The Full Belmonte, September 2, 2022
Biden Calls on Americans to Resist Threats to Democracy
The president condemned Trump-led extremism and cast the midterm elections as a ‘battle for the soul of the nation.’
In a speech outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, President Biden warned that America’s democratic values were under assault by ‘MAGA Republicans’ loyal to former President Donald J. Trump.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
PHILADELPHIA — President Biden traveled to Independence Hall on Thursday to warn that America's democratic values are under assault by forces of extremism loyal to former President Donald J. Trump, using a prime-time address to define the midterm elections as a “battle for the soul of this nation.”
In a 24-minute speech, Mr. Biden blamed his predecessor for stoking a movement filled with election deniers and people calling for political violence. He went out of his way to declare that not all Republicans embrace extremism, however, and he said that defending democracy would require rejecting Mr. Trump and his ideology in elections this fall.
‘Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic,’ Mr. Biden said, flanked by Marine guards.
‘But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans,’ he added. ‘And that is a threat to this country.’
Speaking to several hundred spectators seated in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the country’s political institutions were born, and just steps from the Liberty Bell, Mr. Biden made it clear that he believes the political violence and election denial espoused by the former president and his allies have damaged America’s reputation abroad.
He cited the ‘extraordinary experiment of self-government’ represented by the American Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, saying that ‘history tells us a blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy.’
The president was interrupted by protesters who chanted ‘Let’s go Brandon,’ a reference to a crude epithet aimed at Mr. Biden that is popular among Mr. Trump’s supporters. At one point, the president joked that ‘good manners is nothing they ever suffered from,’ but he also defended their right to protest, saying ‘they’re entitled to be outrageous.’
Before Mr. Biden delivered his remarks, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, said it was Democrats who were ‘dismantling Americans’ democracy before our very eyes.’
After the speech, Republicans said Mr. Biden was maligning the 74 million people who voted for Mr. Trump in the 2020 election.
‘Joe Biden is the divider in chief and epitomizes the current state of the Democrat Party,’ said Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. ‘One of divisiveness, disgust and hostility towards half the country.’
The stakes are high for Mr. Biden and his political advisers, who believe they must cast the midterms as an existential choice for voters between Mr. Biden’s agenda and a return to the extremism of ‘MAGA Republicans’ who have enabled Mr. Trump’s ideology. Mr. Biden plunged into the cultural issues that his party believes could help galvanize Democratic voters.
But the president, a practicing Catholic, avoided a direct mention of abortion rights, an issue he has struggled with for decades.
‘MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.’
The president delivered what amounted to two back-to-back speeches in an address that was carried live by cable channels but not the broadcast networks.
In one, Mr. Biden painted a dark portrait of a democracy on the brink, threatened by violence and able to survive only if Americans ‘choose a different path.’ In the other, he hailed his administration’s progress as evidence of a prosperous and free country roaring to new heights where drugs are affordable, climate change is being confronted and the economy is growing rapidly.
The contrast was striking, but aides said Mr. Biden was determined to deliver both messages ahead of elections that will determine control of Congress, believing that only with a sense of optimism will Americans be willing to fight back against extremism.
The focus on threats to democracy is a return to an issue that Mr. Biden said drove him to run for the presidency after white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. Since taking office, he has often said that the United States and its allies are engaged in a long-running struggle between ‘autocracy and democracy.’
The president had sought to avoid casting the conflict as a purely partisan one, aides said, and White House officials insisted that the address did not amount to a political event. But Mr. Biden directly called on Americans to go to the polls in November and reject Republican candidates who have signed on to the former president’s brand of politics.
Mr. Biden said Americans were not powerless to stop extremism and did not have to act like ‘bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy’ by failing to vote.
‘For a long time, we’ve told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘But it’s not. We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us.’
‘Vote! Vote! Vote,’ he chanted at the end.
In particular, Mr. Biden condemned what he sees as an increase in politically violent rhetoric such as the threats against federal agents in the wake of the F.B.I.’s search for classified documents at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Such threats, he said, risk undermining faith in the country’s law enforcement and have no place in normal political discourse.
In Thursday’s speech, Mr. Biden was specific about the threats inside America’s borders, saying that his political rivals had formed a party of extremism, threatening the democratic traditions debated and adopted at Independence Hall almost 250 years ago.
Mr. Biden had been planning the speech since early this summer, according to a Democratic official familiar with the president’s thinking. The official, who asked for anonymity to discuss private conversations with Mr. Biden, said the president had been concerned that the forces that animated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol were not fading away.
