standards With Meta Lawsuit, Celia Kang, July 28, 2022. Lina Khan (shown above) may set off a shift in how Washington regulates competition by filing cases in tech areas before they mature. She faces an uphill climb.

Early in her tenure as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan declared that she would rein in the power of the largest technology companies in a dramatically new way.

“We’re trying to be forward looking, anticipating problems and taking fast action,’’ Ms. Khan said in an interview last month. She promised to focus on “next-generation technologies,” and not just on areas where tech behemoths were already well established.

This week, Ms. Khan took her first step toward stopping the tech monopolies of the future when she sued to block a small acquisition by Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, of the virtual-reality fitness start-up Within. The deal was significant for Meta’s development of the so-called metaverse, which is a nascent technology and far from mainstream.

Washington Post, Wis. anti-voting-fraud activist ordered absentee ballots in others names, he says, to make a point, Patrick Marley, July 28, 2022. A Wisconsin man this week ordered absentee ballots for himself in the names of a mayor and top state lawmaker in what he says was an attempt to expose vulnerabilities in the state’s voting system.

Harry Wait, who leads a group in southeastern Wisconsin that has focused on voting issues, said Thursday that he was willing to go to jail to prove his point. The stunt angered many state elections officials, especially those who have spent the last several years fighting baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

“I would be willing to take that hit for the country,” Wait said of facing jail time. “You can’t have ballots going all over the place, unsecured.”

“I committed a crime when I did it," he said, "but do you think criminals care when they do it?”

Wait said he used the state’s online elections portal Tuesday to request absentee ballots for the Aug. 9 primary to be sent to his home in the names of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) and Racine Mayor Cory Mason (D). Wait has clashed with both of the officials repeatedly as the president of the group HOT Government, which takes its name from an acronym for “honest, open and transparent.”

Soon after he made the requests, Wait explained his actions in an email to Vos and Mason as well as Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson (R) and Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling (R), who has promoted former president Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud and called for the arrest of five of the state’s elections commissioners.

Wait said he and others requested about a dozen ballots in all. Other than the requests for ballots for Vos and Mason, Wait said he had permission from the voters to request their ballots. He said he had not received ballots for Vos and Mason and did not expect to because he had alerted authorities to what he had done.

‘A real conflagration’: Wisconsin emerges as front line in war over the 2020 vote

Hanson said she was investigating the matter. Under Wisconsin law, it’s a misdemeanor to make a false statement to obtain a ballot and a felony to make a false statement to an election clerk.

Jeremy Michael Brown wore military gear at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say. (FBI)

Washington Post, A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail, Brittany Shammas, July 28, 2022. On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a flag-waving crowd gathered outside the Florida jail where an alleged participant was being held.

Jeremy Michael Brown, a retired Special Forces soldier charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted Capitol grounds, addressed them through a phone call played over loudspeaker. The 47-year-old Tampa resident and member of the extremist Oath Keepers group decried the “tyrannical government,” read a lengthy passage from the Bible and portrayed himself as engaged in a fight for “the liberty of every American.”

Then Brown made an announcement that sent the crowd into cheers.

“Today, Jan. 6, 2022, from the maximum security section of the Pinellas County jail,” he said, “I, Jeremy Brown, announce my candidacy for Florida state House of Representatives.”

Within a few months of that speech, he had collected enough signatures to qualify as a candidate and run a long-shot campaign for Florida’s District 62 — all from jail. As the sole Republican candidate, Brown, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial on felony and misdemeanor charges, is set to run against the winner of the August Democratic primary. The newly drawn district includes heavily blue areas; about 72.4 percent of voters there went for Biden, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which reported on Brown’s campaign this week.

It’s unclear whether legal issues could impede Brown’s candidacy or ability to hold public office while he remains in jail. Lawyers are reviewing that question, the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections told the Tampa Bay Times.

“We don’t know, the state office doesn’t know and to be honest, I don’t care,” Brown said in an interview with the newspaper. “I’m gonna run until they tell me no. It’s almost like our government is incompetent.”

Washington Post, House Democrats delay votes on police, guns after internal infighting, Marianna Sotomayor and Leigh Ann Caldwell,
July 28, 2022 (print ed.). The push to increase police funding has infuriated liberals who would rather see such money redirected to community policing and police reform measures.

House Democrats postponed the consideration of a package of bills that would address public safety and ban assault weapons, exposing the fracture lines that exist within the caucus and sinking the desire by many members to leave Washington with fresh legislative wins to motivate voter turnout as they hit the campaign trail.

Vulnerable members in swing districts, known as front-liners, who remain most at risk of losing their seats during the midterm elections have spent the past several weeks pushing leaders to vote on legislation that would help fund local law enforcement to counter GOP attacks that Democrats are soft on crime — an argument that probably cost the party seats in 2020 and created animosity between different factions of the party.

But the push to increase police funding has infuriated liberals who would rather see such money redirected to community policing, as well as Black lawmakers and civil rights groups who want accountability and transparency measures attached to police funding.

The recent string of mass shootings across the country — particularly after 19 children and two teachers were killed at a Uvalde, Tex., elementary school — motivated many Democrats to reignite a push to vote on an assault weapons ban for the first time in decades.

But there was uncertainty that an assault weapons ban has the votes in a chamber where Democrats have only a razor-thin four-member majority. Leaders had hoped to tack the ban onto the tranche of public safety bills, which included police funding as well as community policing measures and mental health response teams, to ensure it could pass this month. Members now hope to reconsider the package by mid-August, when they return from a break.

The episode is just the most recent headache for Democratic leaders as they try to appease different factions within their caucus who represent disparate groups of voters. It has remained a repeated struggle that has at times defined the caucus this term as members work to overcome differences at the last minute in an effort to salvage legislative priorities.

Washington Post, Adam Schiff is jockeying to lead House Democrats. It won’t be easy, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). The shadow campaign to lead House Democrats next year has been underway for months — and in many ways years — as a new generation of leaders quietly makes a play for the top positions. But an eleventh-hour push by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) in recent weeks has taken Democrats by surprise and raised questions about how the caucus wants to mirror the diversity that makes up its party’s base.

Schiff, left, who gained attention investigating Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election before leading the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, is exploring a bid to lead the House Democratic caucus if Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) retires after the midterm elections, according to more than a dozen House members and top aides who have spoken directly with the congressman.

This account of Schiff’s recent efforts is based on interviews with eight lawmakers and 18 staff members and lobbyists familiar with leadership dynamics, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

If he can amass enough interest in his candidacy, Schiff would upend a race that was considered largely set, challenging a variety of Democrats gunning for the top spot, including possibly Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), right, who has positioned himself among members as Pelosi’s heir apparent and represents a new generation of Democrats.

Schiff’s overtures, which began in earnest earlier this year, have focused on consolidating support among his home base, the expansive California delegation, according to members of that group. And though he has not made an explicit ask for endorsements, he is gauging members’ interest and planting the seed that leading the caucus is his goal.

Schiff has also reached out to members in a variety of key blocs in the vast Democratic caucus, including the minority tri-caucuses made up of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. He has also reached out to the ideological factions within the Democratic caucus: both the large Progressive Caucus and the centrist New Democrat Coalition, of which he is a member, according to several people with knowledge of the outreach.

The jockeying for leadership roles comes as House Democrats are eager to take the party into the next generation, satisfying an increasingly restless progressive base while pushing back against a more conservative, but divided, opposition intent on payback for the treatment of President Donald Trump.

The debate inside the caucus mirrors the sentiment of many Democratic voters who are demanding a younger and more diverse leadership structure in the party — a tension that flared during the 2020 Democratic primaries and is resurfacing as President Biden’s poll numbers slide. Schiff, 62, represents the kind of leader many Democrats have urged the party to move beyond: older, White and in politics nearly three decades. Both Jeffries and Clyburn are Black and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, though Clyburn is older than Schiff.

Schiff’s trial balloon has been met with surprise and skepticism that he could earn enough support to win, according to several lawmakers. Jeffries, for example, has spent years assembling broad support among the House Democratic caucus.

Washington Post, Opinion: Most third parties have failed. Here’s why ours won’t, David Jolly, Christine Todd Whitman and Andrew Yang, July 28, 2022. David Jolly is a former Republican congressman from Florida and is executive chairman of the Serve America Movement. Christine Todd Whitman is a former Republican governor of New Jersey and co-founder of the Renew America Movement. Andrew Yang is a former Democratic presidential candidate and is co-chair of the Forward Party.

Political extremism is ripping our nation apart, and the two major parties have failed to remedy the crisis. Last week, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol led us to relive one of the darkest days in U.S. history. The chilling culmination of an attempted electoral coup in the United States was the strongest evidence yet that we are facing the potential demise of our democracy.

The United States badly needs a new political party — one that reflects the moderate, common-sense majority. Today’s outdated parties have failed by catering to the fringes. As a result, most Americans feel they aren’t represented.

Washington Post, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw makes sure reporters feel the burn, Paul Farhi, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). July 27, 2022. Known for her aggressive Twitter comments and brusque treatment of the media, the Florida governor’s press secretary has used taunts to solidify a tough image.

The derisive tone was typical of Pushaw, 31, a state employee who earns $120,000 a year. In the 14 months since joining DeSantis’s staff, she has transformed the typically buttoned-down role of gubernatorial press secretary into something like a running public brawl — with Twitter as her blunt-force weapon. Her usual targets: Democrats, the news media and anyone else she deems insufficiently supportive of DeSantis’s agenda and her own conservative politics.

None of Pushaw’s public dust-ups seems to have ruffled her boss, DeSantis, who is widely considered a leading contender to challenge former president Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination. On occasion, he has defended Pushaw, who has loyally promoted his agenda, which has included a string of legislative victories on culture-war issues, such as passage of the gender-discussion bill and a ban on teaching critical race theory.

New York Times, Class Divisions Harden Into Battle Lines in Arizona’s Republican Primary, Jack Healy, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). The race has highlighted a gap between voters who have profited from Arizona’s prosperity, and those who are eager to punish the G.O.P. establishment. 

As Shardé Walter’s family cut back on everything from camping trips to Eggo waffles to balance their inflation-strained budget this summer, she became more and more fed up with the Republicans who have governed Arizona for more than a decade.

“You’ve got those hoity-toity Republicans, and then you’ve got ones like me — just trying to live,” Ms. Walter, 36, said as she waited for former President Donald J. Trump to arrive at a rally on Friday for his slate of candidates in Arizona’s bitterly fought Republican primaries.

“We’re busting our asses off,” she continued, “but we’re broke for no reason.”

The Aug. 2 Republican primary in Arizona has been cast as a party-defining contest between traditional Republicans and Trump loyalists, with the power to reshape a political battleground at the heart of fights over voting rights and fair elections. Several leading Republican candidates in Arizona for governor, secretary of state, attorney general and U.S. Senate have made lies about the “stolen” 2020 election a centerpiece of their campaigns.

New York Times, OAN, a Dependable Promoter of Donald Trump, Faces a ‘Death Blow,’ Jeremy W. Peters and Benjamin Mullin, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). After Verizon drops One America News at the end of this week, the cable network will have lost its presence in some 20 million homes this year

The future of One America News, which established itself as a powerful voice in conservative media by promoting some of the most outlandish falsehoods about the 2020 election, is in serious doubt as major carriers drop it from their lineups and defamation lawsuits threaten to drain its finances.

By the end of this week, the cable network will have lost its presence in some 20 million homes this year. The most recent blow came from Verizon, which will stop carrying OAN on its Fios television service starting Saturday. That will starve the network of a major stream of revenue: the fees it collects from Verizon, which counts roughly 3.5 million cable subscribers. In April, OAN was dropped by AT&T’s DirecTV, which has about 15 million subscribers.

OAN’s remaining audience will be small. The network will soon be available only to a few hundred thousand people who subscribe to smaller cable providers, such as Frontier and GCI Liberty, said Scott Robson, a senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. OAN also sells its programming directly to users through its OAN Live and KlowdTV streaming platforms, but those products most likely provide a fraction of the revenue generated by traditional TV providers.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Opinion: Pence gets dissed again — and he ‘deserves it,’ Dana Milbank
• Washington Post, Analysis: DeSantis and other GOP candidates are ditching ‘legacy media’ for friendly outlets, David Weigel
• Mississippi Today, Former Gov. Phil Bryant subpoenaed, Anna Wolfe
• Washington Post, Biden poised for big wins in Congress
• Washington Post, As Trump speaks in Washington, his allies prepare for a second term
• Washington Post, Investigation: Shocking sex ed ‘grooming’ claim jolted Nebraska politics months before it swept U.S., Beth Reinhard and Emma Brown
• Washington Post, On the campaign trail, some Republicans see a civil war
• New York Times, After Recent Turmoil, the Race for Texas Governor Is Tightening

Media, Religion, Education, Sports News

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: For the Republicans, overturning Loving v. Virginia is most certainly in the offing, Wayne Madsen, left, July 28, 2022. As Republicans turn back the clock by outlawing abortions -- even in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother being at stake -- same gender marriages and sex, and access to contraceptives, another right stands to be obliterated by that party that is enacting what the America First Committee, German-American Bund, and Ku Klux Klan could have only dreamed about in the 1930s: a ban on interracial marriage.

In 1958, Virginia residents Richard and Mildred Loving were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. The couple was found guilty of violating Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between white and those deemed by the state to be "colored." After their conviction was upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court, the Lovings appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, the court found that the Virginia law outlawing miscegenation violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 2015, the Loving decision was cited by the Supreme Court as precedent in its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.to legalize same-sex marriages.

If next week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas is any indication of the ultimate fate of Loving v. Virginia, legal interracial marriage may be on the chopping block. That is because keynoting the Dallas event will be Hungary's fascist prime minister Viktor Orban, an avowed opponent of racial "mixing."

Washington Post, Republicans press D.C. Circuit nominee on age, pro bono work, Rachel Weiner, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have questioned Justice Department official and federal appellate court nominee Bradley Garcia on his youth and past advocacy on cases involving abortion access, gun regulations and discrimination in religious schools.

Garcia, 36, a deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, was nominated last month by President Biden to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, an influential body that often serves as a path to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Republicans argued Wednesday that Garcia was too inexperienced and too political, echoing Democratic criticisms of Trump nominees to the same court. Garcia sought to differentiate himself, noting that he had clerked for a Republican appellate judge and had extensive experience with both state and federal appeals.

CBS News, U.S. defense contractor and wife who were photographed in KGB uniforms charged with stealing identities of dead children in Texas, Updated July 28, 2022.

A U.S. defense contractor and his wife who lived for decades under the identities of two dead Texas children have been charged with identity theft and conspiring against the government, according to federal court records unsealed in Honolulu.

Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison, both in their 60s, who allegedly lived for decades under the names Bobby Edward Fort and Julie Lyn Montague, respectively, were arrested Friday in Kapolei on the island of Oahu.

Prosecutors are seeking to have the couple held without bail, which could indicate the case is about more than fraudulently obtaining drivers' licenses, passports and Defense Department credentials. According to a criminal complaint obtained by Hawaii News Now, Primrose was allegedly issued a total of five U.S. passports under the identity of Bobby Fort. Morrison was issued a total of three U.S. passports under the name of Julie Montague, the complaint says.

Those documents helped Primrose get secret security clearance with the U.S. Coast Guard and as a defense contractor and old photos show the couple wearing uniforms of the KGB, the former Russian spy agency, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck said in court papers. Faded Polaroids of each in uniform were included in the motion to have them held.

Prosecutors said there is a high risk the couple would flee if freed. They also suggested that Primrose, who was an avionics electrical technician in the Coast Guard, was highly skilled to communicate secretly if released.

The couple is also believed to have other aliases, Muehleck said.

Politico, Court may pare back secrecy in campus sexual misconduct suits, Josh Gerstein, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). At issue is a lower-court judge’s denial of a former MIT student’s request that he and his accuser, another student, be identified by pseudonyms in court filings.

A federal appeals court in Boston heard arguments on Wednesday in a case that could make it harder for students to maintain their anonymity when suing colleges over the handling of complaints related to sexual misconduct.

Lawyers for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former computer engineering student at the prestigious school squared off over a lower-court judge’s denial of the former student’s request that he be allowed to proceed as “John Doe” in the case and that the fellow student who accused him of misconduct also be identified by a pseudonym in court filings.

Attorney Philip Byler told the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns requiring that the plaintiff either file under his true name or dismiss the suit was unfair and contrary to the custom in such cases. “This is the standard practice in the field,” Byler told the three-judge panel. “I think we’re all flabbergasted by what the district judge wrote here.”

A ruling declining to disturb Stearns’ decision stripping secrecy from the case could discourage some suits against colleges and universities over their campus discipline processes, particularly in cases involving allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual assault.

The suit that led to Wednesday’s arguments was filed last year after MIT kicked out a male student accused of having sexual intercourse with a former girlfriend while she was asleep. The school also found the male student engaged in sexual harassment of the same woman, but the breach-of-contract suit alleges that the investigation and the process were severely biased.

Washington Post, Daniel Snyder faces House committee questions under oath, Mark Maske, Liz Clarke and Nicki Jhabvala, July 28, 2022.  Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder will participate remotely in a sworn deposition Thursday with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, after he and the committee agreed on the terms of the interview following weeks of deliberations.

The committee announced the agreement early Thursday morning after negotiations involving attorneys on both sides continued late Wednesday night. Snyder is scheduled to give a voluntary deposition under oath on issues related to the team’s workplace at 8 a.m. Thursday without accepting service of a subpoena.

“The Committee’s deposition of Mr. Snyder will go forward today,” a committee spokesperson said in a written statement. “Mr. Snyder has committed to providing full and complete testimony, and to answer the Committee’s questions about his knowledge of and contributions to the Commanders’ toxic work environment, as well as his efforts to interfere with the NFL’s internal investigation, without hiding behind nondisclosure or other confidentiality agreements. Should Mr. Snyder fail to honor his commitments, the Committee is prepared to compel his testimony on any unanswered questions upon his return to the United States.”

Thursday’s deposition will not be public. The proceedings will be transcribed. It is not clear whether the transcript will be released publicly at any point; that is at the committee’s discretion. The deposition will be conducted by committee staffers, most of them lawyers, and is expected to last longer than the 2½-hour public hearing last month at which NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was questioned by lawmakers rather than by lawyers.

Washington Post, Jared Kushner alleges chief of staff shoved Ivanka Trump at White House, Ashley Parker, In a forthcoming memoir, Donald Trump's son-in-law and former presidential adviser, portrays John F. Kelly as having a bullying, “Jekyll-and-Hyde” demeanor. Kelly denies the allegations.

Washington Post, Now on the tee for LIV Golf: Trump National and the polarizing former president, Josh Dawsey and Rick Maese, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Former president Donald Trump joins hands this week with the biggest controversy in sports when his New Jersey golf club hosts the latest event in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, further cementing his relationship with Saudi Arabia and angering families of 9/11 victims who have decried the start-up venture as “sportswashing.”

While the renegade golf circuit has staged two other events, including another in the United States, this week’s event at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., promises to be an even more glaring flash point, given its proximity to Manhattan and the involvement of the ex-president.

In recent days, Trump has publicly and privately dismissed human rights concerns about the Saudi kingdom and railed against the professional golf establishment. He is expected to attend every day of this weekend’s event and has been in contact for months with organizers on event details, according to an adviser, who said Trump remains livid with PGA of America officials who moved the 2022 PGA Championship from his Bedminster club following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Doral, his club outside Miami, will host another LIV Golf event in October.

• National Press Club, Statement By National Press Club On LIV Golf Event At Trump Course

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: The new East-West Cold War is a war of dueling lists; it should be more than that, Wayne Madsen, left, July 27-28, 2022. Russia and, to a lesser extent, China have created enemies’ lists of countries with which they have reserved the right to target in cyber-propaganda operations via social media platforms, cyber-sabotage, election interference, and debasement of political and cultural institutions.

Russia’s “enemies list” is formally known as the “Unfriendly Countries List.” Created in May 2021 in the wake of sanctions imposed on Russia for espionage and other hostile activities, the list originally included only two nations. They were the United States, which continued to suffer political destabilization in the wake of Russia-backed Donald Trump’s attempt to stage a coup d’état to remain in power following his 2020 electoral loss, and the Czech Republic, which accused Russian GRU military intelligence’s Unit 29155 of blowing up ammunition depots in the town of Vrbetice, near the late Ivana Trump’s hometown of Zlin, in 2014.

Some of Moscow’s propaganda mouthpieces in the West have earned them the distinction of being placed by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation on a Ukrainian list of propagandists for Russia.

They include former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard; U.S. Sen. Rand Paul; polemicist Glenn Greenwald; U.S. military analyst Edward Luttwak; retired U.S. Army Colonel and January 6 coup plotter Douglas Macgregor; Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the widow of Lyndon LaRouche and the head of what remains of his movement; U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs; former CIA analyst Ray McGovern; former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter; and American “shock and awe” military doctrine developer and onetime DC Madam client Harlan Ullman.

