A former top Department of Homeland Security official who resigned in April says the Trump administration is creating the conditions for domestic extremism to flourish in the United States. Elizabeth Neumann left her position as assistant secretary of counterterrorism and threat prevention after three years at DHS. In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, she offers a candid assessment of the counterterrorism community's failure to address the threat posed by domestic extremism. She says the administration is paving the way for even more violence. The lifelong Republican voted for Trump in 2016, albeit, she says, "very reluctantly." She shared some of the concerns that others in national security had expressed publicly about his fitness for office but decided to join DHS with her nearly 20 years of experience in homeland security issues to help the new administration.

The president said it would be a way to check if anti-fraud efforts are "as good as they say."

Skip kissing and consider wearing a mask when having sex with a new partner to protect yourself from catching the coronavirus, Canada's chief public health officer said on Wednesday, adding that going solo remains the lowest-risk sexual option in a pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has notified public health officials in all 50 states and five large cities to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups as soon as late October or early November. The new C.D.C. guidance is the latest sign of an accelerating race for a vaccine to greatly ease a pandemic that has killed more than 184,000 Americans. The documents were sent out last week, the same day that President Trump told the nation in his speech to the Republican convention that a vaccine might arrive before the end of the year. Over the past week, both Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, who heads the Food and Drug Administration, have said in interviews with news organizations that a vaccine could be available for certain groups before clinical trials have been completed, if the data were overwhelmingly positive. Public health experts agree that agencies at all levels of government should urgently prepare for what will eventually be a vast, complex effort to vaccinate hundreds of millions of Americans. But the possibility of a rollout in late October or early November has also heightened concerns that the Trump administration is seeking to rush the distribution of a vaccine — or simply to suggest that one is possible — before Election Day on Nov. 3. “This timeline of the initial deployment at the end of October is deeply worrisome for the politicization of public health and the potential safety ramifications,” said Saskia Popescu, an infection prevention epidemiologist based in Arizona. “It’s hard not to see this as a push for a pre-election vaccine.” Three documents were sent to public health officials in all states and territories as well as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and San Antonio on Aug. 27. They outlined detailed scenarios for distributing two unnamed vaccine candidates — each requiring two doses a few weeks apart — at hospitals, mobile clinics and other facilities offering easy access to the first targeted recipients. The guidance noted that health care professionals, including long-term-care employees, would be among the first to receive the product, along with other essential workers and national security employees. People aged 65 or older, as well as those from “racial and ethnic minority populations,” Native Americans and incarcerated individuals — all communities known to be at greater risk of contracting the virus and experiencing severe disease — were also prioritized in the documents. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine unveiled a 114-page plan on Wednesday, sponsored by the C.D.C. and the National Institutes of Health, that proposed a complicated four-phase system for priority. The C.D.C. noted in its guidance that “limited Covid-19 vaccine doses may be available by early November 2020.” It also said its plans were still hypothetical, noting, “The Covid-19 vaccine landscape is evolving and uncertain, and these scenarios may evolve as more information is available.” A C.D.C. spokeswoman confirmed that the documents were sent but declined to comment further.

A Spanish court on Wednesday ordered Francisco Franco's family to hand over the keys to a mansion it says was illegally bought by the late dictator decades ago.

On Tuesday, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), posted a picture of armed Black demonstrators on Facebook and captioned it with a threat: “I’d drop any 10 of you where you stand.” Facebook quickly removed the post for inciting violence, but the point was clear. Louisiana is an open carry state and Higgins is a big proponent of gun rights. Yet he thinks Black people exercising their Second Amendment right in a peaceful protest is a threat to be eliminated. As he assured anyone who was paying attention: “We don’t want to see your worthless ass nor do we want to make your mothers cry.” Higgins certainly has an appreciation for law enforcement. He’s a former police officer, who, according to his Congressional profile, “worked patrol, primarily night shift, and he was a well-known SWAT operator. Prior to joining Congress in 2017, Higgins is best known for his Crimestopper videos for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office.”

