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      John Lewis: civil rights leader's body arrives at US Capitol to lie in state

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      The body of the late John Lewis arrived in the Rotunda of the US Capitol, where he will lie in state as lawmakers pay tribute to the longtime Georgia lawmaker and leader of the civil rights movement.The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, led a delegation to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to greet Lewis’s flag-draped casket. The motorcade stopped at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House as it wound through Washington before arriving at the Capitol, where the late congressman becomes the first black lawmaker to lie in state in the Rotunda.As with others afforded the honor, Lewis’s casket rested on the catafalque built for Abraham Lincoln’s funeral in 1865.Pelosi and others will attend a private ceremony in the Rotunda before Lewis’s body is moved to the steps on the Capitol’s east side for a public viewing, an unusual sequence required because the Covid-19 pandemic has closed the Capitol to the public. Inside the Rotunda and outdoors, signs welcomed visitors with a reminder that masks would be required. More

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      Trump's national security adviser tests positive for coronavirus

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      The national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, has tested positive for the coronavirus, but the White House insisted there was “no risk” of Donald Trump being exposed.However, O’Brien recently returned from a trip to Europe where he was photographed, without wearing a mask or social distancing, with several foreign officials, including his UK counterpart, Mark Sedwill; the UK ambassador to France, Edward Llewellyn; and the French national security adviser, Emmanuel Bonne.Several White House staffers have fallen sick from the disease over the past few months, but O’Brien is highest-level administration official so far to have tested positive.“He has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site. There is no risk of exposure to the president or the vice-president. The work of the national security council continues uninterrupted,” the White House said in a statement.CNN cited officials as saying O’Brien abruptly left the White House last Thursday and has been working from home since then.It is unclear when O’Brien last had a meeting with the president. Their most recent public appearance together was during a visit to US Southern Command in Miami on 10 July.O’Brien has hired as national security adviser in September, despite having relatively light foreign policy experience, and has taken a low-profile approach to the job, certainly compared to his immediate predecessor, John Bolton.The news stirred a tense atmosphere in Washington, as Republicans prepared to unveil their latest stimulus and relief proposals and Donald Trump digested new polling showing disapproval of his handling of the pandemic and leads in key states for his challenger, Joe Biden.O’Brien is Donald Trump’s fourth national security adviser, a role naturally requiring close contact with the president. According to CNN, O’Brien was on White House grounds last Thursday, raising questions about potential exposure. It was also reported that White House staffers only learned of O’Brien’s test via press reports.Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg News reported that O’Brien came down with the virus after a family event and was “isolating at home while still running the NSC [national security council], doing most of his work by phone”.But CNN reported that O’Brien recently went to Europe with staffers and reporters and said “multiple pictures released from the trip showed O’Brien neither practicing social distancing nor wearing a mask”.The news will intensify scrutiny over Trump’s refusal to consistently wear a face mask in public, despite mounting evidence that masks help mitigate the spread of coronavirus. The president strongly urged Americans to wear masks for the first time last week, but he has since been seen in public not wearing a mask.Pressure was also mounting on Republicans in Congress on Monday, to finalise a new aid package and spare millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in the pandemic from enduring dire hardship when $600-a-week additional unemployment benefits expire on Friday.With the so-called “income cliff” just four days away, Republican leaders have indicated that they will unveil a $1tn aid package agreed with the White House. But bitter partisan negotiations lie ahead, with a measure likely to pass only at the 11th hour.House Democrats, who passed a $3tn package in May, have accused Republicans of dithering and object to replacing the $600 weekly benefits, which they want to extend, with a more complicated formula based on 70% of wages. That calculation could in effect see support reduced to about $200 a week.Democrats are also unhappy about liability protections likely to be included in the Republican package that insulate employers from being sued by workers who contract coronavirus.The negotiations come at a febrile time. Last week 1.4 million Americans filed new unemployment claims, joining a pool of more than 30 million out of work.As the political crisis on Capitol Hill comes to a head, there is no sign of the public health crisis abating. According to the Covid Tracking project, 4.2m confirmed cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the US with the death toll close to 140,000. Johns Hopkins University puts the death toll closer to 150,000.The death rate across the states has exceeded 1,000 people a day over the past week, although on Sunday a figure of 558 was recorded.The infection rate is continuing to surge alarmingly, particularly in the south. Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are all showing steep upward trajectories and many states have been forced to rein back on reopening their economies after the virus caused havoc in health systems.Florida now has more than 400,000 confirmed cases and has surpassed the tally in New York, a previous center of the contagion. California, struggling with a resurgence of its own, has recorded the most cases.Despite the prevalence of disease in Florida the vice-president, Mike Pence, was scheduled to visit Miami on Monday, to highlight phase three trials for a vaccine.The political fallout of the pandemic remains intense, both at state level and for the White House, where Donald Trump is dealing with the consequences of having presided over one of the worst impacts of the pandemic in the world. With fewer than 100 days to go before the presidential election, Joe Biden now holds a commanding lead in the polls.A new NBC News/Marist poll released on Monday underlined the danger of the current moment for Trump. It gave Biden a seven-point lead in the vital swing state of North Carolina, increasingly seen as a bellwether in presidential elections. Among registered voters in the state, Biden was supported by 51% to Trump’s 44%.Congressional horse trading over aid could have far-reaching implications for millions. Democrats have warned that any reduction in financial help to the unemployed could herald a wave of evictions as households struggle to meet rent.On Sunday, the Trump adviser Larry Kudlow pledged on CNN’s State of the Union that a moratorium on housing evictions, which has expired, will be extended. More