Recently, however, the president grew more motivated to deliver it because of persistent false claims of election fraud as voters prepare to go to the polls in the midterms, a White House official said.
In several recent speeches, Mr. Biden has replaced his usual calls for unity with sharp condemnations of ‘MAGA extremists,’ saying Republicans have embraced ‘semi-fascism.’
Mr. Biden’s combative message coincides with new polling that suggests his party’s fortunes — and his own popularity — have improved after several legislative accomplishments, a decline in gas prices and strong job growth that has given Democrats hope that they may retain control of Congress.
A poll published by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday found Democrats with a small lead over Republicans when voters were asked which party they preferred in their own districts. Five months ago, Republicans held a larger lead over Democrats in the same survey.
The poll also found some improvement in Mr. Biden’s approval rating, which rose to 45 percent from 42 percent in March. That could mean Mr. Biden is less of a drag on his party’s candidates than some Democratic strategists had feared in the spring.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, once vowed that ‘100 percent of my focus’ would be on stopping Mr. Biden from making progress on his Democratic agenda. Recently, the Senate’s longtime tactician has found himself on the losing end of the legislative ledger.
Mr. McConnell has failed to block several of Mr. Biden’s high-profile bills, including a $1 trillion infrastructure package, a bill to improve competition with China and a vast new investment in efforts to fight climate change and negotiate drug prices.
That has been in part because Mr. McConnell needs to protect incumbent Republican senators from a suburban backlash against the kinds of extreme positions in parts of the Republican Party that Mr. Biden has been raising more frequently in recent weeks.
The president and his allies still face a difficult task: retaining control of the House and the Senate at a time of high inflation and deep concerns among a majority of voters about the direction of the country under the leadership of Mr. Biden and Democrats in Congress. In The Journal’s survey, two-thirds of the registered voters who were polled said they believed the country’s economy was not good or poor.
But Mr. Biden’s political advisers believe the warnings about political extremism and Mr. Trump are an important part of motivating Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans to come to the polls.” Read more at New York Times
Judge to Unseal More Detailed List of Materials Seized at Mar-a-Lago
Aileen Cannon says she will rule in due course on former President Donald Trump’s request for special master
Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida was searched by FBI agents in early August.PHOTO: BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES
“WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—A fuller picture of what documents might be among the classified material seized.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision came during a hearing Thursday over whether to appoint an outside party to review the materials now in the Justice Department’s hands to determine whether issues of executive and lawyer-client privilege put some of it out of bounds to investigators.
After hearing arguments from both sides, she said she would issue a written order in due course on Mr. Trump’s request for that third-party review.
The Justice Department opposed the request in a court filing Tuesday that described a monthslong effort to obtain what prosecutors said were more than 300 classified documents that Mr. Trump took to his Florida estate when he left office. FBI agents obtained around 100 of those, including three found in desks in the former president’s office, only after undertaking their search on Aug. 8, the filing said.
Department officials also have said a third party’s work would partly duplicate the work of an in-house team that already has set aside possibly privileged information, and have expressed concern that the appointment would delay their inquiry.
In a response Wednesday, lawyers for Mr. Trump said they seek a broader role for the special master than that defined for the Justice Department’s so-called filter team, one that would encompass all documents seized and consider issues of executive privilege alongside client-lawyer privilege.
Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, had previously signaled that she is prepared to name a special master—typically a retired judge who reviews evidence to determine whether it is protected—but that the hearing would guide her final decision.
Arguing the case for Mr. Trump is Chris Kise, a former Florida solicitor general with deep ties to the GOP who was added this week to the former president’s legal team amid questions about its quality. Mr. Kise is leaving his firm, Foley & Lardner, to join Mr. Trump’s team.
Arguing for the government is Jay Bratt, chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control section, a career prosecutor with deep national-security experience.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“(CNN) Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, signed off Thursday on the recommendation of the agency's independent vaccine advisers in favor of updated Covid-19 vaccine boosters from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13 to 1 earlier in the day to recommend updated mRNA boosters for Americans this fall.
