— Mark Twain

(Saul Loeb via Getty Images)

This just in: the majority of Americans don’t think their government has done a good job of handling the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings, based on the latest Pew Research survey, were released Thursday.

The Washington, DC-based think tank interviewed 14,276 adults in 14 advanced economies in North America, Europe, and Asia between June 10 and August 3. A clear majority of people across the 14 countries said their own nation had handled COVID-19 well: 73 percent agreed, while 27 percent disagreed. But in the UK and the US, the figures were much lower: 46 percent and 47 percent respectively, tying them for last place.

Unsurprisingly, in America there’s a huge chasm between Republican and Democratic views of whether the Trump administration has handled the pandemic well. 76 percent of Republicans and independents leaning Republican said the government has done a good job, while only 25 percent of Democrats and independents leaning Democratic agree.

Economic confidence is also linked to the belief the government is doing well. In all 14 countries surveyed, people who said the current economic situation is good were more likely to say the government was doing a good job on COVID-19.

The US is again the most extreme example of the trend, with a 44-point gap between those who say the current economic situation is bad but the government is handling the crisis well (34 percent) and those who say the economic situation is good and the government is handling the crisis well (78 percent).

The US wasn’t the only country where support for the government’s coronavirus response broke along partisan lines — the same pattern was detected in the UK and Spain. Those results demonstrate it’s not a matter of being on the left or the right of the political spectrum that predicts whether you think your government has done well. The US and UK have right-leaning governments, while Spain’s is left-leaning. In each country, people with the same political bent as the government tend to say it’s done well in the crisis.

Polling experts say that phenomenon is well understood. “Generally speaking, it doesn’t matter what you’re asking: the government in power is more likely to be seen well by people who voted for it than people who didn’t,” one social scientist said. 

(NurPhoto via Getty Images)

• Belarus’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has lost legitimacy among broad swaths of the population, after rigging his reelection and ordering a violent crackdown on protests in the aftermath.
• Lukashenko characterized the recent protests against his rule as part of a NATO plot to carve up Belarus; last week he put his military on full combat alert on Belarus’s western borders.
• He also asked President Vladimir Putin about the possibility of Russian military intervention; on Thursday Putin said the Kremlin was ready to provide military or other law enforcement assistance should Lukashenko’s standoff with the demonstrators escalate.
• The remarks alarmed EU leaders who’ve called on the Belarusian dictator to negotiate with the opposition movement rather than try to crush it. On Thursday, Lukashenko said he was ready for dialogue with “labour collectives, student collectives … and farmers,” but not with the leaders of the protests.
• “Not the rogues who are committing outrages, roaming the streets and shouting that they want dialogue. They don’t want any dialogue. No one from the authorities is sitting down with street protesters,” he said.
• Putin has been careful in his response to events in Belarus, but he’s apparently backing the dictator for now, offering economic support as well as potential boots on the ground. Lukashenko said he had discussed with Putin the refinancing of $1 billion of Belarusian debt to Russia. (Guardian)

Syria’s Beef Between the US and Russia

• Several American troops were injured in a collision between Russian and US armored vehicles in northeastern Syria this week. A video of the collision broadcast by a Russian nationalist website was widely retweeted.
• The video appears to show a Russian military vehicle in a desert convoy ramming a US armored car as a Russian helicopter flies low overhead. A US official said that Russian forces had entered a “security zone” that they had agreed to stay out of, while a Russian official said the US obstructed a patrol.
• Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had given the US military prior warning it would be patrolling in the area. While there have been numerous past incidents between Russian and US forces, this one was different — it involves a direct confrontation between the official Russian military and US troops.
• Americans say this is part of a pattern of incidents in which Russia is breaking a variety of local coordination agreements, and essentially harassing US forces. President Trump withdrew the majority of US troops that were operating in support of Kurdish allies in northeastern Syria, leaving a much smaller number in a more restricted area.
• Putin knows Trump wants to reduce Washington’s overseas military footprint, and he appears anxious to hurry up our departure. (BBC)

