You tell us via email and social media that you simply liked the template and the trouble to achieve beyond the usual model. So we’re doing it again today. (This will change into a weekly feature, so in case you spot pieces that fit this general mold, send links our way via email.)
The ‘foreign servants’ series
Forget the old “revolving door” image of public servants going to make bank within the private sector, often in policy areas over which they’d control, then back to government, then back to corporate America. This series from Craig Whitlock and Nate Jones conjured up more of a conveyor belt image.
Retired military personnel, often individuals who served in very senior roles (generals! admirals!) within the Defense Department, are getting major payouts from working for foreign governments, notably Persian Gulf monarchies, Craig and Nate present in their multipart series.
“Most are hired by countries known for human rights abuses, political repression” so that may help explain why The Washington Post needed to sue to get about 4,000 documents, including “case files for about 450 retired soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.”
“Fifteen retired U.S. generals and admirals have worked as paid consultants for the Saudi Defense Ministry and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who U.S. spy agencies say ordered the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Other findings: Americans’ work for the Saudis expanded after Khashoggi’s assassination, apparently with the U.S. government’s blessing; the United Arab Emirates is the most important employer; requests to work for foreign governments are mainly rubber-stamped.
Racial disparities in covid deaths
The Washington Post analyzed every death during greater than two years of the pandemic, and my colleagues Akilah Johnson and Dan Keating have the outcomes: At first, Black people were more prone to die from covid. Now, White persons are more prone to die.
“Initially of the pandemic, Black people were greater than 3 times as prone to die of covid as their White peers. But as 2020 progressed, the death rates narrowed — but not because fewer Black people were dying. White people began dying at increasingly unimaginable numbers, too, the Post evaluation found.”
It’s a really complicated phenomenon, and I encourage you to read the entire thing.
But here’s one sobering part: “After it became clear that communities of color were being disproportionately affected, racial equity began to change into the parlance of the pandemic, in words and deeds. Because it did, vaccine access and acceptance inside communities of color grew — and so did the assumption amongst some White conservatives, who form the core of the Republican base, that vaccine requirements and mask mandates infringe on personal liberties.”
Is that dying of covid, or of politics?
Hey, let’s make it harder to trace products made with abused staff
Over on the Associated Press, Joshua Goodman has a chunk up about how a bunch of major American businesses — including household names like Walmart, General Motors and Intel — is seeking to hide trade data in a way that “would make it tougher for Americans to link the products they buy to labor abuse overseas.”
At issue is a push to make data from vessel manifests confidential, Goodman reported.
“The data is vitally necessary for researchers and reporters in search of to carry corporations accountable for the mistreatment of staff of their foreign supply chains.”
I particularly appreciated this explanation: “Here’s how it really works: Journalists document a situation where laborers are being forced to work and can’t leave. They then use the shipping manifests to point out where the products find yourself, and sometimes even their brand names and whether or not they’re on a shelf at a neighborhood supermarket or a rack of garments at a neighborhood mall.”
“For more ears! For more ears!” When government listens, hearings aids get cheaper
Did you hear the one about hearing aids becoming available over-the-counter, available more easily and at less expense for the thousands and thousands of Americans who depend on them?
My colleagues Christopher Rowland and Amanda Morris reported:
“Backers of the change say the move to over-the-counter hearing aid sales will usher in a revolution of lower prices and recent technologies, and expand access for thousands and thousands of individuals with untreated hearing loss.”
“But while the shift holds the promise of improving the lives of thousands and thousands of people that have untreated mild to moderate hearing loss, it is also a sweeping test of consumer-driven health care.”
Government regulation? Consumer advocacy? Vast economic effects? This political story has all of it.
Mar-a-Lago classified papers held U.S. secrets about Iran and China
“A number of the classified documents recovered by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and personal club included highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China, in line with people conversant in the matter. If shared with others, the people said, such information could expose intelligence-gathering methods that the USA desires to keep hidden from the world,” Devlin Barrett reports.
- “At the least one in every of the documents seized by the FBI describes Iran’s missile program, in line with these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to explain an ongoing investigation. Other documents described highly sensitive intelligence work aimed toward China, they said.”
Bannon sentenced to 4 months prison for contempt of Congress in Jan. 6 probe
“Bannon is about to change into the primary person incarcerated for defying a congressional subpoena in greater than half a century under a statute that is never prosecuted. The judge said he would stay imposition of the penalty pending Bannon’s expected appeal,” Spencer S. Hsu and Rachel Weiner report.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
Documents detail plans to gut Twitter’s workforce
“Twitter’s workforce is prone to be hit with massive cuts in the approaching months, irrespective of who owns the corporate, interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post show, a change prone to have major impact on its ability to regulate harmful content and forestall data security crises,” Elizabeth Dwoskin, Faiz Siddiqui, Gerrit De Vynck and Jeremy B. Merrill report.
An autistic teen needed mental health help. He spent weeks in an ER as an alternative.
“The issue is a national one, with kids and youths from California to Maine languishing in ERs. Many are deeply depressed or suicidal — mental health issues that were already on the rise before the pandemic but have since reached unprecedented levels,” William Wan reports.