Everything you need to know about the updated Covid-19 boosters
Walensky's decision means the shots could be available by Friday, according to pharmaceutical manufacturers, which began shipping the new doses after the US Food and Drug Administration authorized them Wednesday.” Read more at CNN
Judge says Graham must testify in 2020 election probe, limits scope of questions
A federal judge rejected a request from Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) to invalidate a subpoena for his appearance before a Georgia grand jury investigating 2020 election interference. (Al Drago/Bloomberg)
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) must appear before a Georgia grand jury investigating possible attempts by Donald Trump and his allies to disrupt the state’s 2020 presidential election, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
But the judge limited the range of questions that prosecutors can ask, partially acknowledging Graham’s claim that his status as a sitting senator provides protection against such inquiries.
Graham’s lawyers had sought to throw out the subpoena from the Georgia grand jury, arguing that his calls to Georgia officials after the 2020 election were part of his official Senate duties and thus immune from the probe.
‘The Court is unpersuaded by the breadth of Senator Graham’s argument and does not find that the Speech or Debate Clause completely prevents all questioning related to the calls,’ wrote U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May in a decision released Thursday.
The ruling is unlikely to be the final word on the matter and will be reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Graham, a close Trump ally, has resisted the subpoena from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) who wants to question the South Carolina senator about calls he made to Georgia election officials soon after Trump lost the state’s election to Joe Biden. Prosecutors say Graham has ‘unique knowledge’ about the Trump campaign and the ‘multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results’ of the 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.” Read more at Washington Post
Jan. 6 Panel Seeks Information From Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
Committee said it had obtained emails showing Mr. Gingrich had input into ads that spread false claims of voter fraud
The committee investigating the attack on the Capitol wants to know about former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s emails to senior White House advisers after the 2020 election.PHOTO: LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS
“The select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol requested information from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about his contacts with senior advisers to former President Trump in the days leading up to the attack.
The committee said in a letter to Mr. Gingrich that it is seeking information about television advertisements that spread false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election. It said Mr. Gingrich, the Georgia Republican who led the House as speaker from 1995 to 1999, was also involved in other efforts to overturn the election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.), chairman of the committee, said in a Thursday letter to Mr. Gingrich that it had obtained emails to senior advisers to Mr. Trump, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a top Trump campaign official, Jason Miller. The emails showed the former House speaker provided input into television ads that encouraged members of the public to pressure state officials to overturn the election, Mr. Thompson said in the letter.
‘The goal is to arouse the country’s anger through new verifiable information the American people have never seen before. If we inform the American people in a way they find convincing…they will then bring pressure on legislators and governors,’ Mr. Gingrich wrote in a Dec. 8, 2020, email to Messrs. Kushner and Miller, according to a Thursday night release by the committee.
The emails showed Mr. Gingrich provided line edits to advertisements promoting claims of fraud in the Georgia election, according to Mr. Thompson’s letter. The advertisements were aired in the days leading up to Dec. 14, 2020, when electors in states across the country met to cast their votes for president, according to the letter.
In response to a query, Mr. Gingrich said he hadn’t received the committee’s letter and couldn’t comment.
Mr. Thompson said the committee would like to interview Mr. Gingrich during the week of Sept. 19. He asked that Mr. Gingrich preserve all records of communications with the Trump White House, Mr. Trump and Mr. Trump’s legal team.
The committee said that Mr. Gingrich also appeared to have participated in an effort to send slates of fake, pro-Trump electors in states won by Mr. Biden to Congress. Mr. Thompson in his letter referred to a Nov. 12, 2020, email from Mr. Gingrich to Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s then chief of staff, and Pat Cipollone, the top White House lawyer, asking, ‘Is someone in charge of coordinating all the electors?’” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Ginni Thomas pressed Wisconsin lawmakers to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory
The conservative activist and wife of the Supreme Court justice emailed lawmakers in two states in the weeks after the election
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, takes part in the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Maryland. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed lawmakers to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory not only in Arizona, as previously reported, but also in a second battleground state, Wisconsin, according to emails obtained under state public-records law.
The Washington Post reported this year that Ginni Thomas emailed 29 Arizona state lawmakers, some of them twice, in November and December 2020. She urged them to set aside Biden’s popular-vote victory and ‘choose’ their own presidential electors, despite the fact that the responsibility for choosing electors rests with voters under Arizona state law.
