WHAT'S BREWING
NEW YORK'S ELECTION MESS SPURS WHITE HOUSE WAR ON MAIL-IN VOTING Due to the unprecedented number of absentee ballots cast in the New York City metropolitan area, some contentious Democratic Party primary races are unresolved more than three weeks after in-person voting took place on June 23. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who called the elections an “absolute catastrophe” at her Tuesday press conference, pointed to the high percentage of absentee ballots disqualified on technical grounds as a sign that making mail-in voting available nationwide would be impractical. “There are questions about mass mail-out voting,” McEnany said. [HuffPost]
TRUMP UNLEASHED AUTHORITARIAN VIOLENCE IN PORTLAND. CHICAGO IS NEXT? On Sunday night moms lined up, arms linked, backs to the fence, forming a human shield against the secret police in front of Portland’s federal courthouse. These weren’t looters or rioters. They weren’t the “violent extremists” that acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has vowed to put down, nor the fabled “antifa” bogeymen who keep Tucker Carlson up at night. They were just moms, worrying about kids being beaten and shot and black-bagged in unmarked vehicles. About 100 of them. Some were pregnant. Outside the federal courthouse, they were tear-gassed. Wary Chicago officials said Trump has told them he is deploying federal agents to their violence-plagued city. [HuffPost]
U.S. ORDERS CHINA TO SHUT HOUSTON CONSULATE China said the United States abruptly told it to close its consulate in the city of Houston, a move that Beijing said it strongly condemns, threatening retaliation. The U.S. gave the Chinese three days to close the mission and clear out. Relations between the United States and China have deteriorated significantly since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the beginning of the year. [Reuters]
DEMOCRATIC BILL LINKS UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS TO WORKPLACE SAFETY Some Senate Democrats want to update eligibility standards so that people don’t get cut off for refusing to work in unsafe conditions. Each state has its own definition of “suitable work,” and workers lose eligibility for benefits if they turn down a job offer that meets the definition. Legislation introduced Tuesday by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) would give state workforce agencies $10 billion to promote workplace safety if they update their laws to say that work isn’t suitable if the conditions aren’t up to federal standards for reducing exposure to the coronavirus. [HuffPost]
EUROPE'S RESCUE PLAN COUNTERS NATIONALIST THREAT. FOR NOW. After almost five days of intense negotiations, European Union leaders emerged early Tuesday with a historic deal for a massive stimulus plan designed to rescue their coronavirus-hit economies. The size of the 750 billion euro ($857 billion) recovery fund acknowledges the fact that, as a result of the pandemic, Europe is facing its worst economic downturn since World War II. In a larger sense, it also represents a major victory for the idea of a united Europe in the face of rising Euroskeptic, nationalist and protectionist forces that have looked to capitalize on Britain’s protracted departure from the EU. [HuffPost]
WHERE LYNCHINGS TERRORIZED BLACK AMERICANS, CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS LIVES ON Most states ban corporal punishment in schools. Mississippi doesn't just allow it, but has the highest rate of the practice in the country. For almost a century, Mississippi was one of the nation’s leaders in another category of punishment: lynching. Between 1865 and 1950, at least 708 confirmed lynchings took place in the state; the vast majority of victims were Black. They included Black teenagers falsely accused of crimes; Black men accused of offenses as minor as “insulting a white woman”; and Black women who were shot simply because of “race hatred.” [HuffPost]
TWITTER BANS THOUSANDS OF QANON ACCOUNTS Twitter has banned thousands of QAnon accounts and has limited the QAnon-related activity of tens of thousands more as part of a “strong enforcement action” aimed at limiting the spread of the far-right conspiracy movement and its baseless — and often dangerous — theories. A spokesperson for Twitter said more than 7,000 accounts had been permanently suspended as part of the action and about 150,000 accounts had been affected. The spokesperson said Twitter was taking steps to crack down on QAnon “because of an escalating degree of harm associated with the conspiracy theory.” [HuffPost] | 