Additional World News

• Nobel Prize winning author questioned in Belarus as dozens of protesters arrested (NBC)
• Changing of the guard: The Revolutionary Guards Are Taking Over Iranian Politics (Foreign Affairs)
• Saudi Arabia, a world leader in executions, weighs ending capital punishment for drug crimes (WaPo, $).
• Inflation Shock Will Hit India, Russia, Mexico Bonds Hardest (Bloomberg)
• Population panic lets rich people off the hook for the climate crisis they are causing (Guardian) It’s human consumption, not actual human production that’s fueling our environmental woes.
• ‘Stop Hiding Behind Your Platform:’ Sweden Welcomes Amazon With Scathing Letter (Vice)
• Sea’s the opportunity: US bars trade with 24 Chinese companies over South China Sea activity (WaPo, $)
• For Refusing a Drink With the Boss, He Was Slapped in the Face (NYT, $)

COVID-19

• CDC was pressured ‘from the top down’ to change coronavirus testing guidance, official says (CNN)
• Billions in Hospital Virus Aid Rested on Compliance With Private Vendor (NYT)
• COVID-19 Is Transmitted Through Aerosols. We Have Enough Evidence, Now It Is Time to Act. (Time)
• Man who believed virus was hoax loses wife to COVID-19 (BBC)
• The 6-foot social-distancing rule is based on nearly 80-year-old science. Scientists at MIT and Oxford have created a traffic-light system to use instead. (Business Insider)
• Why Are Coronavirus Cases Decreasing? Experts Say Restrictions Are Working (NYT)
• Why Does the Coronavirus Hit Men Harder? A New Clue (NYT)

• During this season of quarantine, we’re all spending a little more time inside on the couch than we’d like to admit. As the world slows down around us, it’s easy for health and wellness to fall by the wayside. But newfound free time can be a blessing in disguise, giving us the chance to make lasting lifestyle changes. That’s where Noom comes in.
• Harness the power of artificial intelligence, mobile tech, and psychology to find a weight-loss solution tailored to you and your brain. Noom isn’t like other diet plans that tell what you can and cannot do, rather they offer empathetic, personalized wellness training from experts dedicated to helping you become your best self.
• We know that weight loss is hard – both to start and to maintain – but by helping people train their brain, Noom helps ensure the hard work is worth it.

• Idaho’s Republican governor Brad Little declared a state of emergency last March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June, 15 Republican state legislators met out-of-session to air their grievances over the way the governor had handled the emergency orders, and spending.
• Republicans wanted him to call a special session, which Democrats opposed due to health concerns. Little faced continual pressure as the state navigated its reopening amid the pandemic. Finally, he announced a special session beginning August 24, with two main topics: the pandemic and the November election.
• Monday was the first day of the special session, and as Idaho has one of the highest rates of new COVID-19 cases per capita right now — especially in Ada County where the state capital of Boise is located — some precautions were in place; to enforce social distancing the gallery area above the House chamber was restricted with limited seating.
• But chaos erupted before the session could begin. Dozens of unmasked protesters, some of them armed, shoved their way past state troopers to pack the gallery overlooking the state’s House of Representatives. The group included supporters of a far-right militia and anti-vaccine advocates who came to demand an end to the current state of emergency and blast a proposal that would limit civil liability for businesses, schools, and governments.
• The bill would also open up those entities to litigation if they don’t follow laws and ordinances, including mask mandates issued by public health districts. The foreboding protesters later made their way into committee rooms, defaced paper signs meant to leave one empty seat between those in the audience and laughed at one Democratic state lawmaker who refused to participate in the hearing because of the lack of social distancing.
• A Boise resident claimed the bill was insane and added: “We don’t stop our lives, suspend our civil rights and panic each year for the flu.” It’s worth noting that according to the CDC, more than 180,000 people have died of coronavirus in the first eight months of 2020, compared with an estimated 24,000 to 62,000 people who died last flu season. (Idaho Statesman, NPR)