The new emails show that Thomas also messaged two Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin: state Sen. Kathy Bernier, then chair of the Senate elections committee, and state Rep. Gary Tauchen. Bernier and Tauchen received the email at 10:47 a.m. on Nov. 9, virtually the same time the Arizona lawmakers received a verbatim copy of the message from Thomas. The Bernier email was obtained by The Post, and the Tauchen email was obtained by the watchdog group Documented and provided to The Post.” Read more at Washington Post
The fatal police shooting of Donovan Lewis
Andrew Welsh-Huggins/AP
“Columbus, Ohio, police released body camera footage Thursday of the moment an officer fatally shot an unarmed Black man in his bed.” [Vox} Read more at CNN / Amanda Musa, Dakin Andone, and Michelle Watson
“Police arrived at an apartment around 2 am Tuesday, and knocked for at least 8 minutes before two men met them at the door. Police detained both men and sent a police dog into the apartment for 20-year-old Donovan Lewis.” [Vox} Read more at Guardian / Maya Yang
“The dog brought officers to a back bedroom. Veteran police officer Ricky Anderson opened the door and fired a shot at Lewis as he sat up in bed.” [Vox} Read more at Daily Beast / Pilar Melendez
“Police say Lewis appeared to be holding something in his hand at the time of the shooting. A vape pen was later found on his bed.” [Vox} Read more at Columbus Dispatch / Bethany Bruner and Monroe Trombly
“Officers were at the apartment to serve Lewis arrest warrants for improperly handling a firearm, assault, and domestic violence.” [Vox} Read more at Washington Post / Marina Lopes and Brittany Shammas
“In recent years, several fatal police shootings of Black people have rocked Columbus. Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating Lewis’s death.” [Vox} Read more at New York Times / Christine Chung
California Approves a Wave of Aggressive New Climate Measures
After lobbying by the governor, lawmakers adopted $54 billion in climate spending and voted to keep open the state’s last nuclear plant.
“California took some of its most aggressive steps yet to fight global warming as lawmakers passed a flurry of new climate bills late Wednesday, including a record $54 billion in climate spending, a measure to prevent the state’s last nuclear power plant from closing, sharp new restrictions on oil and gas drilling and a mandate that California stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2045.
The bills, passed around midnight at the end of a frenzied two-year legislative session in Sacramento, marked a victory for Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has sought to portray himself as a climate leader as he has raised his national profile and begun drawing speculation about a possible White House run.
Mr. Newsom upended the legislative session in mid-August when he urged lawmakers to pass several major new climate bills. In the end, all of his proposals passed but one: a bill to strengthen the state’s 2030 target for slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, which fell short by four votes in the State Assembly.” Read more at New York Times
Oath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle arrested on Jan. 6 charges
U.S. prosecutors have cast SoRelle as Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes’s liaison to Proud Boys, ‘Stop the Steal’ groups
“An attorney for the Oath Keepers who was with the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was arrested Thursday in Texas on charges related to the attack on Congress, federal prosecutors announced.
Kellye SoRelle, 43, was arrested in Junction, Tex., and is to make an initial appearance Thursday afternoon before a federal judge in Austin, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington. In an indictment returned Wednesday, SoRelle was charged with four offenses — conspiracy, obstruction of a federal proceeding, tampering with documents and misdemeanor trespassing in a restricted building or grounds — prosecutors said.
A bare-bones, three-page indictment alleges that SoRelle in December 2020 and January 2021 ‘did knowingly combine, conspire, Confederate, and agree with other persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, that is, Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote.’” Read more at Washington Post
Pennsylvania man pleads guilty to Jan. 6 assault on officer Sicknick
Julian Khater admitted he deployed chemical spray on officers defending the Capitol, including Brian D. Sicknick, who later collapsed and died the following day
“A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty Thursday to a chemical-spray assault on three police officers in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, including Brian D. Sicknick, who later collapsed and died the following day.
In a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Julian Khater, a smoothie-shop owner of State College, Pa., admitted to assaulting and injuring law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon. Along with co-defendant George Tanios, Khater had faced a 10-count indictment that included felony charges of rioting and obstructing Congress’s confirmation of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Tanios pleaded guilty on July 27 to reduced misdemeanor charges.
Khater pleaded guilty to counts punishable by up to 20 years in prison but faces a likely sentence of 78 to 97 months under federal guidelines negotiated with prosecutors. He has spent 17 months behind bars since his arrest and will be sentenced Dec. 13.” Read more at Washington Post
The Pandemic Erased Two Decades of Progress in Math and Reading
The results of a national test showed just how devastating the last two years have been for 9-year-old schoolchildren, especially the most vulnerable.
“National test results released on Thursday showed in stark terms the pandemic’s devastating effects on American schoolchildren, with the performance of 9-year-olds in math and reading dropping to the levels from two decades ago.