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More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

New York Times, Assault Rifle Makers Earned Over $1 Billion as Violence Surged, Report Says, Annie Karni, July 27, 2022. A House panel found that the companies have thrived in the past decade by selling and marketing military-grade weapons to civilians, specifically young men.

The leading manufacturers of assault rifles used to perpetrate the deadliest mass shootings in the United States have collected more than $1 billion in revenue over the past decade as gun violence across the country has surged, according to a House investigation set to be presented on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

The findings, released before a congressional hearing on Wednesday on the marketing of assault rifles, indicate that the gun industry has thrived by selling and marketing military-grade weapons to civilians, specifically targeting and playing to the insecurities of young men, while some have made thinly veiled references to white supremacist groups.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform opened an investigation into the gun manufacturing industry in May after the gun massacre in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers and a racially motivated mass shooting in a Buffalo supermarket that killed 10 people.

Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics, Shawn Boburg and Jon Swaine, July 26, 2022 (print ed.). Sales soared in the past decade at Daniel Defense, the maker of the gun used in the Uvalde shooting, as it employed aggressive marketing tactics to sell AR-style rifles.

A rapidly growing manufacturer of AR-15-style rifles tried to run an ad during the Super Bowl in 2014, knowing that the NFL typically does not allow gun commercials during its marquee event.

But Daniel Defense — the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in the Uvalde school shooting — privately had in place a plan to generate publicity whether the ad aired or not, according to previously unreported court documents that shed light on the gunmaker’s marketing strategies.

If it aired, Daniel Defense’s top marketing executive planned to have people across the country complain about the company’s own ad to left-leaning media organizations, stirring controversy and generating coverage.

If the ad was rejected, records show, the executive had arranged for a prominent National Rifle Association commentator to release a prerecorded online video accusing the National Football League of censorship and hypocrisy.

Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career, Joanna Slater, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Buffalo Rep. Chris Jacobs was once considered a rising star in the GOP. But his support of an assault weapons ban cost him

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, With Gun Bill and Attack Ads, Newsom Raises Profile Using Hardball Tactics
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• New York Times, Jury Weighs Death Penalty for Gunman in Parkland School Massacre

Energy, Climate, Environment

Washington Post, Multiple deaths reported as massive flooding in eastern Kentucky engulfs homes, Rick Childress, Ian Livingston, Lateshia Beachum and Jason Samenow, July 28, 2022.

Washington Post, Opinion: Manchin’s climate deal isn’t enough, but it’s still a miracle, Eugene Robinson, right, July 28, 2022. Better late than never. The $369 billion to fight climate change in the deal announced Wednesday between Senate Democrats and the White House represents the nation’s biggest investment ever in the future of our overheating planet.

Congress should pass it quickly. Like, tomorrow. Before Hamlet — I mean Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — changes his mind yet again.

For anyone who understands how desperately we need to make the transition to a clean-energy economy — and who also understands how difficult it is to do anything big in today’s dysfunctional Washington — the legislation announced by Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) looks like nothing short of a miracle.

A summary of the package released by its authors says it would “put the U.S. on a path” toward a 40 percent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 2030. Yes, climate scientists say we need to move even faster. But if you had told me as recently as last week that climate action this bold was even a remote possibility, I would have said you were delirious from this summer’s oppressive heat.

New York Times, Germany Counts on Chilled Gas to Keep Warm Over Winter, Melissa Eddy and Stanley Reed, Photographs by Patrick Junker, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). As Russia squeezes the flow of natural gas, German officials are turning toward an option they had earlier disregarded: liquefied natural gas.

When a major energy company wanted to bring liquefied natural gas to Germany through the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven three years ago, the proposal hit a brick wall. The company couldn’t find enough customers, the government offered only tepid support and residents denounced the scheme as a threat to a local apple orchard.

“Apple juice, not L.N.G.,” protesters said. The company, Uniper, shelved its plans.

Now, steel pipes are being rammed into the sea floor to prepare for the arrival of a nearly thousand-foot-long L.N.G. processing vessel, the Höegh Esperanza. Nearby, construction crews in bulldozers are digging along the perimeter of a forest to clear the way for a new 20-mile pipeline to connect to Germany’s gas grid.

The hope is for gas to start arriving here before the end of winter, Uniper said, as the demand for heating homes soars.

New York Times, Anti-U.N. Protests in Congo Leave 15 Dead, Including 3 Peacekeepers, Steve Wembi and Abdi Latif Dahir, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Demonstrators have accused international forces of failing to deter armed groups responsible for a wave of deadly attacks.

At least 15 people, including three U.N. peacekeepers, have been killed and 60 others injured in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo in an escalation of dayslong protests against the United Nations in a mineral-rich region that has been ravaged by incessant deadly violence.

Two Indian police officers and one Moroccan military member were killed on Tuesday when protesters breached the United Nations compound in Butembo, a city in the province of North Kivu, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the global organization, said at a briefing in New York. An Egyptian police officer was also injured, Mr. Haq added.

“Violent attackers snatched weapons from Congolese police and fired upon our uniformed personnel,” Mr. Haq said in the briefing on Tuesday, adding that “hundreds of assailants” had also targeted other U.N. bases in North Kivu by “throwing stones and petrol bombs, breaking into bases, looting and vandalizing and setting facilities on fire.”

Their actions, he said, were “fueled by hostile remarks and threats made by individuals and groups against the U.N., particularly on social media.”

The Congolese government expressed regret over the deaths on Tuesday and called for calm from the population in the region. “Nothing can justify any form of violence,” Patrick Muyaya, a government spokesman, said at a news conference in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.

• New York Times, ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’: Congo to Sell Land for Drilling

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• Washington Post, Heat scorches Northeast as temperatures skyrocket to dangerous levels
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U.S. Law, Courts, Crime

Law&Crime, Mississippi Man Arrested After Viral Video Shows Driver Using Racial Slur and Laughing About ‘Points’ as He Aims His Car for 9 Black Youths Riding Bikes, Colin Kalmbacher, July 27, 2022. Mark Hall, 49, above, has been charged with nine counts of misdemeanor simple assault – attempt by physical menace to create fear after allegedly driving his vehicle through a group of nine Black children who were riding their bicycles down the street.

The incident occurred at around 3:00 p.m. in Ripley, Miss. on Sunday, July 24, 2022. A video showing a man driving through the crowd of minors was uploaded to Snapchat the next day and was shared thousands of times after a copy was posted on Facebook.

In the video, the man driving accelerates to nearly 40 mph and can be heard saying something about “points” before he drives through the group of children. After causing them to rush and scatter to avoid being hit by his car, the driver laughs and says: “Stupid [N-word]s.”

Some of the teens recounted the horrific experience to local media.

Law&Crime, Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Woman Who Left 10-Year-Old Child to Die in Locked Plastic Bin, Jerry Lamb, July 27, 2022. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction and death sentence for a woman (shown above at left) who killed her 10-year-old cousin (shown above at right) by locking the child in a plastic footlocker and leaving her to suffocate as punishment for stealing a popsicle.

The justices rejected Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen’s claim that her trial was “fundamentally flawed,” reasoning, among other things, that photos of the deceased child and a videotaped conversation she had with her husband in the interrogation room after they were arrested were properly admitted during her trial.

Recent Headlines

• Law&Crime, Mississippi Man Arrested After Viral Video Shows Driver Using Racial Slur and Laughing About ‘Points’ as He Aims His Car for 9 Black Youths Riding Bikes
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• Washington Post, National Guard member who sought out extremists, planned attack on police sentenced to prison
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• Washington Post, Benghazi attacker’s punishment was ‘unreasonably low,’ U.S. court finds
• Politico, U.S. authorities hit former GOP Rep. Stephen Buyer with insider trading charges
• ScheerPost, Commentary: CIA Vault 7 Leaker Found Guilty. What Did He Actually Reveal? John Kiriakou
• Guardian, Ghislaine Maxwell moved to low-security prison in Florida

Pandemic Public Health, Disasters

New York Times, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest, Benjamin Mueller, July 28, 2022. At the peak of the Omicron wave, Covid killed Black Americans in rural areas at a rate roughly 34 percent higher than it did white people.

The coronavirus pandemic walloped rural America last year, precipitating a surge of deaths among white residents as the virus inflamed longstanding health deficits there.

But across the small towns and farmlands, new research has found, Covid killed Black and Hispanic people at considerably higher rates than it did their white neighbors. Even at the end of the pandemic’s second year, in February 2022, overstretched health systems, poverty, chronic illnesses and lower vaccination rates were forcing nonwhite people to bear the burden of the virus.

Black and Hispanic people in rural areas suffered an exceptionally high toll, dying at far higher rates than in cities during that second year of the pandemic.

Politico, Biden tests negative, will end Covid isolation, Matt Berg, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). The president will make his first public appearance since his diagnosis later Wednesday morning.

President Joe Biden tested negative for Covid on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, his personal physician announced Wednesday, bringing to an apparent end the president’s brush with the virus.

Biden, who first tested positive for Covid late last week, will make his first public appearance since his diagnosis later Wednesday morning when he delivers remarks from the White House’s Rose Garden.

Politico, How Biden’s Covid turned Ashish Jha into the de facto White House doctor, Adam Cancryn, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Three months into the job, the Covid response coordinator is trying to turn Biden's illness into a White House success story.

In the hours after President Joe Biden contracted the coronavirus, Ashish Jha began soliciting advice on how to navigate the biggest moment of his short White House career.

As the administration’s Covid response coordinator, Jha had more than enough experience talking to the public about the health consequences of the deadly, lingering pandemic. But this task was different. Now, he was being tapped to brief the nation on the status of the pandemic’s highest-profile patient.

Recent Headlines

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• Washington Post, Opinion: Gay men deserve the unvarnished truth about monkeypox, Benjamin Ryan
• Washington Post, Fauci says he will retire from government post by the end of Biden’s term

U.S. Abortion Rights, Privacy, Trafficking

Politico, Court may pare back secrecy in campus sexual misconduct suits, Josh Gerstein, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). At issue is a lower-court judge’s denial of a former MIT student’s request that he and his accuser, another student, be identified by pseudonyms in court filings.

A federal appeals court in Boston heard arguments on Wednesday in a case that could make it harder for students to maintain their anonymity when suing colleges over the handling of complaints related to sexual misconduct.

Lawyers for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former computer engineering student at the prestigious school squared off over a lower-court judge’s denial of the former student’s request that he be allowed to proceed as “John Doe” in the case and that the fellow student who accused him of misconduct also be identified by a pseudonym in court filings.

Attorney Philip Byler told the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns requiring that the plaintiff either file under his true name or dismiss the suit was unfair and contrary to the custom in such cases. “This is the standard practice in the field,” Byler told the three-judge panel. “I think we’re all flabbergasted by what the district judge wrote here.”

A ruling declining to disturb Stearns’ decision stripping secrecy from the case could discourage some suits against colleges and universities over their campus discipline processes, particularly in cases involving allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual assault.

The suit that led to Wednesday’s arguments was filed last year after MIT kicked out a male student accused of having sexual intercourse with a former girlfriend while she was asleep. The school also found the male student engaged in sexual harassment of the same woman, but the breach-of-contract suit alleges that the investigation and the process were severely biased.

Byler said the tradition of allowing parties to proceed by pseudonyms in litigation involving intimate matters goes back decades.

“Roe v Wade has been in the news,” he observed. “That is a case where pseudonymity was recognized.”

Washington Post, Daniel Snyder faces House committee questions under oath, Mark Maske, Liz Clarke and Nicki Jhabvala, July 28, 2022.  Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder will participate remotely in a sworn deposition Thursday with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, after he and the committee agreed on the terms of the interview following weeks of deliberations.

The committee announced the agreement early Thursday morning after negotiations involving attorneys on both sides continued late Wednesday night. Snyder is scheduled to give a voluntary deposition under oath on issues related to the team’s workplace at 8 a.m. Thursday without accepting service of a subpoena.

“The Committee’s deposition of Mr. Snyder will go forward today,” a committee spokesperson said in a written statement. “Mr. Snyder has committed to providing full and complete testimony, and to answer the Committee’s questions about his knowledge of and contributions to the Commanders’ toxic work environment, as well as his efforts to interfere with the NFL’s internal investigation, without hiding behind nondisclosure or other confidentiality agreements. Should Mr. Snyder fail to honor his commitments, the Committee is prepared to compel his testimony on any unanswered questions upon his return to the United States.”

Thursday’s deposition will not be public. The proceedings will be transcribed. It is not clear whether the transcript will be released publicly at any point; that is at the committee’s discretion. The deposition will be conducted by committee staffers, most of them lawyers, and is expected to last longer than the 2½-hour public hearing last month at which NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was questioned by lawmakers rather than by lawyers.

Washington Post, Girl, 12, challenges W.Va. lawmakers on abortion: ‘What about my life?’ Timothy Bella, July 28, 2022. Addison Gardner, 12, spoke out on Wednesday against the abortion law proposed by West Virginia lawmakers that would restrict abortion in almost all cases.

Despite the impassioned plea from Gardner and other abortions rights supporters in and outside of the chamber, the West Virginia House overwhelmingly passed the bill by a vote of 69 to 23.

Washington Post, 19-year-old turns Gaetz insult into $115,000 abortion rights fundraiser, Andrew Jeong, July 28, 2022 (print ed.). Days after being publicly insulted by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Twitter, Olivia Julianna, a 19-year-old abortion rights advocate, wrote him a tongue-in-cheek thank-you note on the platform.

“Dear Matt, Although your intentions were hateful, your public shaming of my appearance has done nothing but benefit me,” she wrote after his tweet about her spurred a load of harassment — as well as a flood of donations to her reproductive rights advocacy organization.

In just about a day, she’s helped raise approximately $115,000 for the nonprofit Gen Z for Change.

At a rally last weekend in Tampa, Gaetz had mocked abortion rights activists, calling them “disgusting” and overweight. Olivia Julianna, who uses her first name and middle name publicly because of privacy concerns, criticized the remarks on Twitter, noting the sex-trafficking allegations against Gaetz. In apparent retaliation, Gaetz then tweeted an image of her next to a news story that mentioned his comments from the rally.

Gaetz is an ally of former president Donald Trump and was first elected to Congress in 2016, representing a district in the Florida Panhandle, an area that has voted heavily Republican in recent decades. He has expressed opposition to abortion and abortion rights advocates, and this month voted against two bills aimed at ensuring access to abortion. In May, Gaetz drew criticism for saying that those protesting the overturning of Roe v. Wade are “overeducated, under-loved millennials.”

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Interstate Abortion Travel Is Already Straining Parts of the System
• Washington Post, She survived a forced sterilization. She fears more could occur post-Roe
• Washington Post, Many HBCUs are in states that have banned abortions. Student leaders are taking action
• Washington Post, Opinion: I survived Epstein and Maxwell’s sex ring. Then the gaslighting began
• Washington Post, ‘The stakes could not be higher’: Kansas abortion vote set for Aug. 2
• Washington Post, A triumphant antiabortion movement begins to deal with its divisions

July 27

Top Headlines

• New York Times, Justice Dept. Asking Witnesses About Trump in Its Jan. 6 Investigation, Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush
• Washington Post, Key Dems want DHS inspector general removed from Secret Service probe
• New York Times, Fed Fights Inflation With Another Big Rate Increase: Live Updates
• Washington Post, Analysis: Russia’s war in Ukraine escalates on the ground and in Congress
• Washington Post, As Trump speaks in Washington, his allies prepare for a second term
• Washington Post, Biden slams Trump for watching Jan. 6 riot on television as police faced ‘medieval hell’
• Washington Post, Scientists hone argument that coronavirus came from Wuhan market, Joel Achenbach
• New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People

Ukraine War

• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukrainian missiles struck a bridge in Kherson that is critical in Russia’s effort to hold the city
• New York Times, A little-known special military cell is keeping Ukraine’s troops equipped as battlefield needs become complicated
• Associated Press, Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime’
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Is Poised for Major Southern Offensive
• New York Times, As Prices Soar in Ukraine, War Adds Economic Havoc to the Human Toll

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

• Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot
• Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors
• Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

U.S. Politics, Education, Governance, Economy

• Washington Post, Opinion: Pence gets dissed again — and he ‘deserves it,’ Dana Milbank
• Washington Post, Analysis: DeSantis and other GOP candidates are ditching ‘legacy media’ for friendly outlets, David Weigel
• Washington Post, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw makes sure reporters feel the burn, Paul Farhi
• New York Times, Class Divisions Harden Into Battle Lines in Arizona’s Republican Primary
• Mississippi Today, Former Gov. Phil Bryant subpoenaed, Anna Wolfe
• Washington Post, Biden poised for big wins in Congress

Media, Education, Religion, Sports News

• Law&Crime, Former Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann Loses Defamation Lawsuits Against CBS, ABC, NYT, and Others
• Law&Crime, Dallas Jury Hits Charter Spectrum with $7 Billion Verdict After Cable Installer Robbed and Murdered an Elderly Woman
• Washington Post, Now on the tee for LIV Golf: Trump National and the polarizing former president
• National Press Club, Statement By National Press Club On LIV Golf Event At Trump Course
• Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: The new East-West Cold War is a war of dueling lists; it should be more than that, Wayne Madsen
• New York Times, OAN, a Dependable Promoter of Donald Trump, Faces a ‘Death Blow’
• Washington Post, Facebook workers fear cuts after blunt warnings from Zuckerberg, leaders 
• Politico, Opinion: Why Rupert Murdoch Is Finally Done with Donald Trump, Jack Shafer

More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

• New York Times, Assault Rifle Makers Earned Over $1 Billion as Violence Surged, Report Says
• Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics
• Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career

U.S. Law, Immigration, Crime

• Law&Crime, Mississippi Man Arrested After Viral Video Shows Driver Using Racial Slur and Laughing About ‘Points’ as He Aims His Car for 9 Black Youths Riding Bikes
• Law&Crime, Dozens of Inmates Raped, Assaulted, and Harassed After Jailer Sold Male Prisoner a Key to Women's Wing
• Law&Crime, Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Woman Who Left 10-Year-Old Child to Die in Locked Plastic Bin
• Washington Post, National Guard member who sought out extremists, planned attack on police sentenced to prison
• Mississippi Today, Former Gov. Phil Bryant subpoenaed, Anna Wolfe
• Washington Post, Benghazi attacker’s punishment was ‘unreasonably low,’ U.S. court finds

Pandemic, Public Health 

• Politico, Biden tests negative, will end Covid isolation
• Politico, How Biden’s Covid turned Ashish Jha into the de facto White House doctor
• Washington Post, Opinion: We must contain monkeypox before it becomes a broader threat, Leana S. Wen
• Washington Post, U.S. may need $7 billion for monkeypox, Biden administration estimates

Energy, Climate, Environment, Disasters

• New York Times, Germany Counts on Chilled Gas to Keep Warm Over Winter
• New York Times, Anti-U.N. Protests in Congo Leave 15 Dead, Including 3 Peacekeepers
• New York Times, ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’: Congo to Sell Land for Drilling
• Washington Post, Heat to wane in Northeast as Pacific Northwest prepares to roast

World News, Human Rights Analysis

• Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its own
• Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip
• New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan
• Washington Post, Myanmar junta executes four pro-democracy activists

U.S. Abortion, Contraception, Privacy, Trafficking

• Washington Post, 19-year-old turns Gaetz insult into $115,000 abortion rights fundraiser
• Washington Post, Abortion is now banned in these states. See where laws have changed

Top Stories

New York Times, Justice Dept. Asking Witnesses About Trump in Its Jan. 6 Investigation, Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). Federal prosecutors sought information about the former president’s role in the efforts to overturn the election as the inquiry accelerates.

Federal prosecutors have directly asked witnesses in recent days about former President Donald J. Trump’s involvement in efforts to reverse his election loss, a person familiar with the testimony said on Tuesday, suggesting that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation has moved into a more aggressive and politically fraught phase.

Mr. Trump’s personal role in elements of the push to overturn his loss in 2020 to Joseph R. Biden Jr. has long been established, both through his public actions and statements and evidence gathered by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

But the Justice Department has been largely silent about how and even whether it would weigh pursuing potential charges against Mr. Trump (shown above speaking on Jan. 6, 2021), and reluctant even to concede that his role was discussed in senior leadership meetings at the department.

Asking questions about Mr. Trump in connection with the electors plot or the attack on the Capitol does not mean the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into him, a decision that would have immense political and legal ramifications.

The department’s investigation into a central element of the push to keep Mr. Trump in office — the plan to name slates of electors pledged to Mr. Trump in battleground states won by Mr. Biden — now appears to be accelerating as prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington ask witnesses about Mr. Trump and members of his inner circle, including the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, the person familiar with the testimony said.

Among House committee themes:

Making a case against Trump. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack is laying out a comprehensive narrative of President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Here are the main themes that have emerged so far from eight public hearings:

An unsettling narrative. During the first hearing, the committee described in vivid detail what it characterized as an attempted coup orchestrated by the former president that culminated in the assault on the Capitol. At the heart of the gripping story were three main players: Mr. Trump, the Proud Boys and a Capitol Police officer.

