“Law enforcement needs to take the upcoming right-wing rally in support of jailed January 6 rioters ‘very seriously’ as concerns mount about more potential violence on Capitol Hill, ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said. ‘They should take it more seriously than they took the same sort of intelligence that they likely saw on January 5,’ he told CNN. Law enforcement officials in Washington are steeling themselves against possible unrest at the ‘Justice for J6’ rally -- planned for September 18 -- which aims to support the insurrectionists charged in the riot. Homeland Security intelligence chief John Cohen previously told CNN that recent online extremist rhetoric is strikingly similar to the buildup to the January 6 attack, with increasing calls for violence linked to conspiracy theories and false narratives. It's still unclear how many protesters plan to attend next week's rally, which falls on a Saturday when the House will be in recess, so far fewer lawmakers or staff will be around.” Read more at CNN
“Covid-19 cases have been on the rise in much of the US, and the seven-day average of new cases yesterday was more than 300% higher than Labor Day of last year, Johns Hopkins University data shows. The jump in cases has translated into overcrowded hospitals and a rise in infections among children -- of particular concern as many students return to their classrooms. And experts fear the holiday weekend could make matters worse. Meanwhile, a potential outbreak of Covid-19 in Singapore is undermining the city’s plan to try to ‘live with’ the virus. The number of new Covid-19 infections in Singapore doubled in the past week, according to the country's Ministry of Health, rising to more than 1,200 cases for the week that ended Sunday.” Read more at CNN
“A group of 26 GOP senators are calling on President Joe Biden to release information by 5 p.m. Tuesday on the number of Americans, green card holders and special immigrant visa applicants who remain in Afghanistan. The coalition, led by Sen. Tom Cotton, wrote in a letter to the president: ‘Americans need to see that the United States will not abandon them to terrorists abroad forever.’ They also criticized Biden for the ‘poorly-planned’ withdrawal. More than 123,000 people were flown out of Afghanistan since Aug. 14, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and between 100-200 U.S. citizens remain in the country.” Read more at USA Today
“Pretrial hearings in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been accused of being the lead plotter behind the September 11 attacks, and four other detainees at Guantanamo Bay are set to resume today. The last in-person hearing in the case was in February 2020. The five are accused of plotting and executing the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. If convicted, all five could receive the death penalty. Charges against them announced by the US government in 2012 include ‘terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, and destruction of property in violation of the law of war.’ The hearings come the week of the attacks' 20th anniversary, and some victims' relatives are in Guantanamo Bay to observe them.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will survey damage in parts of the northeast that suffered catastrophic flash flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, and use the muddy backdrop to call for federal spending to fortify infrastructure so it can better withstand such powerful storms.
Biden is set to tour Manville, New Jersey, and the New York City borough of Queens on Tuesday.
At least 50 people were killed in six Eastern states as record rainfall last week overwhelmed rivers and sewer systems. Some people were trapped in fast-filling basement apartments and cars, or were swept away as they tried to escape. The storm also spawned several tornadoes.
More than half of those deaths, 27, were recorded in New Jersey. In New York City, 13 people were killed, including 11 in Queens.
Biden’s visit follows a Friday trip to Louisiana, where Hurricane Ida first made landfall, killing at least 13 people in the state and plunging New Orleans into darkness. Power is being slowly restored.” Read more at AP News
“City officials will go door to door to ensure people in New York get the federal relief benefits they need after torrential rain from Hurricane Ida's remnants caused deadly flooding, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. The announcement came after President Biden approved a major disaster declaration for the area, which New York Sen. Chuck Schumer called ‘the fastest (he's) seen a major disaster area declared.’ Additionally, Louisiana's lieutenant governor is promising changes after seven nursing home residents died after being evacuated before Ida to a warehouse with hundreds of other people. The temporary shelter, a warehouse in Independence, Louisiana, was overwhelmed after receiving more than 840 people on August 27 ahead of the Category 4 hurricane, officials said. ‘To pack that many people into one warehouse is just unthinkable,’ Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser told CNN.” Read more at CNN
“The Justice Department won’t tolerate violence or threats against people seeking abortions in Texas, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, as the Biden administration considers ways to challenge a new state law banning most abortions.
