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There is still time to keep the presidential election fair

There is still time to keep the presidential election fair

Richard L. Hasen writes: The threat to the 2020 election’s legitimacy finally broke through into everyday conversation last week. People who pay little attention to politics started talking about whether President Trump was looking to mess with the United States Postal Service to slow down the receipt of mail-in ballots. Mr. Trump was not shy about it. He told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network last Thursday that he was pushing back against Democrats’ demand for further U.S.P.S. funding in…

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Joe Biden, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the shaky unity of the Democratic National Convention

Joe Biden, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the shaky unity of the Democratic National Convention

Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes: On Day Two of the Democratic National Convention, the Party’s recent past kept ghosting in and out. Before the networks had even begun their broadcasts, the Party rolled through half a century of its own history: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, from Georgia, and then Caroline Kennedy and her son in front of the unpainted shingles of a Cape Cod home, and, finally, Bill Clinton, sitting on a flowered couch at his home in Chappaqua, New York. Clinton…

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In Alaska, Trump doubles down on environmental vandalism

In Alaska, Trump doubles down on environmental vandalism

Bill McKibben writes: Of all the jobs I’ve ever watched humans do, few have seemed more appealing to me than counting salmon at the head of the Ugashik River, in Alaska. Every hour, the man charged with this duty would rouse himself from his cabin in that vast and sweeping wilderness, climb a ladder into what looked like a lifeguard’s chair, and then stare down at the stream—with a clicker in his hand, like an usher at a movie theatre….

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Democrats drop demand to end fossil fuel subsidies from party platform

Democrats drop demand to end fossil fuel subsidies from party platform

HuffPost reports: The Democratic National Committee this week quietly dropped language calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks from its party platform, HuffPost has learned. On July 27, officials added an amendment to the Manager’s Mark, a ledger of party demands voted on as one omnibus package, stating: “Democrats support eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuels, and will fight to defend and extend tax incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy.” The amendment was…

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1.5 million antibody tests show which parts of New York City were hit hardest

1.5 million antibody tests show which parts of New York City were hit hardest

The New York Times reports: New York City on Tuesday released more than 1.46 million coronavirus antibody test results, the largest number to date, providing more evidence of how the virus penetrated deeply into some lower-income communities while passing more lightly across affluent parts of the city. In one ZIP code in Queens, more than 50 percent of people who had gotten tested were found to have antibodies, a strikingly high rate. But no ZIP code south of 96th Street…

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Local officials in China hid coronavirus dangers from Beijing, U.S. intelligence agencies find

Local officials in China hid coronavirus dangers from Beijing, U.S. intelligence agencies find

The New York Times reports: Trump administration officials have tried taking a political sledgehammer to China over the coronavirus pandemic, asserting that the Chinese Communist Party covered up the initial outbreak and allowed the virus to spread around the globe. But within the United States government, intelligence officials have arrived at a more nuanced and complex finding of what Chinese officials did wrong in January. Officials in Beijing were kept in the dark for weeks about the potential devastation of…

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A recent prosecution shows the hypocrisy of Michael Flynn’s defenders

A recent prosecution shows the hypocrisy of Michael Flynn’s defenders

Barbara McQuade and Chuck Rosenberg write: Materiality appears to mean different things to the leadership of the Justice Department these days, depending on the defendant. An FBI lawyer named Kevin Clinesmith will reportedly soon plead guilty to a felony in federal district court. According to the charges filed against Clinesmith, he made a false statement to a colleague that was relayed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in connection with an FBI application to surveil Trump campaign foreign policy adviser…

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Air pollution is much worse than we thought

Air pollution is much worse than we thought

Vox reports: In the late 1960s, the US saw regular, choking smog descend over New York City and Los Angeles, 100,000 barrels of oil spilled off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, and, perhaps most famously, fires burning on the surface of the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. These grim images sparked the modern environmental movement, the first Earth Day, and a decade of extraordinary environmental lawmaking and rulemaking (much of it under a Republican president, Richard Nixon). From the ’70s…

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Immunity studies provide ‘a bit of blue sky’ about protection from Covid-19, experts say

Immunity studies provide ‘a bit of blue sky’ about protection from Covid-19, experts say

CNN reports: A recent batch of studies, many early stage and not yet peer reviewed, show that humans have a “robust” immune response to Covid-19 that may protect them from further infection, even if they had mild symptoms. How long that protection lasts is still unclear, but the studies indicate it could last for months. One leading immunologist says the findings provide optimism that people will not have to endure repeated coronavirus infections. It also provides evidence a vaccine might…

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Postal Service backs down on changes as at least 20 states sue over potential mail delays ahead of election

Postal Service backs down on changes as at least 20 states sue over potential mail delays ahead of election

CNN reports: Embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy reversed course Tuesday, saying that all changes being made to the Postal Service would be suspended until after the November 3 election, just as 20 Democratic states announced plans to file federal lawsuits. DeJoy said that some of the deferred decisions mean that retail hours at post offices will not change, mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain in place and no mail processing facilities will be closed. At least 20…

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Trump is ‘flooding the zone.’ It’s a form of modern censorship

Trump is ‘flooding the zone.’ It’s a form of modern censorship

Charlie Warzel writes: In the Trump era, news doesn’t break, it invades. It doesn’t respect nights or weekends. Many journalists live at the whim of President Trump’s Twitter feed. A rattled off Friday afternoon tweet from Mr. Trump about banning TikTok or a late night hint of an executive order means a weekend of wild goose chases around answering a fundamental question: Can he even do that? It’s not just journalists who feel this exhaustion. Over the last four years…

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Former counterterrorism chief: Trump defeat may prompt right-wing terror attacks

Former counterterrorism chief: Trump defeat may prompt right-wing terror attacks

Yahoo News reports: The former head of the National Counterterrorism Center said he would not be surprised if right-wing domestic terrorist groups stage attacks in the United States around this November’s presidential election. “It certainly wouldn’t surprise me, particularly if the administration loses,” said Russ Travers, who was the center’s acting director when he was fired by President Trump’s hand-picked acting director of national intelligence. Trump, who is behind in all national polls, has repeatedly claimed that the expected widespread…

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Paul Manafort was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds

Paul Manafort was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Russia’s government and intelligence services. In its nearly 1,000-page report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee found that Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer “on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that…

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‘Zombie’ microbes redefine life’s energy limits

‘Zombie’ microbes redefine life’s energy limits

Jordana Cepelewicz writes: Energy drives the planet; it’s the currency that all living things use to grow, develop and function. But just how little energy do cells need to get by? Sediment-dwelling microbes below the seafloor — which may outnumber the microbial cells found in the oceans themselves — are providing some surprising answers. The organisms not only challenge what scientists thought they knew about life’s energy needs, but hint at new ways of defining what life is and where…

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