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‘Please like me,’ Trump begged. For many women, it’s way too late

‘Please like me,’ Trump begged. For many women, it’s way too late

The New York Times reports: Kate Rabinovitch doesn’t call herself an activist. A few weeks ago, the 29-year-old real estate agent wrote personalized messages to voters in her home state of Ohio on behalf of Joseph R. Biden Jr. She texts with undecided friends during the debates, arguing for the Democratic nominee. And she is helping to organize voter drives in her suburban Cleveland neighborhood. But a political activist? No way. “It’s just not something that I ever would have…

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Trump starts to articulate a reality painful for him to acknowledge: He could lose in 2020

Trump starts to articulate a reality painful for him to acknowledge: He could lose in 2020

Politico reports: He’s mused out loud about an embarrassing 2020 defeat. He’s acknowledged his severe deficit in key polls. And he’s made naked appeals to the critical voting blocs of suburban women and older adults — two demographics he has struggled to win over. Just weeks from Election Day, President Donald Trump is saying the quiet part out loud about his own campaign. The president is crisscrossing the country with a packed schedule, flying to some states he won handily…

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‘White supremacy’ once meant David Duke and the KKK. Now it refers to much more

‘White supremacy’ once meant David Duke and the KKK. Now it refers to much more

The New York Times reports: As July 4 and its barbecues arrived this year, the activist and former N.F.L. quarterback Colin Kaepernick declared, “We reject your celebration of white supremacy.” The movie star Mark Ruffalo said in February that Hollywood had been swimming for a century in “a homogeneous culture of white supremacy.” The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of New York City’s most prestigious museums, acknowledged this summer that his institution was grounded in white supremacy,…

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‘On the brink of disaster’: Europe’s Covid-19 fight takes a turn for the worse

‘On the brink of disaster’: Europe’s Covid-19 fight takes a turn for the worse

The Guardian reports: “It’s not a word I’ve heard in a long, long time,” an elderly Paris resident said, leaving her apartment in mask and gloves for an early expedition to the shops. “A curfew. That’s for wartime, isn’t it? But in a way I suppose that’s what this is.” Europe’s second coronavirus wave took a dramatic turn for the worse this week, forcing governments across the continent to make tough choices as more than a dozen countries reported their…

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Republican senators ‘on the precipice of what could be a historic loss’ are distancing themselves from Trump

Republican senators ‘on the precipice of what could be a historic loss’ are distancing themselves from Trump

The New York Times reports: For nearly four years, congressional Republicans have ducked and dodged an unending cascade of offensive statements and norm-shattering behavior from President Trump, ignoring his caustic and scattershot Twitter feed and penchant for flouting party orthodoxy, and standing quietly by as he abandoned military allies, attacked American institutions and stirred up racist and nativist fears. But now, facing grim polling numbers and a flood of Democratic money and enthusiasm that has imperiled their majority in the…

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Sen. Susan Collins backs QAnon believers for Maine legislature

Sen. Susan Collins backs QAnon believers for Maine legislature

Mainer reports: Sen. Susan Collins is financially supporting the state legislative campaigns of two fellow Maine Republicans who fervently believe in QAnon, the perverse conspiracy theory whose adherents are considered a domestic terror threat by the FBI. In recent days, Facebook and YouTube have announced actions to curb the spread of QAnon content due to mounting fears that its followers — who deify President Trump and believe his enemies are a global cabal of pedophilic Satanists — will engage in…

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Which Constitution is Amy Coney Barrett talking about?

Which Constitution is Amy Coney Barrett talking about?

Jamelle Bouie writes: On Tuesday, Judge Amy Coney Barrett took a few minutes during her confirmation hearing to discuss her judicial philosophy, best known as originalism. It means, she explained, “that I interpret the Constitution as a law, I understand it to have the meaning that it had at the time people ratified it. That meaning doesn’t change over time and it is not up to me to update it or infuse my policy views into it.” Now, originalism is…

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Feds examining whether alleged Hunter Biden emails are linked to a foreign intel operation

Feds examining whether alleged Hunter Biden emails are linked to a foreign intel operation

NBC News reports: Federal investigators are examining whether the emails allegedly describing activities by Joe Biden and his son Hunter and found on a laptop at a Delaware repair shop are linked to a foreign intelligence operation, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News. The FBI seized the laptop and a hard drive through a grand jury subpoena. The subpoena was later published by the New York Post. The bureau has declined to comment. The Post, a conservative…

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Trump ignored U.S. intelligence warnings that Giuliani ‘has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine’

Trump ignored U.S. intelligence warnings that Giuliani ‘has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine’

The Washington Post reports: U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter. The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence during a December 2019 trip to Ukraine, where he was gathering information that he thought would expose corrupt acts…

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Your livewired brain makes you a different person every day

Your livewired brain makes you a different person every day

Steve Paulson writes: Brain “plasticity” is one of the great discoveries in modern science, but neuroscientist David Eagleman thinks the word is misleading. Unlike plastic, which molds and then retains a particular shape, the brain’s physical structure is continually in flux. But Eagleman can’t avoid the word. “The whole literature uses that term plasticity, so I use it sparingly,” he says. Eagleman also discounts computer analogies to the brain. He’s coined the term “livewired” (the title of his new book)…

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As the world gets hotter, the divide between rich and poor gets bigger

As the world gets hotter, the divide between rich and poor gets bigger

Vann R. Newkirk II writes: Consider the cantaloupe. It’s a decent melon. If you, like me, are the sort who constantly mixes them up, cantaloupes are the orange ones, and honeydews are green. If you, like me, are old enough to remember vacations, you might have had them along with their cousin, watermelon, at a hotel’s breakfast buffet. Those spreads are not as bad as you remember, especially when it’s hot out; add a couple of cold bagels and a…

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U.S. coronavirus cases climb toward a third peak

U.S. coronavirus cases climb toward a third peak

The New York Times reports: The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, cases are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly records for new cases. The charts and maps below offer a snapshot of two earlier peaks of the pandemic, as well as where case counts…

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Anti-Biden disinformation decried by disinformation and security experts

Anti-Biden disinformation decried by disinformation and security experts

Patrick Tucker writes: Disinformation watchers on Wednesday were quick to point out the deeply problematic nature of the [New York Post] story and urge journalists and news outlets to be careful in how they covered it. Peter Singer, a strategist at New America and the co-author of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media, a book about disinformation, tweeted: “as I read stories like this, it makes me reflect on what some in media (especially on security beat) have learned from…

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The inside story of how Trump’s Covid-19 coordinator, Deborah Birx, undermined the world’s top health agency

The inside story of how Trump’s Covid-19 coordinator, Deborah Birx, undermined the world’s top health agency

Science magazine reports: On the morning of 13 July, more than 20 COVID-19 experts from across the U.S. government assembled in a conference room at the Department of Health and Human Services, steps from the Capitol. The group conferred on how best to gather key data on available beds and supplies of medicine and protective gear from thousands of hospitals. Around the table, masks concealed their expressions, but with COVID-19 cases surging out of control in some parts of the…

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