Creating election lies. In its second hearing, the panel showed how Mr. Trump ignored aides and advisers as he declared victory prematurely and relentlessly pressed claims of fraud he was told were wrong. “He’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” William P. Barr, the former attorney general, said of Mr. Trump during a videotaped interview.

Pressuring Pence. Mr. Trump continued pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to go along with a plan to overturn his loss even after he was told it was illegal, according to testimony laid out by the panel during the third hearing. The committee showed how Mr. Trump’s actions led his supporters to storm the Capitol, sending Mr. Pence fleeing for his life.

Fake elector plan. The committee used its fourth hearing to detail how Mr. Trump was personally involved in a scheme to put forward fake electors. The panel also presented fresh details on how the former president leaned on state officials to invalidate his defeat, opening them up to violent threats when they refused.

Strong arming the Justice Dept. During the fifth hearing, the panel explored Mr. Trump’s wide-ranging and relentless scheme to misuse the Justice Department to keep himself in power. The panel also presented evidence that at least half a dozen Republican members of Congress sought pre-emptive pardons.

The surprise hearing. Cassidy Hutchinson, ​​a former White House aide, delivered explosive testimony during the panel’s sixth session, saying that the president knew the crowd on Jan. 6 was armed, but wanted to loosen security. She also painted Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, as disengaged and unwilling to act as rioters approached the Capitol.

Planning a march. Mr. Trump planned to lead a march to the Capitol on Jan. 6 but wanted it to look spontaneous, the committee revealed during its seventh hearing. Representative Liz Cheney also said that Mr. Trump had reached out to a witness in the panel’s investigation, and that the committee had informed the Justice Department of the approach.

A “complete dereliction” of duty. In the final public hearing of the summer, the panel accused the former president of dereliction of duty for failing to act to stop the Capitol assault. The committee documented how, over 187 minutes, Mr. Trump had ignored pleas to call off the mob and then refused to say the election was over even a day after the attack.

In April, before the committee convened its series of public hearings, Justice Department investigators received phone records of key officials and aides in the Trump White House, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

Two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence testified to the federal grand jury in the case last week, and prosecutors have issued subpoenas and search warrants to a growing number of figures tied to Mr. Trump and the campaign to forestall his loss.

Washington Post, Key Dems want DHS inspector general removed from Secret Service probe, Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). A pair of key congressional Democrats called on Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, shown above in a file photo, to step aside from his office’s investigation into the Secret Service on Tuesday, saying the Trump appointee knew earlier than has been reported that the agency deleted text messages from around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), right, who heads the House committee that oversees inspectors general, and Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Jan. 6 committee and the Homeland Security Committee, said the inspector general’s office admitted in congressional briefings that it became aware that agents’ text messages were erased in December 2021 — two months earlier than reported. But Cuffari did not report that to Congress until this month.

The lawmakers said these and other omissions have broken their faith in Cuffari’s ability to lead the investigation, and they urged the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, an independent entity in the executive branch, to appoint another inspector general to handle the Secret Service probe.

“Due to the nature and importance of this investigation, there must be no doubt that the Inspector General leading this investigation can conduct it thoroughly and with integrity, objectivity, and independence,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “We do not have confidence that Inspector General Cuffari can achieve those standards.”

Cuffari and the council did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the letter, which was sent to Cuffari and to Allison Lerner, the council’s chair. The lawmakers asked for a response by Aug. 9.

Watchdog launches criminal probe over missing Secret Service messages

The letter comes days after Cuffari opened a criminal investigation into the Secret Service’s allegedly missing texts, halting the agency’s efforts to retrieve the records itself in response to a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.

Cuffari sent a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees this month accusing the agency of erasing text messages from the time around the assault on the Capitol and after he had asked for them for his own investigation.

The Secret Service said that any “insinuation” that they maliciously deleted text messages is false and that the deletions were part of a preplanned “system migration” of its phones. They said none of the texts Cuffari’s office was seeking had disappeared.

In their letter, Thompson and Maloney also faulted the Secret Service for deleting messages that could offer eyewitness accounts of the Capitol attack and the actions of President Donald Trump, whose supporters raided the building in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying election results.

The lawmakers said several House committees investigating the attack had sought records from DHS and other agencies 10 days later. Since they protect the president and vice president and other top officials, the Secret Service records could offer a close accounting of their actions that day.

“Despite the legal obligation to preserve these records, the Secret Service reportedly undertook a system migration process on January 27, 2021, that caused the erasure of text messages related to January 6,” the lawmakers wrote.

Cuffari’s office also requested records from the Secret Service on Feb. 26, 2021, for its own investigation into the Capitol attack. But the lawmakers said in the letter that he did not tell them that he had trouble getting the Secret Service’s text messages in his semiannual reports to Congress and considered issuing an alert that would have warned them and the public about the missing information, but decided that “this warning was unnecessary.”

Cuffari also did not alert the agency head, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, of the problem, as required under the Inspector General Act of 1978, which triggers a requirement that the agency head notify congressional committees.

“The DHS IG’s failure to promptly report and escalate the Secret Service’s stonewalling calls into question whether Inspector General Cuffari has the professional judgment and capacity to effectively fulfill his duties in this investigation,” the lawmakers wrote.

New York Times, Fed Fights Inflation With Another Big Rate Increase: Live Updates, Jeanna Smialek, July 27, 2022. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday, continuing its aggressive campaign to cool rapid inflation even as the economy begins to slow.

Central bankers voted unanimously to make the unusually large interest-rate move, and the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee signaled in its post-meeting statement that more is coming, saying that it “anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate.”

The Fed’s policy rate, which trickles out through the economy to affect other borrowing costs, is now set to a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent.

The Fed began raising interest rates from near-zero in March, and policymakers have picked up the pace since. After making a quarter-point move to start, they raised by half a point in May and by three-quarters of a point in June, which was the largest single step since 1994.

Fed officials made a second supersize increase on Wednesday because they are trying urgently to wrestle rapid inflation back under control.

Here are the takeaways from Wednesday’s decision and Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell’s post-meeting news conference: Another big rate move could be coming in September. Mr. Powell was clear that a third, “unusually” large three-quarter-point rate increase is possible at the Fed’s next meeting. But he was clear that we have a long time between now and then, and officials will be watching each new piece of data as they make decisions.

Mr. Powell does not think the U.S. is in a recession. He highlighted evidence that the economy is slowing, but said it was not yet clear by how much. Mr. Powell also pointed to the strength of the labor market as a reason he does not think the economy is currently in a downturn. And he cautioned that fresh data on economic growth set for release on Thursday should be taken with “a grain of salt.”
A downturn is not inevitable.

Mr. Powell said that he thinks a slowdown isn’t assured, though he highlighted that it may be difficult to lower inflation without one, and noted that the path toward avoiding such a downturn has “narrowed.”
But “we need growth to slow,” Mr. Powell said.

Some slowing of the economy is good from the Fed’s perspective, Mr. Powell emphasized. While cooling off economic activity enough to lower inflation will probably involve weakening the labor market, a little bit of pain is necessary now to put the economy on a more sustainable path. “We don’t want this to be bigger than it needs to be,” Mr. Powell said, but when thinking about the medium and long term, “price stability is what makes the whole economy work.”

Washington Post, Analysis: Russia’s war in Ukraine escalates on the ground and in Congress, Olivier Knox and Caroline Anders, July 27, 2022. American determination to help Kyiv faces fatigue at home and abroad as voters confront more immediate worries like inflation.

President Biden is sending a team of heavy-hitters from across many departments to an all-Senators briefing Wednesday afternoon, underscoring concerns that the next emergency funding request to bolster Ukraine will face more resistance than the previous one.

Meanwhile, Russia made explicit what pretty much everyone knew from the earliest days of the war, when Moscow tried and failed to capture Kyiv and falsely claimed the government there was run by Nazis: It wants to shove Zelensky from power.

Washington Post, As Trump speaks in Washington, his allies prepare for a second term, Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). A constellation of think tanks, political committees and other Trump supporters are already working on a government-in-waiting if he wins reelection in 2024.

Former president Donald Trump returned to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since leaving office to deliver a dystopian speech that encouraged “tough,” “nasty” and “mean” new responses to violent crime and the forcible relocation of homeless people to quickly-built tent cities in the suburbs.

The address — dripping with violent imagery of “streets riddled with needles and soaked with the blood of innocent victims,” death penalty sentences for drug dealers and detailed tales of rape and murder — marked a return to the shocking rhetoric that Trump deployed in his 2016 campaign, as he considers launching another presidential bid as early as this fall.

“Now, some people say, ‘Oh, that’s so horrible.’ No, what’s horrible is what’s happening now,” he said of his plan to relocate homeless people to the outskirts of urban areas. He proposed additional funding for police, additional jail time for immigration violations, a return of “stop and frisk,” an end to most early or electronic voting, and new restrictions on medical treatment for transgender youths.

Taken together, the apparatus of Republican groups are laying plans to transform the federal government, slashing the administrative power of agencies, making it easier to fire career civil employees, cutting the roster of those working for the government and vetting a generation of new loyalists to take positions to enact conservative change.

One of several Trump-inspired think tanks founded since the 2020 election, AFPI was created by the group’s president, Brooke Rollins, and former White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow using a policy plan that the two officials had initially drafted on the assumption that Trump would win reelection. The group, which does not disclose its donors, has an annual budget of $25 million and 150 people on the payroll.

Washington Post, Biden slams Trump for watching Jan. 6 riot on television as police faced ‘medieval hell,’ Amy B Wang, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). President Biden made rare comments Monday about testimony presented by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, sharply criticizing former president Donald Trump for his reported inaction as the attack on the Capitol unfolded.

In a prime-time hearing Thursday, the committee showed evidence that Trump resisted multiple pleas from senior aides to call off the mob attacking the Capitol in his name, even as members of the security detail for Vice President Mike Pence feared for their lives. Trump largely spent his time during the attack watching television, committee members said.

Biden referred to this Monday in virtual remarks to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives conference, first recounting how law enforcement officers on Jan. 6 were “assaulted before our very eyes — speared, sprayed, stomped on, brutalized” as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of Biden’s electoral college win. The siege resulted in five deaths and left some 140 members of law enforcement injured.

Trump removed speech lines calling for Jan. 6 rioters’ prosecution

“And for three hours, the defeated former president of the United States watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” Biden said. “While he was doing that, brave law enforcement officers were subject to the medieval hell for three hours — dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with a crazed mob that believed in the lies of the defeated president.”

Washington Post, Scientists hone argument that coronavirus came from Wuhan market, Joel Achenbach, July 27, 2022 (print ed.).  The coronavirus pandemic began in separate viral spillovers from live animals sold and butchered in late 2019 in a Wuhan, China, seafood market, according to two papers published Tuesday in the journal Science.

The coronavirus pandemic began in separate viral spillovers — at least two but perhaps as many as two dozen — from live animals sold and butchered in late 2019 at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, according to two papers published Tuesday in the journal Science.

The publication of the papers, which underwent five months of peer review and revisions by the authors, is unlikely to quell the rancorous debate about how the pandemic began and whether the virus emerged from a Chinese laboratory. And the authors acknowledge there are many unknowns requiring further investigation — most notably, which animals were involved.

“Everything upstream of this — which animals, where did they come from, how it’s all connected — is completely unknown at this stage,” Kristian Andersen, an immunologist at Scripps Research, said in a media briefing Tuesday.

“Have we disproven the lab leak theory? No, we have not. Will we ever be able to? No. But there are ‘possible’ scenarios and there are ‘plausible’ scenarios. … ‘Possible’ does not mean equally likely,” Andersen said.

A natural origin of the pandemic — a “zoonosis” — has long been a favored theory among scientists for the simple reason that most pandemics, including the SARS coronavirus outbreak of 2002-2003, have started that way. Andersen and his colleagues believe multiple lines of evidence, including the clustering of early cases of covid-19 around the market, make a market origin not only a likely scenario but the only one that fits the data.

The “lab leak” conjecture was initially dismissed in most mainstream media as a conspiracy theory. There are numerous lab leak scenarios, and many have focused on the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a major research center that studies coronaviruses.

Indigenous leaders placed a traditional headdress on Pope Francis during his visit Monday, July 25, 2022, to the site of a former residential school where Indigenous children suffered abuse in Canada (New York Times photo by Ian Wilms).

New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People, Ian Willms, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Pope Francis offered a sweeping apology to Indigenous people on their native land for the church’s role in schools that became gruesome centers of abuse.

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said.

More On Ukraine War

New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukrainian missiles struck a bridge in Kherson that is critical in Russia’s effort to hold the city, Maria Varenikova and Matthew Mpoke Bigg, July 27, 2022. Explosions lit up the sky over the southern city of Kherson overnight, and as dawn broke on Wednesday it was clear that Ukrainian long-range missiles had once again found their target: a bridge that is critical in the Russian effort to resupply the forces charged with holding the port city.

At the same time, dozens of Russian missiles struck targets across the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, hitting port and transport infrastructure, two leisure centers, houses, a parking lot and two restaurants, according to Ukraine’s southern military command.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said its forces struck Ukrainian military strongholds, killing scores of soldiers, and other key Ukrainian infrastructure. The claims could not be verified. But it was clear that both armies were trying to limit their opponents’ logistical operations.

Ukrainian forces are under pressure to demonstrate to their Western allies that they cannot only mount a muscular defense but are capable of reclaiming lost land. And Kherson has emerged as a key battlefront as Ukrainian forces set the stage for a broad offensive to retake the region’s capital city.

The Ukrainian ministry of defense said its strikes on routes in and out of Kherson had created “an impossible dilemma” for the Russian forces: “Retreat or be annihilated.”

Moscow continues to move troops and military equipment in the direction of Kherson to reinforce its defensive positions, according to the Ukrainian military high command.

Ukraine targeted the Antonivsky bridge, which spans the Dnipro River, following up on two strikes last week in which its forces hit the bridge using a HIMARS truck-mounted, multiple-rocket launcher newly supplied by the United States. The overnight strike, reported by a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, Natalia Humeniuk, punctured the road surface, according to a video released by the Ukrainian government, which said the span had been closed to traffic.

The bridge has been the main transit route for Russian supplies coming in from Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, to Kherson, the first major city that Moscow seized after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia launched his invasion five months ago. The targeting of the bridge is part of a broader effort to isolate Russian forces based west of the Dnipro river, which runs the length of Ukraine and divides the eastern and western halves of the nation.

Since long-range Western weapons systems started arriving en masse, Ukraine has pounded Russian ammunition depots and command and control center behind the front lines.

On Wednesday, the southern command said it took back two villages in the north of the Kherson region, Andriivka and Lozove, creeping closer to the city of Kherson.

More Coverage of the Russia-Ukraine War:

• End of Space Cooperation: Russia said that it would leave the International Space Station at the end of 2024, putting an end to the country’s partnership with the United States in space.
• Natural Gas: The European Union finalized a deal to curb natural gas consumption, in an attempt to avert an energy meltdown as Russia toys with the union’s fuel supplies.
• An Ambitious Counterattack: Ukraine has been laying the groundwork to retake Kherson from Russia. But the endeavor would require huge resources, and could come at a heavy toll.
• Economic Havoc: As food, energy and commodity prices continue to climb around the world, few countries are feeling the bite as much as Ukraine.

New York Times, A little-known special military cell is keeping Ukraine’s troops equipped as battlefield needs become complicated, Eric Schmitt, July 27, 2022. It takes a village to help Ukraine fight the Russians.

Consider a recent shipment of 105-millimeter howitzers. Britain donated the weapons, and New Zealand trained Ukrainian soldiers how to use them and provided spare parts. The United States supplied the ammunition and the vehicles to tow them and flew the load to a base near Ukraine’s border.

Choreographing the sequence was the job of dozens of military logistics specialists ensconced in a large, secure attic room at the U.S. European Command headquarters in Germany. The little-known group is playing a pivotal role in keeping the Ukrainian military armed and equipped as its battlefield needs become more complicated.

Think of the cell as a cross between a wedding registry for bombs, bullets and rocket artillery, and a military version of FedEx. Uniformed officers from more than two dozen countries try to match Ukraine’s requests with donations from more than 40 nations, then arrange to move the shipments by air, land or sea from the donor countries to Ukraine’s border for pickup. All within about 72 hours.

 Associated Press, Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime,’ Susie Blann, July 26, 2022 (print eds.). Russia’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its “unacceptable regime,” expressing the Kremlin’s war aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with artillery barrages and airstrikes.

The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, comes amid Ukraine’s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports, something that would help ease global food shortages, under a new deal tested by a Russian strike on Odesa over the weekend.

Speaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, Lavrov accused Kyiv and its Western allies of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine “becomes the eternal enemy of Russia.”

“We are determined to help the people of eastern Ukraine to liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime,” he said. Apparently suggesting that Moscow’s war aims extend beyond Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region in the east, Lavrov said: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.”

Lavrov’s comments followed his warning last week that Russia plans to retain control over broader areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.

Lavrov’s remarks contrasted with the Kremlin’s line early in the war, when it repeatedly emphasized that Russia wasn’t seeking to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, even as Moscow’s troops closed in on Kyiv. Russia later retreated from around the capital and turned its attention to capturing the Donbas. The fighting is now in its sixth month.

New York Times, Ukraine Updates: Ukraine Is Poised for Major Southern Offensive, Michael Schwirtz, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Ukrainian forces are preparing for what is one the most ambitious and significant military actions of the war: retaking Kherson.

With its sights set on Kherson, the economically vital port city that fell to Russian forces in the first days of the war, the Ukrainian military is destroying Russian ammunition depots, hitting command posts and targeting supply lines. The coming fight with deeply entrenched Russian forces will likely be brutal.

• A U.S. intelligence report finds that Russia’s use of ‘filtration centers’ to detain and deport Ukrainians has intensified

The road to Russian-occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine passes through a no-man’s land of charred wheat fields and cratered villages. The tails of rockets stick out of asphalt and the boom of incoming and outgoing artillery ricochets off tidy abandoned homes.

The first city to fall to Russian forces, Kherson and the fertile lands that surround it are a key Russian beachhead, from which its military continuously launches attacks across a broad swath of Ukrainian territory. Regaining control could also help restore momentum to Ukraine, and give its troops a much-needed morale boost, after months of vicious fighting.

“We want to liberate our territory and return it all to our control,” said Senior Lt. Sergei Savchenko, whose unit with Ukraine’s 28th Brigade is dug in along the Kherson Region’s western border. “We’re ready. We have wanted this for a long time.”

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Updates: Russian Strikes on Odesa Raise Doubts About Grain Deal
• New York Times, Last Stand at Azovstal: Inside the Siege That Shaped the Ukraine War, Michael Schwirtz
• New York Times, As Prices Soar in Ukraine, War Adds Economic Havoc to the Human Toll
• Washington Post, Odessa attack will not impede grain exports, Russia says
• Washington Post, Tensions high between Israel, Russia over looming ban of Jewish Agency
• Washington Post, Moldova ‘very worried’ Russia may invade, prime minister says
• Washington Post, Editorial: Putin attacks Odessa and a hungry world’s hopes

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

Mark Ponder strikes an officer with a pole at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 (Associated Press photo via U.S. Justice Department).

Washington Post, D.C. man gets 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot, Spencer S. Hsu, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). Mark K. Ponder, 56, was handed a 63-month prison term for attacking police in the Capitol riot.

A District man who assaulted three police officers and shattered a riot shield with a pole was sentenced to 63 months in prison Tuesday, matching the longest sentence handed down to a defendant convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

Mark K. Ponder, 56, admitted to fighting with police in video-recorded confrontations between 2:31 p.m. and 2:48 p.m. that day in the area of the lower west terrace of the Capitol, which was overrun by a violent mob angered by President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Ponder pleaded guilty April 22 to one count of assaulting an officer using a dangerous weapon.

“He was leading the charge,” U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said, reciting at sentencing how Ponder smashed a thin pole against an officer’s riot shield so hard that the pole broke and the shield shattered, then found a thicker pole, colored red, white and blue, and resumed fighting.

“He wasn’t defending himself or anybody else. He was attempting to injure those officers, and we are lucky [someone] was not killed with the force Mr. Ponder is swinging those poles,” the judge said.

Chutkan in December handed down a similar 63-month sentence to Robert S. Palmer, 54, of Largo, Fla., who joined the front of the mob and hurled a fire extinguisher, plank and pole at police.

Like Palmer, Ponder was “part of a group who, when they couldn’t get what they wanted, decided they were going to take it. And they were going to take it with violence,” Chutkan said, saying they felt entitled “to attack law enforcement officers who were just doing their jobs.”

Ponder has a right to his political beliefs, the judge said, but in this case he participated with violent extremists in a riot that “exposed — and maybe caused — cracks in our democracy.”

Law&Crime, Man Once Implicated in Assault of Capitol Cop Who Died After Jan. 6 Has Pleaded Down to a Pair of Misdemeanors, Meghann Cuniff and Adam Klasfeld, July 27, 2022. A West Virginia man previously accused of assaulting U.S. Capitol police officer who died after Jan. 6 pleaded down on Wednesday to a pair of much less serious misdemeanor offenses. Prosecutors said they offered his co-defendant a plea deal that would include felony charges of assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon.

