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Nancy Pelosi has recalled the House of Representatives from its summer recess early, to vote on a bill to prevent the United States Postal Service downgrading its operations or service from early-2020 levels, in response to what the Democratic House speaker called the sabotage of the mail system by the Trump administration. Donald Trump admitted last week that he was blocking funding to the USPS in a bid to disrupt mail-in voting at Novembers presidential election.

Postal workers told the Guardian that changes implemented by the new postmaster general, the Trump loyalist Louis DeJoy, were already causing major delays. Barack Obama has condemned Trumps explicit kneecapping of the mail, while on Sunday, Bernie Sanders added his voice to the widespread warnings, calling the situation a crisis for American democracy in an interview with NBC:

What you are witnessing is a president of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, make it harder for people to engage in mail-in balloting at a time when people will be putting their lives on the line by having to go out to a polling station and vote.

The Covid-19 death toll in the US is now more than 170,000. Teachers in states currently hit hard by the coronavirus, such as Georgia and Florida, remain fearful of plans to press ahead with the reopening of schools. But Jared Kushner has no such concerns: the presidents son-in-law said on Sunday that his own children would absolutely be returning to school, despite the risks.

Students at Johns Hopkins will not be on campus in the fall but, as Kari Paul reports, the Baltimore university is inviting them to collaborate in reconstructing an accurate replica of the campus within the popular videogame Minecraft.

The pandemic has highlighted the homelessness that already exists in Austin, Texas, reports Alexandra Villarreal. But as Lupe Arreola and Amee Chew argue, a coming tsunami of evictions could cause a homeless crisis on a whole new scale:

Cancelling rent and mortgage payments is the most effective solution to the mounting debt and mass displacement threatening working-class communities, communities of color and low-income households during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Democrats may not be descending en masse on Milwaukee as originally planned, but the theme of their nominating convention this week nonetheless remains: unity. The partys four-day virtual convention, rebranded as the Convention Across America, will showcase the breadth of support enjoyed by the Biden-Harris ticket with two hours of online programming a night from Monday, featuring such disparate speakers as Bernie Sanders and the former GOP presidential candidate John Kasich.

Sanders has praised Kamala Harris as incredibly smart and tough. The progressive Vermont senator acknowledged that not all his supporters were enthusiastic about the moderate Joe Biden, but insisted there is an overwhelming understanding that Donald Trump must be defeated.

The nation known as Europes last dictatorship has seen the largest pro-democracy protests in its history. On Sunday, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to demand the fall of the countrys authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarus opposition, which was defeated in the disputed presidential election a week ago, has called for a general strike from Monday.

The protest coalition has broadened with remarkable speed over the past week, Shaun Walker reports from Minsk, from a small segment of politically active opponents to encompass teachers, doctors and factory workers, many of whom have announced strikes.

Lukashenko has repeatedly begged Vladimir Putin to intervene to salvage his 26-year rule, demanding Russia provide military assistance to the embattled Minsk regime. But the Russian president has so far stopped short of publicly endorsing his ally.

New Zealand has delayed its general election by a month following the coronavirus outbreak in Auckland, its biggest city. The vote will now take place on 17 October, then prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced on Monday.

The temperature in Death Valley California hit 54.4C or 129.9F on Sunday afternoon, which some extreme weather experts believe could be the hottest reading ever reliably recorded on the planet.

Japan has suffered its worst economic contraction in the modern era. The countrys GDP shrank by a record 7.8% from April to June, which equates to an annualised rate of 27.8% the steepest decline since such data became available in 1980.

Israel and the UAE have opened a telephone line between the two countries, in an early sign that the historic diplomatic deal brokered by the US and unveiled last week is taking root.

The unstoppable rise of American chicken

A century ago, Americans considered chicken an alternative to pork or beef. Now they consume it more than any other meat, and the average grocery store chicken has doubled in size. Sarah Mock charts the rise of industrial chicken farming in the US.