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      Biden holds daunting lead over Trump as US election enters final stretch

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      One hundred days before the presidential election, Joe Biden has built a commanding and enduring lead over Donald Trump, whose path to victory has narrowed considerably in the months since the coronavirus pandemic began.The president’s fortunes appear increasingly tied to the trajectory of a public health crisis he has failed to contain, with the death toll past 145,000 and the economy in turmoil.A Washington Post-ABC News poll this month showed Biden far ahead of Trump, 55% to 40% among registered voters. That contrasted with March, when Biden and Trump were locked in a near tie as the virus was just beginning to spread.The same poll found Trump’s approval ratings had crumbled to 39%, roughly the same share of the electorate that approved of his response to the outbreak while 60% disapproved. Especially troubling for the president are a new spate of polls that suggest he is losing his edge on the economy, formerly Biden’s greatest vulnerability.“It is very hard to envision a scenario where you can make an argument for the president’s re-election if unemployment is well over 10% and there’s no sign that the pandemic is under control,” said Michael Steel, a Republican strategist who was an adviser for Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign.“The political environment and the economic situation could look very different 100 days from now, but if the election were held today, it is very likely that the former vice-president would win – and pretty substantially.”Surveys show Biden ahead in a clutch of battleground states that secured Trump’s victory in 2016, including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. A Quinnipiac University poll of Florida, seen as crucial for Trump, found Biden up by 13 points.Biden’s campaign is now eyeing an expanded electoral map that could also deliver control of the Senate, challenging Trump in traditionally Republican states like Arizona, where the president has consistently led in statewide polls, as well as in conservative strongholds like Texas, where a new Quinnipiac poll found the candidates neck-and-neck.Trump has dismissed polling that shows him losing as “fake”, adamant that he defied Beltway prognosticators in 2016 and is poised to do it again. “I’m not losing,” he insisted during a recent Fox News Sunday interview, when presented with the network’s latest poll showing him trailing Biden by eight points.Political strategists caution that much can – and almost certainly will – change in the coming months, especially in a race shaped so profoundly by the pandemic. There is a general expectation the contest will be closely fought, as presidential elections have been for decades in a deeply polarized climate.At the same time, widespread uncertainty hangs over the security and administration of an election again threatened by foreign interference and disinformation. The pandemic has raised new concerns about voting procedures, amid Trump’s escalating attacks on mail-in ballots and unprecedented efforts to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the result in November.Trump’s prospects likely hinge on his ability to persuade Americans he deserves a second term. Yet he remains almost-singularly focused on rallying a loyal but shrinking core of supporters. In recent weeks, he has sought to stoke white fear and cultural backlash with an aggressive response to anti-racism protests, a defense of Confederate monuments and a dark Fourth of July speech in which he claimed children are being taught to “hate” America. More

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      Coronavirus US live: Georgia Senate candidate awaiting Covid-19 results after wife tests positive – as it happened

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      Jon Ossoff’s campaign says he is experiencing symptoms of virus
      More than 4.1m cases and 145,000 deaths recorded in US
      Sinclair stations to air interview with Plandemic researcher
      Testing shortages hit California’s vulnerable hardest
      America ‘staring down barrel of martial law’ – Oregon senator
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      Republicans continue Covid-19 relief talks as Democrat warns of catastrophe

