Good morning.
Election officials across the US have faced an unprecedented amount of threats and harassment since the 2020 election. Now they say that Dominion Voting Systems’ decision to settle its landmark defamation lawsuit with Fox for $787.5m last week may not be enough to stop conspiracy theories about the company’s machines leading into the 2024 election.
In accepting a settlement, Fox News personalities and executives do not have to testify about whether they knowingly spread false claims about the voting machines, or offer a public apology.
Public pressure about Dominion’s machines has already made one contested jurisdiction – Maricopa county in Arizona – consider whether or not to renew its contract with Dominion for vote tabulators.
“We still, every single day, hear questions about vote switching, connectivity to the internet, and it doesn’t matter how many studies, how many reports, how many outside audits, how many election technology companies come in and look at this, those haven’t been able to go away,” said the Maricopa county recorder, Stephen Richer.
Idaho Republicans criticized for ‘glorifying political violence’
Kyle Rittenhouse, the American who shot three people, two fatally, at an anti-racism protest as a teenager and injured another, was the celebrity guest of honor at a Republican party event in Idaho Falls, Idaho, this month. Fundraiser attendees could bid on an AR-15 style rifle signed by Rittenhouse, and buy tickets to Trigger Time: a Rittenhouse-hosted shooting event at a gun range. He was found not guilty of homicide, attempted homicide, and reckless endangerment in November 2021.
Rittenhouse’s appearances come as the Republican party and rightwing media have increasingly embraced rhetoric previously confined to fringe extremist groups.
“Elected officials and media personalities should really be denouncing political violence, not embracing it,” said Stephen Piggott, a researcher at Western States Center who focuses on white nationalist, paramilitary and anti-democracy groups.
“For a GOP [group] to not only host and organize a fundraiser with him, and a shooting range event, call that event trigger time, I think really is the very epitome of glorifying political violence.”
Journalists who worked in Moscow call for release of Evan Gershkovich
More than 300 foreign correspondents who have worked in Moscow have signed a letter to the Russian government calling for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter held in Russia on espionage charges.
The Wall Street Journal and the US government have denied that Gershkovich, who faces a 20-year prison sentence, was involved in espionage.
In other news …
Efforts have intensified to evacuate foreign diplomats and citizens from Khartoum as the US warned of shortages of vital medicines, food and water throughout Sudan.
UN human rights experts have arrived in the US to begin their tour focusing on racial justice, law enforcement and policing.
While conditions had improved, the fight for safe conditions and fair pay in Bangladesh had not yet been won, campaigners said on the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in which 1,134 people were killed and at least another 2,000 injured.
The volunteer pilot who offered free flights to women seeking medical care was fired from his seminary job. While the pilot’s original post did not explicitly mention abortion, he acknowledged that the message mentioned an area that had largely outlawed abortion and three states that had acted to preserve access.
Stat of the day: up to 10% of men and women are affected by hypoactive sexual desire disorder – a continued lack of interest in sexual activities and fantasies
People with low libidos can feel irreparably broken in our highly sexualized society. But scientists are increasingly realizing that low desire is a product of competing systems in the brain – and the key to boosting it may lie in redressing the balance between these inputs.
Don’t miss this: something to chew on
American pets have transformed lives in remote Himalaya towns after a chance discovery allowed for an ancient regional snack to be reborn as dog chews.
Churpi, a tasteless hard cheese high in protein and nutrients, was once a staple for the people living in mountainous Himalayan regions of Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet and eastern India. Fermented and smoked for months, if not years, the cheese was once used to barter for essentials and has since remained a favored snack.
It is now a big export from Nepal, with at least 30 cheese dog-chew companies generating $22m (£18m) in 2021-22.
… or this: ashes to ocean
With authorities in Shanghai forecasting that available cemetery space will run out within 15 years, more and more people are turning to sea burials when it comes to saying goodbye to a loved one. While the cremation rate reached almost 59%, up from 47% in 2015, according to the ministry of civil affairs, urns are often still buried in formal grave sites. Some local authorities are offering cash rewards to those who choose to scatter their relatives at sea or bury their ashes in an “ecological” manner, such as in small biodegradable containers.
Climate check: EPA sued over alleged failure to regulate Monsanto
New filings in a lawsuit are alleging that the US Environmental Protection Agency has in effect ignored a 2020 federal court order prohibiting the use of Monsanto and other producers’ toxic dicamba-based herbicides.
These herbicides are destroying millions of acres of cropland, harming endangered species and increasing cancer risks for farmers.
Last Thing: not your sweet American girl next door
Hollywood’s 1980s teen queen Molly Ringwald spoke with the Guardian about leaving Tinsel Town for France and translating a memoir about the Last Tango in Paris star Maria Schneider.
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