“President Biden is eager for a fight over abortion — an issue he sees as politically advantageous after the conservative Supreme Court left in place the near-ban in Texas, senior officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: The Supreme Court appears to be barreling toward giving red states significantly more power to restrict women's access to abortions.
State of play: The White House sees abortion as a potent issue ahead of next year's midterms, with Biden under huge pressure on Afghanistan, inflation, crime and the border, Axios' Sam Baker, Jonathan Swan and Alayna Treene report.
The Texas law, SB8, allows strangers to sue doctors, nurses, or even Uber drivers — anyone who performs or facilitates an abortion.
‘I want to see the GOP defend the idea that your nosy neighbor can sue your aunt for driving you to the hospital,’ a senior White House aide told Axios.
Biden announced ‘a whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision,’ including his new Gender Policy Council, the White House counsel's office, HHS and the Justice Department.” Read more at Axios
“The White House wants to elevate the Texas abortion case even though aides know a high-profile fight over abortion rights will also energize Republicans.
That's because Democrats say the sheer sweep of Texas' law, and the highly unusual way it's written, make it a juicy political target.
Democrats think the issue will especially help them with suburban voters, who hold the key to the House majority.’This is a massive political gift to Democrats,’ a senior House Democratic aide said.
Reality check: On the actual issue of abortion, Dems are losing.
They're unlikely to stop this trajectory, no matter how well they do in midterms.
What's next: A more straightforward abortion case — a Mississippi case that's a likely vehicle for the conservative court to chip away at Roe — is teed up for the term that begins next month.
The other side: ‘I would be careful if I were them,’ said an influential conservative legal figure, referring to Democrats. ‘The Texas law makes the Mississippi law look very reasonable,’ the conservative said. ‘The more play the Texas law gets, the easier it is to uphold Mississippi. Because the Mississippi law is no longer the end of the world.’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he might support a law that bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, much like the Texas law. The details.” Read more at Axios
“Nancy Pelosi said the House would vote on abortion rights later this month.
After the Supreme Court decided to leave in place a GOP-backed Texas law that bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, the House speaker called for federal legislation to codify Roe v. Wade. While such an effort could pass the narrowly Democratic-controlled House with a simple majority, the bill would face tougher odds in the 50-50 Senate, where it needs 60 votes to advance—unless Democrats move to eliminate the filibuster, which would allow legislation to pass with a simple majority. Democratic legislation on voting rights, D.C. statehood and other priorities have stalled for the same reason, as the party remains split on the filibuster. President Biden and a number of moderate Democrats have resisted calls to end it altogether.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Hurricane Ida and her stormy aftermath left at least 58 people dead nationwide, produced billions of dollars in damages stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast and spawned new warnings from scientists and elected officials that climate change has increased the risks of powerful natural disasters.
The death toll as of today rose to at least 44 across four states — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania — where high winds and flash flooding left extensive damage and at least 200,000 homes were without power days after what began as a Category 4 hurricane first made landfall far to the south (The New York Times and Reuters). The aftermath of Ida also walloped parts of Maryland, with flooding that killed one man in an apartment complex while another person remained missing (WTOP and The Baltimore Sun).
The New York Times describes some of those who died in New York and New Jersey, including people who drowned in basement apartments, after being submerged in their cars and trapped in structures ripped apart by the storm.
In Louisiana, fatalities unofficially climbed to 13 and were expected to rise. One million people lost power on Sunday in Louisiana and Mississippi, and hundreds of thousands of customers in Louisiana still have no electricity. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said 25,000 utility workers were in the state to help restore electricity, with more on the way (WDSU6). In New Orleans, power was restored to a small number of homes and businesses, city crews cleared some streets of fallen trees and debris and a few corner stores reopened. Officials declared Grand Isle, La., (seen below), where Hurricane Ida first came ashore, uninhabitable, but property owners will be allowed to survey damage and remove personal effects today and tomorrow (The Times Picayune).
© Getty Images
If residents in some parts of Louisiana are without transportation, gasoline, cell service or money, many have been forced since Monday to either swelter outdoors or move inside to what’s left of their sodden, moldy shelters as they await help. Those who are luckier were able to evacuate early, went to stay with friends and relatives outside the state or temporarily decamped to hotels that have electricity and air conditioning.
President Biden will travel today to meet in New Orleans with Louisiana state and local officials to personally pledge all available assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal departments. Officials believe it could take weeks to restore power in Louisiana (The Hill).