This year, for the first time since the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests began tracking student achievement in the 1970s, 9-year-olds lost ground in math, and scores in reading fell by the largest margin in more than 30 years.
The declines spanned almost all races and income levels and were markedly worse for the lowest-performing students. While top performers in the 90th percentile showed a modest drop — three points in math — students in the bottom 10th percentile dropped by 12 points in math, four times the impact.
‘I was taken aback by the scope and the magnitude of the decline,’ said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, the federal agency that administered the exam earlier this year. The tests were given to a national sample of 14,800 9-year-olds and were compared with the results of tests taken by the same age group in early 2020, just before the pandemic took hold in the United States.
High and low performers had been diverging even before the pandemic, but now, ‘the students at the bottom are dropping faster,’ Dr. Carr said.
In math, Black students lost 13 points, compared with five points among white students, widening the gap between the two groups. Research has documented the profound effect school closures had on low-income students and on Black and Hispanic students, in part because their schools were more likely to continue remote learning for longer periods of time.
The declines in test scores mean that while many 9-year-olds can demonstrate partial understanding of what they are reading, fewer can infer a character’s feelings from what they have read. In math, students may know simple arithmetic facts, but fewer can add fractions with common denominators.
The setbacks could have powerful consequences for a generation of children who must move beyond basics in elementary school to thrive later on.” Read more at New York Times
Twitter to Test Long-Awaited Edit Button
Preliminary version will allow testers to edit tweets a few times in the 30 minutes after they are published
Twitter’s edit feature is now being tested internally.PHOTO: RICHARD DREW/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“After years of demand, Twitter Inc. TWTR -0.66%▼ on Thursday announced that it will soon begin letting some users test out an edit button.
The long-awaited feature is now being tested internally, and in the coming weeks, it will become available for testing to a select group of users, including subscribers of the company’s $4.99-a-month Blue service.
The preliminary edit button will allow testers to edit tweets a few times in the 30 minutes after they are published. These tweets will appear with an icon and label indicating they have been edited. When a user taps on an edited tweet’s label, they will see an edit history that includes past versions of the tweet.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Image: Twitter
Twitter is testing a tweet ‘edit button,’ Axios' Ina Fried reports.
Why it matters: The feature has topped customer requests for years. The tricky part is allowing edits without opening the door to spam and misinformation.
How it works: The edit feature lets users change tweets ‘a few times’ within 30 minutes of posting.
An edited tweet will appear with an icon, time stamp and label. Tapping the icon will pull up past versions.
If someone retweets a post that is later edited, the version that was shared will remain visible.
What's next: Twitter's edit feature will expand to ‘a select group of people including Twitter Blue subscribers in the coming weeks.’” Read more at Axios
Starbucks Names Laxman Narasimhan New CEO
Outsider who heads Lysol maker Reckitt Benckiser will lead the coffee chain after former chief Howard Schultz took over temporarily
Laxman Narasimhan, who will step down as CEO of Reckitt Benckiser Group at the end of the month, has been named the new leader of Starbucks.PHOTO: GUILLERMO GUTIERREZ/BLOOMBERG NEWS
“Starbucks Corp. SBUX 1.58%▲ named as its new CEO consumer products executive Laxman Narasimhan, months after former head Howard Schultz temporarily took over to steer the coffee giant through rising costs, a unionization push and challenges overseas.
Mr. Narasimhan, 55 years old, has served as chief executive of the maker of Lysol and Enfamil baby formula, U.K.-based Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, for the past three years. On Thursday he announced he would step down from Reckitt on Sept. 30, and The Wall Street Journal reported that he was in final negotiations to take a senior role at a U.S. company.
Before heading Reckitt, Mr. Narasimhan held various leadership roles at PepsiCo Inc. Starbucks and PepsiCo have a longstanding relationship through the chain’s ready-to-drink coffee, including a deal struck when Mr. Narasimhan was CEO of PepsiCo Latin America.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Major US airlines have updated their customer service agreements to offer meals and hotels when flights are canceled. Carriers tweaked their policies after receiving pressure from the Biden administration to step up consumer rights in the wake of a summer plagued by flight cancellations and delays. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest have all published updates to their customer service policies this week. The updates come on the eve of the Labor Day weekend travel rush and as airlines have canceled more than 45,000 flights since the start of June, according to data from FlightAware.” Read more at CNN
House up for grabs
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
“A Republican House takeover is ‘no longer a foregone conclusion,’ according to a dispatch today by The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.