Why Fantastic Beasts is a PR disaster

JK Rowlings views on trans rights alienated fans. Ezra Miller was filmed apparently choking a female admirer. And Johnny Depps troubled private life became extremely public. With its creator and stars seemingly cursed, Steve Rose wonders why Warner Bros is persisting with the Fantastic Beasts franchise.

Last week, a wind-storm tore through 10m acres of midwest cropland from Nebraska to Indiana, potentially halving Iowas maize yield for the year. Extreme weather is the new normal, writes Art Cullen, and it poses serious risks to our food supply.

This drought, which could rival or exceed the medieval drought that occurred about AD1200, could last 30 to 50 years, according to research from the Goddard Space Institute. It will become difficult to grow corn in southern Iowa, and impossible in western Kansas.

A piece of a Lego figures arm, believed lost for at least two years, has turned up in the nostril of its owner, seven-year-old Sameer Anwar. The New Zealand boys family said the Lego, which Sameer shoved up his nose aged five, recently reappeared when he took a big sniff of a plate of freshly baked cupcakes.

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First Thing: Trump's USPS cuts are 'a crisis for US democracy' - The Guardian

So much for democracy, that outdated concept that everyones opinions get a voice, where a fair vote takes place to decide which argument prevails.

Thats the way it was when I grew up, and when I raised my children. Now, however, it appears whichever mob yells the loudest, creates the most destruction and has the biggest turnout will be the winner. Thats the way it appears in Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York and dozens of other large cities where groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) are running free. Once peaceful protests have quickly turned into insurrection.

Protestors say they want to defund (and even eliminate) police departments, create their own communities within cities, abolish ICE, and establish socialistic laws, like the ones that made Venezuela such a great nation.

They claim American society is guilty of systemic racism, and they demand it change. They take their cues from BLM without acknowledging the group is Marxist, destructive, and is spreading myths. Their focus is only on rare shootings of blacks by white policemen, and they dont give a hoot about black on black killings throughout the land, as in Chicago where dozens of blacks are murdered every month.

Free speech as we have known it is a dying tradition. Ironically, millions of Americans killed in past wars believed they were giving their lives to save liberty and safeguard the principles of free speech, something we have always prized

There is a lot about this behavior that makes me very angry, except I wont be taking to the streets to throw bricks or burn police cars. Ill use the pen.

My anger is directed at those who have given birth to the riots, supporting them and letting them continue indefinitely, even as their cities burned as the result of so called peaceful demonstrations. Its the left-wing Democratic mayors, governors, and attorney generals who dont have the guts to stand up to mobs who largely spout things they themselves believe in. They wont dare undermine BLM, potential Democrat voters, or take any action that would side with President Trump.

Im angry that our education system is stacked with far-left leaning teachers and professors, from high school through colleges and universities. Its where the nonsense begins. Several studies have shown up to 90% of higher education professors are registered Democrats. We are seeing the results of that, as the vast majority of rioters are between ages 18 and 30. What the hell are they being taught in school, or even more important, what are they not being taught?

If you think Im being a little extreme criticizing our educational system, please consider the facts that in most universities today students are brainwashed and taught that white people are privileged and racist. Its in this environment where many students become part of the cancel culture.

Cancel culture basically means somebody (or something) is considered worthy of hate and slander due to controversial behavior they are engaged in. Their wide-ranging hate includes President Trump, policemen who maintain law and order, as well as time honored patriotic symbols like standing for the American flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Star Spangled Banner and pretty much any statue of someone born before 1980.

Cancel culture has gone a lot farther than you might realize. The centrist political editor of the New York Times resigned because of harassment and pressure to support only left-wing opinions, and certainly nothing a Republican senator might have to say.

There is no debating cancel culture beliefs. They refuse to even listen to those they disagree with, and even intimidate them with threats of violence. No votes taken, no rebuttals of positions, and simply no free speech, thus no democracy.

This is serious. Its very disturbing that this kind of thinking is being fostered in our colleges and universities. We are now paying the price, with peaceful demonstrators burning, looting, tearing down statues, and disrespecting the men and women in blue who put their lives on the line to protect us.

Free speech as we have known it is a dying tradition. Ironically, millions of Americans killed in past wars believed they were giving their lives to save liberty and safeguard the principles of free speech, something we have always prized. Yes, Im angry. Shouldnt I be?