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      The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, were on Capitol Hill on Saturday, for talks with aides to Senate Republicans over the next coronavirus relief package.The stakes are high. US unemployment rose again on Friday after months of falls, enhanced benefits are due to run out and Americans unable to pay rent are starting to be evicted. The expanded unemployment benefit officially expires on 31 July, but due to the way states process payments, the cut-off is effectively Saturday.On Friday Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House ways and means committee, said the US was on “the eve of an economic catastrophe”.Nonetheless the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, sent members of his party home, promising a proposal by Monday.Facing re-election this year, McConnell also went home. At an event in Kentucky, he said: “This has been one heck of a challenge for everybody in the country. Hopefully we can come together behind some package we can agree on in the next few weeks.”In a joint statement, the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said: “We call upon Leader McConnell to get serious.”In a tweet referring to the pandemic-inspired unemployment boost of $600 a week, Pelosi added: “The Senate must take up the House-passed Heroes Act and extend this critical lifeline for working families.”The Democratic-held House passed that $3tn relief package in May but the Senate is held by Republicans and has not taken it up.Among other issues, Republicans are debating reducing the special unemployment payments, which they say provide a disincentive to seek work. The White House has suggested cutting the payments to as little as $100.Many regular Americans counter that the funds are vital, not just to meet rent but to buy food and other necessary items.The economy has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic, which is now surging in mainly Republican-run states which reopened from late May. Democrat-run California, an early hotspot, is also seeing a resurgence.More than 4.1m cases have been recorded in the US and more than 145,000 people have died.The Trump White House sees economic recovery as key to the president’s hopes of re-election. But amid protests over police brutality and racism, and confrontations between protesters and federal agents in Portland, Oregon, Trump has also pivoted to law and order.On Friday, Trump added a new priority to the relief package: money to build a new FBI headquarters, across the street in Washington from his own hotel.McConnell’s proposal is expected to include new direct $1,200 cash payments to many Americans, $105bn to help reopen schools and $25bn for virus testing.The Senate leader’s top priority is a liability shield to protect businesses, hospitals and others against Covid-19 lawsuits. Trump is pressing to reopen schools, threatening to withhold funding from those which do not return fully in September.The White House was also pushing a payroll tax cut. Senate Republicans rejected the move, which would pull revenue away from social security and Medicare in the middle of an economic and public health disaster.“This is disarray,” Pelosi said on Friday at the Capitol.Her statement with Schumer said: “We had expected to be working throughout this weekend. It is simply unacceptable that Republicans have had this entire time to reach consensus among themselves and continue to flail.”Amid widespread criticism of his response to the pandemic, Trump trails Joe Biden in most national and battleground state polls. The nonpartisan Cook Report website recently said a “Democratic tsunami” may be on the way.But some observers counter that an election held amid social restrictions due to the pandemic, and subject to Republican voter suppression efforts, could give Trump a chance of a second win in the electoral college. More

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      AOC represents the future of America: women who refuse to be silenced | Arwa Mahdawi

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      The Week in Patriarchy

      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

      AOC represents the future of America: women who refuse to be silenced

      Arwa Mahdawi

      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elegantly eviscerated Republican congressman Ted Yoho on the House floor this week

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      Ocasio-Cortez speaks about ‘culture of violence against women’ after Republican’s insults – video