George Tanios, 40, pleaded guilty before a federal judge entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly conduct inside a restricted building or grounds. Prosecutors initially charged Tanios and co-defendant Julian Khater on a raft of serious, identical charges, including assaulting Officer Brian Sicknick, shown above, who later died.

Khater faces an estimated 78 to 97 months in prison if he agrees to plead guilty to two felony charges of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon, a prosecutor told U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan on Wednesday.

Only Khater, however, was accused of actually dousing law enforcement with chemical spray, and Tanios previously stood accused of coordinating the attacks. Now, the men’s cases appear to be on the verge of vastly different outcomes. The two misdemeanor offenses Tanios pleaded guilty to each carry a maximum one-year sentence, a $100,000 fine and a year of probation, but prosecutors calculated his guidelines range at less than six months. Hogan, a Ronald Reagan appointee, scheduled sentencing for Dec. 6.

If Khater accepts the offer, and is sentenced within the proposed guidelines range, he would serve what is currently the longest sentence to date on the Jan. 6 docket. That record is currently held by Mark K. Ponder and Robert Scott Palmer, both of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement. Judge Hagan set another hearing for Khater for Aug. 24.

Authorities did not blame either of the men for Sicknick’s death, which the D.C. medical examiner later attributed to natural causes.

In their initial filings, federal authorities said that open source video showed both of the men discussing spraying police.

“Give me that bear shit,” Khater allegedly told Tanios.

“Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet… its still early,” Tanios was quoted responding.

Washington Post, More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Aadit Tambe, Sahana Jayaraman and Adrian Blanco, July 27, 2022. As of July 18, 842 suspects have been federally charged in the Justice Department’s probe of the Capitol insurrection.

Most of those cases are ongoing.116 defendants await sentencing after they either pleaded guilty or were convicted. About 1 in 4, or 218 defendants, have been sentenced so far.

• New York Times, Analysis: Urgency of Jan. 6 and Georgia Inquiries Puts Pressure on Garland, Michael S. Schmidt, July 26, 2022 (print ed).The continued revelations from the House committee and the aggressiveness of prosecutors in Georgia have left the U.S. Justice Department on the defensive.

Associated Press via Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi resident, Memphis businessman Matthew Bledsoe convicted of 5 charges related to Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Staff Report, July 24, 2022. A Tennessee business owner who scaled a wall outside the U.S. Capitol has been convicted of five charges connected to the raid on Jan. 6, 2021.

Matthew Bledsoe, 38, of Olive Branch, Mississippi, was found guilty Thursday of one felony — obstruction of an official proceeding — and four misdemeanors related to the Capitol breach, the Justice Department said in a statement.

FBI Agents received a tip that Matthew Bledsoe had been part of the group that entered the Capitol Building in D.C. illegally. They received a video compilation that was posted to his Instagram account, "theessentialmattbledsoe."
Federal prosecutors said Bledsoe was one of scores of people who forced their way into the Capitol as Congress met to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. They said he illegally entered the Capitol grounds and scaled a wall to reach a fire door on the Senate side of the building.

Bledsoe is listed in records as a principal of a Memphis, Tennessee moving company and authorities said he lived in nearby Cordova when he was arrested.

The FBI received a video compilation that was posted to Matthew Bledsoe's Instagram account, "theessentialmattbledsoe."
Bledsoe faces up to 20 years in prison on the felony count and up to three years on the misdemeanors at his sentencing on Oct. 21. More than 850 people have been charged with crimes related to the attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

Recent Headlines

• Axios Sneak Peek, Members of the House Jan. 6 committee are split on whether to condemn the growing trend of Democrats meddling in GOP primaries to boost pro-Trump election deniers — a tactic designed to secure more favorable matchups in the general election, Alayna Treene
• Washington Post, Trump didn’t want to call for Jan. 6 rioters’ prosecution, new video shows
• New York Times, Prosecutor Is Barred From Pursuing Criminal Case Against Trump Ally
• Washington Post, Arizona fake-electors subpoenas show breadth of DOJ Jan. 6 probe
• New York Times, Former Top Pence Aide Testifies to Grand Jury in Jan. 6 Investigation
• New York Times, Analysis: Urgency of Jan. 6 and Georgia Inquiries Puts Pressure on Garland, Michael S. Schmidt
• Washington Post, Investigation: The Claremont Institute ascended in the Trump years. Then came Jan. 6., Marc Fisher and Isaac Stanley-Becker

U.S. Politics, Governance, Education, Economy

Washington Post, Opinion: Pence gets dissed again — and he ‘deserves it,’ Dana Milbank, right, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). The former vice president deserves at least a modicum of sympathy after all he’s been through.

He came perilously close, we now know, to what his then-chief of staff says “would have been a massacre” on Jan. 6. Secret Service agents protecting Pence called their family members to say goodbye as the rioters closed in. President Donald Trump was at best indifferent to his vice president’s prospective demise, saying Pence “deserves it” for doing his constitutional duty and certifying the election results.

And now? The man who left Pence for dead continues to be lionized by the Republican Party — while Pence can’t even get a table at Olive Garden.

“I can confirm now with personal experience,” Pence said Tuesday at a highly anticipated speech in Washington, “you can actually be a congressman from your home state for 12 years, you can be the governor of your home state for four, you can even be vice president of the United States of America. But you’re still going to wait 25 minutes for a table at Olive Garden on Saturday night at 7 o’clock.” Pence concluded from this humiliating episode, “Only in America.”

The audience of college students, at the Young America Foundation, seemed not to know what to make of Pence’s story, and reacted with scattered applause.

There was reason for their confusion: Everybody knows that if there’s a wait at Olive Garden, you go to Red Lobster instead.

Waiting for his Lasagna Fritta is the least of the indignities Pence is enduring at the moment. Naturally, he’s getting no credit from fellow Republicans for standing up for democracy that day in early 2021. And, as he floats his 2024 presidential candidacy, he’s trying feebly to differentiate himself from his former boss and tormentor — while simultaneously praising his former boss and tormentor. The result is a profile in timidity.

Washington Post, Analysis: DeSantis and other GOP candidates are ditching ‘legacy media’ for friendly outlets, David Weigel, July 27, 2022. Social media, and decades of investment in conservative outlets, have made it easy for Republicans to reach voters outside of the “legacy” filter.

Washington Post, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw makes sure reporters feel the burn, Paul Farhi, July 27, 2022. Known for her aggressive Twitter comments and brusque treatment of the media, the Florida governor’s press secretary has used taunts to solidify a tough image.

The derisive tone was typical of Pushaw, 31, a state employee who earns $120,000 a year. In the 14 months since joining DeSantis’s staff, she has transformed the typically buttoned-down role of gubernatorial press secretary into something like a running public brawl — with Twitter as her blunt-force weapon. Her usual targets: Democrats, the news media and anyone else she deems insufficiently supportive of DeSantis’s agenda and her own conservative politics.

None of Pushaw’s public dust-ups seems to have ruffled her boss, DeSantis, who is widely considered a leading contender to challenge former president Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination. On occasion, he has defended Pushaw, who has loyally promoted his agenda, which has included a string of legislative victories on culture-war issues, such as passage of the gender-discussion bill and a ban on teaching critical race theory.

New York Times, Class Divisions Harden Into Battle Lines in Arizona’s Republican Primary, Jack Healy, July 27, 2022. The race has highlighted a gap between voters who have profited from Arizona’s prosperity, and those who are eager to punish the G.O.P. establishment. 

As Shardé Walter’s family cut back on everything from camping trips to Eggo waffles to balance their inflation-strained budget this summer, she became more and more fed up with the Republicans who have governed Arizona for more than a decade.

“You’ve got those hoity-toity Republicans, and then you’ve got ones like me — just trying to live,” Ms. Walter, 36, said as she waited for former President Donald J. Trump to arrive at a rally on Friday for his slate of candidates in Arizona’s bitterly fought Republican primaries.

“We’re busting our asses off,” she continued, “but we’re broke for no reason.”

The Aug. 2 Republican primary in Arizona has been cast as a party-defining contest between traditional Republicans and Trump loyalists, with the power to reshape a political battleground at the heart of fights over voting rights and fair elections. Several leading Republican candidates in Arizona for governor, secretary of state, attorney general and U.S. Senate have made lies about the “stolen” 2020 election a centerpiece of their campaigns.

New York Times, OAN, a Dependable Promoter of Donald Trump, Faces a ‘Death Blow,’ Jeremy W. Peters and Benjamin Mullin, July 27, 2022.  After Verizon drops One America News at the end of this week, the cable network will have lost its presence in some 20 million homes this year

The future of One America News, which established itself as a powerful voice in conservative media by promoting some of the most outlandish falsehoods about the 2020 election, is in serious doubt as major carriers drop it from their lineups and defamation lawsuits threaten to drain its finances.

By the end of this week, the cable network will have lost its presence in some 20 million homes this year. The most recent blow came from Verizon, which will stop carrying OAN on its Fios television service starting Saturday. That will starve the network of a major stream of revenue: the fees it collects from Verizon, which counts roughly 3.5 million cable subscribers. In April, OAN was dropped by AT&T’s DirecTV, which has about 15 million subscribers.

OAN’s remaining audience will be small. The network will soon be available only to a few hundred thousand people who subscribe to smaller cable providers, such as Frontier and GCI Liberty, said Scott Robson, a senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. OAN also sells its programming directly to users through its OAN Live and KlowdTV streaming platforms, but those products most likely provide a fraction of the revenue generated by traditional TV providers.

Former U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott, seen here at the Mississippi Capitol in 2015 in Associated Press photo, was terminated by the Mississippi Department of Human Services, which had contracted with him to claw back misspent federal funds in the state’s sprawling welfare scandal. Pigott had most recently filed a subpoena that requested communication of former Gov. Phil Bryant.

Mississippi Today, Former Gov. Phil Bryant subpoenaed, Anna Wolfe, July 27, 2022.  Nancy New’s attorney has filed a subpoena directly on former Gov. Phil Bryant for documents related to the use of federal welfare funds to build a volleyball stadium at his alma mater, University of Southern Mississippi — information the state has appeared intent on concealing.

“We have no confidence that the state will follow through with its subpoena or pursue the evidence wherever it leads,” said Gerry Bufkin, the attorney for New and the nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center. “We’re going to find the truth, even if we have to drag it kicking and screaming into the light.”

Bufkin’s subpoena asks Bryant, right, to produce any of his communication surrounding the USM volleyball stadium and efforts to fund it. This marks the first known time the former governor, who oversaw the welfare agency while the misspending occurred, has been compelled to provide documents related to his involvement in the scheme.

The attorney also filed subpoenas on the USM Athletic Foundation, and on the Attorney General’s Office and Institutes of Higher Learning — two state agencies that approved the project. These three entities, as well as a spokesperson for Bryant, did not return requests for comment to Mississippi Today on Wednesday morning.

Background:

• Mississippi Today (Nonprofit Mississippi News), Welfare head says surprise subpoena led to attorney’s firing, Anna Wolfe
• New York Times, Mississippi Fires Lawyer Trying to Recoup Misused Welfare Funds, Richard Fausset and Rick Rojas

Associated Press via Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger, Nancy, Zach New plead guilty in Mississippi welfare misspending, Emily Wagster Pettus, April 26, 2022. A mother and son who ran a nonprofit group and an education company in Mississippi pleaded guilty Tuesday to state charges of misusing public money that was intended to help some of the poorest people in the nation.

Nancy New and Zachary New acknowledged spending welfare grant money on lavish gifts that included first-class airfare for John Davis, executive director of the state Department of Human Services from 2016 to 2019.

Nancy New, 69, and Zachary New, 39, agreed to testify against others in what the state auditor has called Mississippi's largest public corruption case in the past two decades. Davis is among those facing state charges.

Federal and state prosecutors said after Tuesday's court session that they have not ruled out bringing charges against other people, but two state judges have issued orders prohibiting those involved in the cases from discussing them publicly.

Washington Post, House progressives balk at police funding bills, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Theodoric Meyer and Tobi Raji, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). House Democrats plan to bring the bills to the floor later this week at the request of moderate Democrats to blunt political attacks by Republicans that Democrats are soft on crime and want to “defund the police.”

Progressives and their voters have been highly critical of additional funding for law enforcement without new policies governing policing practices following the killings in recent years of Black Americans in high-profile cases involving allegations and convictions of excessive force and the mistreatment of communities of color. They have asked Democratic leadership to reconsider putting the bills on the floor, arguing that it will suppress Democratic turnout in the midterms and risk dividing the party.

The lawmakers are taking issue, in particular, with two bills that would provide additional funding for police without any new policing policies attached, including a grant program to hire additional police officers from Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and a second measure from Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) to provide grants to police departments with less than 200 officers.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Investigation: Shocking sex ed ‘grooming’ claim jolted Nebraska politics months before it swept U.S., Beth Reinhard and Emma Brown
• Washington Post, On the campaign trail, some Republicans see a civil war
• New York Times, After Recent Turmoil, the Race for Texas Governor Is Tightening
• Washington Post, House progressives balk at police funding bills
• Politico, Hogan says he won't support party’s nominee in Maryland governor contest
• Washington Post, Opinion: Distinguished pol of the week: Her post-Dobbs strategy is working splendidly, Jennifer Rubin
• Washington Post, Who is Wes Moore, the projected Democratic nominee for Maryland’s governor?
• Washington Post, Analysis: The education of Adam Kinzinger, Paul Kane
• New York Times, The U.S. Needs to Keep Building Houses, Even if No One Wants to Buy
• Washington Post, Pence, moving toward a White House run, steps away from Trump
• Washington Post, Wes Moore vs. Dan Cox: A fight for Md. governor that will echo downballot

Media, Religion, Education, Sports News

Washington Post, Now on the tee for LIV Golf: Trump National and the polarizing former president, Josh Dawsey and Rick Maese, July 27, 2022. Former president Donald Trump joins hands this week with the biggest controversy in sports when his New Jersey golf club hosts the latest event in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, further cementing his relationship with Saudi Arabia and angering families of 9/11 victims who have decried the start-up venture as “sportswashing.”

While the renegade golf circuit has staged two other events, including another in the United States, this week’s event at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., promises to be an even more glaring flash point, given its proximity to Manhattan and the involvement of the ex-president.

In recent days, Trump has publicly and privately dismissed human rights concerns about the Saudi kingdom and railed against the professional golf establishment. He is expected to attend every day of this weekend’s event and has been in contact for months with organizers on event details, according to an adviser, who said Trump remains livid with PGA of America officials who moved the 2022 PGA Championship from his Bedminster club following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Doral, his club outside Miami, will host another LIV Golf event in October.

National Press Club, Statement By National Press Club On LIV Golf Event At Trump Course, July 26, 2022. The following is a statement by Jen Judson, President of the National Press Club, and Gil Klein, President of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, on the LIV golf tournament taking place this weekend in Bedminster, N.J.

“We are revolted by the way the Saudi-funded LIV enterprise has followed the fist bump in the desert by shoving themselves onto golf courses and television screens. We call on all Americans to see this unsavory attempt to minimize the grisly bone-saw attack on Washington Post opinion writer Jamal Khashoggi for what it is – an attempt to sweep under the rug a brutal state-sponsored murder. We call on people of conscience to reject this tournament. Do not attend. Do not watch it on television. Let it fail.

“That the tournament is being held at a course owned by former President Trump is, if possible, even more revolting. It reminds us that the former President bragged of distracting Congress from the murder, delaying the release of the final U.S. government report that concluded MBS, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (and recipient of the fist-bump from President Biden) was most likely involved in planning and approving Jamal’s murder. And the tournament on the Trump course reminds us how Saudi Arabia finds ways to personally enrich Trump and his family – including $2 billion to his son in law.

“We note that at one of LIV’s first news conferences their officials shouted down a question from an AP reporter and escorted him from the room saying that he was being rude. That is how the LIV episode started. They silenced the press. Again.

“Finally, we note that LIV is currently seeking representation by a public relations firm to make the slaughter of a journalist more acceptable to the American public through golf. We call on public relations firms, many of whom employ former journalists, to reject this blood money. We understand that clients need representation, but it seems reasonable to draw the line at clients that use a bone saw on a journalist. We hope the prospective PR firm thinks very carefully before agreeing to work for LIV. Their association with LIV will define who they are and damage their carefully developed reputation. This will not be good for their other clients or their business. We suggest they stay on the fairway.”

About The National Press Club: Founded in 1908, the National Press Club is the world’s leading professional organization for journalists. The Club has 3,000 members representing nearly every major news organization and is a leading voice for press freedom in the United States and around the world.

About The National Press Club Journalism Institute: The National Press Club Journalism Institute promotes an engaged, global citizenry through an independent and free press and equips journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire civic engagement.

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Commentary: The new East-West Cold War is a war of dueling lists; it should be more than that, Wayne Madsen, left, July 27, 2022. Russia and, to a lesser extent, China have created enemies’ lists of countries with which they have reserved the right to target in cyber-propaganda operations via social media platforms, cyber-sabotage, election interference, and debasement of political and cultural institutions.

Russia’s “enemies list” is formally known as the “Unfriendly Countries List.” Created in May 2021 in the wake of sanctions imposed on Russia for espionage and other hostile activities, the list originally included only two nations. They were the United States, which continued to suffer political destabilization in the wake of Russia-backed Donald Trump’s attempt to stage a coup d’état to remain in power following his 2020 electoral loss, and the Czech Republic, which accused Russian GRU military intelligence’s Unit 29155 of blowing up ammunition depots in the town of Vrbetice, near the late Ivana Trump’s hometown of Zlin, in 2014.

Some of Moscow’s propaganda mouthpieces in the West have earned them the distinction of being placed by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation on a Ukrainian list of propagandists for Russia.

They include former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard; U.S. Sen. Rand Paul; polemicist Glenn Greenwald; U.S. military analyst Edward Luttwak; retired U.S. Army Colonel and January 6 coup plotter Douglas Macgregor; Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the widow of Lyndon LaRouche and the head of what remains of his movement; U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs; former CIA analyst Ray McGovern; former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter; and American “shock and awe” military doctrine developer and onetime DC Madam client Harlan Ullman.

Law&Crime, Former Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann Loses Defamation Lawsuits Against CBS, ABC, NYT, and Others, Aaron Keller, July 27, 2022. A federal judge in Kentucky ruled that Sandmann's lawsuits against five media companies could not survive summary judgment.

After years of politically charged litigation, former Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann has lost a round of high-profile defamation lawsuits against five mainstream media companies at the summary judgment stage. That’s according to court dockets and an opinion and order signed by a federal judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky on Tuesday.

Sandmann’s cases against ABC News, Rolling Stone magazine, CBS News, newspaper and television station owner Gannett, and The New York Times are now officially listed as “terminated” on the court record.

Sandmann sued the five organizations in question — and a few others, including CNN and NBC — on March 2, 2020. The lawsuits alleged that various articles and broadcasts defamed Sandmann by characterizing his actions toward Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist, on Jan. 18, 2019 in Washington, D.C., as nefarious. From Sandmann’s original lawsuit against ABC:

Law&Crime, Dallas Jury Hits Charter Spectrum with $7 Billion Verdict After Cable Installer Robbed and Murdered an Elderly Woman, Adam Klasfeld, July 27, 2022. Charter Communications must pay the family of a 83-year-old woman murdered by her cable installer more than $7 billion, a Dallas jury ruled. The jurors found that the company ignored red flags about its employee and forged documents to minimize their liabilities.

On Dec. 11, 2019, Spectrum sent Roy Holden, Jr. to the home of the elderly Betty Thomas, who reported problems with her bundled phone, TV, and internet service. Returning to her home the next day, Holden arrived in his Spectrum car and uniform and told Thomas that he had to perform follow-up repairs, but he wasn’t on the clock. He stabbed her to death and stole her wallet and ID, reportedly using her debit card hours after her murder.

Holden later pleaded guilty to Thomas’s murder and is serving a life sentence.

“This was a shocking breach of faith by a company that sends workers inside millions of homes every year,” trial lawyer Chris Hamilton, who represented the family with Dallas-based firm Hamilton Wingo, said in a statement. “The jury in this case was thoughtful and attentive to the evidence. This verdict justly reflects the extensive evidence regarding the nature of the harm caused by Charter Spectrum’s gross negligence and reckless misconduct. For the safety of the American public, we can only hope that Charter Spectrum and its shareholders are listening.”

The massive verdict represents more than eight percent of Charter Communications’ market capitalization, currently estimated at more than $80 billion. The company operates under the name Spectrum.

Washington Post, Facebook workers fear cuts after blunt warnings from Zuckerberg, leaders, Naomi Nix, July 27, 2022. Once the symbol of Silicon Valley’s prosperity, Meta executives are outlining a new era of high performance expectations and slowed hiring, amid economic challenges.

Facebook has a message for employees, one delivered relentlessly by executives in recent weeks: It’s time to shape up.

In a memo earlier this month, the company’s top human resources officer advised team leaders to return to the “rigorous performance management” practices that Facebook used before the coronavirus pandemic, including giving critical feedback to struggling employees.