Mr. Garland said Monday that the department was ‘urgently’ exploring its options to challenge the new law, which bars most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The Supreme Court late Wednesday allowed it to take effect, but didn’t rule on the measure’s constitutionality.
The Justice Department will ‘continue to protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services’ under a separate federal law that makes it a crime to injure or intimidate abortion-clinic patients and employees, Mr. Garland said. It also prohibits damaging property at such facilities and other reproductive-health centers.
Officials have reached out to federal prosecutors and Federal Bureau of Investigation field offices across Texas to discuss how to enforce the federal law, known as the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, he said.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Agenda trouble | Deepening divisions in U.S. President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party are diminishing the odds of the passage this month of his $4 trillion economic agenda, something he needs for a boost as his popularity wanes. The timetable risks getting sidetracked by a rift between progressives and moderates over the size of the tax and spending package.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Forecasters are keeping a wary eye on a storm Tuesday that's making its way across the Atlantic. Hurricane Larry was causing big waves to form about 1,000 miles east-northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea by Monday afternoon, and a series of smaller, developing storms could create more big problems for battered Louisiana's Gulf Coast. The National Weather Service said the hurricane probably won't make it to the USA, but "significant" swells will, reaching much of the East Coast by midweek and affecting the shoreline through the end of the week. The storm is ‘likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions,’ the weather service said.” Read more at USA Today
“Michael K. Williams, the actor who brought a hard-edge charisma to his portrayal of Omar Little, the sawed-off-shotgun-wielding stickup man on the pioneering HBO series ‘The Wire,’ was found dead on Monday in his home in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, the police said. He was 54.
His longtime representative, Marianna Shafran, confirmed the death in a statement and said the family was grappling with ‘deep sorrow’ at ‘this insurmountable loss.’
Mr. Williams was found at about 2 p.m., according to the New York City Police Department. The death is being investigated as a possible drug overdose, and the city’s medical examiner will determine the cause.
Tributes to Michael K. Williams, Actor Who Gave ‘Voice to the Human Condition’
As Omar Little on ‘The Wire,’ David Simon’s five-season epic on HBO that explored the gritty underworld of corruption, drugs and the police in Baltimore, Williams played perhaps the most memorable character on a series many consider among the best shows in television history.
As a swaggering lone wolf in a story largely defined by continuing battles between the police and various crime bosses and crews, Omar was one of prime-time’s preeminent antiheroes in a TV era defined by them. He was also gay and openly so in the homophobic, coldblooded world of murder and drugs, a groundbreaking portrayal of Black masculinity on television.” Read more at New York Times
“The president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group, was fired over his involvement advising former New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s response to sexual assault allegations, the organization said Monday.
The Human Rights Campaign said in a statement that Alphonso David was relieved of his duties because ‘his actions have put us in an untenable position by violating HRC’s core values, policies and mission.’
The firing, effective immediately, was the result of an investigation into David’s role advising Cuomo, which the Human Rights Campaign said had resulted in ‘material damage’ to the organization’s interests and reputation….
The conflict was the latest fallout from the sexual harassment scandal that pushed Cuomo from office last month, after an investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James found evidence that he had harassed 11 women. Cuomo, who continues to deny many of the allegations in James’s report, left office on Aug. 23 after it became clear that he faced impeachment and removal by the New York legislature.” Read more at Washington Post
“Minnesota State Patrol troopers deleted text messages and emails shortly after responding to protests that erupted over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year, according to a major who testified in federal court in July.