Why it matters: The fact that there's now a narrow path for a Democratic majority is a sea change from expectations just a couple of months ago.
What's happening: Concern over protecting abortion rights is igniting Democratic voter engagement. And lower gas prices are easing the party's deficit with independents, Axios' Josh Kraushaar writes.
Driving the news: The publication's U.S. House editor, Dave Wasserman, today moved the ratings of five House seats — all in Democrats' direction.
The Alaska House seat that Democrat Mary Peltola won in a special election over Trump-backed Republican Sarah Palin is now ‘toss-up’ for November.
Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger, representing a bellwether suburban district that backed President Biden by 6 points, is now favored to win re-election against Republican Yesli Vega.
A new Wall Street Journal poll, conducted by Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio and Biden pollster John Anzalone, shows clear Democratic momentum over the summer.
‘The Democratic gains come from increased support among independents, women and younger voters,’ The Journal reports(subscription).
Reality check: There are still plenty of warning signs for Democrats.
In the Journal poll, Republicans hold a 12-point advantage over Democrats on who's better to get inflation under control.” Read more at Axios
Yellen plans monthlong victory tour
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks in July. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP
“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will deliver a major economic speech in Detroit next week as part of a monthlong push to sell President Biden's legislative achievements before the midterms, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.
Why it matters: It's part of the administration's attempt to seize on a spate of positive headlines, and make a broader intellectual argument for Biden's efforts to re-engineer large sections of the economy.
Yellen will credit last year's $1.9 trillion COVID rescue plan, which Republicans blame for stoking inflation, for fueling the recovery.
She will focus on a trio of legislative accomplishments — with trillions in collective new spending for infrastructure, semiconductors and climate change — as critical to improving productivity.
The big picture: The post-COVID economy is sending contradictory messages.
On the positive side is the persistent strength of the job market — a 3.5% unemployment rate, and an economy that added 528,000 jobs in July.
Moving in the opposite direction is GDP: A 0.9% contraction in the second quarter has ignited a raging debate over whether the U.S. economy is in a recession.” Read more at Axios
IAEA mission arrives at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
From CNN’s Uliana Pavlova and Sarah Dean
“The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission has arrived at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom has confirmed in a statement on Telegram.
The IAEA also confirmed the arrival on Twitter.
“IAEA's Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia (ISAMZ) led by Director General Rafael Grossi has just arrived at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to conduct indispensable nuclear safety and security and safeguards activities,” the agency said in a tweet.” Read more at CNN
The new axis: China, Russia, Iran
Chinese and Russian forces during 2018 war games in Russia. Photo: Russian Presidency via Getty Images
“America's biggest adversaries — China, Russia and Iran — are increasingly teaming up in ways that could undermine the U.S.
Russian and Chinese forces began war games today in Russia's far east. Russia has received an initial batch of drones from Iran to deploy on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Those are just the latest examples of America's top geopolitical foes finding common cause, Axios World editor Dave Lawler reports.
Referring to relations with countries like Iran and Russia, a Chinese diplomat tells Axios it's ‘only natural’ that countries facing sanctions and pressure from the U.S. would move closer together.
Between the lines: The relationships among these three countries are defined not by deep bonds or shared values, but by specific interests and the mutual desire to challenge Washington.
‘A marriage of convenience can be much more durable than a romantic relationship,’ said Alexander Gabuev, an expert on Russia-China relations at the Carnegie Endowment.
China-Russia trade has increased in value by around 30% this year — helping ease the blow of Western sanctions.” Read more at Axios
European officials say this year is on track to be drier than any time in the past five centuries, with almost two-thirds of the region under a drought warning or alert. That’s wreaking havoc on broad sectors of the economy, from agriculture to energy to transportation. (Bloomberg)
The mysterious death of a Russian oligarch
“A Russian oil executive critical of the war in Ukraine died Thursday after reportedly falling out of a Moscow hospital window.” [Vox] Read more at NBC News / Rhoda Kwan
“According to state media reports, Ravil Maganov, 67, the chair of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil, fell to his death. His company said he died ‘following a serious illness.’” [Vox] Read more at Reuters
“After Russia invaded Ukraine, Lukoil's board took the unusual step of expressing sympathy for the victims and called for an end to the conflict.” [Vox] Read more at BBC / Paul Kirby
“At least seven other Russian oligarchs — many with ties to the energy sector — have also died this year under mysterious circumstances.” [Vox] Read more at Axios / Jacob Knutson
Thousands of dead fish wash up in Oakland lake to create a putrid mess
Experts, concerned about the algae bloom that is turning the water to brown muck, say the die-off is ‘like losing giant redwoods’
“Thousands of fish carcasses have been floating up to the edges of the San Francisco Bay, and the scummy top of Oakland’s Lake Merritt – stewing under the sun and wafting a putrid stench into nearby neighborhoods.