“If someone is still unable to meet expectations with that additional support, transitioning them out of Meta is the right thing to do,” wrote Lori Goler in a memo viewed by The Washington Post.

The missive, one of multiple recent such messages to the workforce at the social media giant, is part of a broader crackdown following years of laxer management practices, according to current and former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters and internal message posts obtained by The Washington Post.

Recent Headlines

• OpEd News, 10th Annual Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival Celebrates Whistleblowers from Knapp to Now!
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• New York Times, As Jan. 6 Panel’s Evidence Piled Up, Conservative Media Doubled Down
• Washington Post, College alumni groups spread nationally to counter ‘cancel culture’
• New York Times, Jared Kushner Says He Was Treated for Thyroid Cancer While in White House
• Washington Post, Chips funding bill faces a final vote in Senate this week
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• New York Times, Ties Between Alex Jones and Radio Network Show Economics of Misinformation

More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

New York Times, Assault Rifle Makers Earned Over $1 Billion as Violence Surged, Report Says, Annie Karni, July 27, 2022. A House panel found that the companies have thrived in the past decade by selling and marketing military-grade weapons to civilians, specifically young men.

The leading manufacturers of assault rifles used to perpetrate the deadliest mass shootings in the United States have collected more than $1 billion in revenue over the past decade as gun violence across the country has surged, according to a House investigation set to be presented on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

The findings, released before a congressional hearing on Wednesday on the marketing of assault rifles, indicate that the gun industry has thrived by selling and marketing military-grade weapons to civilians, specifically targeting and playing to the insecurities of young men, while some have made thinly veiled references to white supremacist groups.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform opened an investigation into the gun manufacturing industry in May after the gun massacre in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers and a racially motivated mass shooting in a Buffalo supermarket that killed 10 people.

Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics, Shawn Boburg and Jon Swaine, July 26, 2022 (print ed.). Sales soared in the past decade at Daniel Defense, the maker of the gun used in the Uvalde shooting, as it employed aggressive marketing tactics to sell AR-style rifles.

A rapidly growing manufacturer of AR-15-style rifles tried to run an ad during the Super Bowl in 2014, knowing that the NFL typically does not allow gun commercials during its marquee event.

But Daniel Defense — the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in the Uvalde school shooting — privately had in place a plan to generate publicity whether the ad aired or not, according to previously unreported court documents that shed light on the gunmaker’s marketing strategies.

If it aired, Daniel Defense’s top marketing executive planned to have people across the country complain about the company’s own ad to left-leaning media organizations, stirring controversy and generating coverage.

If the ad was rejected, records show, the executive had arranged for a prominent National Rifle Association commentator to release a prerecorded online video accusing the National Football League of censorship and hypocrisy.

Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career, Joanna Slater, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Buffalo Rep. Chris Jacobs was once considered a rising star in the GOP. But his support of an assault weapons ban cost him

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, With Gun Bill and Attack Ads, Newsom Raises Profile Using Hardball Tactics
• New York Times, 4 Dead After Iowa State Park Shooting, Authorities Say
• Washington Post, Congress wants more red-flag laws. But GOP states, gun groups resist
• New York Times, Jury Weighs Death Penalty for Gunman in Parkland School Massacre

Energy, Climate, Environment

New York Times, Germany Counts on Chilled Gas to Keep Warm Over Winter, Melissa Eddy and Stanley Reed, Photographs by Patrick Junker, July 27, 2022. As Russia squeezes the flow of natural gas, German officials are turning toward an option they had earlier disregarded: liquefied natural gas.

When a major energy company wanted to bring liquefied natural gas to Germany through the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven three years ago, the proposal hit a brick wall. The company couldn’t find enough customers, the government offered only tepid support and residents denounced the scheme as a threat to a local apple orchard.

“Apple juice, not L.N.G.,” protesters said. The company, Uniper, shelved its plans.

Now, steel pipes are being rammed into the sea floor to prepare for the arrival of a nearly thousand-foot-long L.N.G. processing vessel, the Höegh Esperanza. Nearby, construction crews in bulldozers are digging along the perimeter of a forest to clear the way for a new 20-mile pipeline to connect to Germany’s gas grid.

The hope is for gas to start arriving here before the end of winter, Uniper said, as the demand for heating homes soars.

New York Times, Anti-U.N. Protests in Congo Leave 15 Dead, Including 3 Peacekeepers, Steve Wembi and Abdi Latif Dahir, July 27, 2022. Demonstrators have accused international forces of failing to deter armed groups responsible for a wave of deadly attacks.

At least 15 people, including three U.N. peacekeepers, have been killed and 60 others injured in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo in an escalation of dayslong protests against the United Nations in a mineral-rich region that has been ravaged by incessant deadly violence.

Two Indian police officers and one Moroccan military member were killed on Tuesday when protesters breached the United Nations compound in Butembo, a city in the province of North Kivu, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the global organization, said at a briefing in New York. An Egyptian police officer was also injured, Mr. Haq added.

“Violent attackers snatched weapons from Congolese police and fired upon our uniformed personnel,” Mr. Haq said in the briefing on Tuesday, adding that “hundreds of assailants” had also targeted other U.N. bases in North Kivu by “throwing stones and petrol bombs, breaking into bases, looting and vandalizing and setting facilities on fire.”

Their actions, he said, were “fueled by hostile remarks and threats made by individuals and groups against the U.N., particularly on social media.”

The Congolese government expressed regret over the deaths on Tuesday and called for calm from the population in the region. “Nothing can justify any form of violence,” Patrick Muyaya, a government spokesman, said at a news conference in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.

New York Times, ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’: Congo to Sell Land for Drilling, Ruth Maclean and Dionne Searcey, Updated July 25, 2022. Rainforests in the Congo protect the planet by storing carbon. Now, in a giant leap backward for the climate, they’re being auctioned off for drilling.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, home to one of the largest old-growth rainforests on earth, is auctioning off vast amounts of land in a push to become “the new destination for oil investments,” part of a global shift as the world retreats on fighting climate change in a scramble for fossil fuels.

The oil and gas blocks, which will be auctioned in late July, extend into Virunga National Park, the world’s most important gorilla sanctuary, as well as tropical peatlands that store vast amounts of carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere and from contributing to global warming.

“If oil exploitation takes place in these areas, we must expect a global climate catastrophe, and we will all just have to watch helplessly,” said Irene Wabiwa, who oversees the Congo Basin forest campaign for Greenpeace in Kinshasa.

Congo’s about-face in allowing new oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas comes eight months after its president, Félix Tshisekedi, stood alongside world leaders at the global climate summit in Glasgow and endorsed a 10-year agreement to protect its rainforest, part of the vast Congo Basin, which is second in size only to the Amazon.

The deal included international pledges of $500 million for Congo, one of the world’s poorest nations, over the first five years.

But since then, the world’s immediate priorities have shifted.

 Washington Post, Heat to wane in Northeast as Pacific Northwest prepares to roast, Matthew Cappucci, July 26, 2022 (print ed). A burgeoning heat wave in the Pacific Northwest will push temperatures above 110 degrees in some areas and will persist for days.

Heat alerts blanket the Pacific Northwest, including much of Oregon and Washington state, where temperatures are set to spike to 110 degrees in the days ahead. Northern California will be affected, as well, the atmospheric blowtorch coming as fires torch the Golden State, including the swiftly moving Oak Fire, whose explosive growth has triggered numerous evacuations and a state of emergency.
10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint

Daily high temperatures about 10 to 20 degrees above average will persist through at least the end of the workweek, with elevated highs sticking around into the weekend. Several records will be set. Heat index values could reach dangerous levels.

London hit 104 degrees. How hot would that be where you live?

The episode coincides with the conclusion of a heat wave that brought highs in the upper 90s to near 100 in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic. Boston jumped to 100 degrees on Sunday, something that happens only every couple of years on average. Newark hit the century mark for five consecutive days ending Sunday, the longest such streak on record, although there are questions about whether its temperature readings are reliable.

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Heat Records Expected to Be Broken in the U.S. on Sunday
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• Washington Post, Heat scorches Northeast as temperatures skyrocket to dangerous levels
• New York Times, E.U. officials want lower natural gas consumption. Here are four strategies that nations could use
• Washington Post, Western Japan volcano, Sakurajima, erupts; alert level raised

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime

 Law&Crime, Mississippi Man Arrested After Viral Video Shows Driver Using Racial Slur and Laughing About ‘Points’ as He Aims His Car for 9 Black Youths Riding Bikes, Colin Kalmbacher, July 27, 2022. Mark Hall, 49, has been charged with nine counts of misdemeanor simple assault – attempt by physical menace to create fear after allegedly driving his vehicle through a group of nine Black children who were riding their bicycles down the street.

The incident occurred at around 3:00 p.m. in Ripley, Miss. on Sunday, July 24, 2022. A video showing a man driving through the crowd of minors was uploaded to Snapchat the next day and was shared thousands of times after a copy was posted on Facebook.

In the video, the man driving accelerates to nearly 40 mph and can be heard saying something about “points” before he drives through the group of children. After causing them to rush and scatter to avoid being hit by his car, the driver laughs and says: “Stupid [N-word]s.”

Some of the teens recounted the horrific experience to local media.

Law&Crime, Dozens of Inmates Raped, Assaulted, and Harassed After Jailer Sold Male Prisoner a Key to Women's Wing, Federal Lawsuit Claims, Colin Kalmbacher, July 26, 2022. At least 28 women have filed federal civil rights lawsuits alleging they were attacked, harassed, and sexually assaulted in a southern Indiana jail after an officer sold access to the woman’s wing of the lockup facility. Several additional plaintiffs are said to be on the way.

One complaint alleges that “multiple female inmates of the Clark County Jail” were assaulted by male inmates on the night of Oct. 24, 2021 and names Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel as the lead defendant. Also named is the since-fired employee who allegedly provided access by way of selling a key for $1,000. Several currently unidentified members of the sheriff’s department are also in the lawsuit’s crosshairs.

“The males threatened, assaulted, and raped the females over the course of multiple hours,” the first lawsuit filed last month on behalf of 20 women says. “The male inmates gained access to the females pods through use of a key provided by corrections officer David Lowe. As a direct and proximate cause of the actions of Defendants, [the female inmates] suffered horrific physical and psychological injuries.”

The newer lawsuit, filed Monday, says the incident began on the night of October 23, 2021 and carried on into the early morning hours of the next day — “resulting in significant physical and emotional injuries.”

“Amazingly, even though there were surveillance cameras positioned in locations that showed the male detainees accessing the woman’s Pods, and even though the incident involved multiple male detainees and dozens of victims over an extended period of time, not a single jail officer on duty that night came to the of Plaintiffs and the other victims,” the newer lawsuit alleges.

Law&Crime, Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Woman Who Left 10-Year-Old Child to Die in Locked Plastic Bin, Jerry Lamb, July 27, 2022. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction and death sentence for a woman who killed her 10-year-old cousin by locking the child in a plastic footlocker and leaving her to suffocate as punishment for stealing a popsicle.

The justices rejected Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen’s claim that her trial was “fundamentally flawed,” reasoning, among other things, that photos of the deceased child and a videotaped conversation she had with her husband in the interrogation room after they were arrested were properly admitted during her trial.

 Washington Post, National Guard member who sought out extremists, planned attack on police sentenced to prison, Salvador Rizzo, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). Francis P. Harker was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.

A former National Guard member who admitted in pleading guilty to a weapons charge that he sought out violent extremists and discussed a potential attack on Virginia Beach police was sentenced Monday to four years and nine months in prison.

Francis P. Harker, 22, of Norfolk, pleaded guilty to possessing several firearms while he was regularly using LSD and other drugs. He was sentenced Monday based on that offense, but prosecutors said it was “just the tip of the iceberg.”

A backpack in Harker’s car trunk contained ingredients for molotov cocktails, prosecutors said, and Harker “admitted to interacting online with members of a group called ‘The Base,’ ” a violent white-supremacist and anti-government group.

A magistrate judge found in November that Harker “traveled to Colorado to meet with the leader of a violent extremist group,” but the group is not named in court records.

Pentagon updates rules to address extremism in the military

Harker’s public defenders said he was “vulnerable and isolated,” suffering from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression and drug addiction, and was interested in white supremacism for the shock value and not out of ideological conviction. They had requested a sentence of three years in prison.

Washington Post, Benghazi attacker’s punishment was ‘unreasonably low,’ U.S. court finds, Rachel Weiner, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). The finding from an appeals court was part of Ahmed Abu Khattala’s effort to have his conviction overturned.

A Libyan militia leader involved in the deadly 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Libya was given an “unreasonably low” sentence, and his case must be sent back to a lower court for a new punishment, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Ahmed Abu Khattala was found guilty in a 2017 trial in D.C. federal court of engaging in terrorism, joining the Benghazi assault armed with a semiautomatic weapon and putting lives in danger through destruction of U.S. property. But jurors were not convinced he had any involvement in the murder of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and the three other Americans who died in the attack. He was acquitted on all but four out of 24 charges.

Khattala appealed his convictions, saying the evidence was flawed, the verdict inconsistent and the prosecutor’s closing argument prejudicial. The panel of appellate judges dismissed those claims, instead finding that Khattala — referred to in court filings as Khatallah — was rightly found guilty and that his 22-year prison sentence was “shockingly low and unsupportable.”

The fact that Khattala, 51, was acquitted of the most serious charges against him did not merit such a departure from federal guidelines recommending 30 years to life, the unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said.

Recent Headlines

• Politico, U.S. authorities hit former GOP Rep. Stephen Buyer with insider trading charges
• Law&Crime, R. Kelly's Former Manager and Adviser Pleads Guilty to Stalking One of the Singer's Victims and Her Mother
• Law&Crime, Judge Throws the Book at Montana Parents Who Killed 5-Year-Old Son, Says the Boy's 'Very Short Life' of 'Misery' Was 'Worse, Some Might Think, Than Death Itself,'
• OpEdNews, Opinion: The Whistleblower Crackdown, John Kiriakou
• ScheerPost, Commentary: CIA Vault 7 Leaker Found Guilty. What Did He Actually Reveal? John Kiriakou
• Law&Crime, Cop Who Lashed Out with N-Word Said Slur Slipped into Her Vocabulary from Music and 'Hearing People Talk on the Street': Authorities
• Law&Crime, ‘Go Die’: 7-Year-Old Girl Has Choice Words for Ohio Man Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Rape and Kidnapping
• Law&Crime, Texas Man Will Serve Three Life Sentences for Two Brutal Cold Case Murders and Arson Intended to Destroy Evidence
• Guardian, Ghislaine Maxwell moved to low-security prison in Florida
• Washington Post, Woman gets prison time after her GoFundMe duped donors out of $400,000
• New York Times, Sixth Teenager Charged in Central Park Jogger Case Is Exonerated
• New York Times, Opinion: Religious Doctrine, Not the Constitution, Drove the Dobbs Decision, Linda Greenhouse
• New York Times, After Roe, Republicans Sharpen Attacks on Gay and Transgender Rights, Trip Gabriel

Pandemic Public Health, Disasters

Politico, Biden tests negative, will end Covid isolation, Matt Berg, July 27, 2022. The president will make his first public appearance since his diagnosis later Wednesday morning.

President Joe Biden tested negative for Covid on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, his personal physician announced Wednesday, bringing to an apparent end the president’s brush with the virus.

Biden, who first tested positive for Covid late last week, will make his first public appearance since his diagnosis later Wednesday morning when he delivers remarks from the White House’s Rose Garden.

Politico, How Biden’s Covid turned Ashish Jha into the de facto White House doctor, Adam Cancryn, July 27, 2022. Three months into the job, the Covid response coordinator is trying to turn Biden's illness into a White House success story.

In the hours after President Joe Biden contracted the coronavirus, Ashish Jha began soliciting advice on how to navigate the biggest moment of his short White House career.

As the administration’s Covid response coordinator, Jha had more than enough experience talking to the public about the health consequences of the deadly, lingering pandemic. But this task was different. Now, he was being tapped to brief the nation on the status of the pandemic’s highest-profile patient.

Washington Post, Opinion: We must contain monkeypox before it becomes a broader threat, Leana S. Wen, right, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). We have the tools to stop this virus. We just need to use them.

Most Americans do not have to worry about contracting monkeypox right now. But we cannot discount the possibility that it becomes a broader threat. That’s why the World Health Organization was right to declare the disease a global health emergency and why containing it must be a top priority for the Biden administration.

Monkeypox is very different from the coronavirus. Unlike the coronavirus, which is an extremely contagious respiratory pathogen, monkeypox is primarily transmitted through prolonged skin-to-skin contact. You are highly unlikely to contract monkeypox by dining in the same restaurant or working in the same office as an infected person; transmission occurs through intimate contact such as hugging, kissing and sexual intercourse. Bed linens and towels used by someone with active lesions can also harbor the virus, making household members vulnerable to infection.

The nature of transmission means that monkeypox won’t spread like wildfire the way that covid-19 has. We also have a vaccine that works against monkeypox after someone has been exposed, which is not the case for the coronavirus. If you’ve been exposed to covid-19, there’s nothing you can do other than wait to test positive. But if you’re exposed to monkeypox, getting the vaccine — if done shortly after exposure — could prevent you from developing the disease.

• Washington Post, U.S. may need $7 billion for monkeypox, Biden administration estimates, Dan Diamond and Tony Romm, July 27, 2022.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Biden, in covid isolation, aims to show that presidential work goes on
• Washington Post, Biden covid symptoms continue to improve, White House says
• New York Times, W.H.O. Declares Monkeypox Spread a Global Health Emergency
• New York Times, Covid Live Updates: Biden’s Symptoms Have Improved, White House Physician Says
• Politico, The One Time Trump Couldn’t Lie His Way Out of a Crisis, Jonathan Lemire
• Washington Post, Biden tests positive for coronavirus, experiencing mild symptoms, White House says
• Washington Post, Amazon will see you now: Tech giant buys health-care chain for $3.9 billion
• New York Times, Scientists Scramble to Keep Up With Faster Coronavirus Evolution
• Washington Post, CDC stops reporting coronavirus cases on cruise ships
• Washington Post, Opinion: Gay men deserve the unvarnished truth about monkeypox, Benjamin Ryan
• Washington Post, Fauci says he will retire from government post by the end of Biden’s term

World News, Analysis

Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its own, Mary Ilyushina, July 27, 2022 (print ed.). Russia on Tuesday announced it will withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) project after 2024, signaling an end of an era in one of the last remaining areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States.
Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russia’s newly appointed head of space agency Roscosmos announced the decision in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, saying that the company will instead focus on building its own orbital station.

“We will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made,” the space agency chief Yury Borisov said.

Russian officials have discussed leaving the project since at least 2021, citing aging equipment and growing safety risks. The countries involved in the ISS agreed to use the station until 2024 and NASA planned to use the station until 2030.

But the ongoing rift between Moscow and Washington over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a barrage of economic restrictions seem to have accelerated the pullout. Last month, the previous head of Roscomos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that talks about Russian involvement after 2024 are possible only if the U.S. sanctions against the Russian space industry and other sectors of economy are lifted.

Washington Post, Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip, Christian Shepherd, Vic Chiang and Pei Lin Wu, July 27, 2022. Taiwan’s military pledged it is action-ready for a Ukraine-style response to invasion during annual drills this week, even as Taiwanese security experts downplay the odds of reckless Chinese aggression over a possible visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

On Wednesday on Bali beach, Taiwanese troops practiced repelling a potential amphibious assault along the stretch of waterfront connecting Taipei Port and the Tamsui River mouth, crucial to defending the capital city of Taipei.

The mock invasion comes at a high point of tension in the Taiwan Strait after Beijing lashed out at the United States over the potential Pelosi visit, sparking concern that the situation could spiral into the worst cross-strait crisis since the 1990s.

Pentagon calls out China’s military threats as Taiwan tensions worsen

The drills, part of a five-day program of civil and military preparedness exercises, began with explosions that sent clouds of black sand into the sky. The imitation enemy assault was met with helicopters, tanks and fighter jets, while army reservists manned a network of sandbag-lined trenches.

The exercises mimic wartime more closely than ever, and were designed after “closely monitoring the international situation as well as the war in Ukraine,” said Sun Li-fang, spokesperson for Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
A Taiwanese M60A3 tank fires during a drill in New Taipei City on Wednesday. (Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Sun added that, although the visit by Pelosi was only hypothetical, the Taiwanese army was already trained for China’s possible response and was confident that Taiwan could deal with whatever the People’s Liberation Army decides to do.

China claims Taiwan as its own and threatens to seize the self-governing island of 23 million if Taipei declares formal independence. Neither the leadership nor the people of democratic Taiwan have shown any interest in submitting to Chinese Communist Party rule.

To enforce its sovereignty claims over Taiwan, China has pursued a decades-long mission to diplomatically isolate Taipei, including voicing fierce opposition to international visits by other countries’ officials or lawmakers.

Wary of China threat, Taiwanese join Ukraine’s fight against Russia

Speaking to the Taiwan-hosted Ketagalan Forum — 2022 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue on Tuesday, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen underscored how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that “authoritarian regimes will not hesitate to violate the sovereignty of other states.”