Biden said at the White House Thursday that ‘extreme storms and the climate crisis are here,’ constituting what he called ‘one of the great challenges of our time.’
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who has been in the job for nine days, said at a news conference on Thursday that Biden phoned her to offer ‘any assistance’ as the state assesses the storm’s powerful and unexpected impact in her state. ‘We need to foresee these in advance, and be prepared,’ she said.
Amtrak on Thursday suspended service between Boston and Washington, D.C., because of the storm damage.
In Connecticut, a veteran state trooper was found drowned on Thursday, apparently a victim while on duty of the storm’s ferocious floodwaters (News12).” Read more at The Hill
“After days of fierce winds, firefighters battling the Caldor Fire near Lake Tahoe took advantage of better weather conditions Thursday and were even able to allow some people back to their homes. Friday's forecast called for lighter winds but also extremely dry daytime weather, with a warming trend continuing through the weekend. The blaze has spanned over 330 square miles across two counties within miles of the popular tourist destination, forcing an unprecedented evacuation of all 22,000 residents of South Lake Tahoe, California, and tens of thousands of tourists. It has been burning since Aug. 14 and still threatens thousands of homes, businesses and other buildings ranging from cabins to ski resorts along its trek toward Nevada's border.” Read more at USA Today
“A knife-wielding extremistinjured six people, several of them critically, at an Auckland, New Zealand grocery store on Friday before being shot dead by police, in what authorities are describing as an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack.
The Sri Lankan national was a known security threat and under ‘constant’ police surveillance at the time of the attack,Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters.
Law enforcement officials had followed the man to the supermarket and were trailing him when he grabbed a knife from the shelves and began attacking customers. He was shot and killed by police ‘within the space of roughly 60 seconds of the attack starting,’ Ardern said.” Read more at Washington Post
“More than 80% of Americans 16 and older have some level of immunity against the coronavirus -- mostly through vaccination, a new survey shows. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted the survey of blood donations. The results also indicated that about twice as many people have been infected with the virus as have been officially counted. More than 39 million Americans have been diagnosed with coronavirus since the pandemic started last year. With the latest Covid-19 surge upending American life, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the rollout of booster doses could begin within weeks pending FDA authorization.” Read more at CNN
“New Israeli vaccine research strengthens the Biden administration's case for recommending COVID boosters for most Americans beginning Sept. 20, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.
Why it matters: It's increasingly likely that later this fall, being "fully vaccinated" will mean getting a third shot if you had Pfizer or Moderna. Research about J&J is ongoing.
The Biden administration has unveiled plans to recommend boosters beginning Sept. 20 for most adults, pending regulatory approval.
But the idea is controversial because so much of the world's population hasn't even gotten a first shot, and the data on the need for boosters is sparse.
New Israeli research suggests the benefits can kick in quickly. Epidemiologists fear the summer surge won't be the last, and we'll continue to face the virus through the fall and winter.
The preprint study, released by Israeli researchers, found that adults who received a third Pfizer shot saw their risk of infection drop by 11-fold, and their risk of severe disease drop by more than 10-fold.
What we're hearing: A senior administration official told Axios that the Israeli government recently briefed Biden's COVID team on the data.
‘I never thought of vaccines as short-term. This changes that paradigm,’ the official said. "I think ... once everybody sees that data, ... you’ll understand the sense of urgency we have."
“COVID infections continue to climb all across the U.S., with few new solutions on the horizon, Axios' Sam Baker writes.
There are some initial signs that things may be starting to get better in the South, which has experienced the worst of this wave.
About 160,000 Americans now test positive for COVID-19 each day — a 14% increase, nationwide, over the past two weeks.
A small handful of hotspots — Florida, Louisiana and Missouri — have begun to improve over the past two weeks, although cases are still rising in 44 states.
The biggest increases remain clustered largely in the Southeast, along with Indiana, West Virginia and South Dakota.
COVID hospitalizations are beginning to tick down, largely due to improvements in the South, Bloomberg reports.
“BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The intensive care rooms at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center are full, each a blinking jungle of tubes, wires and mechanical breathing machines. The patients nestled inside are a lot alike: All unvaccinated, mostly middle-aged, paralyzed and sedated, reliant on life support and locked in a silent struggle against COVID-19.
But watch for a moment, and glimpses of who they were before the coronavirus become clear.
Artfully inked tattoos cover the tanned forearm of a man in his 30s. An expectant mother’s slightly swollen belly is briefly revealed as a nurse adjusts her position. The young woman is five months pregnant and hooked to a breathing machine.