The testimony was included in court documents that were released on Friday as part of a lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed last year on behalf of journalists who said they had been assaulted by law enforcement officers while covering the protests.” Read more at New York Times
“The Taliban claimed Monday to have overcome the last pocket of resistance in Afghanistan, releasing images they said showed the conquest of the provincial capital of Panjshir, a region that has held out against the group’s takeover of the country.
The Taliban, who took control of most of the country this summer, culminating with the capital city of Kabul on Aug. 15, made the declaration as they prepare to announce a new government.
On Monday, pro-Taliban social-media accounts posted a video of what they said were their fighters—whom they call mujahedeen or holy warriors—raising the group’s white flag over the governor’s house in the provincial capital of Panjshir. Other pictures and videos showing their presence there were also published.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Afghan refugees at Dulles on Aug. 29. Photo: Kent Nishimura/L.A. Times via Getty Images
“An influx of Afghan refugees is worsening America's broken immigration system, Axios' Stef Kight writes.
The Pentagon needs to add 50,000 spots to bases by next week to provide temporary housing for Afghan refugees.
That may sound like a lot, but there have been more than 1.2 million undocumented border crossings since October.
The big picture: Afghanistan is the latest in a string of migration emergencies facing President Biden.
COVID, poverty and violence in Central America, an earthquake that rocked Haiti, actions by the Trump administration and by federal courts, and agencies that are understaffed and underfunded have left the administration jumping from one fire to the next.
What's happening: The same HHS agency scrambling to fund and build emergency sites for unaccompanied kids from south of the border is also charged with funding services for resettled Afghans.
Paperwork, including work authorization for Afghans and Central American asylum-seekers alike, all flows through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which has long struggled with backlogs.
What we're watching: An unknown number of unaccompanied Afghan kids will join the record numbers of migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents or guardians.
As military bases prepare to house tens of thousands of Afghans, one base — Fort Bliss, Texas — has already been criticized for holding hundreds of unaccompanied minors in unfit conditions.” Read more at Axios
“A Guinean military officer broadcast a statement on Sunday announcing that Guinea’s constitution has been dissolved in an apparent coup. An adviser to President Alpha Conde told CNN that Conde is under arrest and that a coup has taken place in the West African country. ‘We will no longer entrust politics to a man. We will entrust it to the people. We come only for that; it is the duty of a soldier, to save the country,’ Guinean army officer Mamady Doumbouya says in a video. Doumbouya added that they have arrested 83-year-old Conde and suspended the constitution, the government and all other institutions. He also announced the closing of land and air borders. Aluminum prices have reached their highest level in more than a decade after the coup in Guinea, a major supplier of the main ore used to produce the metal. The location of Conde, who won a heavily disputed election last year, is still unclear.” Read more at CNN
“Thousands of Brazilians are expected to take to the streets across the country today, answering—and protesting—a call by President Jair Bolsonaro for a popular show of force as corruption investigations, lagging poll numbers, and the reemergence of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have weakened his position ahead of the October 2022 presidential election.
Organizers, with financial support from pro-Bolsonaro donors, hope to gather as many as two million people in the capital Brasília with thousands to remain behind in a protest camp. Bolsonaro himself is expected to address crowds in Brasília as well as São Paulo. All of this pageantry, as Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief author Catherine Osborn wrote via e-mail, is ‘to create the image of a huge mass of people that Bolsonaro can then use to rebut what he claims is the fake news claiming that he lacks support.’
The demonstrations come as Bolsonaro has for months attacked the Supreme Court and complained of fraud in Brazil’s voting system—pushing for an all-paper ballot to replace electronic voting machines, which he alleges are susceptible to tampering.
Both Brazil’s Congress and Supreme Court have decried his administration’s attempts to force through voting changes, suggesting institutional support for any further anti-democratic moves would solely lie with the military, who have been less clear about their future intentions.
Tense atmosphere. The prospect of right-wing grievances against democratic institutions mixed with mass protest and aggressive online organizing has led to fears of September 7 becoming a Brazilian version of January 6, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol. Pro-Bolsonaro supporters already breached police cordons in Brasília on Monday night, raising security fears of ahead of today’s main event.