David Glubetich lives in Penn Valley.

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David Glubetich: The last days of democracy - The Union of Grass Valley

The Dallas Morning News is publishing a multi-part series on important issues for voters to consider as they decide who to vote for president this year. This is the second installment of our Whats at Stake series, and it focuses on foreign policy. Find the full series here.

Latin America has been rocked by protest movements, the rise of populist leaders and economic stagnation. The region has witnessed dramatic ups and downs, at times taking bold steps to confront corruption, promote human rights, and strengthen rule of law, and just as frequently sliding backward on all these fronts. The trends are not new, but what has changed is the United States narrow focus and increasingly limited presence in Latin America.

Over the last few years, the U.S. has shown a rhetorical commitment to democratic governance, economic prosperity and security. The U.S. administration has taken steps to support these objectives, such as pushing through the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) Trade Agreement and recognizing Venezuelas President Juan Guaid as the countrys democratically elected leader. However, the U.S. administration has also taken a range of actions to pursue an America First policy or limit migration that have undermined these very same interests. These include withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, slashing foreign aid across Central America and increasing political tensions with Mexico.

Several principles should govern U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America.

At the center of any comprehensive U.S. policy toward Latin America should be a focus on strengthening democratic governance and anti-corruption efforts. This would mean supporting allies around the region that are taking steps to build up their democracies and applying targeted U.S. foreign policy pressure on countries, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, that are moving in the opposite direction. The U.S. should also support efforts to root out corruption regionally and make this a hallmark of its foreign policy. Its unlikely that well see the return of the most high-profile anti-corruption efforts, such as the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, given recent governmental pushback. However, these efforts should serve as a foundation for future programs and policies.

A second principle for any U.S. policy should be a push for increased economic prosperity and integration. This pillar would include promoting regional trade, investment, and job creation; raising labor and environmental standards; and paying special attention to historically marginalized communities. These efforts will be even more important now amid the COVID-19 pandemic, given the sharp economic contractions throughout the hemisphere, and Chinas expanded presence in the region. Yet, in a push for economic integration, we must also prioritize support and retraining for workers who find themselves in sectors that are more negatively affected by these agreements. This is true in the United States, and U.S. policy should encourage other countries to do the same.

Along with economic integration, U.S. foreign policy should also continue to embrace regional energy interconnectedness. By linking countries and their electricity grids, Latin America can build resilience and reduce energy costs for citizens and businesses. This would include investing in energy projects along the U.S.-Mexico border and seeking to connect Mexico and Central Americas electricity grids. It should also include supporting Latin Americas transition toward clean energy sources. However, to have a significant effect, these economic and energy objectives would have to be combined with a strong rule of law to ensure contract compliance and business confidence.

The third fundamental pillars for U.S. foreign policy toward the region must be unequivocal support for human rights. This means taking human rights into account throughout U.S. policy design, holding other countries to high standards, and supporting civil society organizations that conduct this vital work. It will also mean accepting responsibility for U.S. policies that have contributed to human rights abuses or where the United States continues to work on improving its own performance domestically. Equally important, it means championing a robust and independent press that holds all governments accountable.

Along with these overarching principles, the United States should not overlook the power of people-to-people connections. To build a successful and resilient hemisphere, we need Americans who understand Latin America and Latin Americans who understand the United States. We can help to foster this mutual understanding through area studies and language programs, study abroad programs and professional exchanges. These exchanges benefit U.S. and Latin American citizens who master another language, spend time in another culture, and share academic, scientific or other expertise. Simultaneously, they also build the ties that shape our economies and regional relations far into the future.

Essential to U.S. policy toward Latin America is our relationship with Mexico. Too often, Mexico is viewed solely in the context of U.S. domestic challenges. However, this approach fails to realize the relationships full potential. Mexico should be the United States key strategic ally in the region. With an intertwined economy, society and history, our two countries should be cooperating bilaterally on a host of issues including economic, climate, health, security and migration policy and working together on a broad range of regional and international issues.