The dead bat rays, striped bass, sturgeon, anchovies and clams, are likely mass victims of an algal bloom that scientists are racing to understand. In the meantime citizen scientists, local photographers, joggers and naturalists have been capturing dramatic photos of the die off.
‘The diversity of life in Lake Merritt is just incredible,’ said Damon Tighe, a naturalist who documents wildlife in the lake, a unique ecosystem in Oakland, California that contains both fresh and saltwater. A range of fish, crustaceans and mollusks call the lake home as do large breeding populations of herons, egrets, geese and ducks. Salmon, sturgeon, jellyfish, and leopard sharks have also navigated into the lake in recent years.
The die-off in the lake is likely due to an algae bloom of Heterosigma akashiwo, which was first spotted at various points across the San Francisco Bay and estuaries in late July. The algae is likely sucking up all the dissolved oxygen in the water, leaving the fish to asphyxiate, said Jon Rosenfield, a scientist with the San Francisco Baykeeper conservation group, which has been tracking the phenomenon. Heterosigma akashiwo also produces a toxin that may have killed the fish.
The result is ruddy, brown-tinged water – slopping into shores along with thousands of bloated fish bodies. According to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, algae density measured on 10 August were the highest observed in more than 40 years.” Read more at The Guardian
“Unprecedented heat waves are melting snow and ice across the planet including in the iconic Himalayan range, where the mountains shelter the largest reserve of frozen freshwater outside the North and South poles. As Archana Chaudhary and Aaron Clark write, the immediate impact has been on Pakistan, where floods have submerged farmland and cities, affecting more than 30 million people and killing upward of 1,000 since June.” Read more at Bloomberg
Floodwaters along the Indus Highway in Sindh province, Pakistan, yesterday. Photographer: Asim Hafeez/Bloomberg
September 1, 2022
By German Lopez
Good morning. NASA’s moon missions could eventually lead to humans on Mars.
The rocket for the Artemis I mission, on launchpad at Kennedy Space Center.Bill Ingalls/NASA
And beyond
“Human beings will soon walk on the moon again, if NASA gets its way.
NASA plans to launch an uncrewed spacecraft, part of the Artemis I mission, as soon as this weekend to orbit the moon and then return to Earth after about a month and a half. If everything goes as planned, a future mission could land astronauts on the moon in 2025.
Today’s newsletter will explain why NASA is doing this now and what it means for the future of space travel.
Why the moon?
Several factors are driving NASA to get astronauts back to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. One is a long-running desire to get human beings on Mars. The Artemis missions will test some of the technology and logistics required to do that.
‘If you believe that the future of humanity is spreading across the solar system, the first stop has to be the moon,’ my colleague Ken Chang, who covers NASA, told me. ‘If you can’t figure that out, you’re certainly not getting to Mars.’
But a mission to the moon also has some scientific value on its own. Rocks collected in previous missions, for example, revealed the moon’s origin: It likely formed from debris after an object the size of Mars hit Earth more than four billion years ago.
In the Artemis missions, NASA is especially interested in studying ice in lunar craters. Depending on how long it’s been there, the ice and its characteristics could provide a history of the solar system. The ice could also be used to establish permanent bases on the moon, if it can be turned into drinking water, oxygen or spacecraft fuel (as Ken explained in The Times).
And the missions could produce collateral benefits. Past innovations in the space program have led to technological advancements in everyday life, including in computing and food preservation.
What’s next?
This weekend’s launch was originally scheduled for this past Monday, but NASA postponed it after finding a technical problem shortly before takeoff. It could be delayed again, possibly for months, if the weather is bad or if another problem arises.
But once the first Artemis mission does launch, NASA aims to follow it with more trips to the moon. Artemis II, currently set for 2024, would be crewed and fly around the moon. Artemis III, planned for 2025, would land a woman and a person of color on the moon for the first time. (The Times broke down the Artemis missions, with graphics, here.)
If all of that goes well, NASA hopes to build permanent outposts on the moon and in its orbit for future lunar exploration and beyond.
Why now?
