theguardian--2020-08-05--Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee for Democratic convention

Joe Biden , the presumptive nominee for president , will not travel to the Democratic national convention in Milwaukee to accept the nomination in-person , Democrats announced on Wednesday .
The country ’ s two main political parties have scaled back this year ’ s conventions because of Covid-19 .
Hours before the Biden announcement , Donald Trump said he was considering delivering his Republican national convention speech from the White House South Lawn .
The Democratic National Committee ( DNC ) chair , Tom Perez , said the decision to halt Biden and others from speaking in Milwaukee was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experts .
“ We followed the science , listened to doctors and public health experts and we continued making adjustments in order to protect lives , ” Perez said in a statement .
Earlier on Wednesday , Trump told Fox & Friends about potentially delivering his acceptance speech from the White House .
Such a move would further blur the line between official presidential business and campaign events – something Trump has done more than recent US presidents .
“ We ’ re thinking about it , ” Trump said , speaking on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be the easiest from the standpoint of security.
” The Republican convention was initially set for Charlotte , North Carolina , but party leaders downscaled the event because of concerns about coronavirus .
The city will still play host to a smaller gathering of Republican delegates to hold the meetings necessary to officially nominate Trump as the party ’ s candidate in the November presidential election .
Three more days of speeches and other events are set to take place , though Republicans have not announced where those will take place .
After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump was set to deliver his acceptance speech in Jacksonville , Florida .
That plan was abruptly abandoned in late July , as coronavirus cases surged across the state .
Trump said the White House lawn was a “ beautiful setting ” and was the “ easiest alternative ” .
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using government property for political purposes , but the president and vice-president are exempt from those restrictions .
Other government employees involved with putting on the event would , however , be vulnerable to violating the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the discussions told the Washington Post the Trump International hotel in DC was also under consideration as a venue .
Trump claimed in his interview with Fox News on Wednesday that the US would “ probably be in very good shape ” in terms of the pandemic by polling day on 3 November .
The US is an international hotspot for the disease , struggling to contain its spread .
At least 1,358 deaths and 53,304 new coronavirus cases were reported on Tuesday – the numbers rising back up after a few days @ @ @

Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee for president, will not travel to the Democratic national convention in Milwaukee to accept the nomination in-person, Democrats announced on Wednesday.
The country’s two main political parties have scaled back this year’s conventions because of Covid-19. Hours before the Biden announcement, Donald Trump said he was considering delivering his Republican national convention speech from the White House South Lawn.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, Tom Perez, said the decision to halt Biden and others from speaking in Milwaukee was made after consulting public health officials and experts. “We followed the science, listened to doctors and public health experts and we continued making adjustments in order to protect lives,” Perez said in a statement.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump told Fox & Friends about potentially delivering his acceptance speech from the White House.
Such a move would further blur the line between official presidential business and campaign events – something Trump has done more than recent US presidents.
“We’re thinking about it,” Trump said, speaking on Fox & Friends. “It would be the easiest from the standpoint of security.”
The Republican convention was initially set for Charlotte, North Carolina, but party leaders downscaled the event because of concerns about coronavirus. The city will still play host to a smaller gathering of Republican delegates to hold the meetings necessary to officially nominate Trump as the party’s candidate in the November presidential election.
Three more days of speeches and other events are set to take place, though Republicans have not announced where those will take place.
After the Charlotte meeting was stripped down, Trump was set to deliver his acceptance speech in Jacksonville, Florida. That plan was abruptly abandoned in late July, as coronavirus cases surged across the state.
Trump said the White House lawn was a “beautiful setting” and was the “easiest alternative”.
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using government property for political purposes, but the president and vice-president are exempt from those restrictions.
Other government employees involved with putting on the event would, however, be vulnerable to violating the act.
An anonymous source familiar with the discussions told the Washington Post the Trump International hotel in DC was also under consideration as a venue.
Trump claimed in his interview with Fox News on Wednesday that the US would “probably be in very good shape” in terms of the pandemic by polling day on 3 November.
The US is an international hotspot for the disease, struggling to contain its spread. At least 1,358 deaths and 53,304 new coronavirus cases were reported on Tuesday – the numbers rising back up after a few days of falling.


theguardian--2020-08-05--Cori Bush: leading organizer and 'true progressive' on course to make history

Missouri activist Cori Bush ended a half-century political dynasty in Tuesday ’ s primary elections and is now on track to become the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress .
Bush , a 44-year-old nurse and ordained pastor , gained local prominence as one of the leaders of protests against the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson , Missouri , in 2014 .
She has been deeply involved with this year ’ s protests against racial injustice and has promised to continue demonstrating if she is elected to Congress .
Tuesday ’ s primary was Bush @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic incumbent William Lacy Clay , who took over the role from his father and held off Bush in the 2018 election .
Missouri ’ s first district is a Democratic stronghold and Bush is expected to win in the November general election .
Bush said in her victory speech : “ We decided that we the people have the answers , and we will lead from the frontlines.
” Bush has spoken about how being a single mother shapes her understanding of what the district ’ s families need .
While pregnant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bush had to quit her job at a preschool and her family was evicted from their home .
For several months , she , her then husband , their newborn and 14-month-old son lived out of a car .
“ It is historic that this year , of all the years , we ’ re sending a Black , working-class , single mother , who ’ s been fighting for Black lives since Ferguson , all the way to the halls of Congress , ” Bush said .
On the campaign trail , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against Covid-19 this spring and how her concerns about the cost of hospital visits during that time helped underscore her support for the healthcare reform plan Medicare for All .
Bush was a surrogate for Bernie Sanders presidential campaign , and the Vermont senator hailed her victor in a tweet .
Sanders said : “ She is a true progressive who stands with working people and will take on the corporate elite of this country when she gets to Congress .
”

Missouri activist Cori Bush ended a half-century political dynasty in Tuesday’s primary elections and is now on track to become the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress.
Bush, a 44-year-old nurse and ordained pastor, gained local prominence as one of the leaders of protests against the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. She has been deeply involved with this year’s protests against racial injustice and has promised to continue demonstrating if she is elected to Congress.
Tuesday’s primary was Bush’s second attempt to unseat the Democratic incumbent William Lacy Clay, who took over the role from his father and held off Bush in the 2018 election. Missouri’s first district is a Democratic stronghold and Bush is expected to win in the November general election.
Bush said in her victory speech: “We decided that we the people have the answers, and we will lead from the frontlines.”
Bush has spoken about how being a single mother shapes her understanding of what the district’s families need.
We’re sending a Black, working-class, single mother all the way to the halls of Congress Cori Bush
While pregnant with her second child in 2001, Bush had to quit her job at a preschool and her family was evicted from their home. For several months, she, her then husband, their newborn and 14-month-old son lived out of a car.
“It is historic that this year, of all the years, we’re sending a Black, working-class, single mother, who’s been fighting for Black lives since Ferguson, all the way to the halls of Congress,” Bush said.
On the campaign trail, Bush has also spoken about her fight against Covid-19 this spring and how her concerns about the cost of hospital visits during that time helped underscore her support for the healthcare reform plan Medicare for All.
Bush was a surrogate for Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, and the Vermont senator hailed her victor in a tweet. Sanders said: “She is a true progressive who stands with working people and will take on the corporate elite of this country when she gets to Congress.”


theguardian--2020-08-06--No Covid-19 stimulus package progress as Trump makes more false claims – live

This is Joan Greve in Washington , taking over for Martin Belam .
Joe Biden has released a scathing statement criticizing Trump ’ s trip today to Ohio , where the president will speak at a Whirlpool Corporation manufacturing plant and attend a fundraiser .
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said , “ Today , as families across Ohio continue to suffer in the face of the pandemic and the economic pain it has caused , Donald Trump is visiting Ohio , not to extend a hand to struggling families , but to try to paper over his record of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for his campaign.
” Trump ’ s trip comes as Congress continues to struggle to reach a deal on a new coronavirus relief package after additional unemployment benefits expired last week .
“ Donald Trump is desperate to distract from his own failures , ” Biden said .
“ It ’ s time for a leader who will tell the truth , lead with integrity , and fight to make Ohioans ’ lives better every single day.
” Trump carried Ohio by 8 points in 2016 , and he had previously been favored @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
However , recent polls have shown the president and Biden virtually tied in Ohio .