The United States should take this moment of historic upheaval and commit to a principled and forward-looking policy for Latin America. This approach would both support U.S. objectives and address shared interests within the region. Latin America is a critically important region for the United States on a daily basis and U.S. foreign policy should reflect it.

Antonio Garza served as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2002 to 2009. He is now counsel to the law firm of White & Case in Mexico City. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

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America First policy in Latin America undermines U.S. interests for democracy and prosperity in the region - The Dallas Morning News

But Miss, why think about the future for? the 13-year-old said.

No one had ever asked me that before.

I was visiting a class of year 7 students in Sydneys south-west with the Story Factory, a not-for-profit creative writing organisation who work with young people to draw out their skills and stories. I was there to talk about the work I do and how I think about the future, explaining the dizzying ways the world of work, communication and creativity have turned upside down in the relatively short span of my life.

These students were writing their own future-focused fiction: during quiet writing time, I imagined them flashing forward to an inspiring, sustainable world, and writing about their place in it. I thought Id done pretty well, until this kid called me over and stumped me with that startlingly simple question.

Because youll live in the future, I finally responded. In a couple of decades from now, youll be my age. And youll want clean water to drink and air to breathe. Youll need to earn money, you might want to have kids, and youll be interested in what kind of world you all live in I trailed off.

She gave me the kind of gently condescending look that 13-year-olds the world over are masters of.

Sure, miss, OK. But who cares what I think about the future? I mean, its just going to happen anyway, no matter what I think.

When you think about the future, do you feel like that kid? There are too many of us who feel that despite whatever the public protests against, or supports in opinion polls politics today doesnt reflect our values or priorities, inaction on climate change being one of the starkest examples.

Its exciting to see the rise of youth-led social change movements like Fridays for Future or the Sunrise Movement in the USA, but as this high schooler taught me, not everyone feels empowered to have their say. Since I was a teenager growing up in Sydneys western suburbs, Ive seen the opportunity gap between rich and poor grow, with policy choices that entrench disadvantage, and pool wealth and access on one side. Structural barriers exclude and limit access particularly for those in places where youre likely to earn less, spend more time to get to work, cop more heat in heatwaves and even see your life expectancy cut short. Getting by is hard enough, let alone figuring out how to have your perspective heard.

The problems we face at this moment are too vast and complex to be solved by a privileged few, and limiting access to information and limiting the voices at the table only serves to sow unease and division. When we fail to explain the systemic causes of our environmental and economic instability, conspiracies and suspicion rush in to fill the information vacuum.

But around the world, there has been a flourishing of new ways to do democracy that gives me hope amid the gloom of 2020. Bottom-up and participatory democratic processes that recognise the potential we all have to contribute; that make political engagement active and part of everyday life, something everyone can do.

Representative democracy has a lot of positive elements to it. The problem is that its not been upgraded for 100 or 200 years

I realised that the best thing I could do for those who didnt have faith in the future was share the most compelling visions Ive encountered, because more people need to hear that there are very real alternatives to the status quo. My search for civic change-agents spanned the planet and became my first book, Glimpses of Utopia.

Citizen participation through collaborative budgeting, online platforms, assemblies and juries can have a huge impact. After a series of political and financial scandals rocked Iceland and Estonia, trust levels in politicians plummeted but Robert Bjarnason and the Citizens Foundation had one thing on their side: for most people, social media has become second nature. The Citizens Foundation used an online platform to make it easy to participate in democracy between elections, from allocating resources in local communities to raising citizen-led petitions to be debated by parliament. Representative democracy has a lot of positive elements to it, Bjarnason told me, but the problem is that its not been upgraded for 100 or 200 years.

Taiwans visionary digital minister, Audrey Tang, has also taken the tools of tech to politics, engaging citizens and stakeholders to help the country regulate digital disruptors like Uber through consensus.

And in France this year, 150 citizens aged 16 to 80 selected randomly by their phone numbers took on a huge task: breaking the impasse on climate change, and deciding how the country should dramatically cut their carbon emissions.