The first Artemis mission would add to what’s been a busy 2022 for NASA. Earlier this year, the agency also deployed the James Webb telescope, which is already producing detailed and colorful photos of our solar system and deep space.
Some of that is coincidental timing. After the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, the agency began to work on new modes of travel. The next year, it started construction on the James Webb telescope. Nearly two decades later, both projects happened to be ready around the same time.
But NASA has been galvanized by competition from other countries. China, for instance, has landed three robotic missions on the moon. ‘We have to be concerned that they would say: ‘This is our exclusive zone. You stay out,’’ Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, told The Times. ‘So, yes, that’s one of the things that we look at.’
The agency has also been pushed by private companies, like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, that aim to turn space travel into a commercial enterprise. The private actors have gotten a lot of support and funding from NASA, but they have also driven higher interest in space travel, from the public and private sectors, that wasn’t there before. After years of cuts, NASA’s budget has grown for most of the past decade.
What do critics say?
Some critics are unhappy with the Artemis missions’ price tag. By the time people walk on the moon again, NASA will have likely spent around $100 billion. (NASA’s budget makes up about 0.5 percent of federal spending.) The cost led the Obama administration to cancel an earlier version of the project.
That spending, however, is one of the reasons Artemis has survived: Members of Congress who oversee NASA’s budget, particularly in Texas, Alabama and Florida, have made sure the agency’s projects end up in their states. That’s pushed lawmakers to keep the program going.
The Economist argued that NASA should aim to be more efficient, similar to private space exploration businesses. It compared the cost of the Artemis rockets to SpaceX’s, which are cheaper, and, unlike NASA’s rockets, reusable.
NASA does plan to partner with SpaceX for a critical component of the Artemis III mission: The company’s Starship will bring astronauts to the moon’s surface. But, for now, NASA is mostly working with the technology it has developed and knows can work.
For more
NASA wants to collect rocks from Mars, so it’s sending more helicopters.
What if Mars rocks carry pathogens? NASA is building a special lab to prevent a space plague.” Read at New York Times
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for ACM
“She's a country superstar. She helped fund the Moderna vaccine. And now, Dolly Parton is embarking (pun intended) on her next project: a pet clothing and accessories line that will support animal rescue.” Read more at NPR
The First A.P. African American Studies Class Is Coming This Fall
The new course will undergo a pilot program in 60 schools, as the debate over how to teach history becomes ever more divisive.
“The College Board is jumping into the fray over how to teach the history of race in the United States with a new Advanced Placement course and exam on African American studies that will be tried out in about 60 high schools this fall.
The course is multidisciplinary, addressing not just history but civil rights, politics, literature, the arts, even geography. If the pilot program pans out, it will be the first course in African American studies for high school students that is considered rigorous enough to allow students to receive credit and advanced placement at many colleges across the country.
The plan for an Advanced Placement course is a significant step in acknowledging the field of African American studies, more than 50 years after what has been credited as the first Black studies department was started after a student strike at San Francisco State College in 1968, said Henry Louis Gates Jr., a former chair of Harvard’s department of African and African American studies and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.” Read more at New York Times
The lethal rise of ‘subway surfing’: ‘If someone slips, it’s game over’
The past year has seen a resurgence in a century-old trend: trying to ride on top of New York trains, with horrific results
“The video quickly went viral in June: a group of people dashing across the roof of a moving New York City J train. Captured from far off, the train can be seen about to cross the Williamsburg Bridge, with its 135-foot drop to the East River – yet the daredevils, dressed in black, leap from car to car.
A similar stunt resulted in a far more horrifying clip days less than two weeks later, when a 15-year-old boy suffered a severe head injury while riding on top of a 7 train in Queens. Footage reviewed by the Guardian showed first responders hoisting the profusely bleeding teen off the roof and laying him on the floor with part of his skull separated.
On Monday, another 15-year-old boy in Queens tried to climb on to the roof of an R train with three friends, only to have his arm severed when he fell on to the tracks and the train ran him over, according to reports.
New Yorkers call it ‘subway surfing’: a stunt riders have attempted and died from since the transit system’s earliest days, but which has returned as a disturbing trend over the last year among young men and teenage boys who often post the clips online.
According to statistics provided by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, there have already been 627 incidents of people riding outside of trains between January and July this year – up from 96 incidents during the same period last year.” Read more at The Guardian
“Lives Lived: Once a teenage antiques dealer scouring junk shops, Robert Kime become one of Britain’s pre-eminent interior decorators. He died at 76.” Read more at New York Times