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Category: Politics

Mexico border towns try to protect themselves from infected Americans crossing amid Covid-19 fears

Mexico border towns try to protect themselves from infected Americans crossing amid Covid-19 fears

The Guardian reports: As he campaigned for the presidency, Donald Trump promised to build a “big beautiful wall” along the US-Mexico border, claiming it would keep migrants out of the country and stop everything from drugs to disease. But with Covid-19 cases surging on both sides of the frontier, towns in northern Mexico are pleading to restrict cross-border movement – this time to stop tourists and travellers bringing in coronavirus from the US. Over the weekend, townspeople in Sonoyta on…

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I read Kanye West’s interview about his ‘presidency’ aspirations so you don’t have to

I read Kanye West’s interview about his ‘presidency’ aspirations so you don’t have to

J’na Jefferson writes: I personally don’t think anyone should be giving Kanye any attention, and talking about him or making fun of him instead of encouraging him to get help doesn’t do anyone any favors. As a former fan, I’ve done a very good job of not viewing much about this “presidential run” over the last few days for my own sanity. However, I’ve got a job to do, dammit, and if that means destroying my wellbeing while doing it,…

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Sweden has suffered ‘a self-inflicted wound.’ The choice between lives and paychecks is a false one

Sweden has suffered ‘a self-inflicted wound.’ The choice between lives and paychecks is a false one

The New York Times reports: Ever since the coronavirus emerged in Europe, Sweden has captured international attention by conducting an unorthodox, open-air experiment. It has allowed the world to examine what happens in a pandemic when a government allows life to carry on largely unhindered. This is what has happened: Not only have thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that imposed lockdowns, but Sweden’s economy has fared little better. “They literally gained nothing,” said Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a…

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The pandemic experts are at risk of burning out

The pandemic experts are at risk of burning out

Ed Yong writes: Saskia Popescu’s phone buzzes throughout the night, waking her up. It had already buzzed 99 times before I interviewed her at 9:15 a.m. ET last Monday. It buzzed three times during the first 15 minutes of our call. Whenever a COVID-19 case is confirmed at her hospital system, Popescu gets an email, and her phone buzzes. She cannot silence it. An epidemiologist at the University of Arizona, Popescu works to prepare hospitals for outbreaks of emerging diseases….

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Trump doesn’t want to govern and couldn’t do it if he tried

Trump doesn’t want to govern and couldn’t do it if he tried

Jamelle Bouie writes: Donald Trump made his name in Republican Party politics as a “birther,” a true believer in — and an evangelist for — the racist conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was a foreign-born, illegitimate president. Having stoked a wave of white grievance and resentment, Trump rode it, first to influence — let’s not forget that Mitt Romney came to receive Trump’s endorsement in person during the 2012 presidential race — and then to the summit of power as…

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Trump’s worldview forged by neglect and trauma at home, writes his niece, a clinical psychologist

Trump’s worldview forged by neglect and trauma at home, writes his niece, a clinical psychologist

The Washington Post reports: A tell-all book by President Trump’s niece describes a family riven by a series of traumas, exacerbated by a daunting patriarch who “destroyed” Donald Trump by short-circuiting his “ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion,” according to a copy of the forthcoming memoir obtained by The Washington Post. President Trump’s view of the world was shaped by his desire during childhood to avoid his father’s disapproval, according to the niece, Mary L….

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A Jewish case for equality in Israel-Palestine

A Jewish case for equality in Israel-Palestine

Peter Beinart writes: What makes someone a Jew — not just a Jew in name, but a Jew in good standing—today? In Haredi circles, being a real Jew means adhering to religious law. In leftist Jewish spaces, it means championing progressive causes. But these environments are the exceptions. In the broad center of Jewish life—where power and respectability lie—being a Jew means, above all, supporting the existence of a Jewish state. In most Jewish communities on earth, rejecting Israel is…

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I’m a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson. Take down his memorial

I’m a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson. Take down his memorial

Lucian K. Truscott IV writes: The memorial is a shrine to a man who during his lifetime owned more than 600 slaves and had at least six children with one of them, Sally Hemings. It’s a shrine to a man who famously wrote that “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence that founded this nation — and yet never did much to make those words come true. Upon his death, he did not free the people he…