When I was a kid, I had this boyfriend (I know, brag) whose mom offered me a Coke after we had dinner. I said no thanks, but my boyfriend asked for one. His mom said he could have one only after he finished his glass of milk. They argued for a few minutes before my boyfriend acquiesced, and while I watched him angrily grip the cup with both hands and dutifully drink his milk, I felt, for the briefest moment, like this particular “adult relationship” I was in was somehow undermined.  There’s something deeply innocent and, presumably, necessary about a child drinking a glass of milk. But an adult doing the same is off-kilter. It’s not offensively so, but there’s something just kind of unsettling about seeing an adult pour themselves a glass of milk and drink it. It makes me feel the same way I feel when my dog winks at me (I know he doesn’t mean to, relax). And I’m not the only one who feels this way! In the movie Get Out, when we realize that Rose Armitage (played by Allison Williams) is one of our main villains, we watch her eat a bowl of dry Froot Loops with a glass of milk on the side. The reason for this creative decision, according to Jordan Peele and Williams, was to show Armitage as an “emotionally stunted woman with the mentality of a teenager,” Peele said to the LA Times, “There’s something kind of horrific about milk. Think about it! Think about what we’re doing. Milk is kind of gross.”

In the late modern world something like socialism is the only possible way of embodying Christian love in concrete political practices.

A man is recovering in a local area hospital this morning after he was shot in his penis shortly before 02:00 hours early this morning. At approximately 01:55 hours Boston Police Officers and Detectives from District B-3 responded to the area of 10 Rockwell Street for the reported person shot. The man was found outside of the apartment building on the sidewalk suffering from an apparent gun shot wound to this genitals. Detectives were able to follow a blood trail from the street into the apartment building where the accident is believed to have occurred. At this time it is believed that the injuries are consistent with an accidental self discharge of the weapon.

In losing his Senate race, Joe Kennedy III has freed his family from a political burden it has struggled to escape.

President Donald Trump’s attempt to make civil unrest a central theme of his re-election campaign has yet to boost his political standing, as most Americans do not see crime as a major problem confronting the nation and a majority remain sympathetic to anti-racism protests, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

With Election Day on the horizon, many companies are giving their employees the day off to vote. But Old Navy is taking a different approach to get employees involved in the democratic process. The retailer announced on Tuesday that it will pay store employees for eight hours who serve as poll workers for the 2020 election. The company said employees "will also be eligible for compensation from their local jurisdiction." Old Navy, which is owned by Gap (GPS) and has 50,000 field employees across more than 1,000 stores, is partnering with the Civic Alliance and Power the Polls to recruit 250,000 new poll workers to "ensure polling sites stay open and operate efficiently across the country."

A bizarre story about a man laying claim to the throne of England is seeing a surge in popularity amongst conspiracy theorists this week, particularly with the fringe right-wing group QAnon. A man by the name of Joseph Gregory Hallett (referred to by some as King John III), who originally submitted a 34-page affidavit as his Statement of Claim to British Common Law Courts in April, claims that the ‘illegitimate conception of King George V’ left a bloodline of ‘flat lie royals’ on the throne since 1840. Hallett believes the throne is now rightfully his.   According to Hallett, the British Royal Family was forced to sell their ‘breeding rights’ to the Rothschild family in the wake of the Battle of Waterloo to save themselves from bankruptcy and that the Rothschilds retained these rights up until 2019. Hallett’s theory revolves around a baseless claim that King George V was not actually the son of Edward VII but an illegitimate son of Tsar Alexander III of Russia, therefore breaking the royal lineage. Hallett adds that the Royal Family now has until July 30th to respond to his claim and that failure to do so would result in ‘passive acquiescence’ and ultimately abdication.   Though Hallett has been preaching his 'message' for years, it caught the attention of QAnon in May 2020 and was amplified as a result. The most recent popularity surge can in part be explained by a series of videos produced by Digital Warrior Productions (whose associated Twitter account is entirely dedicated to QAnon conspiracies) including a 29-minute film entitled The Hidden King. In The Hidden King, Hallett, interviewed by David G. Mahoney, delves into how a complex set of numerological and gematric deductions somehow led him to the conclusion that he was the rightful king of England and beyond. In case this story wasn’t enough of a Dan Brown copyright infringement lawsuit in the making, the Digital Warrior Productions crew decided to take their ‘investigations’ to a cave in Portugal—where Hallett allegedly once lived for a total of 100 days—to track down a ‘treasure' he left behind. To make things even weirder, a 2014 blog post claimed that Hallett had in fact been abducted and murdered in June of that year after surviving no less than 12 previous assassination attempts.