      Sign up for the Week in Patriarchy, a newsletter​ on feminism and sexism sent every Saturday.
      [embedded content]
      Bitches get things done
      Hello? Police? I’d like to report a murder. On Thursday Republican congressman Ted Yoho was elegantly eviscerated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the House floor. In just under 10 minutes, the New York congresswoman made Yoho look like the yahoo he is, and delivered a searing indictment of structural sexism. Do watch the full speech if you haven’t already – it’s a masterclass in responding to misogyny.
      Some quick context: on Monday Yoho confronted AOC on the steps of the US Capitol, calling the congresswoman “disgusting” for talking about how poverty can drive crime. As the pair parted, Yoho called Ocasio-Cortez a “fucking bitch”.
      While Yoho’s insults were overheard by a reporter, he insists he never made them. On Wednesday, Yoho told the House that he apologized for the abruptness of the conversation he’d had with his “colleague from New York” (he didn’t even give Ocasio-Cortez the courtesy of addressing her by name) but that the words attributed to him had been misconstrued. Yoho also noted that he has been “married for 45 years” and has two daughters so was “cognizant” of his language. As we all know, it is impossible for married men with daughters to be sexist. Just look at Harvey Weinstein and Brett Kavanaugh. Just look at Donald Trump!
      Some media reports characterized Yoho’s sneering speech as an “apology”. It very clearly wasn’t: it was an assertion of power that followed a familiar pattern. First came the gaslighting, the insistence his behaviour had been “misconstrued.” Then came the self-righteous justification. “I cannot apologize for my passion,” he declared with a smirk on his face. The subtext to his little speech: What are you going to do?
      As Ocasio-Cortez noted on Thursday, at first she wasn’t going to do anything. After wryly tweeting “b*tches get stuff done” on Tuesday, she was ready to be done with the situation. You get used to dehumanizing behaviour when you’re a woman, you get desensitized to it. You don’t report abuse or harassment because nobody is going to take you seriously. You ignore the guy shouting obscenities at you on the street because you’re afraid for your personal safety. You ignore sexist comments from a colleague because you’re worried about your professional security. This is one of the most insidious things about patriarchy – it takes the fight out of you. You let things go.
      But, after Yoho’s non-apology, Ocasio-Cortez decided not to let this go. As she explained in her speech, she’s encountered language like Yoho’s a million times before. “[T]his is not new, and that is the problem. This issue is not about one incident. It is cultural. It is a culture … accepting of violence and violent language against women, and an entire structure of power that supports that.” She went on to criticize Yoho for using his daughters as a shield; “I am someone’s daughter too.”
      It wasn’t just the content of Ocasio-Cortez’s speech that was powerful, it was the way she delivered it. There was a carefully controlled fury in her voice that every woman will be familiar with. “I cannot apologize for my passion,” Yoho declared; as a man he doesn’t have to. When Brett Kavanaugh threw a temper tantrum in front of the Senate judiciary committee, Donald Trump Jr praised his “tone.” Men like Kavanaugh and Yoho are not penalized for their “passion”; they’re not penalized for showing their emotion. Women are. Show too much emotion and you’re “hysterical”, you’re “crazy”, you’re a “nasty woman”. And so you learn to control your fury, to modulate your emotion. You learn to apologize for your passion.
      But no matter how measured you are, no matter how reasonable, it’s never enough. A New York Times article about Ocasio-Cortez’s speech cynically noted the congresswoman “excels at using her detractors to amplify her own political brand”. Instead of analyzing the cultural norms that allow men like Yoho to belittle women with impunity, it cast Ocasio-Cortez as a disruptive opportunist. A woman standing up for her dignity is reduced to “brand-building”. The article is a perfect example of what Ocasio-Cortez was referring to when she talked about Yoho’s actions being supported by an “entire structure of power”.
      That structure of power, it’s important to note, encompasses race and gender. The only thing that irritates men like Yoho more than an outspoken woman is an outspoken woman who also has the temerity not to be white. “I cannot apologize for my passion or for loving my God, my family and my country,” Yoho told the House. The subtext of that, of course, is that women like Ocasio-Cortez do not belong in “his” country. As Ocasio-Cortez pointed out in her speech, it’s a sentiment she hears a lot: “The president of the United States last year told me to go home to another country, with the implication that I don’t even belong in America.”
      Guess what? Ocasio-Cortez isn’t going anywhere. She represents the future of America: women who refuse to be silenced, refuse to “know their place”, and refuse to apologize for their passion.
      Los Angeles has a new woman’s soccer team
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      Susan Orlean delightfully explains her drunken viral Twitter thread
      Last week Orlean, a highly regarded staff writer for the New Yorker, got drunk and sent some very amusing tweets about foals and fennel seeds. “The next day, I was surprised by the content,” Orlean told the Washington Post. “I read them as new works of literature that I had not read before.”
      How the media helped enable the anti-feminist lawyer accused of murder
      Earlier this month a federal judge’s son was shot dead. The chief suspect, found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot on Monday, is Roy Den Hollander, an attorney known for bringing lawsuits over perceived infringements of men’s rights. As the Atlantic notes, Den Hollander was once something of a mini-celebrity: “For years, the media metabolized his misogyny as an amusement. The stories about him are scattered around the internet, reminders of how reluctant many were to see his hatred as a threat. He treated sexism as a spectator sport. And media outlets, for a long time, gave him his arena.”
      Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘extremely personal’ documents to be unsealed
      Prince Andrew may well be feeling extremely worried right now.
      Hallmark will now feature LGBTQ stories in Christmas movies
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      The week in pup-riarchy
      Dogs can sniff out the coronavirus after just a few days of training, according to a study by a German veterinary university. So are clinics going to start replacing those horrible nose swabs with golden retrievers? Probably not – however the Chilean police are already training “bio-detector” dogs and plan on deploying them to busy public spaces soon. Finally, some pawsitive news.

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      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

      The Week in Patriarchy

      US politics

      Democrats

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