Washington Post, Myanmar junta executes four pro-democracy activists, Rachel Pannett and Rebecca Tan, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Myanmar’s military junta has executed four pro-democracy activists, state media and the U.S. Embassy in Yangon reported, carrying out its first executions in more than three decades and defying international appeals for restraint.

The four men included two high-profile activists: Kyaw Min Yu, also known as Ko Jimmy, who rose to prominence in student uprisings in 1988, and Phyo Zeya Thaw, a hip-hop artist turned member of parliament who was widely admired among Myanmar’s youths.

Phyo Zeya Thaw, 41, and Ko Jimmy, 53, were convicted on terrorism charges and sentenced to death in closed-door trials last fall. The other two men executed were Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, state media reported, who were convicted of killing an alleged military informant.

Myanmar’s rebellion, divided, outgunned and outnumbered, fights on

Moe Zaw Oo, a member of the National Unity Government — an alliance of anti-junta groups, many of which are in exile — said NUG officials were alerted to the executions early Monday. “It’s unbelievable. … This will just create more violence across the country,” Moe Zaw Oo told The Washington Post.

New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan, Edward Wong, David E. Sanger and Amy Qin, July 26, 2022 (print ed). The Biden administration is anxious about China’s statements on Taiwan, with officials fearing Chinese leaders might try to move against the island.

The Biden administration has grown increasingly anxious this summer about China’s statements and actions regarding Taiwan, with some officials fearing that Chinese leaders might try to move against the self-governing island over the next year and a half — perhaps by trying to cut off access to all or part of the Taiwan Strait, through which U.S. naval ships regularly pass.

The internal worries have sharpened in recent days, as the administration quietly works to try to dissuade House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from going through with a proposed visit to Taiwan next month, U.S. officials say. Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, would be the first speaker to visit Taiwan since 1997, and the Chinese government has repeatedly denounced her reported plans and threatened retaliation.

U.S. officials see a greater risk of conflict and miscalculation over Ms. Pelosi’s trip as President Xi Jinping of China and other Communist Party leaders prepare in the coming weeks for an important political meeting in which Mr. Xi is expected to extend his rule.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Pakistani election upset favors Imran Khan’s return to power
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• New York Times, The downfall of Italy’s prime minister has raised concerns about Europe’s unity against Russian aggression
• Associated Press, Milley: China more aggressive, dangerous to US, allies
• Associated Press, Pope heads to Canada as Indigenous groups seek full apolog

U.S. Abortion Rights, Privacy, Trafficking

Washington Post, 19-year-old turns Gaetz insult into $115,000 abortion rights fundraiser, Andrew Jeong, July 27, 2022. Days after being publicly insulted by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Twitter, Olivia Julianna, a 19-year-old abortion rights advocate, wrote him a tongue-in-cheek thank-you note on the platform.

“Dear Matt, Although your intentions were hateful, your public shaming of my appearance has done nothing but benefit me,” she wrote after his tweet about her spurred a load of harassment — as well as a flood of donations to her reproductive rights advocacy organization.

In just about a day, she’s helped raise approximately $115,000 for the nonprofit Gen Z for Change.

At a rally last weekend in Tampa, Gaetz had mocked abortion rights activists, calling them “disgusting” and overweight. Olivia Julianna, who uses her first name and middle name publicly because of privacy concerns, criticized the remarks on Twitter, noting the sex-trafficking allegations against Gaetz. In apparent retaliation, Gaetz then tweeted an image of her next to a news story that mentioned his comments from the rally.

Gaetz is an ally of former president Donald Trump and was first elected to Congress in 2016, representing a district in the Florida Panhandle, an area that has voted heavily Republican in recent decades. He has expressed opposition to abortion and abortion rights advocates, and this month voted against two bills aimed at ensuring access to abortion. In May, Gaetz drew criticism for saying that those protesting the overturning of Roe v. Wade are “overeducated, under-loved millennials.”

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Interstate Abortion Travel Is Already Straining Parts of the System
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• Washington Post, Many HBCUs are in states that have banned abortions. Student leaders are taking action
• Washington Post, Opinion: I survived Epstein and Maxwell’s sex ring. Then the gaslighting began
• Washington Post, ‘The stakes could not be higher’: Kansas abortion vote set for Aug. 2
• Washington Post, A triumphant antiabortion movement begins to deal with its divisions

July 26

Top Headlines

• Washington Post, Biden slams Trump for watching Jan. 6 riot on television as police faced ‘medieval hell’
• Washington Post, Key Dems want DHS inspector general removed from Secret Service probe
• New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan
• New York Times, Former Top Pence Aide Testifies to Grand Jury in Jan. 6 Investigation
• New York Times, Analysis: Urgency of Jan. 6 and Georgia Inquiries Puts Pressure on Garland, Michael S. Schmidt 
• Washington Post, Biden poised for big wins in Congress
• New York Times, ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’: Congo to Sell Land for Drilling
• Washington Post, Myanmar junta executes four pro-democracy activists

Ukraine War

• Associated Press, Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime’
• New York Times, Ukraine Live Updates: Ukraine Is Poised for Major Southern Offensive
• New York Times, As Prices Soar in Ukraine, War Adds Economic Havoc to the Human Toll

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

• Axios Sneak Peek, Members of the House Jan. 6 committee are split on whether to condemn the growing trend of Democrats meddling in GOP primaries to boost pro-Trump election deniers — a tactic designed to secure more favorable matchups in the general election, Alayna Treene
• Washington Post, Trump didn’t want to call for Jan. 6 rioters’ prosecution, new video shows
• New York Times, Prosecutor Is Barred From Pursuing Criminal Case Against Trump Ally
• Washington Post, Arizona fake-electors subpoenas show breadth of DOJ Jan. 6 probe

U.S. Politics, Education, Governance, Economy

• Washington Post, Investigation: Shocking sex ed ‘grooming’ claim jolted Nebraska politics months before it swept U.S., Beth Reinhard and Emma Brown
• Washington Post, On the campaign trail, some Republicans see a civil war
• New York Times, After Recent Turmoil, the Race for Texas Governor Is Tightening
• Washington Post, House progressives balk at police funding bills
• Politico, Hogan says he won't support party’s nominee in Maryland governor contest
• Washington Post, Opinion: Distinguished pol of the week: Her post-Dobbs strategy is working splendidly, Jennifer Rubin

More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

• Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics
• Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career

U.S. Law, Immigration, Crime

• Politico, U.S. authorities hit former GOP Rep. Stephen Buyer with insider trading charges
• Law&Crime, R. Kelly's Former Manager and Adviser Pleads Guilty to Stalking One of the Singer's Victims and Her Mother
• Law&Crime, Judge Throws the Book at Montana Parents Who Killed 5-Year-Old Son, Says the Boy's 'Very Short Life' of 'Misery' Was 'Worse, Some Might Think, Than Death Itself,'
• Law&Crime, Cop Who Lashed Out with N-Word Said Slur Slipped into Her Vocabulary from Music and 'Hearing People Talk on the Street': Authorities
• Law&Crime, ‘Go Die’: 7-Year-Old Girl Has Choice Words for Ohio Man Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Rape and Kidnapping
• Law&Crime, Texas Man Will Serve Three Life Sentences for Two Brutal Cold Case Murders and Arson Intended to Destroy Evidence
• OpEdNews, Opinion: The Whistleblower Crackdown, John Kiriakou
• Guardian, Ghislaine Maxwell moved to low-security prison in Florida
• Washington Post, Woman gets prison time after her GoFundMe duped donors out of $400,000
• New York Times, Sixth Teenager Charged in Central Park Jogger Case Is Exonerated
• New York Times, Opinion: Religious Doctrine, Not the Constitution, Drove the Dobbs Decision, Linda Greenhouse

Pandemic, Public Health 

• Washington Post, Biden, in covid isolation, aims to show that presidential work goes on
• Washington Post, Biden covid symptoms continue to improve, White House says
• New York Times, W.H.O. Declares Monkeypox Spread a Global Health Emergency
• New York Times, Covid Live Updates: Biden’s Symptoms Have Improved, White House Physician Says

Energy, Climate, Environment, Disasters

• Washington Post, Heat to wane in Northeast as Pacific Northwest prepares to roast

World News, Human Rights Analysis

• New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People
• Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its own

U.S. Abortion, Contraception, Privacy, Trafficking

• New York Times, Interstate Abortion Travel Is Already Straining Parts of the System
• Washington Post, She survived a forced sterilization. She fears more could occur post-Roe
• Washington Post, Many HBCUs are in states that have banned abortions. Student leaders are taking action
• Washington Post, Opinion: I survived Epstein and Maxwell’s sex ring. Then the gaslighting began
• Washington Post, ‘The stakes could not be higher’: Kansas abortion vote set for Aug. 2
• Washington Post, A triumphant antiabortion movement begins to deal with its divisions
• Washington Post, Abortion is now banned in these states. See where laws have changed

Media, Education, Religion, Sports News

• National Press Club, Statement By National Press Club On LIV Golf Event At Trump Course
• OpEd News, 10th Annual Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival Celebrates Whistleblowers from Knapp to Now!
• ScheerPost, Commentary: CIA Vault 7 Leaker Found Guilty. What Did He Actually Reveal? John Kiriakou
• Washington Post, Hulu refuses to run Democrats’ ads on abortion, guns and Jan. 6
• New York Times, As Jan. 6 Panel’s Evidence Piled Up, Conservative Media Doubled Down

Top Stories

Washington Post, Biden slams Trump for watching Jan. 6 riot on television as police faced ‘medieval hell,’ Amy B Wang, July 26, 2022. President Biden made rare comments Monday about testimony presented by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, sharply criticizing former president Donald Trump for his reported inaction as the attack on the Capitol unfolded.

In a prime-time hearing Thursday, the committee showed evidence that Trump resisted multiple pleas from senior aides to call off the mob attacking the Capitol in his name, even as members of the security detail for Vice President Mike Pence feared for their lives. Trump largely spent his time during the attack watching television, committee members said.

Biden referred to this Monday in virtual remarks to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives conference, first recounting how law enforcement officers on Jan. 6 were “assaulted before our very eyes — speared, sprayed, stomped on, brutalized” as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of Biden’s electoral college win. The siege resulted in five deaths and left some 140 members of law enforcement injured.

Trump removed speech lines calling for Jan. 6 rioters’ prosecution

“And for three hours, the defeated former president of the United States watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” Biden said. “While he was doing that, brave law enforcement officers were subject to the medieval hell for three hours — dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with a crazed mob that believed in the lies of the defeated president.”

Washington Post, Key Dems want DHS inspector general removed from Secret Service probe, Carol D. Leonnig and Maria Sacchetti, July 26, 2022. A pair of key congressional Democrats called on Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, shown above in a file photo, to step aside from his office’s investigation into the Secret Service on Tuesday, saying the Trump appointee knew earlier than has been reported that the agency deleted text messages from around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), right, who heads the House committee that oversees inspectors general, and Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Jan. 6 committee and the Homeland Security Committee, said the inspector general’s office admitted in congressional briefings that it became aware that agents’ text messages were erased in December 2021 — two months earlier than reported. But Cuffari did not report that to Congress until this month.

The lawmakers said these and other omissions have broken their faith in Cuffari’s ability to lead the investigation, and they urged the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, an independent entity in the executive branch, to appoint another inspector general to handle the Secret Service probe.

“Due to the nature and importance of this investigation, there must be no doubt that the Inspector General leading this investigation can conduct it thoroughly and with integrity, objectivity, and independence,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “We do not have confidence that Inspector General Cuffari can achieve those standards.”

Cuffari and the council did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the letter, which was sent to Cuffari and to Allison Lerner, the council’s chair. The lawmakers asked for a response by Aug. 9.

Watchdog launches criminal probe over missing Secret Service messages

The letter comes days after Cuffari opened a criminal investigation into the Secret Service’s allegedly missing texts, halting the agency’s efforts to retrieve the records itself in response to a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.

Cuffari sent a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees this month accusing the agency of erasing text messages from the time around the assault on the Capitol and after he had asked for them for his own investigation.

The Secret Service said that any “insinuation” that they maliciously deleted text messages is false and that the deletions were part of a preplanned “system migration” of its phones. They said none of the texts Cuffari’s office was seeking had disappeared.

In their letter, Thompson and Maloney also faulted the Secret Service for deleting messages that could offer eyewitness accounts of the Capitol attack and the actions of President Donald Trump, whose supporters raided the building in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying election results.

The lawmakers said several House committees investigating the attack had sought records from DHS and other agencies 10 days later. Since they protect the president and vice president and other top officials, the Secret Service records could offer a close accounting of their actions that day.

“Despite the legal obligation to preserve these records, the Secret Service reportedly undertook a system migration process on January 27, 2021, that caused the erasure of text messages related to January 6,” the lawmakers wrote.

Cuffari’s office also requested records from the Secret Service on Feb. 26, 2021, for its own investigation into the Capitol attack. But the lawmakers said in the letter that he did not tell them that he had trouble getting the Secret Service’s text messages in his semiannual reports to Congress and considered issuing an alert that would have warned them and the public about the missing information, but decided that “this warning was unnecessary.”

Cuffari also did not alert the agency head, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, of the problem, as required under the Inspector General Act of 1978, which triggers a requirement that the agency head notify congressional committees.

“The DHS IG’s failure to promptly report and escalate the Secret Service’s stonewalling calls into question whether Inspector General Cuffari has the professional judgment and capacity to effectively fulfill his duties in this investigation,” the lawmakers wrote.

New York Times, U.S. Concern Grows About China’s Potential Action Toward Taiwan, Edward Wong, David E. Sanger and Amy Qin, July 26, 2022 (print ed). The Biden administration is anxious about China’s statements on Taiwan, with officials fearing Chinese leaders might try to move against the island.

The Biden administration has grown increasingly anxious this summer about China’s statements and actions regarding Taiwan, with some officials fearing that Chinese leaders might try to move against the self-governing island over the next year and a half — perhaps by trying to cut off access to all or part of the Taiwan Strait, through which U.S. naval ships regularly pass.

The internal worries have sharpened in recent days, as the administration quietly works to try to dissuade House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from going through with a proposed visit to Taiwan next month, U.S. officials say. Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, would be the first speaker to visit Taiwan since 1997, and the Chinese government has repeatedly denounced her reported plans and threatened retaliation.

U.S. officials see a greater risk of conflict and miscalculation over Ms. Pelosi’s trip as President Xi Jinping of China and other Communist Party leaders prepare in the coming weeks for an important political meeting in which Mr. Xi is expected to extend his rule.

New York Times, Analysis: Urgency of Jan. 6 and Georgia Inquiries Puts Pressure on Garland, Michael S. Schmidt, July 26, 2022 (print ed).The continued revelations from the House committee and the aggressiveness of prosecutors in Georgia have left the U.S. Justice Department on the defensive.

In the last week, local prosecutors in Atlanta barreled ahead with their criminal investigation into the effort by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, targeting fake electors, issuing a subpoena to a member of Congress and winning a court battle forcing Rudolph W. Giuliani to testify to a grand jury.

In Washington, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack unfurled its latest batch of damning disclosures about Mr. Trump at a prime-time hearing, and directly suggested that Mr. Trump needs to be prosecuted before he destroys the country’s democracy.

But at the Justice Department, where the gears of justice always seem to move the slowest, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, right, was forced to rely on generalities about the American legal system, saying “no person is above the law in this country” as he fended off increasing questions about why there has been so little public action to hold Mr. Trump and his allies accountable.

New York Times, Former Top Pence Aide Testifies to Grand Jury in Jan. 6 Investigation, Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, was subpoenaed in the expanding inquiry into the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Two top aides to former Vice President Mike Pence testified last week to a federal grand jury in Washington investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the highest-ranking officials of the Trump administration so far known to have cooperated with the Justice Department’s widening inquiry into the events leading up to the assault.

The appearances before the grand jury of the men — Marc Short, who was Mr. Pence’s chief of staff, and Greg Jacob, who was his counsel — were the latest indication that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the events surrounding and preceding Jan. 6 is intensifying after weeks of growing questions about the urgency the department has put on examining former President Donald J. Trump’s potential criminal liability.

The testimony of the two Pence aides marked the first time it has become publicly known that figures with firsthand knowledge of what took place inside the White House in the tumultuous days before the attack have cooperated with federal prosecutors.

 New York Times, ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’: Congo to Sell Land for Drilling, Ruth Maclean and Dionne Searcey, Updated July 25, 2022. Rainforests in the Congo protect the planet by storing carbon. Now, in a giant leap backward for the climate, they’re being auctioned off for drilling.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, home to one of the largest old-growth rainforests on earth, is auctioning off vast amounts of land in a push to become “the new destination for oil investments,” part of a global shift as the world retreats on fighting climate change in a scramble for fossil fuels.

The oil and gas blocks, which will be auctioned in late July, extend into Virunga National Park, the world’s most important gorilla sanctuary, as well as tropical peatlands that store vast amounts of carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere and from contributing to global warming.

“If oil exploitation takes place in these areas, we must expect a global climate catastrophe, and we will all just have to watch helplessly,” said Irene Wabiwa, who oversees the Congo Basin forest campaign for Greenpeace in Kinshasa.

Congo’s about-face in allowing new oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas comes eight months after its president, Félix Tshisekedi, stood alongside world leaders at the global climate summit in Glasgow and endorsed a 10-year agreement to protect its rainforest, part of the vast Congo Basin, which is second in size only to the Amazon.

The deal included international pledges of $500 million for Congo, one of the world’s poorest nations, over the first five years.

But since then, the world’s immediate priorities have shifted.

Washington Post, Myanmar junta executes four pro-democracy activists, Rachel Pannett and Rebecca Tan, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Myanmar’s military junta has executed four pro-democracy activists, state media and the U.S. Embassy in Yangon reported, carrying out its first executions in more than three decades and defying international appeals for restraint.

The four men included two high-profile activists: Kyaw Min Yu, also known as Ko Jimmy, who rose to prominence in student uprisings in 1988, and Phyo Zeya Thaw, a hip-hop artist turned member of parliament who was widely admired among Myanmar’s youths.

Phyo Zeya Thaw, 41, and Ko Jimmy, 53, were convicted on terrorism charges and sentenced to death in closed-door trials last fall. The other two men executed were Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, state media reported, who were convicted of killing an alleged military informant.

Myanmar’s rebellion, divided, outgunned and outnumbered, fights on

Moe Zaw Oo, a member of the National Unity Government — an alliance of anti-junta groups, many of which are in exile — said NUG officials were alerted to the executions early Monday. “It’s unbelievable. … This will just create more violence across the country,” Moe Zaw Oo told The Washington Post.

Washington Post, Biden poised for big wins in Congress, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Mike DeBonis, July 26, 2022 (print ed.). After a long stretch when his legislative program stalled, President Biden and the Democrats appear ready to notch a string of victories.

The first major prescription drug legislation in nearly 20 years. More than $50 billion to subsidize computer chip manufacturing and research. A bill that would enshrine protection for same-sex marriage.

After a turbulent stretch in which much of President Biden’s legislative agenda seemed to be foundering, the president and his party may be on the cusp of significant wins in Congress that the White House hopes will provide at least a modest political boost.

Most politically resonant is a bill to let Medicare negotiate drug prices, a hugely popular idea that Democrats have been pursuing for more than 20 years. Even before that — possibly within days — Congress is likely to pass a bill providing $52 billion to the U.S. semiconductor industry, intended to bolster the U.S. economy and cut China’s influence. “We’re close, so let’s get it done,” Biden said of the bill on Monday. “So much depends on it.”

Democrats hope these measures earn a bigger political payoff than, say, Biden’s infrastructure law, which seemed to make little impression on voters.

“Democrats now seem to be hitting a stride where they’re about to rattle off three meaningful victories in a short amount of time, and for really the first time have an open field to politically gain from that,” said Kurt Bardella, a former Republican who now consults for Democrats. “On the health-care bill, this is stuff everybody generally understands. This is not a complex, nuanced policy situation where you may not feel the benefit for 5 to 10 years.”

More On Ukraine War

 Associated Press, Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime,’ Susie Blann, July 26, 2022 (print eds.). Russia’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its “unacceptable regime,” expressing the Kremlin’s war aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with artillery barrages and airstrikes.

The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, comes amid Ukraine’s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports, something that would help ease global food shortages, under a new deal tested by a Russian strike on Odesa over the weekend.

Speaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, Lavrov accused Kyiv and its Western allies of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine “becomes the eternal enemy of Russia.”

“We are determined to help the people of eastern Ukraine to liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime,” he said. Apparently suggesting that Moscow’s war aims extend beyond Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region in the east, Lavrov said: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.”

Lavrov’s comments followed his warning last week that Russia plans to retain control over broader areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.

Lavrov’s remarks contrasted with the Kremlin’s line early in the war, when it repeatedly emphasized that Russia wasn’t seeking to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, even as Moscow’s troops closed in on Kyiv. Russia later retreated from around the capital and turned its attention to capturing the Donbas. The fighting is now in its sixth month.