7 Aug 2020 01.00 BST Summary Negotiations dragged on over the latest coronavirus relief bill. Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer held strong that they would not compromise on an extension for the $600 per week unemployment benefit that Republicans have wanted to cut down. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin remained in Pelosi’s office for hours as both sides strived to finalize a deal by the end of the week.
Democratic leaders held strong that they would not compromise on an extension for the $600 per week unemployment benefit that Republicans have wanted to cut down. White House chief of staff and Treasury Secretary remained in Pelosi’s office for hours as both sides strived to finalize a deal by the end of the week. A federal judge dismissed House Republicans lawsuit against Pelosi over rules that would allow lawmakers to vote by proxy during the pandemic. Even as legislative leaders debate the relief bill, the Senate as been adjourned till Monday and the House is on recess. It is unclear when lawmakers will vote on the relief package, as arriving at a deal by the Friday deadline that the White House and Democrats have set seems increasingly unlikely.
Even as legislative leaders debate the relief bill, the Senate as been adjourned till Monday and the House is on recess. It is unclear when lawmakers will vote on the relief package, as arriving at a deal by the Friday deadline that the White House and Democrats have set seems increasingly unlikely. Donald Trump signed an executive order directing some federal agencies only to purchase some types of drugs and medical supplies if they are manufactured in the US . The impact of the executive order is unclear - it tasks the Food and Drug Administration with developing a list of essential medications and supplies that would fall under the requirement. The move comes after the US faced shortages, and scambled to secure scarce supplies as the coronavirus pandemic struck.
. The impact of the executive order is unclear - it tasks the Food and Drug Administration with developing a list of essential medications and supplies that would fall under the requirement. The move comes after the US faced shortages, and scambled to secure scarce supplies as the coronavirus pandemic struck. A judge in New York allowed a defamation suit from a woman who alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her to move forward. The state supreme court judge maintained that the sitting president is not immune from legal challenge.
The state supreme court judge maintained that the sitting president is not immune from legal challenge. Another 1.18 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. The figure marks a slight decline from a week before, but unemployment remains alarmingly high in the US, and economists warn many layoffs connected to the pandemic are now becoming permanent.
The figure marks a slight decline from a week before, but unemployment remains alarmingly high in the US, and economists warn many layoffs connected to the pandemic are now becoming permanent. The New York attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association. The lawsuit accuses the NRA and its top leaders, including CEO Wayne LaPierre, of widespread misuse of charitable funds. New York attorney general Letitia James said she is seeking to dissolve the gun rights group.
The lawsuit accuses the NRA and its top leaders, including CEO of widespread misuse of charitable funds. New York attorney general said she is seeking to dissolve the gun rights group. Ohio governor Mike DeWine tested positive for coronavirus. The Republican governor received a test because he was slated to greet Trump today as the president arrived in Cleveland. DeWine is the third politician in roughly a week to test positive for coronavirus as part of the White House screenings to protect the president, who has downplayed the importance of testing.
The Republican governor received a test because he was slated to greet today as the president arrived in Cleveland. DeWine is the third politician in roughly a week to test positive for coronavirus as part of the White House screenings to protect the president, who has downplayed the importance of testing. Trump announced he had reimposed a 10% tariff on most Canadian imports of aluminum. The proclamation signed by Trump indicates he made the decision in consultation with the secretary of commerce following a “surge” of Canadian imports into the US.
The proclamation signed by Trump indicates he made the decision in consultation with the secretary of commerce following a “surge” of Canadian imports into the US. Trump said Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic, was “against God.” The president said during a short speech in Cleveland that Biden would “hurt God” and “hurt the Bible” if elected. “He’s against God, he’s against guns, he’s against energy,” Trump said. The Biden campaign denounced the comment, saying the former vice president’s faith “is at the core of who he is.”
6 Aug 2020 00.33 BST Pelosi, Schumer, Meadows and Mnuchin are reportedly still in Pelosi’s office – where they have been for the past two hours negotiating the coronavirus relief bill. As the tense negotiations drag on, new numbers from the labor department have heaped on pressure. The department reported than another 1.18m people filed for unemployment last week. The number of claims is beginning to slow after two weeks of increases. But the urgency to finalize a deal could mount further tomorrow when the department is expected to report how many jobs were created in July. As coronavirus cases swell and states walk back initial steps to reopen the economy, that number is likely to be lower in July than it was in May, when the country began the recovery process that was ultimately thwarted by the virus’s resurgence.
Updated at 00.45 BST
6 Aug 2020 00.13 BST For the Associated Press, Sarah Skidmore Sell and Paul Wiseman interviewed some of the Americans who have been collecting the extra $600-per-week jobless benefit that lawmakers are debating: Some Republicans in Congress argue that the extra $600 in unemployment benefits is so generous that it is discouraging people from going back to work. Several university studies have cast doubt on that. Economists and labor experts say that the benefits certain jobs carry, such as health care, can be enough for people to go back to work even if the pay is low. Bethany Racobs-Ashford, the makeup artist with two small children, said the $600 had been a “lifeline.” The 32-year-old Dallas resident was just entering the busy wedding season, when she typically earns the bulk of her income, when the outbreak struck, and she lost her job. Her state unemployment aid amounts to only about $828 a month. “I don’t know what we’re going to do now,” she said. Fearing eviction from their home, Racobs-Ashford and her family moved in with her 70-year-old mother. She worries about taking on a new job that could compromise her family’s health. Jackilyn Lopez of Tucson, Arizona, said the $600 had been a “godsend” for her family since she lost her job as a hygienist in March, when most dental practices shut down. She and her husband have an 18-month old daughter, and Lopez is due to give birth in three weeks. Her employer has reopened but has yet to recall Lopez. She feels fortunate that her husband has kept his job as an assembly worker at a laser manufacturer. But Lopez, 30, just received her first weekly unemployment check without the $600, and it was only $213. “Our groceries are more than that each week, with the diapers and formula,” she said. Food banks, pantries and other safety net organizations report soaring demand from people in need. Charitable groups worry the problem will worsen with the end of the $600 and the expiration of coronavirus-era moratoriums on evictions.
Updated at 00.13 BST
6 Aug 2020 23.57 BST Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have refused to back down from their stance on extending the jobless benefit. The benefit is $600 a week. Republicans have opposed the measure, arguing that some families may earn slightly more with the unemployment benefit than they would if they worked, and GOP lawmakers have pushed to reduce the benefit to $200 per week. “They’re just demonstrating their condescension to American families,” Pelosi said at a news conference, indicating she was not willing to concede. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not back down to reinstate the $600 weekly enhanced unemployment payments that have been a lifeline for people who lost their jobs in the pandemic https://t.co/GutnVVAQPP pic.twitter.com/1zKxi7Z7Cu — Reuters (@Reuters) August 6, 2020
Updated at 00.47 BST
6 Aug 2020 23.39 BST Senators have been sent home and the House is on recess while negotiations over the coronavirus relief bill continue. Senate has adjourned until Monday at 3p. House is on recess. Members in both chambers told they will have 24 hours to come back for a vote on any stimulus deal. Open question about whether lawmakers return before September — Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 6, 2020
6 Aug 2020 23.38 BST A federal judge has dismissed the House Republicans’ lawsuit against speaker Nancy Pelosi that aimed to nix new rules allowing lawmakers to vote by proxy during the pandemic. The lawsuit, spearheaded by House minority leader Kevin McCarthy of California, alleged that Pelosi’s measure to protect lawmakers from contracting coronavirus was unconstitutional because the constitution requires a majority of lawmakers to be present in order to conduct work. Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that Congress has “absolute immunity from civil suit” and threw out the legal challenge.
Updated at 00.49 BST
6 Aug 2020 23.21 BST Amanda Holpuch Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the US, has had to hire security to protect himself and his family after receiving death threats in response to his work to stop the spread of coronavirus. Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, told CNN that the pandemic has brought out “the best of people and the worst of people, and, you know, getting death threats for me and my family and harassing my daughters to the point where I have to get security”. Donald Trump’s administration has consistently downplayed the public health threat of coronavirus, but Fauci has just as consistently rejected those efforts. Since the early days of the pandemic, Fauci has provided blunt assessments of the crisis in media appearances and in remarks at the White House, which have been less frequent in recent months. “I wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that people who object to things that are pure public health principles are so set against it and don’t like what you and I say, namely in the world of science, that they actually threaten you,” said Fauci.
Fauci tells of death threats as Birx pinpoints fresh areas of Covid concern Read more
6 Aug 2020 23.19 BST Defamation lawsuit from woman who alleges Trump sexually assaulted her is allowed to move forward Ed Pilkington A judge in the New York state supreme court has allowed a defamation suit from a woman who alleges Donald Trump sexually assaulted her to go ahead, on grounds that the sitting president is not immune from legal action. Judge Verna Saunders on Thursday denied Trump’s motion to stay the defamation case brought by journalist E Jean Carroll who has accused the US president of sexually attacking her in Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the 1990s. Saunders allowed the case to proceed to its next hearing on 30 September. In her ruling, the judge cited last month’s US supreme court ruling, Trump v Vance, which dismissed Trump’s claim that as president he was not obliged to show prosecutors his tax records. Saunders quoted chief justice John Roberts who wrote the majority opinion in Trump v Vance. In it he said: “No citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding.” Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, has just put out a statement welcoming the judge’s decision and saying they now intend to move quickly to discovery, “so that we can prove that Donald Trump defamed E Jean Carroll”. At the heart of the case is Carroll’s claim that he damaged her reputation and career when he denied that he had assaulted her. He repeatedly called her a liar, demeaningly suggesting that she was “not my type”. Until last year Carroll was the long-standing agony aunt for Elle magazine. She has said she was fired from her column after Trump ridiculed her.
6 Aug 2020 23.16 BST Bitter negotiation for a coronavirus relief bill resumes The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate met with the White House chief of staff and treasury secretary this evening, to continue negotiating a coronavirus relief bill. On the table: $100bn for schools and another round of $1,200 direct payments to most Americans. Both sides have committed to finalizing a deal by Friday, but after a bitter back-and-forth, that seems increasingly unlikely. Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have held firm that they want to extend a $600 weekly joblessness benefit. Republicans have opposed the benefit, on grounds that some people might make more money by collecting unemployment than working. Pelosi and Schumer are also demanding childcare assistance, funds for food stamps and assistance for renters facing eviction. Trump has threatened to use executive orders to address aspects of the bill, including the joblessness benefit, but it’s unclear what impact such a move would have. “I don’t think they know what they’re talking about,” Pelosi said at a news conference, indicating that executive orders were unlikely to achieve anything close to the comprehensive legislation that Congress could work out. A vote may not come until next week. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is sending lawmakers home rather than asking them to wait for a deal.
Updated at 00.50 BST
6 Aug 2020 22.52 BST Democrats confront Trump's postmaster general in letter In a letter to the postmaster general, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer say that he confirmed to them, despite public denials, that the postal service had instituted operational changes including reducing overtime for employees and reducing the equipment at processing centers. “We believe these changes, made during the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, now threaten the timely delivery of mail – including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers, and absentee ballots for voters – that is essential to millions of Americans,” the leaders of the House and Senate wrote to postmaster general Louis DeJoy. “While it is true that the postal service has and continues to face financial challenges, enacting these policies as cost-cutting or efficiency measures as the Covid-19 public health emergency continues is counterproductive and unacceptable.” Voting rights groups have expressed concern that DeJoy – a major Trump donor – is undermining the postal service ahead of the elections, when most voters are expected to cast their ballots by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic. The agency has already lost billions in revenue as the pandemic-induced recession caused a dip in the amount of mail. After recent operational changes were enacted, Americans have been reporting days-long delays in receiving letters and packages. Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat of Michigan, recently announced that the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee was investigating the impact of the changes. The House oversight committee has also called on DeJoy to testify next month.
Updated at 00.54 BST
6 Aug 2020 22.31 BST In a statement, NRA’s Wayne LaPierre indicated that the gun rights group is looking to fight the lawsuit from the New York attorney general, calling the suit “an affront to democracy and freedom”. “This is an unconstitutional, premeditated attack aiming to dismantle and destroy the NRA – the fiercest defender of America’s freedom at the ballot box for decades,” he said. “We’re ready for the fight. Bring it on.” (1/2) Statement from NRA CEO & EVP Wayne LaPierre:
“The NYAG’s actions are an affront to democracy and freedom. This is an unconstitutional, premeditated attack aiming to dismantle and destroy the NRA – the fiercest defender of America’s freedom at the ballot box for decades. — NRA (@NRA) August 6, 2020
Updated at 22.51 BST