Down the hall, another pregnant woman, just 24 and hooked to a ventilator, is lying prone — on top of her developing fetus — to get more air into her ravaged lungs.
Idaho hit a grim COVID-19 trifecta this week, reaching record numbers of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and ICU patients. Medical experts say the deeply conservative state will likely see 30,000 new infections a week by mid-September.” Read more at AP News
“Top loyalists to Donald Trump, who frequently push lies about election fraud, have joined forces with conservative doctors touting unproven Covid curesand vaccine skepticism, and like-minded evangelical ministers at a series of events across the US this summer.
The conservative ‘ReAwaken America’ tour – featuring ex-general Michael Flynn and top Donald Trump loyalist donors – has held events in Florida, Michigan and other states.
It underscores how Trump’s allies, anti-vaccine doctors and conservative preachers are amplifying baseless claims that are hurting the nation’s public health and its democracy with potentially far-reaching impacts, say pandemic and election experts.
The tour comes as Covid cases soar and as Republican drives to pass state laws weakening voting rights increase. While the tour has touted Flynn’s key role, a Tulsa Oklahoma media figure and Christian entrepreneur named Clay Clark has been instrumental in orchestrating the gatherings – also dubbed ‘health and freedom’ conferences – using his ‘ThriveTime’ podcast and radio show and Charisma News coverage.
The ReAwaken events have featured talks by vaccine skeptics such as Simone Gold, who was charged for taking part in the Capitol riot and leads America’s Frontline Doctors, a rightist group that garnered attention for touting dubious Covid-19 cures such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
Stella Immanuel, a Houston doctor who is part of Gold’s group and who spoke at a Michigan ReAwaken rally on 20 August, gained notoriety last year for public remarks at a Washington rally near the supreme court, suggesting America’s health problems were linked to alien DNA and sperm from demons.
Another doctor listed as a speaker at the rallies is Scott Jensen, a former state senator and Fox News favorite who is running for governor in Minnesota. Last year, Jensen was a candidate for Politifact’s ‘lie of the year’ for claiming baselessly that doctors were overcounting Covid cases for their own financial gain.
Further, the conservative tour has provided new audiences for rich Trump donors such as Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow, who has stated falsely that Trump would be reinstalled as president by 13 August, and Patrick Byrne, the former chief of Overstock, who bankrolled with millions of dollars a spurious ‘audit’ in Arizona’s largest county that has drawn bipartisan fire for lacking merit.
The ReAwaken meetings, which each appear to have drawn audiences in the hundreds or more, have also taken place this year in Oklahoma and California, with more slated for Colorado and Texas in coming months. Promotional materials indicate that attendees are asked to pay $250 for general admission or $500 for VIP tickets, with pastors eligible for half-price tickets.” Read more at The Guardian
“Vaccine pushback. After facing fierce backlash, the European Union has decided to return millions of coronavirus vaccine doses imported from South Africa. The shots were originally produced by a plant in South Africa that sends 40 percent of its production to Europe, under its contract with Johnson and Johnson. Previously, the EU was widely criticized for taking doses from a continent that has fully vaccinated less than 3 percent of people, the world’s lowest inoculation rate.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Senator Joe Manchin said Democrats should ‘hit the pause button’ on their $3.5 trillion spending proposal, citing inflation. The bill probably cannot pass without his support.” Read more at New York Times
“A grand jury indicted a former Georgia prosecutor with ‘showing favor’ to one of the men now charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery.” Read more at New York Times
“Beto O'Rourke today launches a voter registration tool allowing eligible Texans to register at home with volunteers deployed on request, Axios' Stef Kight reports.
Why it matters: The announcement comes two days after the Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed a bill that voting-rights activists say will make it more difficult for some Texans to vote.
The program is being launched in 10 counties by Powered by People, which O'Rourke founded. Other counties will be added.” Read more at Axios
“The United States has spent around $8 trillion waging war in the two decades of bloodshed since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, according to an updated estimate from the Costs of War project at Brown University. The new figure, released Wednesday, suggests that the U.S. has spent trillions more on post-9/11 wars than previously thought. The project reached its estimate by adding up an array of war expenditures including increased spending from the Defense and State Departments, ballooning contractor costs, current and future care payments to veterans, and anti-terrorism spending from the Department of Homeland Security. Future costs are likely to remain high due to ongoing disability payments to vets and interest payments on money borrowed to fund the wars.