“A children’s hospital in Colorado became so overloaded last 12 months with psychiatric patients that it declared a state of emergency. A gaggle representing greater than 200 other children’s hospitals warned that the number of children showing up in mental crisis has far outstripped resources.”
TikTok parent ByteDance planned to make use of TikTok to observe the physical location of specific Americans
“TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said that TikTok collects approximate location information based on users’ IP addresses to ‘amongst other things, help show relevant content and ads to users, comply with applicable laws, and detect and forestall fraud and inauthentic behavior,” Forbes’ Emily Baker-White reports.
“But the fabric reviewed by Forbes indicates that ByteDance’s Internal Audit team was planning to make use of this location information to surveil individual Americans, not to focus on ads or any of those other purposes. Forbes is just not disclosing the character and purpose of the planned surveillance referenced within the materials with the intention to protect sources. TikTok and ByteDance didn’t answer questions on whether Internal Audit has specifically targeted any members of the U.S. government, activists, public figures or journalists.”
How disinformation splintered and have become more intractable
“Not way back, the fight against disinformation focused on the main social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter. When pressed, they often removed troubling content, including misinformation and intentional disinformation in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Latest York Times’ Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel report.
“Today, nonetheless, there are dozens of latest platforms, including some that pride themselves on not moderating — censoring, as they put it — unfaithful statements within the name of free speech.”
‘No quick fixes’: Walensky’s push for change at CDC meets reality
“In August, Director Rochelle Walensky ordered an overhaul of the CDC after its bungled Covid-19 response, including a drive to share research and data sooner and be more open with the general public about what agency scientists do — and don’t — know,” Politico’s Krista Mahr and Erin Banco report.
“However the CDC’s inability to compel states to share details about disease outbreaks is getting in the way in which of the trouble, said Walensky, who added that the agency needs extra money from Congress to attract in recent talent and train the general public health workforce to hurry up the knowledge flow to the general public.”
Lawmakers cry foul as Biden mulls lifting some sanctions
“Biden has readily imposed sanctions against U.S. adversaries throughout his presidency. Now he’s checking out that lifting them is rather a lot harder. In recent months, as Biden has mulled reducing such penalties against countries equivalent to Venezuela and Iran, he’s run headlong into opposition in Congress. Some lawmakers, knowing the subject will play well on the campaign trial, vow to do every little thing they will to stop the sanctions from being lifted,” Politico’s Nahal Toosi reports.
“It’s the style of drawn-out political fight that would make U.S. sanctions less effective over time if adversaries come to imagine that, irrespective of what they do, Washington won’t ever lift penalties on them. It’s playing out as the USA, determined to limit its military exposure abroad, has grown more reliant on sanctions, including against Russia.”
Pentagon pays for service members to travel for abortions
“The Pentagon pays for service members to travel to acquire abortions, in a move the military says will ease the burden on troops who want to receive reproductive care and are stationed in states where the procedure is not any longer legal, the department announced Thursday,” Politico’s Lara Seligman reports.
Judge dismisses GOP-led states’ lawsuit to dam student-loan forgiveness plan
“A federal judge on Thursday denied a bid by six Republican-led states to dam the Biden administration from moving forward with plans to cancel as much as $20,000 in federal student-loan debt for greater than 40 million people, days after borrowers began signing up for relief,” Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports.
Redistricting within the U.S., visualized
“Republicans have to flip only five congressional seats to win back the House majority in 2022, and Democrats fear the GOP’s advantage in state legislatures could help tip the balance,” The Post explains.
Where are the Democratic stars? Few party leaders hit the trail.
“The gap between [Biden’s] declaration that Nov. 8 is a pivotal moment in American history and a campaign schedule that hardly reflects that urgency is matched by other top Democrats who’ve also been scarce on the campaign trail. A giant reason: From former president Bill Clinton to Vice President Harris to former nominee Hillary Clinton, few Democratic heavyweights are in demand within the political climate today,” Tyler Pager, Annie Linskey and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. report.
“‘It shows that a whole lot of these campaigns are smart they usually know learn how to read the polls and the history books,‘ said Democratic strategist Lis Smith, who was a senior adviser for Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign. ‘If you happen to are from the party in power within the midterms, it is just not all that helpful so that you can nationalize your race.”
Republicans propose bill barring lessons on gender, sexuality for kids
“Republican legislators have proposed a far-reaching recent law that will prohibit public schools from offering young students lessons or literature that debate gender identity, sexual orientation and transgender individuals,” Hannah Natanson reports.
“The laws, introduced in Congress this week by a bunch of 33 House Republicans led by Rep. Mike Johnson (La.), is named the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act. It will prohibit the usage of federal funding ‘to develop, implement, facilitate or fund any sexually-oriented program, event or literature for kids under the age of 10.’”
Biden will leave for Andrews at 1:10 p.m., where he’ll fly to Dover, Del.
At 3:15 p.m., Biden will discuss student debt relief at Delaware State University.
Biden will leave Dover for Rehoboth Beach, Del., at 5:25 p.m.
I ponder if one in every of @taylorswift13 ‘s tracks tonight will probably be about data privacy…that’s definitely a problem that keeps me up at midnight.
Today I wrote a letter to Meta expressing my concerns about a few of their data privacy issues. Perhaps a song is next?
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) October 20, 2022
Thanks for reading. See you next week.
