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‘Nothing to Do with Climate Change’: Conservative Media and Trump Align on Fires (Michael M. Grynbaum and Tiffany Hsu, New York Times)
Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson dismiss scientists’ determination that climate change is a key culprit in West Coast wildfires.

The Idea of a “Natural” Disaster Is Going Up in Flames (Kate Yoder, Grist)
Wildfires recently turned the West Coast into a hazy orange hellscape, scorching a record-breaking amount of land in California and blanketing the whole region with lung-clogging smoke. The fires have already burned thousands of houses, driven Oregonians from their homes, and killed dozens of people. And it’s not even peak wildfire season yet.
You expect to see the phrase natural disaster all over the news when hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic explosions, floods, or fires cause a lot of deaths and property damage. This fire season, however, politicians and other people are beginning to ditch natural disaster for phrases that are more specific — and more accurate.
These megafires aren’t exactly “natural,” after all — they’re magnified by the hotter, drier climate humans have created, along with a century of forest fire suppression that left more fuel to burn. And 85 percent of the time, wildfires are started by people — a smoldering cigarette, an unquenched campfire, a gender reveal party gone wrong. You could argue that even the wild in wildfires is a bit misleading.

Climate Change and Forest Management Have Both Fueled Today’s Epic Western Wildfires (Steven C. Beda, The Conversation)
What is driving the wildfires that are ravaging California, Oregon and Washington? President Trump and state officials have offered sharply different views.
Trump asserts that Western states haven’t done enough logging and brush clearance, allowing fuels to build up in forests. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other West Coast leaders, many of whom are Democrats, point to climate change as the main cause of these massive conflagrations.
As an environmental historian who studies the forests of the Pacific Coast, I don’t see this as an either/or choice. In my view, climate change and forest management practices both have contributed to today’s fire conditions, and reducing wildfire risks requires addressing both issues.

U.S. Image Plummets Internationally as Most Say Country Has Handled Coronavirus Badly (Pew Research)
Since Donald Trump took office as president, the image of the United States has suffered across many regions of the globe. As a new 13-nation Pew Research Center survey illustrates, America’s reputation has declined further over the past year among many key allies and partners. In several countries, the share of the public with a favorable view of the U.S. is as low as it has been at any point since the Center began polling on this topic nearly two decades ago.

Trump Shares Fake Video of Biden Playing “F—- tha Police”(John Bowden, The Hill)
President Trump shared a fake video Wednesday morning that made it seem Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was playing the NWA song “F—- tha Police.” It’s the latest example of Trump retweeting a fake, doctored or manipulated image or message from his Twitter account. 

Faked Videos Shore Up False Beliefs about Biden’s Mental Health (Dustin Carnahan, The Conversation)
The Trump campaign and its surrogates have seized on Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s age and have been painting him as mentally unfit for the presidency. Videos of Biden falling asleep during an interview, misspeaking about the dangers of “Joe Biden’s America” and appearing lost during a campaign event have bolstered the belief, particularly among Trump supporters, that Biden is in cognitive decline.
There’s just one problem: None of these videos are what they seem, and some of the events depicted didn’t happened at all. Technological developments have made it easier for people to produce seemingly real videos that are anything but. These deceptively altered videos have become a major element of disinformation campaigns that wield falsehoods in an effort to sway voters.

U.S. Intel Repeatedly Warned About Rudy’s ‘Russian Agent’ Pal (Erin Banco, Sam Brodey, Spencer Ackerman, Asawin Suebsaeng, Daily Beast)
For a year and a half, U.S. intelligence warned that Andriy Derkach was suspected of election interference. Yet Derkach—and his wild beliefs—kept drawing more Trumpist adherents.

Right-Wing Conspiracists Falsely Linked Antifa to Wildfires. Then the Russian Media Gave Them a Boost. (Ali Breland, Grist)
Wildfires have long been weaponized by climate deniers wanting to sow political division. But this week, the blazes consuming the West Coast became part of an election cycle culture war when claims that antifa started wildfires in Portland went viral. There’s no evidence that antifa started any wildfires, but conservatives on social media ran with the claim anyway, spreading it far and wide in Facebook groups and on YouTube.
It’s unclear how the conspiracy theory originated, but its first big boost appears to have come courtesy of RT (formerly Russia Today, a Russian state-controlled media outlet known for mixing news with Russian propaganda). RT’s signal boost came in the form of an article that smashed together separate pieces of information about policing in Portland and the wildfires, insinuating a nefarious (and nonexistent) link between the two.

Antifa Rumors Leading Armed Citizens to Stop Drivers at Checkpoints Near Oregon Fires (Cullen Paradis, International Business Times)
Illegal checkpoints established by armed residents sprung up around Oregon after rumors spread that antifa had started the wildfires to loot homes. Sheriffs in both Clackamas and Multnomah counties, along with the FBI, said that there was no evidence of any antifa involvement in the fires. Two Clackamas officers spread misinformation claiming that antifa was involved. One has been placed on administrative leave

How the Government Is Keeping Hackers from Disrupting Coronavirus Vaccine Research (Shannon Vavra, Cyberscoop)
Six months ago, as professional sports were postponed indefinitely, schools were shuttering, Tom Hanks was the poster boy for COVID-19, and President Donald Trump addressed a nervous nation, people at the highest levels of the U.S. government became laser-focused on one idea: Coronavirus vaccine research needed to be defended from hacking attempts.
Soon after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, the Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service and the National Security Agency got to work on a behind-the-scenes protection mission for “Operation Warp Speed,” the U.S. government program responsible for producing 300 million coronavirus vaccine doses by January 2021.
Known as the Security and Assurance portion of Operation Warp Speed, the mission is no small effort. Consisting of people from DDS, NSA, FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, it has been running behind the scenes for months, and is being detailed here for the first time.

Sweden’s New Epidemic: Clan-Based Crime (Paulina Neuding, Spectator)
A summer of violence has left even jaded Swedes reeling

The Ghost Towns Behind the Gates (Kat Lonsdor, NPR)
Fukushima was forever changed by one of the world’s biggest nuclear disasters nearly a decade ago. The Japanese government has poured billions of dollars into recovery efforts. But what does recovery really mean? The answer is a combination of resilience, reinvention and regret.