Lavrov argued that Russia was ready to negotiate a deal to end hostilities in March when Kyiv changed tack and declared its intention to rout Russia on the battlefield. He said the West has encouraged Ukraine to keep fighting.

“The West insists that Ukraine must not start negotiations until Russia is defeated on the battlefield,” Lavrov said.

It was not yet clear when grain shipments would resume following Russia and Ukraine’s signing of agreements with the United Nations and Turkey on Friday. The deals are aimed at clearing the way for the shipment of millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain, as well as the export of Russian grain and fertilizer.

Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister, Yury Vaskov, said the first shipment of grain is planned for this week.

While Russia faced accusations that the weekend attack on the port of Odesa amounted to reneging on the deal, Moscow insisted the strike would not affect grain shipments.

New York Times, Ukraine Updates: Ukraine Is Poised for Major Southern Offensive, Michael Schwirtz, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Ukrainian forces are preparing for what is one the most ambitious and significant military actions of the war: retaking Kherson.

With its sights set on Kherson, the economically vital port city that fell to Russian forces in the first days of the war, the Ukrainian military is destroying Russian ammunition depots, hitting command posts and targeting supply lines. The coming fight with deeply entrenched Russian forces will likely be brutal.

• A U.S. intelligence report finds that Russia’s use of ‘filtration centers’ to detain and deport Ukrainians has intensified

The road to Russian-occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine passes through a no-man’s land of charred wheat fields and cratered villages. The tails of rockets stick out of asphalt and the boom of incoming and outgoing artillery ricochets off tidy abandoned homes.

The first city to fall to Russian forces, Kherson and the fertile lands that surround it are a key Russian beachhead, from which its military continuously launches attacks across a broad swath of Ukrainian territory. Regaining control could also help restore momentum to Ukraine, and give its troops a much-needed morale boost, after months of vicious fighting.

“We want to liberate our territory and return it all to our control,” said Senior Lt. Sergei Savchenko, whose unit with Ukraine’s 28th Brigade is dug in along the Kherson Region’s western border. “We’re ready. We have wanted this for a long time.”

Already, fighting on the western and northern borders of the region is intensifying, as Ukrainian forces — currently about 30 miles from the city at their closest point — lay the groundwork for a large offensive push. For a month, Ukrainian artillery and rocket forces have been softening up Russian positions, using an array of new, Western-supplied weapons like the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, provided by the United States.

The strikes, some captured on video, have taken out forward command centers and key ammunition depots, which erupt in glittery fireballs when struck, Ukrainian officials say. They claim that hundreds of Russian troops have been killed and that the attacks have disrupted Russia’s logistical infrastructure. Supply warehouses and command positions have been pushed back from the front lines, they say, making it harder for Russia to keep its soldiers armed and fed. (Their claims cannot all be independently verified.)

“You could compare it to waves,” said a senior Ukrainian military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military planning. “Right now we’re making small waves and creating conditions to make bigger ones.”

Unlike in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where a massive Russian force continues to gobble up territory, in the Kherson Region, the Ukrainian military appears to have begun to turn the tide, if haltingly. After losing control over most of the region in the war’s first weeks, Ukrainian troops have now liberated 44 towns and villages along the border regions, about 15 percent of the territory, according to the Kherson Region military governor, Dmytro Butrii.

Ukraine’s top officials have given no clear timeline for retaking Kherson, but the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has made clear it is a top priority.

“Our forces are moving into the region step by step,” Mr. Zelensky said this week.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south has stirred debate among Western officials and some analysts about whether Ukraine was ready for such a big effort, or if it is the best use of resources when the Russian advances have come mostly in the Donbas.

Still, Ukrainian officials, and several Western intelligence officials, said it was important that Ukraine try to launch a counterattack. They say that the Russian military is in a relatively weaker position, having expended weapons and personnel in their Donbas offensive. Richard Moore, the chief of the British foreign intelligence service, MI6, predicted that the Russians would be forced to take a pause, offering an opening to Ukrainian forces.

Any effort to retake significant territory would nevertheless be a huge undertaking. Russian forces have now occupied the Kherson region for nearly five months and have been largely unmolested in their efforts to harden military positions and prepare for an assault. They have installed new leaders in the city itself as well as in major towns and villages.

The Ukrainian army will also have to consider the large civilian population. The city has lost about a third of its prewar population of about 300,000, though an all-out assault that involves shelling could put civilian lives at great risk, something Ukrainian officials seem to be conscious of.

New York Times, As Prices Soar in Ukraine, War Adds Economic Havoc to the Human Toll, Liz Alderman, July 26, 2022 (print ed). At his compact stall in Lviv’s main outdoor food market, Ihor Korpii arranged jars of blueberries that he and his wife had picked from a nearby forest into an attractive display. Fragrant dill and fresh peas harvested from their garden lay in neat piles on a table.

A schoolteacher surviving on modest pay, Mr. Korpii peddles produce during summers to supplement his family’s income. But this year, he has had to raise prices by over 10 percent to make up for a surge in fuel and fertilizer costs brought on by Russia’s invasion. Now, buyers are scarce, and sales have slumped by more than half.

“War has driven up the cost of almost everything, and people are buying much, much less,” Mr. Korpii said, pointing with weather-beaten hands to a heap of unsold carrots. “Everyone, including us, is tightening their belts,” he added. “They’re trying to save money because they don’t know what the future will bring.”

Few countries are feeling inflation’s bite as much as Ukraine itself, as Russian forces attack its infrastructure and occupy its industrial and agricultural regions.

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, Updates: Russian Strikes on Odesa Raise Doubts About Grain Deal
• New York Times, Last Stand at Azovstal: Inside the Siege That Shaped the Ukraine War, Michael Schwirtz
• New York Times, As Prices Soar in Ukraine, War Adds Economic Havoc to the Human Toll
• Washington Post, Odessa attack will not impede grain exports, Russia says
• Washington Post, Tensions high between Israel, Russia over looming ban of Jewish Agency
• Washington Post, Moldova ‘very worried’ Russia may invade, prime minister says
• Washington Post, Editorial: Putin attacks Odessa and a hungry world’s hopes

More On Jan. 6 Hearings, Radical Violence, Election Probes

Washington Post, Arizona fake-electors subpoenas show breadth of DOJ Jan. 6 probe, Devlin Barrett and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, July 26, 2022 (print ed.). Requests for information from two state lawmakers were released under a state public records law.

Copies of two subpoenas issued to Republican state senators from Arizona were released Monday via a public-records request, confirming what has been previously reported about the June demands for records related “to the signing or mailing of any document purporting to be a Certificate certifying Elector votes in favor of Donald J. Trump and/or Michael R. Pence.”

The subpoenas issued to Karen Fann, president of the Arizona Senate, and Sen. Kelly Townsend also seek communications “relating to any effort, plan, or attempt to serve as an Elector” in favor of the then-president and then-vice president.

A subpoena is not an accusation but rather a demand for information that investigators believe may help them solve a crime. The documents released Monday cast a wide net for any communications that Fann and Townsend may have had with any member of the executive or legislative branch of the federal government; any representative or agent of Trump or his campaign; or Trump boosters Jenna Ellis, Bernard Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, Boris Epshteyn, James Troupis, Joe DiGenova, John Eastman, Joshua Findlay, Justin Clark, Kenneth Chesebro, Mike Roman or Victoria Toensing.

Trump didn't want to call for Jan. 6 prosecutions, newly released video shows

The subpoenas are just one part of a significant escalation and expansion of the Justice Department’s criminal probe of the events of and leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the election results. Around the same time in mid-June, federal agents fanned out in multiple states to serve subpoenas, execute search warrants and interview potential witnesses as part of the investigation into the electors scheme.

The details of subpoenas to two GOP lawmakers in Arizona help clarify what federal agents are seeking in the Jan. 6 criminal probe.

Axios Sneak Peek, Members of the House Jan. 6 committee are split on whether to condemn the growing trend of Democrats meddling in GOP primaries to boost pro-Trump election deniers — a tactic designed to secure more favorable matchups in the general election, Alayna Treene, July 26, 2022.

Why it matters: The committee has spent the last year warning that former President Trump and his allies — including candidates running in this year's midterms — are endangering American democracy by attacking the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

• Critics say the committee's message that "this is bigger than politics" and "party before country" — reinforced in its blockbuster summer hearings — is at risk of being undermined.

Between the lines: Public backlash intensified yesterday when it emerged that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is boosting an election denier in his primary against Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) — one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

• Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chair of the DCCC, said on MSNBC this morning: "If you're talking about trying to pick your opponent, you might see us do that, sure. And I think sometimes it does make sense."

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, told Axios: "No party, Democrat or Republican, should be promoting candidates who perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and try to undermine our democracy."

Rep Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said on CNN: "I think it's disgusting. ... While I think a certain number of Democrats certainly understand that democracy is threatened, don't come to me after having spent money supporting an election denier in a primary ... and say, 'Where are all the good Republicans?'"

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), who isn't seeking re-election, told Axios: "This is bigger than any one candidate or campaign. No one should be promoting election deniers and peddlers of the 'Big Lie.'"

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), meanwhile, appeared to support Democrats aggressively spotlighting which GOP candidates are election deniers — including those in her own competitive race.

• "Voters deserve to know the truth about these candidates and just how dangerous they are to our democracy," she said in a statement to Axios.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) took a more nuanced approach to the question, telling Axios that he "can see both sides of the argument":
"One can certainly understand an argument that it's categorically wrong to do anything that would objectively help insurrectionist election deniers.

But in the real world of politics, one can also see an argument that if the pro-insurrectionist, election-denier wing of the Republican caucus is already dominant, then it might be worth it to take a small risk that another one of those people would be elected, in return for dramatically increasing the chances that Democrats will be able to hold the House against a pro-insurrectionist, election-denying GOP majority.
Jean-Paul Sartre said that in politics we all have dirty hands up to our elbows. Nobody's pure. And we are in desperate times to defend democratic institutions and practices."

New York Times, Prosecutor Is Barred From Pursuing Criminal Case Against Trump Ally, Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim, July 26, 2022 (print ed). A judge in Atlanta cited a conflict of interest on the part of Fani T. Willis. Her broader investigation into election meddling will continue.

In an embarrassing blow to the prosecutor investigating election interference by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies, an Atlanta judge has disqualified District Attorney Fani T. Willis of Fulton County from developing a criminal case against one Georgia state official, citing a conflict of interest.

Ms. Willis had recently notified state Senator Burt Jones, Georgia’s Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, that he could face indictment. But on Monday Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney disqualified her from pursuing a case against Mr. Jones because she had headlined a June fund-raiser for his Democratic rival in the race.

Fani T. Willis, right, the Atlanta area district attorney, is bringing a case against the former president’s supporters that may involve racketeering charges  (New York Times Photo by Nicole Craine).

Mr. Jones was one of 16 pro-Trump “alternate electors” in Georgia who were sworn in on the same day as the state’s legitimate presidential electors, who cast their votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. Ms. Willis’s office had recently warned them, as well as another state senator and the head of the Georgia Republican Party, that they could face charges in the matter.

The ruling on Monday does not affect any other portion of the sprawling investigation that Ms. Willis’s office is conducting with a special-purpose grand jury. Even so, it underscores the complicated political terrain that lies before Ms. Willis, a first-term Democrat.

“She has bestowed her office’s imprimatur upon Senator Jones’s opponent,” Judge McBurney wrote in his decision, adding that “this scenario creates a plain — and actual and untenable — conflict. Any decision the District Attorney makes about Senator Jones in connection with the grand jury investigation is necessarily infected by it.”

The ruling does not mean that Mr. Jones cannot be investigated, only that Ms. Willis cannot be the one to do it.

The judge said it would be left to the state’s attorney general, Chris Carr, a Republican, to select a different district attorney who could evaluate whether any potential charges should be brought against Mr. Jones, and if so, what they would be. But Mr. Carr’s office said that under a new law, the choice of a prosecutor will actually be made by the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, a group that sets policies and rules for district attorneys around the state.

Ms. Willis’s lawyer had argued that the fund-raiser she headlined for Charlie Bailey, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, took place during a primary runoff between two Democratic candidates, and that a mailer for the event clearly showed it was related to the runoff, not the general election contest against Mr. Jones.

• New York Times, Georgia Inquiry Into Trump’s Election Interference Casts Wide Net, Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim

 Washington Post, Trump didn’t want to call for Jan. 6 rioters’ prosecution, new video shows, Amy B Wang, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) released evidence indicating that Trump refused to vilify the rioters who had stormed the Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021.

President Donald Trump didn’t want to disavow the rioters who had stormed the U.S. Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021, and he removed lines from prepared remarks the following day calling for their prosecution, according to new evidence released by a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) posted a video Monday on Twitter showing previously unpublicized testimony from several people close to Trump, centered on a speech he was supposed to give Jan. 7, 2021.

“It took more than 24 hours for President Trump to address the nation again after his Rose Garden video on January 6th in which he affectionately told his followers to go home in peace,” Luria tweeted. “There were more things he was unwilling to say.”

According to video testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s aides were pushing him to record another speech the day after the attack to quell talk of his impeachment or removal from office via the 25th Amendment.

• Washington Post, The latest: After Wis. Supreme Court absentee ballot decision, disabled people sue
• Washington Post. The latest: In Indiana, Harris says Supreme Court created ‘health-care crisis’

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Investigation: The Claremont Institute ascended in the Trump years. Then came Jan. 6., Marc Fisher and Isaac Stanley-Becker
• Politico, Insurrection Fallout: 5 takeaways from Steve Bannon's trial, Josh Gerstein
• Washington Post, Opinion: In one Oval Office meeting, a triple Russian threat, Peter Strzok
• New York Times, Georgia Inquiry Into Trump’s Election Interference Casts Wide Net, Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim
• Washington Post, Editorial: The Secret Service texting scandal demands answers
• New York Times, Analysis: In Jan. 6 Hearings, Gender Divide Has Been Strong Undercurrent, Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman
• Washington Post, Hearings test Trump’s clout and GOP’s wish to ‘forget about Jan. 6’
• Politico, Cheney: Jan. 6 panel prepared to consider subpoena for Ginni Thomas
• Washington Post, Perspective: Liz Cheney understood the assignment, Monica Hesse

U.S. Politics, Governance, Education, Economy

Washington Post, Investigation: Shocking sex ed ‘grooming’ claim jolted Nebraska politics months before it swept U.S., Beth Reinhard and Emma Brown, July 26, 2022 (print ed). The unsubstantiated claim led to a backlash against sex education that helped topple local Republican Party leaders and propelled a wave of far-right candidates for local and statewide school board.

Last year, when the state board of education proposed new sex-education standards for teaching about issues such as sexual orientation, gender identity and consent, a retired pediatrician in this central Nebraska town reached out to Gov. Pete Ricketts, below right, and state lawmakers.

“This is NOT Sex Ed as anyone knows it,” Sue Greenwald wrote in a July 16, 2021, email obtained by The Washington Post. Lessons that met these standards, she wrote, would be “ ‘grooming’ children to be sexual victims.”

It was a shocking claim, and it was catching on — repeated by Greenwald, by members of the Protect Nebraska Children Coalition, a group she co-founded to oppose the standards, and embraced by Ricketts (R) himself. The message also spread through screenings at libraries and churches of “The Mind Polluters,” billed as an “investigative documentary” that “shows how the vast majority of America’s public schools are prematurely sexualizing children.”

Grooming erupted as a national issue earlier this year, but this state in America’s heartland has been roiled by that attack on comprehensive sex education since last spring, providing a unique window into a newly inflamed debate. The unsubstantiated claim helped activate an army of self-described Nebraska patriots who rose up against the standards, took over the local Republican Party and propelled a wave of far-right candidates for local and statewide school boards, a Post examination found. Earlier this month, these activists were part of a broader, anti-establishment insurgency that toppled leaders of the state Republican Party.

The term “groomer” has become a catchall epithet hurled by the right wing against the left, particularly against advocates for LGBT people, who have become the target of a recent surge in violent threats and attacks. The Post’s examination focused on the specific claim that modern sex education — including lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity — makes children more vulnerable to pedophiles.

Greenwald and others who have endorsed that claim acknowledged to The Post that there is no scientific body of research that shows such lessons make children more likely to be victimized. The American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics both back a comprehensive approach to sex ed that includes discussions of sexual orientation, contraception and consent. Leading child abuse experts say that arming children with information helps protect them against harm.

Washington Post, House progressives balk at police funding bills, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Theodoric Meyer and Tobi Raji, July 26, 2022. House Democrats plan to bring the bills to the floor later this week at the request of moderate Democrats to blunt political attacks by Republicans that Democrats are soft on crime and want to “defund the police.”

Progressives and their voters have been highly critical of additional funding for law enforcement without new policies governing policing practices following the killings in recent years of Black Americans in high-profile cases involving allegations and convictions of excessive force and the mistreatment of communities of color. They have asked Democratic leadership to reconsider putting the bills on the floor, arguing that it will suppress Democratic turnout in the midterms and risk dividing the party.

The lawmakers are taking issue, in particular, with two bills that would provide additional funding for police without any new policing policies attached, including a grant program to hire additional police officers from Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and a second measure from Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) to provide grants to police departments with less than 200 officers.

Recent Headlines

• Washington Post, Who is Wes Moore, the projected Democratic nominee for Maryland’s governor?
• Washington Post, Analysis: The education of Adam Kinzinger, Paul Kane
• New York Times, The U.S. Needs to Keep Building Houses, Even if No One Wants to Buy
• Washington Post, Pence, moving toward a White House run, steps away from Trump
• Washington Post, Wes Moore vs. Dan Cox: A fight for Md. governor that will echo downballot
• Washington Post, Election 2022: Trump-backed Cox projected to win Maryland’s GOP gubernatorial primary
• Mississippi Today (Nonprofit Mississippi News), Welfare head says surprise subpoena led to attorney’s firing, Anna Wolfe
• New York Times, Mississippi Fires Lawyer Trying to Recoup Misused Welfare Funds, Richard Fausset and Rick Rojas
• Mississippi Today (Nonprofit Mississippi News), State fires attorney probing former Gov. Phil Bryant in welfare scandal lawsuit, Anna Wolfe
• Pro Publica, Richard Glossip Has Eaten Three Last Meals on Death Row. Years Later, the State Is Still Trying to Execute Him, Ziva Branstetter

More On U.S. Mass Shootings Fears, Gun Control

Washington Post, Super Bowl ad stunt from maker of gun used at Uvalde school sheds light on firm’s tactics, Shawn Boburg and Jon Swaine, July 26, 2022 (print ed.). Sales soared in the past decade at Daniel Defense, the maker of the gun used in the Uvalde shooting, as it employed aggressive marketing tactics to sell AR-style rifles.

A rapidly growing manufacturer of AR-15-style rifles tried to run an ad during the Super Bowl in 2014, knowing that the NFL typically does not allow gun commercials during its marquee event.

But Daniel Defense — the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in the Uvalde school shooting — privately had in place a plan to generate publicity whether the ad aired or not, according to previously unreported court documents that shed light on the gunmaker’s marketing strategies.

If it aired, Daniel Defense’s top marketing executive planned to have people across the country complain about the company’s own ad to left-leaning media organizations, stirring controversy and generating coverage.

If the ad was rejected, records show, the executive had arranged for a prominent National Rifle Association commentator to release a prerecorded online video accusing the National Football League of censorship and hypocrisy.

Washington Post, This Republican embraced gun control. It ended his political career, Joanna Slater, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Buffalo Rep. Chris Jacobs was once considered a rising star in the GOP. But his support of an assault weapons ban cost him

Recent Headlines

• New York Times, With Gun Bill and Attack Ads, Newsom Raises Profile Using Hardball Tactics
• New York Times, 4 Dead After Iowa State Park Shooting, Authorities Say
• Washington Post, Congress wants more red-flag laws. But GOP states, gun groups resist
• New York Times, Jury Weighs Death Penalty for Gunman in Parkland School Massacre

Energy, Climate, Environment

 Washington Post, Heat to wane in Northeast as Pacific Northwest prepares to roast, Matthew Cappucci, July 26, 2022 (print ed). A burgeoning heat wave in the Pacific Northwest will push temperatures above 110 degrees in some areas and will persist for days.

Heat alerts blanket the Pacific Northwest, including much of Oregon and Washington state, where temperatures are set to spike to 110 degrees in the days ahead. Northern California will be affected, as well, the atmospheric blowtorch coming as fires torch the Golden State, including the swiftly moving Oak Fire, whose explosive growth has triggered numerous evacuations and a state of emergency.
10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint

Daily high temperatures about 10 to 20 degrees above average will persist through at least the end of the workweek, with elevated highs sticking around into the weekend. Several records will be set. Heat index values could reach dangerous levels.

London hit 104 degrees. How hot would that be where you live?

The episode coincides with the conclusion of a heat wave that brought highs in the upper 90s to near 100 in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic. Boston jumped to 100 degrees on Sunday, something that happens only every couple of years on average. Newark hit the century mark for five consecutive days ending Sunday, the longest such streak on record, although there are questions about whether its temperature readings are reliable.