Facebook Caught Off Guard

• New evidence suggests that Facebook had been given ample warning about a militant account and posts by a self-proclaimed militia group called Kenosha Guard, which issued a “call to arms” in advance of a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin over the shooting of a black man by a white police officer.
• A 17-year-old youth from Illinois — a police admirer and group member —  took his semi-automatic rifle and went to the protest. He was later arrested and charged with killing two people and wounding a third. While Facebook took down the Kenosha Guards Facebook page on Wednesday, at least two separate users had reported the account for inciting violence prior to the shooting.
• In each case, the group and its counter-protest event were examined by Facebook moderators and found not to be in violation of the platform’s policies. One user said she had reported the Kenosha Guards event in advance of the protest.
• Facebook moderators said the event itself was not in violation of platform policy, but specific comments could be reported for inciting violence. She reported a specific comment threatening to put nails in the tires of protesters’ cars but it was found to be within the bounds of Facebook policy. “There were lots of comments like that in the event,” she says. “People talking about being ‘locked and loaded.’ People asking what types of weapons and people responding to ‘bring everything.’”
• Facebook said the company’s investigation had produced no direct links between the shooting and the Kenosha Guards accounts. “We’ve designated this shooting as a mass murder and have removed the shooter’s accounts from Facebook and Instagram,” a representative said. (The Verge, USNews)

Additional USA News

• Vigilante injustice: 17-year-old charged with homicide after shooting during Kenosha protests, authorities say (WaPo, $)
• Mark and Patricia McCloskey: What really went on in St Louis that day? (BBC)
• The Idea of ‘Freedom’ Has Two Different Meanings. Here’s Why (Time). The duality of the American promise.
• Can Biden’s Center Hold? (New Yorker, $)
• Men going their own way: the rise of a toxic male separatist movement (Guardian)
• Christian women must reject Donald Trump if church leaders won’t (USA Today)
• Virus, Heat, Fire, Blackouts (NYT, $). An environmental tarnish on the Golden State.
• Stuck between a Tok and a hard place: TikTok CEO Resigns Amid U.S. Pressure to Sell Video App & How TikTok’s Talks With Microsoft Turned Into a Soap Opera (Time, NYT)
• Key Lawmaker Vows to Loosen Big Tech’s ‘Deeply Disturbing’ Grip (Bloomberg)

• Elon Musk says his secretive neurotech firm, Neuralink, will demonstrate a working “device” at 6 pm ET Friday, August 28. The device is presumably a brain-machine interface (BMI). Musk has said often he believes the BMI devices are needed to help humans keep up with artificial intelligence (AI) by supplementing a human’s brainpower.
• Right now, however, his goal is simpler: to create an implantable device that lets people control phones or computers with their minds. His vision for the future is more ambitious. Musk wants to connect to the brain using flexible electrodes, thinner than a human hair, that he calls “threads.”
• Current BMI devices use stiff electrodes for this job, which can cause damage. Musk says Neuralink will focus on building a “sewing machine” like robot to implant the threads. Eventually, Neuralink hopes to make the installation process for BMIs as non-invasive as Lasik eye surgery; it wants to start clinical trials by the end of 2020. Keep an eye on the company’s YouTube channel for more news about Friday’s event. (The Verge)

Weekend Reads

• Modern-day Nostradamus: How Zeynep Tufekci Keeps Getting the Big Things Right (NYT, $)
• The New Science of Dog Training (Time)
• Microsoft’s new Transcribe in Word feature is designed for students, reporters, and more (The Verge). You’re only as good as your Word.
• This giant glowing orb is the world’s first floating Apple Store (The Verge)
• Guilt trip: The New Pandemic Flash Point: Your Vacation (NYT, $)
• You Can Roast Tomatoes in the Microwave (LifeHacker)
• The Hollywood Fix Cornered the Influencer Paparazzi Market (NYT, $)

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― Nathaniel Hawthorne

(2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images)

Mike Pompeo wanted to make sure his employees at the State Department didn’t breach the long-standing rule of remaining politically impartial — not engaging in any “partisan political activity” — while abroad.