Over the past nine months, the Citizens Convention for the Climate heard from hundreds of experts and pored through policy proposals and impact statements, then debated and selected projects to land on fair and effective climate policy. In late June President Macron accepted all but three of the Conventions 149 recommendations, pledged to take them to parliament in an omnibus bill, and budgeted an additional 15bn euros for climate action.

In late 2019, I saw a citizen jury in action at the City of Sydney: we wanted direction and feedback on our guiding plan for the next decade, and gathered more than 2,500 ideas from residents, ranging from postcards and childrens drawings to detailed submissions and surveys. Fifty Sydneysiders, randomly selected, gave up their Saturdays over several months to turn these suggestions into a grand vision. Watching them present their final report gave me goosebumps: they challenged us to create a city that isnt just sustainable but is regenerative; a city which doesnt just limit damage but that cleans the air and the water, that gives back more than it takes.

Opinion polls or the usual consultation format cant generate public participation like this. The way we do politics today underestimates the capacity of the average citizen for big-picture thinking. They need to be empowered and informed, and we need to cast the net wider than the usual suspects.

More of us might feel more hopeful about the future if we were offered better ways of helping shape it, as active and valued citizens. Imperfect Not-Yet utopias are being created by people all over the world every day, incomplete but promising. I owed it to every young girl I spoke to in that class to not only sow those seeds of potential, but to show them that a better future needs us to shape it, and that we can start to claim our place in it now.

Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully is out now, through Pantera Press

Jess Scully is the deputy lord mayor of Sydney

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There are new ways to do democracy that give me hope. More voices could change everything - The Guardian

[Note: This article was co-published with OC Media, here. It was written by Rati Shubladze, a Policy Analyst at CRRC Georgia. The views expressed in this article are the author's alone and do not represent the views of the Embassy of the Netherlands, CRRC Georgia, or any related entity.]

The COVID-19 outbreak generated discussion about whether support for democracy would decline during and after the crisis. While reported support increased, this did not necessarily match support for democratic means of governance.

Data from the CRRCs COVID-19 monitor shows that more people in Georgia reported support for democracy compared to the pre-crisis period. However, as before the crisis, support for democracy does not seem to be grounded in the values commonly associated with democratic governance.

Compared to a study with the same question conducted before the virus outbreak, support for democracy increased.

The Caucasus Barometer 2019, conducted before the pandemic, shows that nearly half of Georgians (49%) thought that democracy was preferable to any other kind of government. The rest did not report explicit support for democracy. The share of people explicitly supporting democracy rose to 60% during the COVID-19 outbreak.

A previous article looked at how support for democracy was not associated with liberal values, such as support for gender equality and acceptance of different ethnic or religious groups.

Data collected during the COVID-19 Monitor suggests that support for democracy is also not associated with preferences for democratic rules of governance.

The COVID-19 survey asked Georgians for their opinions regarding different approaches to governance, citizens attitudes toward the government, and restrictions to overcome the crisis. The data shows ambiguous results.

The majority (59%) said it was acceptable for the public to critique the government, and nearly two-thirds said it was unacceptable to restrict citizens rights without going through institutional checks and balances.

At the same time, for most Georgians (53%), said efficiency, not institutional accountability, is what matters. Moreover, most said they supported strong, unaccountable leaders (68%) to get the country out of crisis.

Regressions testing whether the above data are correlated with support for democracy, controlling for socio-demographic variables like gender, age, education, settlement type, employment, household wealth and ethnicity, were run. They suggest that there are no statistically significant associations between attitudes towards the above forms of governance and support for democracy.

Contrary to many commentators expectations, support for democracy increased during the COVID-19 crisis. However, as previous studies have indicated, support is not associated with democratic values and considerations.

This analysis shows that explicit supporters of democracy on many levels do not hold different views from non-supporters regarding the means of governance, decision making, and institutional accountability.

This again leads to the question, why do so many in Georgia report support for democracy if not for the content of that idea?

The data presented in this blog post is available here. Replication code for the above analysis is available here.

Continue reading here:
Support for democracy increased in Georgia during COVID-19, but what does that mean? - Social Science in the South Caucasus