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U.S. Law, Courts, Crime

Politico, U.S. authorities hit former GOP Rep. Stephen Buyer with insider trading charges, Sam Sutton, July 26, 2022 (print ed). The SEC complaint claims that Buyer netted $330,000 from the transactions.

Federal authorities filed criminal and civil insider trading charges against former Rep. Stephen Buyer in U.S. court in Manhattan on Monday, alleging that the Indiana Republican used information gleaned from a golf outing with a T-Mobile executive to purchase securities before the company’s planned acquisition of Sprint.

Buyer was arrested on Monday, said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams at a press conference.

Buyer, who had been working as a consultant to T-Mobile at the time, learned about the possible megamerger from a company executive while on a work trip to Miami, according to a civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Despite being warned about the confidential status of the merger, which was ultimately scuttled, Buyer purchased more than $500,000 of Sprint shares, which were then sold shortly after news of the deal went public, the agency alleged.

The former nine-term congressman also allegedly leveraged his role as a consultant to another company, Guidehouse LLP, to purchase shares of Navigant before his client’s acquisition of that business in 2019, according to the complaint.

The SEC’s complaint claims that Buyer netted roughly $330,000 from the transactions, which he spread across multiple accounts belonging to associates and family members, as well as an unidentified friend with whom he had allegedly engaged in a romantic relationship.

“When insiders like Buyer — an attorney, a former prosecutor, and a retired Congressman — monetize their access to material, nonpublic information, as alleged in this case, they not only violate the federal securities laws but also undermine public trust and confidence in the fairness of our markets,” said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC Enforcement Division.

The SEC is seeking disgorgement of the gains allegedly accrued by Buyer and his wife, Joni Buyer, and to block the former congressman from ever serving as an officer or director at a public company.

“Congressman Buyer is innocent,” said Buyer’s attorney, Andrew Goldstein of Cooley LLP. “His stock trades were lawful. He looks forward to being quickly vindicated.”

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2005 (Joe Schildhorn / Patrick McMullan, via Getty Images)

Guardian, Ghislaine Maxwell moved to low-security prison in Florida, Emine Sinmaz, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Disgraced socialite serving 20-year sentence for procuring teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse.

Ghislaine Maxwell has been sent to a low-security prison to serve her 20-year prison sentence for procuring teenage girls to be abused by the financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The 60-year-old has been moved to FCI Tallahassee in Florida, according to the Bureau of Prisons. She will be eligible for release on 17 July 2037.

Maxwell, the daughter of the publishing baron Robert Maxwell, had been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, New York, since her arrest in July 2020 on charges that she lured girls as young as 14 into Epstein’s abusive orbit.

Her lawyers repeatedly complained that conditions at the Brooklyn jail were “reprehensible”. They claimed Maxwell was subjected to such invasive surveillance that it “rivals scenes of Dr Hannibal Lecter’s incarceration” from the film The Silence of the Lambs.

They also alleged that Maxwell was deprived of water and fed food infested with maggots. They claimed that raw sewage permeated her cell, which was plagued by rats, and that guards prevented her from sleeping by shining torches into her eyes every 15 minutes.

Her lawyers requested that she serve her sentence at FCI Danbury in Connecticut, a minimum security prison that was the inspiration for the hit Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. Experts have previously described the jail as being “like Disneyland” compared with the Brooklyn institution.

Alison Nathan, who oversaw Maxwell’s trial, had recommended that Maxwell be moved to FCI Danbury following the request, but the Bureau of Prisons ultimately made the decision.

FCI Tallahassee opened in 1938 and houses women only.

Prosecutors argued in June that Maxwell should be imprisoned for at least 30 years. But in submissions before her sentencing hearing, her lawyers said she should face no more than four to five years, arguing it would be “a travesty of justice for her to face a sentence that would have been appropriate for Epstein”.

In their bid for leniency, Maxwell’s lawyers contended that her jail conditions were harrowing, alleging: “An inmate in Ms Maxwell’s unit threatened to kill her, claiming that an additional 20 years’ incarceration would be worth the money she’d receive for murdering Ms Maxwell.”

They also argued that an emotionally abusive childhood at the hands of her father primed her for Epstein’s influence.

Epstein was arrested by federal authorities in July 2019 on sex-trafficking counts. He killed himself while awaiting trial in a New York City federal jail.

The judge handed down a 20-year sentence, saying Maxwell “repeatedly, and over the course of many years participated in a horrific scheme to traffic young girls, some the age of 14”.

Nathan said it was important that although “Epstein was central to this scheme” she was not being sentenced “as a proxy” for him. She said: “The defendant’s conduct … was heinous and predatory.”

Law&Crime, R. Kelly's Former Manager and Adviser Pleads Guilty to Stalking One of the Singer's Victims and Her Mother, Adam Klasfeld, July 26, 2022. R. Kelly’s manager and adviser pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a years-long campaign to stalk one of the disgraced singer’s victims and her mother.

Donnell Russell, 47, faces up to five years in prison for his admission to making interstate threats in a case tried in federal court in the Eastern District of New York. That is in addition to another possible five-year sentence on his recent conviction by a jury in another interstate threats case in the Southern District of New York on July 22.

Law&Crime, Judge Throws the Book at Montana Parents Who Killed 5-Year-Old Son, Says the Boy's 'Very Short Life' of 'Misery' Was 'Worse, Some Might Think, Than Death Itself,' Jerry Lambe, July 26, 2022. The parents of a 5-year-old Montana boy who was beaten to death were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars for killing the child nearly three years ago.

Cascade County District Court Judge Elizabeth Best on Tuesday ordered Stephanie Grace Byington, 34, and Emilio Emmanuel Renova Sr., 33, to each serve the maximum prison sentences for the 2019 slaying of their son Antonio “Tony” Renova, prosecutors confirmed to Law&Crime.

Renova, who in February pleaded no contest to one count of deliberate homicide, was sentenced to 100 years in the Montana State Prison with no eligibility for parole, Chief Criminal Deputy Cascade County Attorney Kory Larsen said in an email to Law&Crime.

Byington last year pleaded guilty to one count of accountability to deliberate homicide and one count of felony child endangerment. She was sentenced to 100 years in the Montana State Women’s Prison for the accountability to homicide charge with no eligibility for parole for the first 30 years, plus an additional 10 years with no eligibility for parole on the child endangerment charge. Judge Best ordered the sentences to run consecutively, meaning Byington will not be eligible for parole until she’s served at least 40 years behind bars.

According to a report from the Great Falls Tribune, Judge Best rejected Byington’s claim that she was coerced into harming her son.

“I am also taking into account what I watched in the videos that were provided to me and in the photos, you were an equal participant in feeding this starving, tortured child,” she reportedly said. “So I am not taking any account to claims that you were forced.”

A third co-defendant, 25-year-old Racso James Birdtail, pleaded no contest last year to one count each of accountability to assault on a minor and tampering with physical evidence also received the maximum sentence. Judge Best ordered Birdtail to serve five years for the assault charge and 10 years for the evidence tampering charge, to run consecutively. He reportedly encouraged Renova during the assault on Tony and then helped clean up the crime scene after the boy’s death.

Law&Crime, Cop Who Lashed Out with N-Word Said Slur Slipped into Her Vocabulary from Music and 'Hearing People Talk on the Street': Authorities, Alberto Luperon, July 26, 2022. A police officer in Ohio lashed out while driving, cursing up a storm and even using the N-word, censored bodycam footage shows.

“I f****** hate them,” Officer Rose Valentino of the Cincinnati Police Department said on April 5 (h/t WCPO). “Oh, I f****** hate them so much. F****** God. I hate this f****** world. F****** hate it,” she later said. “F****** n******s. I f****** hate them.”

An internal investigative report said that Valentino was on duty in a marked police car when she went to the district three police station to work on a report, according to WLWT. According to the internal investigation report, the officer pulled into the driveway of the station and saw several vehicles lined up to pick up students from Western Hills University High School. Drivers did not move after Valentino signaled at them with her siren and lights. She got angry, rolled down her window, and told them to move. A Black male student walking by flipped the bird at her, authorities said.

As seen on video, Valentino lashed out with the curse words after pulling into the driveway.

Now Valentino’s police powers have reportedly been suspended and she remains on desk duty ahead of an administrative hearing.

“This is a hard job, and I was getting to a point where I was really being affected by it,” she said in the internal investigative report. “I have been on for 14 years.”

Law&Crime, ‘Go Die’: 7-Year-Old Girl Has Choice Words for Ohio Man Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Rape and Kidnapping, Colin Kalmbacher, July 26, 2022. An Ohio man will spend at least 45 years in prison after kidnapping, raping, and trying to kill a 7-year-old girl last year.

Charles Castle, 57, knew the victim well.

While the defense and the prosecution went back and forth about the strength of DNA evidence tying the defendant to the 16 crimes of which he was accused, the girl’s testimony was said to be dispositive.

“The point is the girl is steadfast and when her interview she looked him right in the eye and she pointed at him right down there,” Hardin County Prosecutor Bradford Bailey told jurors. “That is not based on some fleeting moment, some guy comes to her house one time. That’s on the guy that’s been for over 60 days consistently over six and a half, seven years of her lifetime. She knows who Charles Castle is.”

Earlier this month, the defendant was found guilty of every single extant charge against him by the 12-person jury.

Those charges include seven counts of kidnapping, one count of rape, one count of attempted murder, one count of felonious assault, one count of breaking and entering, one count of endangering children, one count of burglary, and three counts of tampering with evidence.

According to Columbus, Ohio-based NBC affiliate WCMH, Castle was initially indicted on 17 charges in late 2021. Prosecutors dropped one count of possession of criminal tools just before deliberations.

The victim, who hails from Kenton, Ohio, was taken away from her home in November 2021. She was found almost two days later in an abandoned building in a rural part of Hardin County.

After being recovered, the girl was examined at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. There, a child abuse pediatrician who testified made note of numerous injuries to the victim including a purple ligature mark across her neck, several spots from burst blood vessels on her face, and bruising and scratching across her body.

Law&Crime, Texas Man Will Serve Three Life Sentences for Two Brutal Cold Case Murders and Arson Intended to Destroy Evidence, Colin Kalmbacher, July 26, 2022. A Texas man took a plea deal that will likely see him spend the rest of his life in prison over two brutal cold case murders.

Jose “Joe” Baldomero Flores III, 41, was facing the prospect of the death penalty and jury selection was set to begin on Monday, July 25 when he pleaded guilty to killing two women in 2005 and 2011.

Heather Willms was 21 years old when she was raped and killed inside the bedroom of her own apartment in the San Antonio-surrounded enclave of Leon Valley, Texas. Her hands had been severed and, according to neighbors, an argument and struggle with a man had preceded the violence, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

In comments to MySanAntonio.com, then-Leon Valley police chief Joseph Salvaggio said the neighbors described “shuffling sounds then silence,” that occurred at around 5:00 in the morning on that fateful early February day. The woman’s clothes had been burned in an apparent effort to conceal evidence. Friends reported their concerns to law enforcement after being unable to contact her the next day.

“The friends entered her apartment through a sliding glass door and everyone’s worst fears were realized, as they found Heather’s body in her bedroom,” Salvaggio said. “Mr. Flores was a purported friend of Heather’s, having gone to high school with her and staying in touch with her afterwards. [He] was one of the last to see her alive.”

Flores was questioned at the time because of his relational proximity to the first victim, but law enforcement did not arrest him.

Years later, he raped and killed 30-year-old Esmeralda Herrera in the bedroom of her own apartment on the Southwest Side neighborhood of San Antonio proper. Her body was found tied to her bed in early March. She had been bludgeoned and strangled to death. Another fire had been set to conceal evidence, this time set in multiple places and large enough that firefighters arrived to put down the blaze.

OpEdNews, Opinion: The Whistleblower Crackdown, John Kiriakou, July 26, 2022. This is National Whistleblower Week, with Saturday marking National Whistleblower Appreciation Day. The National Whistleblower Center in Washington has its annual lunch, seminar, and associated events scheduled. Whistleblowers from around the U.S. attend, a couple members of Congress usually show up, and we talk about how important it is to speak truth to power.

I've been attending these events for much of the past decade. But I'm not sanguine about where our efforts stand, especially on behalf of national security whistleblowers. Since I blew the whistle on the C.I.A.'s torture program in 2007 and was prosecuted for it in 2012, I think the situation for whistleblowers has grown far worse.

In 2012, when I took a plea to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 for confirming the name of a former C.I.A. colleague to a reporter who never made the name public, I was sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison.

In 2015, former C.I.A. officer Jeffrey Sterling, who blew the whistle on racial discrimination at the agency, was sentenced to what Judge Leonie Brinkema called "Kiriakou plus 12 months," because I had taken a plea and Jeffrey had had the unmitigated gall to go to trial to prove his innocence. So, he ended up with 42 months in prison.

Things just got worse from there.

The prosecutors of drone whistleblower Daniel Hale asked Judge Liam O'Grady to sentence him to 20 years in prison. O'Grady instead gave Hale 46 months. But to spite him, and to show prosecutors' anger with the sentence, the Justice Department ignored the judge's recommendation that Hale be sent to a low-security hospital facility in Butner, North Carolina, and instead incarcerated him in the supermax facility in Marion, Illinois, with no treatment for his debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder.

I was in the courtroom during Hale's sentencing. When prosecutors asked for the draconian sentence, Hale's attorneys cited my sentence of 30 months and Sterling's 42 months. Prosecutors retorted that they had "made a mistake with
Kiriakou. His sentence was far too short."

It was clear that since my own case, the Justice Department's ongoing prosecutions of national security whistleblowers wasn't discouraging people from going public with evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, or illegality in the intelligence community. Perhaps, they thought, tougher sentences would do it. Don't count on it, I say.

In the meantime, I ran into another national security whistleblower at an event recently. He told me that the F.B.I. had recently paid him a visit. I chuckled and said, "Because you're so close to them and they've been so kind to you?"

We laughed for a moment, but he was serious. He is still on probation and the F.B.I. offered to get that probation lifted if he would tell them anything and everything he knows about Julian Assange and Ed Snowden. He told them that he speaks through his attorney and wanted no further contact with them. His attorney told the F.B.I. that his client had nothing to say, would tell them nothing about Assange or Snowden even if he knew something and to not contact his client again. They haven't.

The Assange Nightmare

If you're reading this, you've likely followed the nightmare that Julian Assange has been experiencing for years now. He could be extradited to the United States by next year and he faces more than a lifetime in prison. That's the Justice Department's goal - that Assange die in a U.S. prison. Ed Snowden likely faces the same fate if he were to find his way back to the U.S.

In order to try to smooth the path for Assange's extradition, prosecutors have promised British authorities that Assange would not be placed in a Communications Management Unit or a Special Administrative Unit, where his access to the outside world would be practically nil.

They've also promised that he would not be placed in solitary confinement.

But that's all nonsense. It's a lie. Prosecutors have literally no say in where a prisoner is placed. It's not up to the judge and it's not up to the prosecutors. Placement is solely at the discretion of the Bureau of Prisons (on recommendation from the C.I.A., which spied on Assange and his lawyers) and they haven't made any promises to anybody.

Belmarsh Prison in London is awful. But Supermax Marion, Supermax Florence, USP Springfield, USP Leavenworth, USP Lewisburg, and any of the other American hell-holes where Assange and other whistleblowers are and can be placed would be worse.

Though it's National Whistleblower Week, we can't pause to celebrate. We can't bask in minor successes.

We have to keep up the fight because that's what the Justice Department is doing.

New York Times, Sixth Teenager Charged in Central Park Jogger Case Is Exonerated, Jonah E. Bromwich, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Steven Lopez had a robbery charge linked to the 1989 attack cleared from his record.

A forgotten co-defendant of the Central Park Five, who, like them, was charged with the rape of a jogger in a case that shook New York City and the nation, had a related conviction overturned Monday in downtown Manhattan.

The case against the Five — teenagers of color who were innocent of the 1989 sexual assault on a white woman but who were convicted on the basis of false confessions that the police elicited — continues to shape attitudes surrounding racism in the criminal justice system, the media and society. But the story of the sixth man — Steven Lopez — had previously been all but ignored.

Mr. Lopez, who was arrested when he was 15, struck a deal with prosecutors just before his trial two years later to avoid the more serious rape charge, instead pleading guilty to robbery of a male jogger.

The five most radical right Republican justices on the Supreme Court are shown above, with the sixth Republican, Chief Justice John Roberts, omitted in this photo array. 

New York Times, Opinion: Religious Doctrine, Not the Constitution, Drove the Dobbs Decision, Linda Greenhouse, July 24, 2022 (print ed.). Ms. Greenhouse, (shown at right on the cover of her memoir and the winner of a 1998 Pulitzer Prize), reported on the Supreme Court for The Times from 1978 to 2008 and was a contributing Opinion writer from 2009 to 2021.

My own way of keeping track of a Supreme Court term is to log each of the term’s decisions on a chart labeled by category: criminal law, administrative law, speech, federalism and so on. For this past term, one of my charts was, of course, labeled “abortion,” and naturally that’s where I recorded Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

But the other day, going over my charts before filing them away to prepare for the next term, a realization struck me. I had put Dobbs in the wrong place. Along with the decision about the praying football coach and the one requiring Maine to subsidize parochial school tuition, Dobbs belongs under “religion.”

That assertion invites pushback, I’m well aware. But step back from today’s artificial arguments about originalism and history, and consider the powerful social movement that led consecutive Republican presidents to appoint anti-abortion justices and that then drove the abortion issue through the Supreme Court’s open door.

• New York Times, After Roe, Republicans Sharpen Attacks on Gay and Transgender Rights, Trip Gabriel

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Pandemic Public Health, Disasters

Washington Post, Biden covid symptoms continue to improve, White House says, Laura Reiley and Abha Bhattarai, July 25, 2022 (print ed.). The president has completed his third full day of a new antiviral drug, his physician said in a letter released Sunday

President Biden, who tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, probably has the BA.5 variant and continues to experience mild symptoms that are improving, the White House said Sunday.

His physician, Kevin O’Connor, wrote in a letter that the president’s pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature all remain normal, and he doesn’t have any shortness of breath.

“His predominant symptom now is sore throat,” O’Connor wrote, adding that it was an indication that his body is clearing the virus, which is “encouraging.”

The president has taken the antiviral Paxlovid for three days and will continue treatment, O’Connor said. He is also taking Tylenol and using an albuterol inhaler a few times a day for cough.

• New York Times, Covid Live Updates: Biden’s Symptoms Have Improved, White House Physician Says
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New York Times, W.H.O. Declares Monkeypox Spread a Global Health Emergency, Apoorva Mandavilli (has covered the 2022 monkeypox outbreak since the first case in the United States was identified), July 24, 2022 (print ed.). There have been more than 16,000 cases in 75 countries, overwhelmingly among men who have sex with men.

The W.H.O.’s director general overruled a panel of advisers to make the declaration, which signals a health risk requiring a coordinated response. Monkeypox has spread in just a few weeks to dozens of countries and infected tens of thousands of people, most of them men who have sex with men.

For the second time in two years, the World Health Organization has taken the extraordinary step of declaring a global emergency. This time the cause is monkeypox, which has spread in just a few weeks to dozens of countries and infected tens of thousands of people.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general, on Saturday overruled a panel of advisers, who could not come to a consensus, and declared a “public health emergency of international concern,” a designation the W.H.O. currently uses to describe only two other diseases, Covid-19 and polio.

“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, and which meets the criteria” for a public health emergency, Dr. Tedros told reporters. It was apparently the first time that the director general had sidestepped his advisers to declare an emergency.

Washington Post, Western Japan volcano, Sakurajima, erupts; alert level raised, Sammy Westfall, July 25, 2022 (print ed.). The volcano, named Sakurajima, is located on the southwestern island of Kyushu, about 600 miles from Tokyo. It’s one of the Japan’s most active volcanoes.

The Japan Meteorological Agency raised the volcanic alert from level 3 to level 5 — the highest alert level, which has only been seen once before in 2015 for a different volcano, the Japan Times reported.

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World News, Analysis

New York Times, In Canada, Pope Apologizes for ‘Evil’ Inflicted on Indigenous People, Ian Willms, July 26, 2022 (print ed). Pope Francis offered a sweeping apology to Indigenous people on their native land for the church’s role in schools that became gruesome centers of abuse.

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said.

Washington Post, Russia plans to withdraw from the International Space Station and construct its own, Mary Ilyushina, July 26, 2022. Russia on Tuesday announced it will withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) project after 2024, signaling an end of an era in one of the last remaining areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States.
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Russia’s newly appointed head of space agency Roscosmos announced the decision in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, saying that the company will instead focus on building its own orbital station.

“We will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made,” the space agency chief Yury Borisov said.

Russian officials have discussed leaving the project since at least 2021, citing aging equipment and growing safety risks. The countries involved in the ISS agreed to use the station until 2024 and NASA planned to use the station until 2030.

But the ongoing rift between Moscow and Washington over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a barrage of economic restrictions seem to have accelerated the pullout. Last month, the previous head of Roscomos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that talks about Russian involvement after 2024 are possible only if the U.S. sanctions against the Russian space industry and other sectors of economy are lifted.

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