Osborn warns that violence is a possibility, given the disposition of some of Bolsonaro’s backers: ‘Many of Bolsonaro’s supporters are gun enthusiasts and he has made a point to loosen gun laws. The number of guns held by Brazilian civilians has doubled since 2017. [Violence] could occur between Bolsonaro’s supporters and the police or with counter-protesters.’
Poor polling. Consistently poor polling has left Bolsonaro with few options if he wishes to retain power. A September 1 poll shows Lula trouncing Bolsonaro by double digits in a one-on-one matchup, a scenario that has largely held since March, when convictions against the former president were quashed.
Those election polls pair with recent polls showing more than 50 percent of Brazilians say the Bolsonaro government is bad or terrible, although those that say his administration is good or excellent has held steady at roughly 25 percent.
‘I have three alternatives for my future: Prison, death, or victory,’ Bolsonaro told a group of evangelical supporters last week, giving an insight into his mindset ahead of today’s demonstrations. ‘You can be sure the first alternative doesn’t exist. I’m doing the right thing and I owe nothing to anyone.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Sales pitch | German Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly endorsed Armin Laschet, her bloc’s candidate to succeed her, while taking a swipe at his Social Democratic rival in an unusually direct intervention in the election race. Her feisty speech in parliament today comes as the SPD’s Olaf Scholz emerges as a surprise front-runner, with Laschet failing to reach voters amid a gaffe-prone campaign.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Bitcoin faces the biggest test in its 12-year history as El Salvador becomes the first country to adopt it as legal tender today.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Keeping Qatar close. Two of the most senior members of the Biden cabinet, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, visit Qatar today on separate trips with a unified message: Thanking the Gulf state for its support in processing evacuees from Afghanistan and reassuring the country with the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East of U.S. priorities following the Afghanistan withdrawal. The Qatar stop is the start of a busy week for both officials as Blinken’s travels take him on to Germany and Austin visits Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Duterte’s second act. The national congress of the Philippines’ ruling party (PDP-Laban) takes place this week, with party members expected to approve Christopher ‘Bong’ Go as its presidential candidate for next year’s election. President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to be confirmed as the party’s vice-presidential candidate, a move that would allow him to circumvent his one-term limit should PDP-Laban win and if Go subsequently resigns.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set today to do what he’s often been accused of — fail to keep his word.
As Emily Ashton reports, Johnson will deliver on a policy pledge he made in his first speech as prime minister and unveil a long-awaited funding overhaul of Britain’s ‘broken’ social-care system.
But to do so, he’ll likely renege on a ‘guarantee’ in his 2019 election manifesto not to raise taxes, a pledge that helped the Conservative Party to a sweeping majority. That’s stirring discontent among Johnson’s own lawmakers, including those in cabinet.
They worry about the electoral consequences of a levy that may slug low-paid and younger workers in order to fund care for elderly people, some of whom already enjoy generous pensions and own expensive homes.
Among those most affected would be long-time Labour Party voters who switched allegiance in 2019 to the Tories.
With Labour opposing Johnson’s plans for a rise in national insurance levies, a rebellion by about 40 Conservative lawmakers could be enough to sink them in parliament. That would strengthen party murmurings against his leadership and bolster the appeal of potential rivals such as Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Johnson’s still facing other problems, including the economic impact of the Brexit divorce from Europe and Covid-19. An estimated shortage of 100,000 delivery drivers has left businesses warning of disrupted supply chains and shoppers increasingly noticing empty supermarket shelves.
The prime minister has largely enjoyed a charmed relationship with voters unmoved by allegations from critics about his record of keeping his word. Taxes, however, could prove the deal breaker.” — Tony Halpin Read more at Bloomberg
Boris Johnson at a news conference in London on July 29.
Photographer: Andy Rain/EPA
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