theguardian--2020-08-06--Another 1.18m Americans file for unemployment as benefits expire

Another 1.18 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week as economists worry the expiration of enhanced unemployment benefits will lead to a sharp drop-off in household spending and set back the US economy ’ s near-term recovery .
Claims dipped last week after two weeks of rises and were the lowest since March but the latest figure from the department of labor marked the 19th week in a row that claims have topped 1m .
Before the coronavirus pandemic gripped the US , the record for weekly claims was 695,000 in October 1982 .
The figures come ahead of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job market .
Economists expect the unemployment rate to have dipped to 10.6 % in July from 11.1 % in June , a significant drop but still three times the pre-pandemic level .
Americans have been receiving an extra $ 600 in emergency benefits since March as part of the government ’ s coronavirus stimulus package .
But that agreement expired at the end of last month and Congress is split over a possible extension .
About 30 million people have been receiving the extra cash and it has accounted for 15 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US .
The expiration of the benefits without any replacement would likely cause a surge in evictions , hunger and poverty as well as having consequences for the wider economy .
According to the Economic Policy Institute ( EPI ) the knock-on effect of removing that cash from the economy could be severe .
The EPI estimated 5mn jobs could be lost by July 2021 if it is cut as consumers are forced to cut back on spending .
“ The $ 600 benefit is essential for millions of people to get food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for their children , to afford basic necessities .
If it is cut off , it will mean a sharp decline in their living standards , an increase in poverty , and completely unnecessary suffering , ” Heidi Shierholz , EPI senior economist and director of policy , wrote recently .
“ The spending generated by that $ 600 is supporting over 5m jobs .
In other words , kill the $ 600 and you will kill 5m jobs – jobs in every single state , ” she wrote .
A recent paper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Chicago argued that allowing the extra payment to expire could “ meaningfully reduce ” consumption .
Eliminating the benefit “ could result in large spending cuts and thus potential negative effects on macroeconomic activity ” , the authors concluded .
If the $ 600 payments expire and are nor replaced , the authors project that US consumption will 4.2 % - a drop that exceeds the entire 2.9 % fall in the Great Recession .

Another 1.18 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week as economists worry the expiration of enhanced unemployment benefits will lead to a sharp drop-off in household spending and set back the US economy’s near-term recovery.
Claims dipped last week after two weeks of rises and were the lowest since March but the latest figure from the department of labor marked the 19th week in a row that claims have topped 1m. Before the coronavirus pandemic gripped the US, the record for weekly claims was 695,000 in October 1982.
The figures come ahead of Friday’s monthly snapshot of the job market. Economists expect the unemployment rate to have dipped to 10.6% in July from 11.1% in June, a significant drop but still three times the pre-pandemic level.
Americans have been receiving an extra $600 in emergency benefits since March as part of the government’s coronavirus stimulus package. But that agreement expired at the end of last month and Congress is split over a possible extension. About 30 million people have been receiving the extra cash and it has accounted for 15% of all weekly wages paid in the US.
The expiration of the benefits without any replacement would likely cause a surge in evictions, hunger and poverty as well as having consequences for the wider economy.
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) the knock-on effect of removing that cash from the economy could be severe. The EPI estimated 5mn jobs could be lost by July 2021 if it is cut as consumers are forced to cut back on spending.
“The $600 benefit is essential for millions of people to get food, to pay rent, to care for their children, to afford basic necessities. If it is cut off, it will mean a sharp decline in their living standards, an increase in poverty, and completely unnecessary suffering,” Heidi Shierholz, EPI senior economist and director of policy, wrote recently.
“The spending generated by that $600 is supporting over 5m jobs. In other words, kill the $600 and you will kill 5m jobs – jobs in every single state,” she wrote.
A recent paper from the JP Morgan and The University of Chicago argued that allowing the extra payment to expire could “meaningfully reduce” consumption. Eliminating the benefit “could result in large spending cuts and thus potential negative effects on macroeconomic activity”, the authors concluded.
If the $600 payments expire and are nor replaced, the authors project that US consumption will 4.2% - a drop that exceeds the entire 2.9% fall in the Great Recession.


theguardian--2020-08-06--How Republicans gutted the biggest voting rights victory in recent history