The researchers also estimated that the post-9/11 wars have directly killed around 929,000 people. ‘The Costs of War Project hopes that this accounting, and our other work, promotes transparency and facilitates informed conversations about current and future wars,’ the authors wrote in the report.” [Daily Beast]
“WASHINGTON — A self-described ‘poster boy’ for the Jan. 6 Capitol riots was sent back to jail Thursday after breaking a federal judge’s orders to stay off the Internet — a lapse his lawyer attributed to his seeming addiction to the QAnon cult.
Douglas Jensen, 42, of Des Moines, became one of the most recognized members of the mob that day when he was recorded on widely shared video pursuing US Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up two flights of stairs inside the Capitol while searching for the just-evacuated Senate chamber, according to prosecutors.
Jensen — wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with a large ‘Q’ and an eagle — came to Washington believing that members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence were going to be arrested for opposing President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, US District Judge Timothy Kelly said at a hearing Thursday.
‘He was at the forefront of a mob deep inside the Capitol because he wanted a front row to see what would happen. . . . He wanted to be part of a revolution,’ Kelly said, citing Jensen’s own statements.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will not seek reelection, plans to step down: He has faced criticism and nosediving support ratings over slow coronavirus measures and holding the Olympics despite the public’s health concerns.” Read more at USA Today
“Total control. Beijing has banned ‘effeminate’ men from making appearances on broadcast television, the latest in its crusade to tighten its grip over society. Other targets? ‘Vulgar influencers’ and male celebrities that wear makeup, while programs that focus on patriotic and traditional values received praise. Broadcasters must ‘resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics,’ the television regulator said.
The ban comes on the heels of a series of new restrictions Beijing unrolled in recent days, from shutting down LGBTQ accounts on social media, to regulating when children can play video games.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Clashes erupted overnight between Taliban fighters and an anti-Taliban group in Afghanistan's northern Panjshir Valley, a source said. The mountainous, inaccessible region north of Kabul is the last major holdout against Taliban rule, and has a long history of resisting the insurgent group. Taliban fighters have been gathering forces in the area, and claimed they'd captured three districts in the valley. Sporadic fighting between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front has gone on for two weeks. The rugged, inaccessible landscape gives local forces an advantage over would-be invaders. A Taliban leader called on Panjshiris to accept an amnesty and avoid fighting, but acknowledged negotiations had yielded no result so far.” Read more at CNN
“Forced lockdown. New Delhi imposed a lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir on Thursday after Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a leader of the territory’s separatist movement, died on Wednesday night. The Indian government has deployed troops throughout the region, restricted public movement, and cut internet and cell service. Meanwhile, Geelani’s family wasn’t allowed to be present at his burial, which took place after authorities forcibly took his body.
The restrictions highlight the ongoing tensions in the region—which have been especially high since the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in 2019—and New Delhi’s fear of mass anti-India protests in the wake of a major resistance figure’s death.” Read more Foreign Policy
“Thwarted aid. An aid blockade in Ethiopia’s conflict-stricken Tigray region is threatening the lives of millions of Ethiopians who are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, almost a year after the start of the war. According to aid workers, 100 aid trucks are supposed to enter Tigray every day, but none have been able to get through since Aug. 22.
The blockade comes as Tigrayan rebel fighters reportedly assaulted villages and looted stores carrying U.S. aid in the neighboring Amhara region, plunging the country deeper into crisis. In July, the U.N. warned that more than 400,000 Ethiopians were facing famine, with another 1.8 million people on the edge.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“$266 million — The new fine against Facebook’s chat service WhatsApp by European Union regulators, who said the messaging platform failed to tell the bloc’s residents enough about what it does with their data.
340,000 — New applications for jobless benefits in the week that ended Aug. 28, the lowest level since the pandemic began in March 2020, suggesting employers are largely holding back on layoffs.
14% — The estimated decline in U.S. vehicle sales last month from a year earlier—the lowest sales pace for the industry in a decade, excluding a few months earlier in the pandemic. In another sign of industry disruption, Ford and General Motors are scaling back production as the global computer-chip shortage continues.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“LONDON (AP) — ABBA is releasing its first new music in four decades, along with a concert performance that will see the ‘Dancing Queen ‘quartet going entirely digital.
The forthcoming album ‘Voyage,’ to be released Nov. 5, is a follow-up to 1981′s ‘The Visitors,’ which until now had been the swan song of the Swedish supergroup. And a virtual version of the band will begin a series of concerts in London on May 27.” Read more at USA Today
“Lives Lived: Mikis Theodorakis was best known for scoring movies. But he was also a Marxist firebrand who rebelled against a military junta that imprisoned and exiled him. He died at 96.” Read more at New York Times
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