In a July 24 directive Pompeo sent to diplomatic and consular posts regarding political activities, the Secretary of State wrote that presidential and political appointees, as well as career Senior Executive Service officials “may not engage in any partisan political activity in concert with a partisan campaign, political party, or partisan political group, even on personal time and outside of the federal workplace.”

Pompeo reiterated to State Department employees that its policy “is that U.S. citizen employees and family members may not engage in partisan political activity while posted or on [temporary duty] abroad, even on personal time.” His cable referenced a December 2019 memo from the Office of Legal Adviser that told all political appointees they were prohibited from “engag[ing] in political activity in concert with a partisan candidate, political party, or partisan political group,” and specifically said that “Senate-confirmed presidential appointees,” like Pompeo, “may not even attend a political party convention or convention-related event.”

Regardless, the US Secretary of State chose to throw precedent, his own rules, and possibly the law out the window Tuesday night when he appeared in a Republican National Convention speech praising President Trump’s foreign policy record. Pompeo spoke in a recorded video from a Jerusalem rooftop during an official trip through the Middle East and Africa. A State Department spokesperson said while the speech was filmed on an official overseas trip, Pompeo had delivered it “in his personal capacity,” and no State Department resources or staff were involved.

The Hatch Act forbids federal employees from engaging in political activities unless they’re off duty, outside a federal facility, and not using federal property. News of the Secretary’s upcoming speech unleashed a tidal wave of criticism. Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Tex), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s oversight subcommittee, announced he was launching an investigation into Pompeo’s speech hours before it aired.

• Transsion is a Chinese company that makes low-priced smartphones and basic handsets for the developing world. It released its first smartphone in 2014; since then it’s become Africa’s top handset seller. Although it’s largely unknown outside of Africa and in developing countries, Transsion is the fourth-biggest handset maker in the world, behind Apple, Samsung, and Huawei.
• It’s also the only manufacturer in that group to exclusively focus on low-income markets. But those cheap Chinese-made phones actually come at a much higher cost. They have preinstalled malware that has stolen data and money from some of the world’s poorest people.
• One customer who bought a Tecno W2 smartphone in Johannesburg, South Africa for about $30 discovered pop-up ads were interrupting his calls and chats. He would wake up to find his prepaid data mysteriously used up and messages about paid subscriptions to apps he’d never asked for. He thought it was his fault, but a mobile security service, Secure-D, found software already in the phone pre-sale.
• The Tecno W2 was infected with xHelper and Triada, malware that secretly downloaded apps and attempted to subscribe the owner to paid services without his knowledge. Between March and December 2019, Secure-D’s system, which mobile carriers use to protect their networks and customers against fraudulent transactions, blocked 844,000 transactions connected to preinstalled malware on Transsion phones.
• “Transsion traffic accounts for 4% of the users we see in Africa. Yet it contributes over 18% of all the suspicious clicks,” said Secure-D’s managing director. Besides South Africa, Tecno W2 phones in Ethiopia, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, and Myanmar were infected. (Buzzfeed)

Bolsonaro’s Buoyancy

• Brazil’s right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro has been a disaster inside and outside his country. He has encouraged the destruction of the rainforest by farmers and land-grabbers, turned a blind eye to the murder of indigenous peoples, thumbed his nose at the coronavirus that has infected more than 3.6 million, killed over 114,000, and devastated the country’s health system, and failed to forestall the economic collapse that’s driven the unemployment rate to 14 percent.
• He’s been abandoned by allies, pilloried by critics, and caught up in numerous corruption scandals. Just weeks ago people of all political stripes were clamoring for Bolsonaro’s impeachment, and he was growing more erratic by the day. Yet through all this — stunningly — new polling data shows he’s gotten more popular. In the last eight weeks, his approval has risen from 32 to 37 percent, and his disapproval rating has dropped from 44 to 34 percent.
• Bolsonaro has never been a politician of the poor. His supporters have largely been members of the middle and upper classes — fiscal conservatives, evangelicals and the military. But when the pandemic hit, businesses closed and people were urged to stay home, his government began sending $110 every month to the poorest citizens.
• And despite the fact that the virus has been far deadlier among the ranks of the poor, they’re receiving emergency financial aid; in return, they’re giving the president their support and broadening his base. “The benefit reached many people long before the disease did,” said a political scientist, adding “it’s income they’re not used to making.” (WaPo)