On the night it finally happened , Raquel Wright peeled off the road on her way home and went to her sister ’ s house in Vero Beach , Florida .
It didn ’ t matter that no one was home – Wright went inside , headed straight to the television , not bothering to turn on any lights .
Watching the election results crawl across the screen , she finally saw the number she was waiting for .
She broke into tears , sobbing in the pitch-black house .
About 100 miles north-west , in Orlando , Desmond Meade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” had been lifted off his shoulders .
For nearly two decades , he and other activists had been pushing – sometimes quixotically – to end Florida ’ s longstanding policy of preventing anyone with a felony conviction from voting .
First implemented in the 19th century , the policy was used as a cudgel of white supremacy during the Jim Crow era to disenfranchise African Americans after they formally gained the right to vote .
By 2016 , it had become one of the most potent forms of voter suppression in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million people in Florida – including more than 21 % of eligible Black voters – from being able to vote .
Among them were Wright and Meade .
On election night in 2018 , Meade and Wright would find out that 64.5 % of Floridians had voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to end the policy .
More than 5.1 million people – more than voted for Ron DeSantis , the Republican elected governor that evening – were in favor of the measure .
The referendum – often referred to as amendment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dramatic expansions of the right to vote in US history since the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act .
But more than a year and a half after amendment 4 went into effect , hundreds of thousands of people still remain blocked from voting .
The promise of amendment 4 remains largely unfulfilled because Republicans in Florida moved aggressively to gut it .
They passed a law that put insurmountable hurdles in front of those with felony convictions and required them to navigate a byzantine bureaucracy to get their voting rights back ( one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from crimes decades ago had been kept on index cards in shoeboxes ) .
As of late May , Florida ’ s top election official had tens of thousands of pending registrations from people with felony convictions , but had yet to fully review a single one .
In a searing 125-page opinion earlier this year , a federal judge wrote that Republicans had created an “ administrative train wreck ” and a “ pay-to-vote system ” .
“ To me , it was a poll tax , ” said Betty Riddle , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last in prison in 2008 .
“ It ’ s supposed to stop us from voting .
They ’ re trying everything in their power to stop us.
” The Florida legislature has a history of meddling with constitutional amendments , and there was never much doubt that the Republicans who control the body were going to try to have a say with amendment 4 .
“ We knew that there was going to be blowback , ” said Patricia Brigham , president of the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the language in the amendment was ambiguous and after it passed , local election officials across Florida were begging the state for guidance .
The measure said most convicted felons were eligible to vote “ upon completion of all terms of sentence ” , including parole and probation , but wasn ’ t clear when a sentence was considered complete .
When lawmakers returned to Tallahassee in the spring of 2019 , however , it quickly became clear they were uninterested in simply clarifying the ambiguities .
They wanted to render it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ representatives , Jamie Grant , a Republican , pushed through a bill that required anyone with a felony conviction to repay all fines , fees , court costs and restitution before someone could vote again .
The proposal would leave a significant number of people disenfranchised .
In Florida , courts depend on fees to operate and those who interact with the system can get tagged with a dizzying array of costs .
The state doesn ’ t really expect to ever collect the money : between 2013 and 2018 , courts levied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Florida clerks of court only reported collecting an average of 19 % of the costs each year , according to an analysis by the Miami radio station WLRN .
The legislature deliberately chose to ignore the reality that many people would be unable to repay the costs that accumulate in court , said Ashley Thomas , Florida state director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center , an advocacy group that closely tracks the costs of the criminal justice system .
While 30 states require convicted felons to repay court debts before they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provision in Grant ’ s bill that was particularly cruel .
It blocked people from voting even in cases where their debts had been converted to a civil lien , a practice judges frequently use when someone can not pay .
If someone has completed prison , parole and probation and all they still owe is a civil lien , they are generally considered done with their criminal sentence , said Stanford Blake , a retired judge from Miami .
The provision was “ uniquely harmful ” , said Julie Ebenstein , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Liberties Union .
It would block people like Wright , 46 , from voting .
Convicted of drug trafficking in 2011 – she was arrested for selling oxycodone pills to an undercover police officer – Wright was sentenced to three years in prison and assessed a mandatory $ 50,000 fine .
The judge in Wright ’ s case converted her debt to a civil lien the day she was sentenced to prison .
But under Grant ’ s bill , Wright was blocked from voting until she repaid all of the $ 50,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week .
One analysis found there are around 774,000 people in Florida disenfranchised because they owe money as part of their felony sentence – often more than $ 1,000 .
The study found Black Floridians with felony convictions were more likely to be blocked from voting because of outstanding debt .
Meanwhile , people with felony convictions face severe barriers to getting a job .
“ Make a way for me to gainfully secure a job to repay those fees and fines , ” Wright said .
Grant ’ s proposal took a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sentence than the people who practice in criminal court .
Blake said he could not recall a single instance in more than a dozen years on the criminal bench when someone objected to a criminal sentence ending because someone still owed fines and fees .
Yet DeSantis signed a finalized version of the proposal into law at the end of June in 2019 .
Hours later , civil rights groups filed a slew of lawsuits against the state on behalf of Wright and 16 other people with felony convictions arguing that Republicans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an outlawed device long used to block African Americans from the polls .
If there was ever going to be someone who had a shot at overcoming the obstacles the Florida legislature put in place , it might have been Riddle , the Sarasota woman last convicted of a felony more than a decade ago .
She works at a public defender ’ s office and after the new law went into effect in 2019 , she was able to use the court systems she had access to through work to look up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ charges she could see only went back to the 1980s and she knew there were some from earlier than that .
She called another county to find out what had happened to her earlier charges , but was told they were so old they were probably boxed up or put on a disc .
As hard as she tried , Riddle could not figure out how much she owed .
“ It was really impossible , ” said Riddle , who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the law .
Riddle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the system Florida Republicans had set up : it is nearly impossible for many people to find out exactly how much they owe .
Courts can order defendants to submit money to a wide range of agencies , including the clerk of court , the department of corrections and prosecutors , said Carlos Martinez , public defender in Miami-Dade county .
Debt collection agencies can charge up to 40 % fees to collect payments .
There is no centralized place where someone can look up how much money they owe and how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the debt .
“ You can get a different number when you check the database you can access remotely from the internet versus when you call up and ask for how much you owe , ” said Andrew Warren , the state attorney in Hillsborough county .
“ It ’ s not like it ’ s a simple number like what your credit card bill is.
” In Hillsborough county , for example , before officials kept records on computers , they kept payment receipts on index cards in shoe boxes .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own making , ” said Ebenstein , who represents some of the plaintiffs in the suit challenging the law .
As of late May , the division of elections – responsible for verifying which people with felony convictions can vote – had 85,000 registrations to review .
And just months ahead of the election , it hadn ’ t completed review of a single one .
Maria Matthews , the head of the division , said the state only had the capacity to review 57 registrations a day .
In testimony earlier this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ processes the state was using to implement the law .
Last fall , US district judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary order in the lawsuit saying that Florida could not block Wright , Riddle and the other 15 plaintiffs in the lawsuit if they genuinely could not pay .
That ruling meant that Wright could vote in Florida ’ s March primary .
For the last few years , she had gone with her family to vote , but stayed in the car when they went inside to cast their ballots .
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her daughter couldn ’ t help but ask why her mom couldn ’ t stop smiling .
“ It ’ s like the scarlet letter is slowly being peeled off my chest , ” said Wright , who still gets goosebumps when she thinks about voting .
“ When I got that privilege back .
I honored it to my heart and to my soul.
” Hinkle issued his final decision in late May and struck down the Republican restrictions on amendment 4 .
He was unsparing in his criticism of the system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a state can require convicted felons to repay money they owe before they can vote again , Hinkle wrote , it can not require repayment from those who simply can not afford to pay .
Florida , he wrote , was conditioning the right to vote on a “ tax by any other name ” .
The judge also painstakingly walked through the cases of the plaintiffs in the case , showing how even state officials were unable to figure out how much money was owed .
In one of the cases , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ multiple officials had spent 12 to 15 hours trying to figure out how much he owed in a decades-old conviction and still were unable to explain inconsistencies in his records .
“ Individual victims may have died or moved to parts unknown , and corporate victims may have gone out of business or been merged into other entities , ” he wrote .
“ There may be nobody to pay , even if a felon is willing and able to make a payment .
Insisting on payment of amounts long forgotten seems an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” The ruling seemed like a sweeping victory for the 774,000 people blocked from voting .
But soon after , Florida lawyers appealed Hinkle ’ s ruling to the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit , and asked them to pause Hinkle ’ s order while the appeal was pending .
The court agreed to do so , and offered no explanation for its ruling .
In July , the plaintiffs made an emergency request to the US supreme court , asking them to let Hinkle ’ s ruling go into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ approaching 18 August primary .
The supreme court declined to do so , and like the 11th circuit , offered no explanation for its reasoning .
In dissent , Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the supreme court ’ s decision meant that Florida could block people from voting “ simply because they are poor ” .
The night Wright found out about the court ’ s ruling blocking her from voting yet again , she cried for hours .
“ It ’ s like when is it ever going to end ?
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she said .
Desmond Meade ’ s group , meanwhile , has started a fund aiming to raise $ 3m to help people pay off their fines and fees and had more than 3,600 active applicants as of May ( hundreds of people have applied for assistance , only to find out they are actually legally eligible to vote ) .
A voting rights organization started by LeBron James , the NBA megastar , recently announced an organization he started focused on voting rights would also help contribute funds .
Oral argument at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ August , which means that even if the court rules in favor of Wright and the other plaintiffs , there will be a very tight deadline to educate Floridians with felony convictions before November .
But Wright is holding on to a thread of optimism .
She still thinks about the Sundays she and her daughter would spend standing outside the Ben & Jerry ’ s urging people to sign petitions to put amendment 4 on the ballot .
She would try to persuade voters to sign the petitions by convincing them that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ If it wasn ’ t important , they wouldn ’ t be fighting it , ” she said .
“ Understand that they ’ re fighting to silence you because your vote has power .
That ’ s the only thing that ’ s keeping me going .
”

