Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87 – The New York Times – RIP

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday of “complications of metastatic pancreas cancer,” the Supreme Court announced.

“Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in a statement. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

Warplane diplomacy: “Selling F35s to the Emiratis was always part of the deal”

“It’s arms for peace instead of land for peace,” says France 24 Jerusalem correspondent Irris Makler in The World This Week.

While U.S. weighs sale of #F35 fighter jets to #UAE as part of deal with Israel comes news of France selling Rafales to amid standoff with Turkey.

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Up Is Down — Pharmaceutical Industry Caution vs. Federal Acceleration of Covid-19 Vaccine Approval | NEJM

The American public is already dangerously skeptical of the process of Covid-19 vaccine development. In a poll conducted a few days before the manufacturers’ pledge, 78% of respondents said they believed the process was being driven by politics more than by science. This credibility problem will inevitably diminish vaccine uptake, whatever occurs in October. Fortunately, though prior EUA missteps have eroded trust in FDA decision making, 68% of poll respondents said they were confident that the agency would only endorse a vaccine that is safe and effective, indicating widespread support for FDA scientists and nonpolitical appointees.

The dueling statements of vaccine makers and the president have set the stage for critical decisions in the next 2 months. Despite their pledge’s potential vulnerability to regulatory indiscretion by the political leadership, the pharmaceutical executives are to be commended for their science-based position — which is in their best interests as well. The federal response will help determine not just the fate of the first Covid-19 vaccines, but also what remains of the public’s eroding trust in one of the most important aspects of U.S. science policy.

Source: Up Is Down — Pharmaceutical Industry Caution vs. Federal Acceleration of Covid-19 Vaccine Approval | NEJM

Ex-Pence aide: Trump spent 45 minutes of task force meeting ‘going off on Tucker Carlson’ instead of talking coronavirus | TheHill

“He watches people, he watches the news,” said Olivia Troye, a former adviser to Pence for Homeland Security. “We have been in meetings where we were supposed to be talking about the virus … and he wanted to talk for 45 minutes on how upset he was with some news anchor at his preferred news network.”

Troye alleges that during the meeting, which took place during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic as the task force debated how to safely get Americans off cruise ships as the virus spread, Trump looked around a room full of advisers and asked: “Who’s gonna call this person and set them straight?”

Troye described an awkward and uncomfortable feeling in the room at that moment, with other advisers and aides avoiding eye contact with one another and not saying anything.

“45 minutes of going off on Tucker Carlson … seriously, this went on for 45 minutes,” she added.

“If the president had taken this virus seriously, or if he had actually made an effort to tell how serious it was, he would have slowed the virus spread, he would have saved lives,” Troye said in an advertisement for the political action group Republican Voters Against Trump.

Source: Ex-Pence aide: Trump spent 45 minutes of task force meeting ‘going off on Tucker Carlson’ instead of talking coronavirus | TheHill

COVID-19 in Iowa: State reports 10 deaths, 1,259 coronavirus cases

At 10 a.m. Friday, the state was reporting 1,258 COVID-19-related deaths, an increase of 10 deaths since the state’s tally at 10 a.m. Thursday, according to the state’s Coronavirus.Iowa.gov website.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The state was reporting at 10 a.m. Friday that there are 78,227 confirmed cases of coronavirus, an increase of 1,259 since 10 a.m. Thursday.

Source: COVID-19 in Iowa: State reports 10 deaths, 1,259 coronavirus cases

Twitter Expands QAnon Ban To Political Candidates, Elected Officials | HuffPost

Political candidates and elected officials who share QAnon content on Twitter will have their visibility on the platform restricted, thanks to a new batch of rules against “coordinated harmful activity” Twitter implemented on Thursday.

The action is an expansion of a QAnon crackdown the social platform began in July, when it banned more than 7,000 accounts and limited the activity of tens of thousands more in response to the far-right conspiracy movement and its groundless, dangerous theories.

Source: Twitter Expands QAnon Ban To Political Candidates, Elected Officials | HuffPost