“Why do you keep saying you passed Veterans Choice?” called out CBS News correspondent Paula Reid.  When Trump ignored her and tried to call on another reporter, members of the golf club cheered loudly.  Reid tried again: “You said that you passed Veterans Choice. It was passed in 2014.” [Inaudible because of more cheers] ” … It was a false statement, sir.”

Facing lawsuits and mounting scrutiny for making last-minute changes that cut 2020 census counting a month short, the U.S. Census Bureau is now ending in-person counting in the San Diego area and some other parts of the country as early as Sept. 18 — nearly two weeks before the expedited end date of Sept. 30 that NPR first confirmed. "In some areas, nonresponse followup will finish earlier than September 30 - based on the rates of completion, self-response rates and the number of hours our available workforce can work," the bureau said in a statement to NPR. The local census office for San Diego still has about a third of its door-knocking work to complete in just over two weeks, according to figures the bureau posted Tuesday on its website. The bureau's public information office has not responded to NPR's questions about which areas besides San Diego, the country's eighth-largest city, are ending in-person counting of unresponsive households before Sept. 30.

Patriot Prayer has been linked to murders and other violent attacks. The New York Times described it as promoting “Christianity and smaller government.”

In a surprise move of sweeping scope, upwards of 40 million renters will be temporarily protected from evictions, though not from liability for rent.

Last week, two households far from Georgia—one in Oregon, the other in New Jersey—received the same mailing with pro-Trump messages, glossy Trump photos, and a Georgia absentee ballot request form. The mailer is shown as paid for by the Georgia Republican Party. Brian Richardson, who received the absentee ballot request form in Oregon, moved from Georgia in 2019 and is now registered to vote in Oregon; the mailing he received was addressed to the “Richardson household or current resident.” The form that went to the New Jersey recipients, who prefer to remain anonymous, was also addressed to their “household” or “current resident.” They say they have never lived in Georgia. The mailer declares, “The Best Is Yet to Come,” above Trump’s smiling visage, and advises recipients in multiple spots to “fill out one of the attached Absentee Ballot Request forms.” Instructions on the mailer detail how to ensure the request is filled out correctly.

As Mark Mothersbaugh lay in a Cedars-Sinai hospital bed in early June after contracting the novel coronavirus, a ventilator tube snaking into his throat to help him breathe, the Devo cofounder and acclaimed film and TV composer came to believe that he was recovering from a vicious beating in downtown Los Angeles. “There’s a bookstore I love there where I get stationery supplies, and in my mind I had been there,” Mothersbaugh, 70, said Thursday afternoon, sitting on the patio of the Hollywood Hills home he shares with his wife, Anita Greenspan, and two teenage daughters. “I was convinced for about two weeks that I had been hit by a brick by somebody in Little Tokyo.”

How smart, ironic detachment limits the imagination of last year's smartest RPG. “What games does Disco Elysium remind you of?” Ask around and the top answer is certain to be Planescape Torment. No surprise there, as the connective tissue between them is obvious. The visual perspective of the world is the same, the heavy focus on dialog and being able to choose a wide variety of ways to roleplay your character, and consequently those choices changing the way the world and the people in it react to you. And the creators of the game, Estonian developers ZA/UM, readily and gladly speak of what an influence Planescape was on Disco Elysium.