On the night it finally happened, Raquel Wright peeled off the road on her way home and went to her sister’s house in Vero Beach, Florida. It didn’t matter that no one was home – Wright went inside, headed straight to the television, not bothering to turn on any lights. Watching the election results crawl across the screen, she finally saw the number she was waiting for. She broke into tears, sobbing in the pitch-black house.
About 100 miles north-west, in Orlando, Desmond Meade felt like “a ton of bricks” had been lifted off his shoulders. For nearly two decades, he and other activists had been pushing – sometimes quixotically – to end Florida’s longstanding policy of preventing anyone with a felony conviction from voting. First implemented in the 19th century, the policy was used as a cudgel of white supremacy during the Jim Crow era to disenfranchise African Americans after they formally gained the right to vote. By 2016, it had become one of the most potent forms of voter suppression in the United States, blocking up to 1.4 million people in Florida – including more than 21% of eligible Black voters – from being able to vote. Among them were Wright and Meade.
On election night in 2018, Meade and Wright would find out that 64.5% of Floridians had voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to end the policy. More than 5.1 million people – more than voted for Ron DeSantis, the Republican elected governor that evening – were in favor of the measure. The referendum – often referred to as amendment 4 – was one of the most dramatic expansions of the right to vote in US history since the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.
But more than a year and a half after amendment 4 went into effect, hundreds of thousands of people still remain blocked from voting.
The promise of amendment 4 remains largely unfulfilled because Republicans in Florida moved aggressively to gut it. They passed a law that put insurmountable hurdles in front of those with felony convictions and required them to navigate a byzantine bureaucracy to get their voting rights back (one county official testified in May that records from crimes decades ago had been kept on index cards in shoeboxes). As of late May, Florida’s top election official had tens of thousands of pending registrations from people with felony convictions, but had yet to fully review a single one.
In this photo, former felon Desmond Meade and president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, left, fills out a voter registration Photograph: John Raoux/AP
In a searing 125-page opinion earlier this year, a federal judge wrote that Republicans had created an “administrative train wreck” and a “pay-to-vote system”.
“To me, it was a poll tax,” said Betty Riddle, a 63-year-old woman from Sarasota who was last in prison in 2008. “It’s supposed to stop us from voting. They’re trying everything in their power to stop us.”
The Florida legislature has a history of meddling with constitutional amendments, and there was never much doubt that the Republicans who control the body were going to try to have a say with amendment 4. “We knew that there was going to be blowback,” said Patricia Brigham, president of the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters, who pushed the amendment.
Some of the language in the amendment was ambiguous and after it passed, local election officials across Florida were begging the state for guidance. The measure said most convicted felons were eligible to vote “upon completion of all terms of sentence”, including parole and probation, but wasn’t clear when a sentence was considered complete.
When lawmakers returned to Tallahassee in the spring of 2019, however, it quickly became clear they were uninterested in simply clarifying the ambiguities. They wanted to render it toothless.
In the Florida house of representatives, Jamie Grant, a Republican, pushed through a bill that required anyone with a felony conviction to repay all fines, fees, court costs and restitution before someone could vote again.
The proposal would leave a significant number of people disenfranchised. In Florida, courts depend on fees to operate and those who interact with the system can get tagged with a dizzying array of costs. The state doesn’t really expect to ever collect the money: between 2013 and 2018, courts levied $1bn in felony fines, but Florida clerks of court only reported collecting an average of 19% of the costs each year, according to an analysis by the Miami radio station WLRN.
The legislature deliberately chose to ignore the reality that many people would be unable to repay the costs that accumulate in court, said Ashley Thomas, Florida state director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, an advocacy group that closely tracks the costs of the criminal justice system.
While 30 states require convicted felons to repay court debts before they can vote again, there was a provision in Grant’s bill that was particularly cruel. It blocked people from voting even in cases where their debts had been converted to a civil lien, a practice judges frequently use when someone cannot pay. If someone has completed prison, parole and probation and all they still owe is a civil lien, they are generally considered done with their criminal sentence, said Stanford Blake, a retired judge from Miami.
The provision was “uniquely harmful”, said Julie Ebenstein, a voting rights attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. It would block people like Wright, 46, from voting. Convicted of drug trafficking in 2011 – she was arrested for selling oxycodone pills to an undercover police officer – Wright was sentenced to three years in prison and assessed a mandatory $50,000 fine. The judge in Wright’s case converted her debt to a civil lien the day she was sentenced to prison.
But under Grant’s bill, Wright was blocked from voting until she repaid all of the $50,000. She currently makes $150 a week.
One analysis found there are around 774,000 people in Florida disenfranchised because they owe money as part of their felony sentence – often more than $1,000. The study found Black Floridians with felony convictions were more likely to be blocked from voting because of outstanding debt. Meanwhile, people with felony convictions face severe barriers to getting a job. “Make a way for me to gainfully secure a job to repay those fees and fines,” Wright said.
Grant’s proposal took a narrower view on what constitutes completion of a sentence than the people who practice in criminal court. Blake said he could not recall a single instance in more than a dozen years on the criminal bench when someone objected to a criminal sentence ending because someone still owed fines and fees.
Yet DeSantis signed a finalized version of the proposal into law at the end of June in 2019. Hours later, civil rights groups filed a slew of lawsuits against the state on behalf of Wright and 16 other people with felony convictions arguing that Republicans had essentially created a poll tax, an outlawed device long used to block African Americans from the polls.
In this Oct. 29, 2019, file photo, Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a news conference on in Tallahassee, Fla. Photograph: Steve Cannon/AP
If there was ever going to be someone who had a shot at overcoming the obstacles the Florida legislature put in place, it might have been Riddle, the Sarasota woman last convicted of a felony more than a decade ago. She works at a public defender’s office and after the new law went into effect in 2019, she was able to use the court systems she had access to through work to look up how much she owed.
But the charges she could see only went back to the 1980s and she knew there were some from earlier than that. She called another county to find out what had happened to her earlier charges, but was told they were so old they were probably boxed up or put on a disc. As hard as she tried, Riddle could not figure out how much she owed. “It was really impossible,” said Riddle, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the law.
In this photo Betty Riddle in Sarasota, Fla., holds the T-shirt she wore on March 17, 2020, when she voted for the first time. She was barred from voting in Florida until a federal judge intervened. Photograph: AP
Riddle’s experience underscored a central feature of the system Florida Republicans had set up: it is nearly impossible for many people to find out exactly how much they owe. Courts can order defendants to submit money to a wide range of agencies, including the clerk of court, the department of corrections and prosecutors, said Carlos Martinez, public defender in Miami-Dade county. Debt collection agencies can charge up to 40% fees to collect payments. There is no centralized place where someone can look up how much money they owe and how much money they have paid towards overcoming the debt.
It’s supposed to stop us from voting. They’re trying everything in their power to stop us Betty Riddle
“You can get a different number when you check the database you can access remotely from the internet versus when you call up and ask for how much you owe,” said Andrew Warren, the state attorney in Hillsborough county. “It’s not like it’s a simple number like what your credit card bill is.” In Hillsborough county, for example, before officials kept records on computers, they kept payment receipts on index cards in shoe boxes.
“It’s a nightmare of their own making,” said Ebenstein, who represents some of the plaintiffs in the suit challenging the law.
As of late May, the division of elections – responsible for verifying which people with felony convictions can vote – had 85,000 registrations to review. And just months ahead of the election, it hadn’t completed review of a single one. Maria Matthews, the head of the division, said the state only had the capacity to review 57 registrations a day. In testimony earlier this year, she struggled to explain the processes the state was using to implement the law.
Last fall, US district judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary order in the lawsuit saying that Florida could not block Wright, Riddle and the other 15 plaintiffs in the lawsuit if they genuinely could not pay.
That ruling meant that Wright could vote in Florida’s March primary. For the last few years, she had gone with her family to vote, but stayed in the car when they went inside to cast their ballots. When she went inside the voting booth, her daughter couldn’t help but ask why her mom couldn’t stop smiling.
“It’s like the scarlet letter is slowly being peeled off my chest,” said Wright, who still gets goosebumps when she thinks about voting. “When I got that privilege back. I honored it to my heart and to my soul.”
Wright speaking to a worker at a voting station Photograph: NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Hinkle issued his final decision in late May and struck down the Republican restrictions on amendment 4. He was unsparing in his criticism of the system Florida Republicans had set up. While a state can require convicted felons to repay money they owe before they can vote again, Hinkle wrote, it cannot require repayment from those who simply cannot afford to pay. Florida, he wrote, was conditioning the right to vote on a “tax by any other name”.
The judge also painstakingly walked through the cases of the plaintiffs in the case, showing how even state officials were unable to figure out how much money was owed. In one of the cases, involving a pastor named Clifford Tyson, multiple officials had spent 12 to 15 hours trying to figure out how much he owed in a decades-old conviction and still were unable to explain inconsistencies in his records.
“Individual victims may have died or moved to parts unknown, and corporate victims may have gone out of business or been merged into other entities,” he wrote. “There may be nobody to pay, even if a felon is willing and able to make a payment. Insisting on payment of amounts long forgotten seems an especially poor basis for denying the franchise.”
The ruling seemed like a sweeping victory for the 774,000 people blocked from voting. But soon after, Florida lawyers appealed Hinkle’s ruling to the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit, and asked them to pause Hinkle’s order while the appeal was pending. The court agreed to do so, and offered no explanation for its ruling.
In July, the plaintiffs made an emergency request to the US supreme court, asking them to let Hinkle’s ruling go into effect ahead of Florida’s fast approaching 18 August primary. The supreme court declined to do so, and like the 11th circuit, offered no explanation for its reasoning. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the supreme court’s decision meant that Florida could block people from voting “simply because they are poor”.
The night Wright found out about the court’s ruling blocking her from voting yet again, she cried for hours.
“It’s like when is it ever going to end? I’ve paid my penance,” she said.
Desmond Meade’s group, meanwhile, has started a fund aiming to raise $3m to help people pay off their fines and fees and had more than 3,600 active applicants as of May (hundreds of people have applied for assistance, only to find out they are actually legally eligible to vote). A voting rights organization started by LeBron James, the NBA megastar, recently announced an organization he started focused on voting rights would also help contribute funds.
Oral argument at the 11th circuit is scheduled for 18 August, which means that even if the court rules in favor of Wright and the other plaintiffs, there will be a very tight deadline to educate Floridians with felony convictions before November.
But Wright is holding on to a thread of optimism. She still thinks about the Sundays she and her daughter would spend standing outside the Ben & Jerry’s urging people to sign petitions to put amendment 4 on the ballot. She would try to persuade voters to sign the petitions by convincing them that not voting was essentially a vote.
“If it wasn’t important, they wouldn’t be fighting it,” she said. “Understand that they’re fighting to silence you because your vote has power. That’s the only thing that’s keeping me going.”


