‘We’re f—ed’: Democrats fear turnout catastrophe from GOP voting laws

‘We’re f—ed’: Democrats fear turnout catastrophe from GOP voting laws

Politico reports: After Georgia Republicans passed a restrictive voting law in March, Democrats here began doing the math. The state’s new voter I.D. requirement for mail-in ballots could affect the more than 270,000 Georgians lacking identification. The provision cutting the number of ballot drop boxes could affect hundreds of thousands of voters who cast absentee ballots that way in 2020 — and that’s just in the populous Atlanta suburbs alone. It didn’t take long before the implications became clear to…

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The spyware threat to journalists

The spyware threat to journalists

Steve Coll writes: Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative reporter from Azerbaijan, is an icon among the subtribe of journalists who work to expose cross-border financial corruption. She has broken big stories about money laundering and dodgy banking, despite being targeted by President Ilham Aliyev’s authoritarian regime. Operatives planted cameras in her home in Baku and, in 2012, released a video of her having sex with her boyfriend. In 2014, she was arrested on trumped-up charges that included tax evasion; a court…

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New research finds time spent among trees might help kids’ brains grow and develop

New research finds time spent among trees might help kids’ brains grow and develop

Science Alert reports: As a child grows and develops, the neurons in their brain are said to branch like trees. Being around this very type of foliage could actually help the process along. A long-term study among 3,568 students in London, between the ages of 9 and 15, has found those kids who spent more time near woodlands showed improved cognitive performance and mental health in adolescence. On the other hand, other natural environments, like grasslands or lakes and rivers,…

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Stuck in the smoke as billionaires blast off

Stuck in the smoke as billionaires blast off

Naomi Klein writes: Many people here think they are safe from climate change, the journalist from a German newspaper explained to me. They don’t see it as an immediate threat, like Covid-19. They see the Greens as scolds who want to take away their cheap holidays. “What do you have to say to them?” The question came via video call in late June, and I was, at that very moment, pickled in my non-air-conditioned home, gripped by a heatwave that…

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What climate scientists are saying about this catastrophic summer

What climate scientists are saying about this catastrophic summer

Slate reports: By all accounts, the climate crisis is already here. Deadly heat domes across the Pacific Northwest, a petroleum pipeline leak in the middle of the ocean that set the Gulf of Mexico on fire, and the deadly floods in Germany and Belgium in the past few weeks alone have proved that the world is changing in response to how we have changed it.* No one should be surprised by this. For decades, scientists have been ringing the alarm…

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We may finally know why the delta variant of coronavirus is so infectious

We may finally know why the delta variant of coronavirus is so infectious

Live Science reports: People infected with the delta variant of the novel coronavirus may be carrying more than a thousand times more virus particles and may test positive two days earlier than those infected with the original SARS-CoV-2, according to an early new study. The study has not been peer reviewed and looked at only a small number of cases in China, but if the results can be confirmed, they may explain, at least in part, why the delta variant…

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U.S. had biggest decline in life expectancy in nearly 80 years in 2020

U.S. had biggest decline in life expectancy in nearly 80 years in 2020

Live Science reports: U.S. life expectancy dropped a striking 1.5 years in 2020 — the largest decline since World War II — as a result of the high death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report, which is based on preliminary death data for all of last year, estimated that U.S. life expectancy fell from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020. That’s the…

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There’s no emotion we ought to think harder about than anger

There’s no emotion we ought to think harder about than anger

Martha C Nussbaum writes: There’s no emotion we ought to think harder and more clearly about than anger. Anger greets most of us every day – in our personal relationships, in the workplace, on the highway, on airline trips – and, often, in our political lives as well. Anger is both poisonous and popular. Even when people acknowledge its destructive tendencies, they still so often cling to it, seeing it as a strong emotion, connected to self-respect and manliness (or,…

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The course of the pandemic may depend on how many people are ultimately swayed to get vaccinated

The course of the pandemic may depend on how many people are ultimately swayed to get vaccinated

The New York Times reports: They acknowledged that they could have showed up months ago. Many were satisfied that they were finally doing the right thing. A few grumbled that they had little choice. On a single day this past week, more than half a million people across the United States trickled into high school gymnasiums, pharmacies and buses converted into mobile clinics. Then they pushed up their sleeves and got their coronavirus vaccines. These are the Americans who are…

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‘We could have prevented this’ The scientist Eric Topol on the Delta variant and its dangerous impact

‘We could have prevented this’ The scientist Eric Topol on the Delta variant and its dangerous impact

David Wallace-Wells writes: At present, there are two big anchors to conventional-wisdom thinking on the Delta variant: that those already vaccinated remain exceedingly well protected against the new, more transmissible strain; and that those who aren’t remain exceedingly vulnerable. But a third fact seems, to me, to be just as significant, in assessing the COVID risks the country faces going forward: that the age skew of the disease and the age skew of vaccine penetration, taken together, mean that the…

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GOP sees widening rift over promoting Covid shots

GOP sees widening rift over promoting Covid shots

Politico reports: The Republican Party is being torn apart by the debate over whether to more aggressively promote Covid-19 vaccines, pitting those alarmed by the virus’ resurgence against a faction that has spent weeks sowing fear about the immunization push. The deepening divide became apparent this week on Capitol Hill and across the party, with a contingent of prominent conservatives vocally advocating for the shots — even as others emphasized the need for the GOP to stick to principles of…

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The doctor who creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines

The doctor who creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines

The New York Times reports: The article that appeared online on Feb. 9 began with a seemingly innocuous question about the legal definition of vaccines. Then over its next 3,400 words, it declared coronavirus vaccines were “a medical fraud” and said the injections did not prevent infections, provide immunity or stop transmission of the disease. Instead, the article claimed, the shots “alter your genetic coding, turning you into a viral protein factory that has no off-switch.” Its assertions were easily…

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Why I’m sure Trump will run for president in 2024

Why I’m sure Trump will run for president in 2024

Michael Wolff writes: To write three books in four years about Donald Trump has been an immersion into his obsessions and fixations. This is why I know the obvious: Donald Trump will run for president again. This spring, in another of his compulsive bids for attention — indifferent to whether it is good or bad — he hosted me at Mar-a-Lago, even after I had written two unflattering books about him (one whose publication he tried to stop), for an…

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Bolsonaro once said he’d stage a military takeover. Now Brazilians fear he could be laying the foundation for one

Bolsonaro once said he’d stage a military takeover. Now Brazilians fear he could be laying the foundation for one

The Washington Post reports: In a television interview two decades ago, the fringe congressman didn’t hesitate to say it: If he were president, he would shut down the Brazilian congress and stage a military takeover. “There’s not even the littlest doubt,” Jair Bolsonaro said. “I’d stage a coup the same day [I became president,] the same day. Congress doesn’t work. I’m sure at least 90 percent of people would party and clap.” Now the congressman is president of Brazil, and…

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