Music: Ricardo Grilli — ‘Arcturus’
Trump aides exploring executive actions to curb voting by mail
Politico reports: This past spring, President Donald Trump began a full-fledged assault on voting by mail, tweeting, retweeting and railing about massive fraud and rigged elections with scant evidence. Then the Republican apparatus got to work backing up the president. In the weeks since, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have taken to the courts dozens of times as part of a $20 million effort to challenge voting rules, including filing their own lawsuits in several battleground states, including…
Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor, casino boss Sheldon Adelson
Politico reports: When President Donald Trump connected by phone last week with Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson — perhaps the only person in the party who can cut a nine-figure check to aid his reelection — the phone call unexpectedly turned contentious. The 87-year-old casino mogul had reached out to Trump to talk about the coronavirus relief bill and the economy. But then Trump brought the conversation around to the campaign and confronted Adelson about why he wasn’t doing more to…
Inside Trump’s battles with U.S. intelligence agencies
Robert Draper writes: In early July of last year, the first draft of a classified document known as a National Intelligence Estimate circulated among key members of the agencies making up the U.S. intelligence community. N.I.E.s are intended to be that community’s most authoritative class of top-secret document, reflecting its consensus judgment on national-security matters ranging from Iran’s nuclear capabilities to global terrorism. The draft of the July 2019 N.I.E. ran to about 15 pages, with another 10 pages of…
Bill Gates predicts pandemic will be over by the end of 2022
Wired: At this point, are you optimistic? Bill Gates: Yes. You have to admit there’s been trillions of dollars of economic damage done and a lot of debts, but the innovation pipeline on scaling up diagnostics, on new therapeutics, on vaccines is actually quite impressive. And that makes me feel like, for the rich world, we should largely be able to end this thing by the end of 2021, and for the world at large by the end of 2022….
Dr. Anthony Fauci says chance of coronavirus vaccine being highly effective is ‘not great’
CNBC reports: White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that the chances of scientists creating a highly effective vaccine — one that provides 98% or more guaranteed protection — for the virus are slim. Scientists are hoping for a coronavirus vaccine that is at least 75% effective, but 50% or 60% effective would be acceptable, too, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a Q&A with the Brown University School of Public…
Three major scientific controversies about coronavirus
It is unclear how well masks work. People Image Studio/Shutterstock By Manal Mohammed, University of Westminster Although political leaders have closed borders in response to COVID-19, scientists are collaborating like never before. But the coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) is novel – and we don’t yet have all the facts about it. As a result, we may have to change our approach as new scientific data comes in. That doesn’t mean the science isn’t trustworthy – we will get the full picture over…
Can Minneapolis dismantle its police department?
Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes: Early in the afternoon of Sunday, June 7th, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council appeared together on a stage in Powderhorn Park, masked and socially distanced. Demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd had been unfurling for nearly two weeks, and though the police commissioner had fired all four of the officers present during his death, and though the district attorney had indicted the police officer Derek Chauvin for murder, the protests had only grown more…
Music: Weather Report — ‘Boogie Woogie Waltz’
U.S. intel: Russia is trying to ‘denigrate’ Biden while China prefers ‘unpredictable’ Trump not be reelected
The Washington Post reports: The government of China prefers that President Trump not win reelection in November, seeing the incumbent as “unpredictable,” and Russia is using a range of measures to try to “denigrate” the president’s opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, including selective leaks of information and efforts on social media, a top U.S. intelligence official said in a statement Friday. The statement by William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, was notable for identifying three…
Trump has launched a three-pronged attack on the election
Laurence H. Tribe, Jennifer Taub, and Joshua A. Geltzer write: As President Donald Trump reflects on his sinking approval ratings and grows more desperate by the day, he’s been floating a dictator’s dream: postponing the November election. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Trump loyalists, including the Federalist Society co-founder Steven Calabresi, swiftly rejected this authoritarian fantasy. So Trump has retreated to a fallback position: casting doubt on the legitimacy of any election he doesn’t win. That starts…
The next global depression is coming and optimism won’t slow it down
Ian Bremmer writes: The world is confused and frightened. COVID-19 infections are on the rise across the U.S. and around the world, even in countries that once thought they had contained the virus. The outlook for the next year is at best uncertain; countries are rushing to produce and distribute vaccines at breakneck speeds, some opting to bypass critical phase trials. Meanwhile, unemployment numbers remain dizzyingly high, even as the U.S. stock market continues to defy gravity. We’re headed into…
Lebanon is no stranger to disaster – but this is like nothing we’ve ever seen
Kim Ghattas writes: The seismic event felt like an earthquake and an air raid wrapped into one. None of us in Lebanon have ever experienced anything like it, none of us have ever seen this type of utter devastation or can yet truly grasp the extent of what has befallen us and our beloved city, although we have been through more than any life could hold. If you’re in your mid-40s in Lebanon, you’ve lived through 15 years of war,…
Massive explosion of ammonium nitrate at Monsanto chemical plant in Texas killed hundreds in 1947
The Washington Post reports: Seventy-three years ago, on an April morning at the port of Texas City near Galveston, crew members of the SS Grandcamp were busy loading thousands of pounds of ammonium nitrate. “It was the beginning of a beautiful, cool day,” the Houston Chronicle reported, “a breeze was coming out of the north.” Around 8 a.m., someone noticed smoke coming from the cargo area. And then, boom. A massive explosion sent a mushroom cloud more than 2,000 feet…
To uncover the habits of ancient humans, scientists are studying modern sports stars
Bridget Alex writes: Archaeologist Annemieke Milks planned to test the ballistic properties of some of the world’s oldest spears. Crafted by Neanderthals 300,000 years ago, the wooden artifacts measure about 7 feet long and resemble oversized broomsticks with sharpened tips. When discovered in the 1990s at a site in Schöningen, Germany, they rested alongside the butchered remains of 35 horses. Apparently, Neanderthals, armed with the spears, had some very successful hunts. But just how fast and far could these ancient…
Alaskan megaeruption may have helped end the Roman Republic
Science reports: For ages, the shadow of a volcano has hung over the fall of the Roman Republic. Ancient historians told of the Sun’s mysterious disappearance after Julius Caesar’s murder in 44 B.C.E., which was followed by bouts of cold and crop failures. Now, a team of scientists and historians has discovered that one of the largest known eruptions in history struck in 43 B.C.E.—potentially contributing to 2 years of weird weather and famine as the republic dissolved and the…