theguardian--2020-08-06--US government shelves survey that painted bleak picture of Covid-19 life

The US Census Bureau has suspended a weekly survey that painted a bleak picture of American life during the Covid-19 pandemic , with no sign of when , or if , it will resume publishing the report .
The “ household pulse survey ” tracked various quality-of-life measures , such as food sufficiency , internet access and mental health , and was first conducted by the Census Bureau on 23 April to “ quickly and efficiently deploy data collected on how people ’ s lives have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic ” , according to the agency ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unemployment claims released by the Department of Labor has shown how many people have lost their jobs , the survey provided a window into the effect the economic downturn is having on the lives of Americans .
US households were asked whether they had enough food to eat and internet availability for education , if they had experienced depression or anxiety over the last seven days , and whether they felt they could afford next month ’ s rent or mortgage payments , among other questions .
Over the past three months , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what American households are experiencing during the pandemic – a picture that showed little sign of improvement .
According to data collected between 16 and 21 July , more than 29 million Americans do not have enough food .
Of the 7.2 million American households who did not have sufficient internet availability for educational purposes , 20 % were black households and 30 % were Hispanic .
Over 44 million Americans said they have felt nervous , anxious or on edge nearly every day over the past seven days , while over 28 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Census Bureau described the survey as “ experimental ” .
It was administered via a 20-minute series of online questions .
The agency “ scientifically selected ” addresses to represent the whole US population .
People from those addresses received emails with a link to the survey .
Administering the survey cost the agency $ 1.2m , according to NPR .
The survey was intended to last 90 days , with the last of the survey ’ s data from that period being released on 29 July .
The Office of Management and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House , approved for the survey to be administered until the end of July .
It is unclear whether the OMB will agree to let the survey continue .
“ The Census Bureau is working closely with the OMB to determine the possibility for a second phase of the household pulse survey .
We will announce any details as soon as they are available , ” a spokesperson for the agency wrote in an email to the Guardian .
The bureau is currently hard at work trying to administer its once-in-a-decade census @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US amid the pandemic .
The bureau has also been subject to political pressure , recently announcing it will be shortening the census deadline .
Though the bureau had in April asked Congress to extend its deadline , it offered no explanation for the reversal .
The move is expected to lead to an undercount of Americans , particularly communities of color and poorer Americans .

The US Census Bureau has suspended a weekly survey that painted a bleak picture of American life during the Covid-19 pandemic, with no sign of when, or if, it will resume publishing the report.
The “household pulse survey” tracked various quality-of-life measures, such as food sufficiency, internet access and mental health, and was first conducted by the Census Bureau on 23 April to “quickly and efficiently deploy data collected on how people’s lives have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic”, according to the agency’s website.
While data such as weekly unemployment claims released by the Department of Labor has shown how many people have lost their jobs, the survey provided a window into the effect the economic downturn is having on the lives of Americans.
US households were asked whether they had enough food to eat and internet availability for education, if they had experienced depression or anxiety over the last seven days, and whether they felt they could afford next month’s rent or mortgage payments, among other questions.
Over the past three months, the survey painted a desolate picture of what American households are experiencing during the pandemic – a picture that showed little sign of improvement.
According to data collected between 16 and 21 July, more than 29 million Americans do not have enough food. Of the 7.2 million American households who did not have sufficient internet availability for educational purposes, 20% were black households and 30% were Hispanic. Over 44 million Americans said they have felt nervous, anxious or on edge nearly every day over the past seven days, while over 28 million experienced symptoms of depression.
The Census Bureau described the survey as “experimental”. It was administered via a 20-minute series of online questions. The agency “scientifically selected” addresses to represent the whole US population. People from those addresses received emails with a link to the survey. Administering the survey cost the agency $1.2m, according to NPR.
The survey was intended to last 90 days, with the last of the survey’s data from that period being released on 29 July. The Office of Management and Budget, the largest office in the White House, initially approved for the survey to be administered until the end of July.
“The Census Bureau is working closely with the OMB to determine the possibility for a second phase of the household pulse survey. We will announce any details as soon as they are available,” a spokesperson for the agency wrote in an email to the Guardian.
The bureau is currently hard at work trying to administer its once-in-a-decade census, trying to count everybody in the US amid the pandemic.
The bureau has also been subject to political pressure, recently announcing it will be shortening the census deadline. Though the bureau had in April asked Congress to extend its deadline, it offered no explanation for the reversal.
The move is expected to lead to an undercount of Americans, particularly communities of color and poorer Americans.


theguardian--2020-08-06--How did President Trump get his pandemic response so wrong? Podcast

While Donald Trump continues to claim the US is ‘ doing very well ’ in its fight against Covid-19 , the figures suggest a different story .
The US has the highest death toll in the world , with over 150,000 deaths .
Guardian US chief reporter Ed Pilkington examines how Trump got it wrong On Monday , the US surpassed 4.7m confirmed cases of infection – more than a quarter of the global total .
The death toll , which has now passed over 150,000 , is the highest in the world and continues to rise .
Despite this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , has claimed that under his leadership the US is “ doing very well ” .
Guardian US chief reporter Ed Pilkington tells Mythili Rao why the US , which was once ranked the most prepared country in the world for a potential pandemic , has failed to contain the spread of Covid-19 .
Ed discusses how Trump ’ s flawed style of leadership , his messaging and his disregard for science , along with his failure to implement a unified national approach to the virus has left the country in a perilous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s handling of the crisis will affect his run for re-election • This text was amended on 6 August 2020 to change references to “ death rate ” to “ death toll ”

Presented by Mythili Rao with Ed Pilkington, produced by Joshua Kelly and Axel Kacoutié; executive producers Nicole Jackson and Phil Maynard

While Donald Trump continues to claim the US is ‘doing very well’ in its fight against Covid-19, the figures suggest a different story. The US has the highest death toll in the world, with over 150,000 deaths. Guardian US chief reporter Ed Pilkington examines how Trump got it wrong
On Monday, the US surpassed 4.7m confirmed cases of infection – more than a quarter of the global total. The death toll, which has now passed over 150,000, is the highest in the world and continues to rise. Despite this, the US president, Donald Trump, has claimed that under his leadership the US is “doing very well”.
Guardian US chief reporter Ed Pilkington tells Mythili Rao why the US, which was once ranked the most prepared country in the world for a potential pandemic, has failed to contain the spread of Covid-19. Ed discusses how Trump’s flawed style of leadership, his messaging and his disregard for science, along with his failure to implement a unified national approach to the virus has left the country in a perilous position. He also examines how Trump’s handling of the crisis will affect his run for re-election
This text was amended on 6 August 2020 to change references to “death rate” to “death toll”


theguardian--2020-08-06--A new study shows more Americans are dropping acid. Why? | John Semley