If you’d like to take a deeper look at President Bolsonaro and his vision for Brazil, please check out this Daily Pnut essay: WHO IS: Jair Bolsonaro. The essay examines the military rise of the right-wing politician and his handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

Additional World News

• Looking into the past of the poisoned politician: Who is Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin critic in a coma after alleged poisoning? (WaPo, $)
• Christchurch shooting: Gunman is first in New Zealand to be given life term without parole (BBC)
• Europe Tried to Limit Mass Layoffs, but the Cuts Are Coming Anyway (NYT, $). Without government checks, this checks out.
• NATO allies are facing off in the Eastern Mediterranean. The conflict could entangle the entire region (CNN)
• US proposes removing Sudan from terrorism list for $330m compensation (Guardian)
• He’s not dead, yet: Kim Jong-un warns over typhoon and coronavirus (BBC)
• 1,100-Year-Old Treasure Is Unearthed by Teenagers in Israel (NYT, $)

COVID-19

• How AA Prepared Me for Indefinite Lockdown (Atlantic, $)
• Non-woven masks better to stop Covid-19, says Japanese supercomputer (Guardian)
• Flu Season Was Weirdly Mild In Southern Hemisphere. Scientists Want To Know Why (NPR)
• Blood thinners reduce deaths among coronavirus patients, study finds (CNN)
• Just 5 states meet these basic criteria to reopen and stay safe (Vox)

(Scott Eisen via Getty Images)

• Canada is deadly serious about controlling the spread of COVID-19. It closed its borders to Americans on March 21st, but there is a loophole for those traveling to and from Alaska. At the border, the Canada Border Services Agency directs Americans to take the most direct route through Canada to get to Alaska or back to the lower 48 states.
• Americans are prohibited from visiting Canada’s national parks, leisure sites and tourist attractions, and they must undergo quarantine if they stay in a hotel. Visitors must also display a hang tag in their vehicle with a mandatory departure date. However, some Americans decided they wanted to stay in Canada this summer regardless of the restrictions.
• One man, John Pennington of Walton, Kentucky, didn’t take the hint when he was fined $1,200 Canadian on June 25, after an employee at a Banff hotel where he was staying suspected he was violating Alberta’s COVID-19 regulations. Pennington was told to stay in his hotel until leaving the next day. Instead, Pennington opted to do some sightseeing in Banff National Park.
• When someone saw a car with Ohio license plates in the parking lot police were called. The car turned out to be Pennington’s. He was arrested and charged with violating Canada’s Quarantine Act. He’s scheduled to appear in court in November, where he could face a fine of $750,000 Canadian and a six-month stint in prison.
• That may seem a little harsh. On the other hand, fewer than 10,000 Canadians have died from COVID-19, compared to 180,000 in America. (NPR)

Salt Bowl or Petri Dish?

• High school football is really big in the South. And what’s a sporting event without screaming fans in the stands, even if it could be a COVID-19 super-spreader event? Arkansas will be the test case when the Benton Panthers and Bryant Hornets face off in Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium for the annual Salt Bowl Saturday night.
• It’s traditionally the most-attended high school game in the state, and for this pandemic showdown, officials have taken some precautions. There won’t be the usual tailgate parties this year, no hot dog giveaways or pregame luncheons or game day ticket sales. And the 12,000 some odd fans expected to stream into the stadium this Saturday will have to wear masks, so there’s that.
• One organizer has a custom face mask featuring both schools’ logos for Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson to wear — he’ll be flipping the pregame coin toss. But there’s more at stake here than just high school rivalry.
• The match — which promoters say will be the state’s largest outdoor event since the pandemic began — is also a survival test for fall sports. If fans leave the stands and carry the virus back to their communities, it could crush any hope for attending crowded sporting events in the US this year.
• If a super-spread doesn’t happen, it could keep the dream alive for other big gatherings, and give President Trump and others searching for signs of normal times a major boost. (Politico)