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Some Trump advisers not convinced his loyalty to statues will move voters

Some Trump advisers not convinced his loyalty to statues will move voters

The Daily Beast reports: With four months left to salvage his re-election campaign against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, President Donald Trump has decided to pivot heavily to culture-war bluster and hard-right posturing. A major part of that pivot appears to be turning his anger on people who don’t like the same statues he does and comparing those enemies to Nazi “fascists.” Shockingly, there are some in Trump’s political orbit who aren’t convinced this tactic will move voters as much…

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Trump defends Confederate flag in latest race-based appeal to conservative white voters

Trump defends Confederate flag in latest race-based appeal to conservative white voters

The New York Times reports: President Trump mounted an explicit defense of the Confederate flag on Monday, suggesting that NASCAR had made a mistake in banning it from its auto racing events, while falsely accusing a top Black driver, Darrell Wallace Jr., of perpetrating a hoax involving a noose found in his garage. Mr. Trump’s reference to the Confederate flag, and its role in a sport whose mostly white fans Mr. Trump remains popular with, was the latest remark by…

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Do many Americans understand how badly the U.S. is dealing with the pandemic?

Do many Americans understand how badly the U.S. is dealing with the pandemic?

Thomas Chatterton Williams writes: As Donald Trump’s America continues to shatter records for daily infections, France, like most other developed nations and even some undeveloped ones, seems to have beat back the virus. The numbers are not ambiguous. From a peak of 7,581 new cases across the country on March 31, and with a death toll now just below 30,000—at one point the world’s fourth highest—there were just 526 new cases on June 13, the day we masked ourselves and…

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Dakota Access pipeline to be shut down by court order in major blow for Trump

Dakota Access pipeline to be shut down by court order in major blow for Trump

Bloomberg reports: The Dakota Access pipeline must shut down by Aug. 5, a district court ruled Monday in a stunning defeat for the Trump administration and the oil industry. The decision, which shuts the pipeline during a court-ordered environmental review that’s expected to extend into 2021, is a momentous win for American Indian tribes that have opposed the Energy Transfer LP project for years. It comes just a day after Dominion Energy Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. scuttled another project,…

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Serious damage to Iran’s Natanz nuclear site caused by Israeli bomb attack, intelligence official claims

Serious damage to Iran’s Natanz nuclear site caused by Israeli bomb attack, intelligence official claims

The New York Times reports: A fire at Iran’s main nuclear fuel enrichment site caused significant damage, setting back the country’s nuclear program by months, the government acknowledged on Sunday, after initially saying the destruction was minor. A Middle Eastern intelligence official with knowledge of the episode said Israel was responsible for the attack on the Natanz nuclear complex on Thursday, using a powerful bomb. A member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who was briefed on the matter also…

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All across America, Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus

All across America, Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus

The New York Times reports: Teresa and Marvin Bradley can’t say for sure how they got the coronavirus. Maybe Ms. Bradley, a Michigan nurse, brought it from her hospital. Maybe it came from a visiting relative. Maybe it was something else entirely. What is certain — according to new federal data that provides the most comprehensive look to date on nearly 1.5 million coronavirus patients in America — is that the Bradleys are not outliers. Racial disparities in who contracts…

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How Hong Kong beat coronavirus and avoided lockdown

How Hong Kong beat coronavirus and avoided lockdown

CNBC reports: When Apple closed its retail stores around the globe amid the coronavirus pandemic, a handful of outlets were exempt, including its six locations in Hong Kong. In fact, much of Hong Kong has felt relatively normal this year compared with its peers, which enacted strict lockdown measures. Since its first confirmed case of Covid-19 on Jan. 22, Hong Kong went through phased closures of government offices, schools, gyms and bars. But other services were relatively unaffected, including dine-in…

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A me-too moment for journalists of color

A me-too moment for journalists of color

Soledad O’Brien writes: I left CNN more than seven years ago. But I watch its coverage, and that of other news networks — the panel-driven journalism that sometimes gives voice to liars and white supremacists; the excuse of “balance” to embolden and normalize bigots and bigotry by posing them as the “other side.” When I criticize CNN (as I do frequently on social media), the company attacks me as “more of a liberal activist than a journalist,” a common dig…

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