In 1995 , Jerry Garcia , singer/guitarist of the Grateful Dead and a figure almost singularly associated with America ’ s psychedelic subculture , died .
Then something weird happened : a nationwide downturn in LSD consumption .
It was no coincidence .
As the author Jesse Jarnow notes in Heads : A Biography of Psychedelic America , for decades the Grateful Dead ’ s expansive , coast-to-coast live concert infrastructure was “ the distribution network for LSD ” .
No Jerry meant no Dead tours , which meant , for many , no LSD .
Garcia ’ s death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sixties .
But now , drugs like LSD and psilocybin ( the active ingredient in magic mushrooms ) are enjoying a vogue .
They ’ re finding second lives as clinical tools in the pharmacological battle against depression and anxiety .
They ’ re also being illicitly gobbled in sub-hallucinogenic “ micro-doses ” as daily supplements , reportedly boosting energy and creativity .
In November , Oregonians will vote on whether to legalize psilocybin therapy statewide .
And a new study in the July issue of the international journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between 2015 and 2018 ( including a rather massive 223 % increase among people aged 35 to 49 ) .
It ’ s all part of what ’ s being termed the “ psychedelic renaissance ” .
This revival is curious .
It doesn ’ t seem to be about restoring the bygone heyday of hippie-era psychedelic culture , as renaissance art of the 14th century turned back to the glories of antiquity .
For some , the sun setting on this subculture was just as well .
The concept of “ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and wide-eyed , pupil-dilated idealism – has sometimes proved an impediment .
Michael Pollan , whose bestseller How To Change Your Mind popularized the current resurgence , notes that the very word psychedelic “ carries a lot of countercultural baggage ” .
Mind-expansion , we ’ re being told , may be beneficial – but please leave the tie-dye shirts and frilly vests and marching teddy bear bumper stickers in the past .
It can all feel overstated , even anxious .
As a millennial who has spent decades curious about – and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of music , politics and mind-expansion that marked the 1960s youth culture , cleaving psychedelics from popular notions of psychedelia strikes me as a bit , well , sad .
Sure , images of twirling hippies muddied up at Woodstock can scan as a bit naive , or just annoying .
But that conception of naivety was largely imposed after the fact , by cynics and moralizing conservative politicians .
Unfortunately , it remains by and large the order of the day .
In this respect , the new study on America ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of optimism .
As its lead author , the University of Cincinnati ’ s Andrew Yockey , told Scientific American , “ LSD is used primarily to escape .
And given that the world ’ s on fire , people might be using it as a therapeutic mechanism.
” The new psychedelia is of a distinctly pharmacological character , mixing rigorous science with the woolier jargon of “ self-care ” .
But the talk of escapism jives more with LSD ’ s explosion in the sixties .
The counterculture of that period reacted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ postwar America , the posturing strongman leaders , the endless conflicts abroad .
Psychedelics , with their perceived pro-social effects , stirred feelings of togetherness , and provided a mental space for conceiving of some alternative .
As Yockey noted , his new study ’ s parameters were designed in part to track potential drug-taking responses to Trump ’ s 2016 election .
( Yockey also told Scientific American that , in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak , LSD usage has “ probably tripled ” . )
Against such abounding bleakness , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ones worldview .
This promise of better living through chemistry feels pitched to our present moment : whether it be in contempt for heads of state , the demands for racial justice , or the more generalized anxiety that the world has gone horribly wrong .
Another recent study , analyzing drug trends in the New York City dance scene , also showed an uptick in LSD usage , echoing the role of psychedelics in catalyzing sixties-era outdoor music festivals , rock concerts , and other hedonistic “ happenings ” .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these compounds .
If there ’ s one count on which the 1960s psychedelic subculture is rightly arraigned , it ’ s drawing some crude , causal relationship between drug taking and political revolution .
Even Timothy Leary , the era ’ s most outspoken psychedelic spokesman , would later confess that “ [ t ] he use of any drug that takes your mind away from the basic issue , which is liberation-revolution , must be postponed ” .
Psychedelics may ease anxiety , increase empathy and expand the mind ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; actually building that world has proved tougher work .
Nevertheless , a historical failure to manifest an ideal should not discredit the ideal itself , nor the culture that sprouted to support it .
For many invested in psychedelia , then and now , the expanded horizon of political possibility and countercultural action isn ’ t inconvenient “ baggage ” .
It ’ s the very essence of the trip .
Anyone bothered that psychedelics are being normalized , or assimilated within an existing for-profit pharmaceutical model – or just straight-up squared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that psychedelia ’ s countercultural spirit seems alive and well .
In the words of a popular T-shirt peddled at amphitheater parking lots and music festival merch tables : Jerry Lives !
• None John Semley is a freelance writer and the author of Hater : On the Virtues of Utter Disagreeability

In 1995, Jerry Garcia, singer/guitarist of the Grateful Dead and a figure almost singularly associated with America’s psychedelic subculture, died. Then something weird happened: a nationwide downturn in LSD consumption. It was no coincidence. As the author Jesse Jarnow notes in Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, for decades the Grateful Dead’s expansive, coast-to-coast live concert infrastructure was “the distribution network for LSD”. No Jerry meant no Dead tours, which meant, for many, no LSD. Garcia’s death effectively signalled the end of the Psychedelic Sixties.
But now, drugs like LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are enjoying a vogue. They’re finding second lives as clinical tools in the pharmacological battle against depression and anxiety. They’re also being illicitly gobbled in sub-hallucinogenic “micro-doses” as daily supplements, reportedly boosting energy and creativity. In November, Oregonians will vote on whether to legalize psilocybin therapy statewide. And a new study in the July issue of the international journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence reports that LSD use increased 56% between 2015 and 2018 (including a rather massive 223% increase among people aged 35 to 49). It’s all part of what’s being termed the “psychedelic renaissance”.
This revival is curious. It doesn’t seem to be about restoring the bygone heyday of hippie-era psychedelic culture, as renaissance art of the 14th century turned back to the glories of antiquity. For some, the sun setting on this subculture was just as well. The concept of “the sixties” – with its long hair and wide-eyed, pupil-dilated idealism – has sometimes proved an impediment. Michael Pollan, whose bestseller How To Change Your Mind popularized the current resurgence, notes that the very word psychedelic “carries a lot of countercultural baggage”. Mind-expansion, we’re being told, may be beneficial – but please leave the tie-dye shirts and frilly vests and marching teddy bear bumper stickers in the past.
Bags of psilocybin mushrooms, left, are seen displayed at a pop-up cannabis market in Los Angeles on 6 May 2019. Photograph: Richard Vogel/AP
It can all feel overstated, even anxious. As a millennial who has spent decades curious about – and frankly, envious of – the explosion of music, politics and mind-expansion that marked the 1960s youth culture, cleaving psychedelics from popular notions of psychedelia strikes me as a bit, well, sad. Sure, images of twirling hippies muddied up at Woodstock can scan as a bit naive, or just annoying. But that conception of naivety was largely imposed after the fact, by cynics and moralizing conservative politicians. Unfortunately, it remains by and large the order of the day.
In this respect, the new study on America’s up-ticking LSD use carries a kernel of optimism. As its lead author, the University of Cincinnati’s Andrew Yockey, told Scientific American, “LSD is used primarily to escape. And given that the world’s on fire, people might be using it as a therapeutic mechanism.”
The new psychedelia is of a distinctly pharmacological character, mixing rigorous science with the woolier jargon of “self-care”. But the talk of escapism jives more with LSD’s explosion in the sixties. The counterculture of that period reacted against the perceived “straightness” of postwar America, the posturing strongman leaders, the endless conflicts abroad. Psychedelics, with their perceived pro-social effects, stirred feelings of togetherness, and provided a mental space for conceiving of some alternative.
As Yockey noted, his new study’s parameters were designed in part to track potential drug-taking responses to Trump’s 2016 election. (Yockey also told Scientific American that, in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, LSD usage has “probably tripled”.) Against such abounding bleakness, psychedelics can catalyze a profound rejigging of ones worldview.
LSD is used primarily to escape. And given that the world’s on fire, people might be using it as a therapeutic mechanism Andrew Yockey
This promise of better living through chemistry feels pitched to our present moment: whether it be in contempt for heads of state, the demands for racial justice, or the more generalized anxiety that the world has gone horribly wrong. Another recent study, analyzing drug trends in the New York City dance scene, also showed an uptick in LSD usage, echoing the role of psychedelics in catalyzing sixties-era outdoor music festivals, rock concerts, and other hedonistic “happenings”.
It’s tempting to overstate the potential of these compounds. If there’s one count on which the 1960s psychedelic subculture is rightly arraigned, it’s drawing some crude, causal relationship between drug taking and political revolution. Even Timothy Leary, the era’s most outspoken psychedelic spokesman, would later confess that “[t]he use of any drug that takes your mind away from the basic issue, which is liberation-revolution, must be postponed”. Psychedelics may ease anxiety, increase empathy and expand the mind’s capacity to conceive of some better world; actually building that world has proved tougher work.
Nevertheless, a historical failure to manifest an ideal should not discredit the ideal itself, nor the culture that sprouted to support it. For many invested in psychedelia, then and now, the expanded horizon of political possibility and countercultural action isn’t inconvenient “baggage”. It’s the very essence of the trip.
Anyone bothered that psychedelics are being normalized, or assimilated within an existing for-profit pharmaceutical model – or just straight-up squared – may take comfort in studies suggesting that psychedelia’s countercultural spirit seems alive and well. In the words of a popular T-shirt peddled at amphitheater parking lots and music festival merch tables: Jerry Lives!


theguardian--2020-08-06--Think 'sanctions' will trouble China? Then you're stuck in the politics of the past | Ai Weiwei