Additional USA News

• ‘Far from isolated incident’: Kenosha’s Black residents speak out on police violence (Guardian)
• The Buck stops here: Milwaukee Bucks Boycott Prompts Wave of Games Halted in Protest (NYT, $)
• Storms and social distancing: Texas evacuates residents for Hurricane Laura as coronavirus poses new challenges & How Hurricane Evacuation Can Spread Covid-19 & What Happens If a Hurricane Hits During the Pandemic? (CNBC, Bloomberg, Atlantic)
• Powell set to deliver ‘profoundly consequential’ speech, changing how the Fed views inflation (CNBC)
• The Senate’s on Vacation While Americans Starve (NYT, $)
• The middle ground that wasn’t: The Libertarian party was up and coming in 2016. What happened? (Guardian)
• QAnon looms behind nationwide rallies and viral #SavetheChildren hashtags (NBC)
• A Presidential Historian Makes a Rare Appearance in Today’s Political Arena (NYT, $)
• We Build the Wealth: From Paul Manafort to Steve Bannon, a Brief History of MAGA Money-Grubbing (New Yorker)
• Melania Trump taped making derogatory remarks about Donald and Ivanka (Guardian)
• ‘I Moved on Her Very Heavily’: Trump’s Accusers Speak (Atlantic, $)

The Future of the GOP

• Four More Years of What Exactly? (NYT, $)
• The Platform the GOP Is Too Scared to Publish (Atlantic, $)
• The North Carolina Republicans Who Are Defecting from Trump (New Yorker, $)
• Tim Scott, Don Jr., and the Battle for the GOP’s Future (Atlantic, $)
• Trump’s Fights Are Their Fights. They Have His Back Unapologetically. (NYT, $)

• The Tanpopo mission is a Japanese astrobiology experiment studying the effects of the space environment on simple organisms. The mission, which set out several years ago to address fundamental questions on the origin of terrestrial life, hoped to test the panspermia hypothesis, a long-standing hypothesis suggesting the interplanetary transport of microbes.
• It also aimed to test the possible origin of organic compounds carried from space by micrometeorites before the terrestrial origin of life. The tests were carried out with space experiments at the Exposed Facility of the Japanese Experiment Module of the International Space Station (ISS).
• The team captured any orbiting microparticles, such as micrometeorites, space debris, and terrestrial particles carrying microbes as bioaerosols, by using blocks of silica aerogel. It then tested the survival of microbial species and organic compounds in the space environment for up to 3 years. The final samples (colonies of bacteria) left the ISS in 2018 in a spacecraft bound for earth.
• On Wednesday, the Tanpopo team published its new research in Frontiers in Microbiology. The research details how multiple species of Deinococcus bacteria survived three straight years of exposure to the hostile space environment, providing scientists with vital insight into how other living organisms might endure in a hostile environment. (Wired)

 Additional Reads

• It’s a germ eat germ world: How Bacteria-Eating Bacteria Could Help Win the War Against Germs (NYT, $)
• How low did it go? Scientists calculate Earth’s Ice Age temperatures (Reuters)
• Windows 95 is 25 years old today (The Verge)
• Taking a bite out of the big Apple: To Fight Apple and Google’s Grip, Fortnite Creator Mounts a Crusade & Rethinking the App Store (NYT, Stratechery)
• How Wagner Shaped Hollywood (New Yorker, $)
• Why predicting our future feelings is so difficult (BBC). Who knows what the new “new normal” will look like?
• How TikTok’s Talks With Microsoft Turned Into a Soap Opera (NYT, $)

Please consider making a donation to Daily Pnut, a fiercely independent publication that cares deeply about truth. We are thankful and grateful for all of our readers & supporters!