The Trump administration has floated the idea of sanctioning Chinese officials and members of the Communist party of China .
Before we ask whether this is a good idea , let ’ s ask how Sino-US relations got to this stage .
The US cold war with the Soviet Union was over ideology , but today ’ s standoff with China is different .
The Chinese state has no ideology , no religion , no moral agenda .
It continues wearing socialist garb but only as a face-saving pretence .
It has , in fact , become a state-capitalist dictatorship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a contest between the US system of free-market capitalism and Chinese state capitalism .
How should we read this chessboard ?
The post-Mao dictatorship in China has lived by the principle of “ repress at home and be open to the world ” .
It has imported knowhow from abroad .
There are an estimated 360,000 Chinese students currently enrolled who have come through America ’ s open door .
Over 40 years , at least a million have returned to China and fed their new technical knowledge into the existing authoritarian structures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might be the most momentous personnel transfer in history .
When I applied to study in the US in the 1980s , I filled out a questionnaire that asked if I had ever been a member of the Communist party .
The point of the question was presumably to avoid ideological risks .
But it is beyond doubt that the Chinese students coming in with me included many party members who were headed to some of the US ’ s finest schools , often with scholarships .
Americans generally assumed that these students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which they would then take back to China .
What happened more often , though , was that Chinese students were quick to see the cultural differences between the two countries , and to draw the very logical conclusion that American values are fine for America but would never work in the Chinese system .
If those US hopes for the exportation of values had panned out , much of China would have been won over by now .
But what has actually happened ?
Returnees are now leaders in much of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expression in China is as strong today as it has been since the Mao era .
Washington bears much of the responsibility for what has happened .
In the years after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 , administrations of both parties touted the absurd theory that the best plan was to let China get rich and then watch as freedom and democracy evolved as byproducts of capitalist development .
But did capitalist competition , that ravenous machine that can chew up anything , change China ?
The regime ’ s politics did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change was the US , whose business leaders now approached the Chinese dictatorship with obsequious smiles .
Here , after all , was an exciting new business partner : master of a realm in which there were virtually no labour rights or health and safety regulations , no frustrating delays because of squabbles between political parties , no criticism from free media , and no danger of judgment by independent courts .
For European and US companies doing manufacture for export , it was a dream come true .
Money rained down on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the price was to mortgage the country ’ s future .
Society fell into a moral swamp , devoid of humanity and difficult to escape .
Meanwhile , the west made their adjustments .
They stopped talking about liberal values and gave a pass to the dictatorship , in which Deng Xiaoping ’ s advice of “ don ’ t confront ” and Jiang Zemin ’ s of “ lie low and make big bucks ” made fast economic growth possible .
European and American business thrived in the early stages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a sedan chair carried up the mountain by their Chinese partners .
And a fine journey it was – crisp air , bright sun – as they reached the mountain ’ s midpoint .
But then the chair-carriers laid down their poles and began demanding a shift .
They , too , sought the top position .
The signal from the political centre in China changed from “ don ’ t pick fights ” to “ go for it ” .
Now what could the western capitalists do ?
Walk back down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way .
Covid-19 has jolted the US into semi-awareness of the crisis it faces .
The disease has become a political issue for its two major political parties to tussle over , but the real crisis is that the western system itself has been challenged .
The US model appears to others as a bureaucratic jumble of competing interests that lacks long-term vision and historical aspiration , that omits ideals , that runs on short-term pragmatism , and that in the end is hostage to corporate capital .
Are sanctions the way to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Beijing recently remarked words to the effect that the US and China are so economically interlocked that they would amount to self-sanctions .
The US , moreover , would be no match for China in its ability to endure suffering .
And there he was correct : in dictatorships , sacrifices are not borne by the rulers .
In the 1960s Mao said : “ Cut us off ?
Go ahead – eight years , 10 years , China has everything.
” A few years later Mao had nuclear weapons and was not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reconsider its systems , its political and cultural prospects , and rediscover its humanitarianism .
These challenges are not only political , they are intellectual .
It is time to abandon the old thinking and the vocabulary that controls it .
Without new vocabulary , new thinking can not be born .
In the current struggle in Hong Kong , for example , the theory is simple and the faith is pure .
The new political generation in Hong Kong deserves careful respect from the west , and new vocabulary to talk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a cold war term that names an old policy .
If the US can ’ t think beyond them , the primacy of its position in this changing world will disappear .
• None Ai Weiwei is an artist and activist .
This article was translated from Chinese by Perry Link

The Trump administration has floated the idea of sanctioning Chinese officials and members of the Communist party of China. Before we ask whether this is a good idea, let’s ask how Sino-US relations got to this stage.
The US cold war with the Soviet Union was over ideology, but today’s standoff with China is different. The Chinese state has no ideology, no religion, no moral agenda. It continues wearing socialist garb but only as a face-saving pretence. It has, in fact, become a state-capitalist dictatorship. What the world sees today is a contest between the US system of free-market capitalism and Chinese state capitalism. How should we read this chessboard?
The post-Mao dictatorship in China has lived by the principle of “repress at home and be open to the world”. It has imported knowhow from abroad. There are an estimated 360,000 Chinese students currently enrolled who have come through America’s open door. Over 40 years, at least a million have returned to China and fed their new technical knowledge into the existing authoritarian structures that have built the dictatorship. It might be the most momentous personnel transfer in history.
When I applied to study in the US in the 1980s, I filled out a questionnaire that asked if I had ever been a member of the Communist party. The point of the question was presumably to avoid ideological risks. But it is beyond doubt that the Chinese students coming in with me included many party members who were headed to some of the US’s finest schools, often with scholarships. Americans generally assumed that these students would feel the appeal of liberal values, which they would then take back to China. What happened more often, though, was that Chinese students were quick to see the cultural differences between the two countries, and to draw the very logical conclusion that American values are fine for America but would never work in the Chinese system.
If those US hopes for the exportation of values had panned out, much of China would have been won over by now. But what has actually happened? Returnees are now leaders in much of Chinese business and industry, but anti-American expression in China is as strong today as it has been since the Mao era.
Washington bears much of the responsibility for what has happened. In the years after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, administrations of both parties touted the absurd theory that the best plan was to let China get rich and then watch as freedom and democracy evolved as byproducts of capitalist development.
But did capitalist competition, that ravenous machine that can chew up anything, change China? The regime’s politics did not change a whit. What did change was the US, whose business leaders now approached the Chinese dictatorship with obsequious smiles. Here, after all, was an exciting new business partner: master of a realm in which there were virtually no labour rights or health and safety regulations, no frustrating delays because of squabbles between political parties, no criticism from free media, and no danger of judgment by independent courts. For European and US companies doing manufacture for export, it was a dream come true.
Money rained down on parts of China, it is true. But the price was to mortgage the country’s future. Society fell into a moral swamp, devoid of humanity and difficult to escape. Meanwhile, the west made their adjustments. They stopped talking about liberal values and gave a pass to the dictatorship, in which Deng Xiaoping’s advice of “don’t confront” and Jiang Zemin’s of “lie low and make big bucks” made fast economic growth possible.
European and American business thrived in the early stages of the China boom. They sat in a sedan chair carried up the mountain by their Chinese partners. And a fine journey it was – crisp air, bright sun – as they reached the mountain’s midpoint. But then the chair-carriers laid down their poles and began demanding a shift. They, too, sought the top position. The signal from the political centre in China changed from “don’t pick fights” to “go for it”. Now what could the western capitalists do? Walk back down the mountain? They hardly knew the way.
Covid-19 has jolted the US into semi-awareness of the crisis it faces. The disease has become a political issue for its two major political parties to tussle over, but the real crisis is that the western system itself has been challenged. The US model appears to others as a bureaucratic jumble of competing interests that lacks long-term vision and historical aspiration, that omits ideals, that runs on short-term pragmatism, and that in the end is hostage to corporate capital.
Are sanctions the way to go? A foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing recently remarked words to the effect that the US and China are so economically interlocked that they would amount to self-sanctions. The US, moreover, would be no match for China in its ability to endure suffering. And there he was correct: in dictatorships, sacrifices are not borne by the rulers. In the 1960s Mao said: “Cut us off? Go ahead – eight years, 10 years, China has everything.” A few years later Mao had nuclear weapons and was not afraid of anyone.
The west needs to reconsider its systems, its political and cultural prospects, and rediscover its humanitarianism. These challenges are not only political, they are intellectual. It is time to abandon the old thinking and the vocabulary that controls it. Without new vocabulary, new thinking cannot be born. In the current struggle in Hong Kong, for example, the theory is simple and the faith is pure. The new political generation in Hong Kong deserves careful respect from the west, and new vocabulary to talk about it.
“Sanctions” is a cold war term that names an old policy. If the US can’t think beyond them, the primacy of its position in this changing world will disappear.


theguardian--2020-08-06--Pompeo: US removing 'untrusted' Chinese apps to protect Covid vaccine work – video

The US secretary of state , Mike Pompeo , says the Trump administration wants the removal of 'untrusted ' Chinese @ @ @ @ @ country .
Calling popular social media platforms TikTok and WeChat dangerous , Pompeo also raised @ @ @ @ @ intellectual property , including potential Covid-19 vaccines , through cloud-based services

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, says the Trump administration wants the removal of 'untrusted' Chinese apps from service in the country. Calling popular social media platforms TikTok and WeChat dangerous, Pompeo also raised concerns around data theft of intellectual property, including potential Covid-19 vaccines, through cloud-based services