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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The White House may be ready to reauthorize enhanced unemployment benefits during the pandemic. It may be a reprieve, but it’s a long way from economic justice.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden launches an ambitious new climate plan. Is this the influence of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party?

And lastly, another policy walk-back from Donald Trump’s White House. International students may not get deported during the pandemic after all.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

More than thirty million Americans are claiming unemployment benefits. Those benefits are the only things preventing them from going hungry or homeless. The benefits effectively filled a $70 billion hole in the economy created by the pandemic, the lockdowns, and the financial sector panic. And they’re scheduled to run out in two weeks, along with the special federal program that permits a six-hundred-dollar-per-week increase to those benefits on account of the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans from Donald Trump on down have complained about those benefits, saying they discourage people from returning to work. As though work itself weren’t a discouragement from returning to work – let’s be real. But now, according to the Washington Post, there are signs that the White House may be willing to extend the benefit.

Some Republicans favor a compromise that would involve cutting the six-hundred dollar weekly benefit to somewhere between two and four hundred dollars. Then they’d send another round of twelve hundred dollar stimulus checks – presumably signed by Trump, as with the last batch. But Congressional Republicans haven’t reached agreement among themselves what their position should be during the worst economic crisis in generations. They don’t have a lot of time to figure it out, either. The enhanced unemployment benefit expires in forty-nine states on July 25, and in New York state on July 26. And the Senate session resumes on next Monday, July 20. Clock’s a tickin’! If the benefits don’t come through then take our advice: invest in pitchforks and torches.

Biden's Climate Plan Praised

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders put out a video statement yesterday calling on progressives to think and act strategically in the months ahead. Sanders, who remains on the ballot in most states, said that he understood that many of his supporters have differences with the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Joe Biden. However, Sanders said, his supporters who went on to advise Biden’s team after Sanders suspended his campaign did succeed in pushing Biden to adopt better policies. As if to supply the evidence, Biden yesterday announced a $2 trillion climate plan that went far beyond what he had previously proposed on energy or the environment.

The plan calls for substantial spending on upgrading buildings, vehicles, and electrical plants, over four years. Additionally, the Biden climate proposal calls for the US to be using one- hundred percent renewable energy within fifteen years. Biden said, When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is hoax. When I think about climate change, the word I think of is jobs. Also among those praising Biden’s proposal was Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, who said, it was not a status quo plan. According to the New York Times, the plan also calls for establishing an office of environmental and climate justice at the Justice Department, to address the country’s long record of dumping pollution on and around communities of color.

Reprieve For international Students

In Australia, international students are reportedly turning to food banks and getting by on one meal per day, the Guardian reported. As temporary visa holders, they are not covered by government benefit programs during the pandemic. But there was good news for thousands of international students in the US yesterday. The Trump administration is backing away from a policy announced last week that would have forced foreign students to leave the country if their universities moved classes online in the fall. Two days after the policy was announced, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the government to stop the policy, soon joined companies that rely on a pipeline of educated workers. A separate lawsuit including seventeen states and hundreds of universities was also filed.

The Trump policy was so ill-considered that the US Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed to rescind it five minutes into the first court hearing on Harvard and MIT’s lawsuit. That’s according to the Verge, which also reported that ICE will revert to the policy it adopted for this past spring semester. That is, students on temporary visas whose classes have moved online will be allowed to remain in the US.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The eighty-seven-year-old liberal US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital yesterday, according to the Associated Press. Apparently she has an unspecified infection. A statement from the Court says Ginsburg is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment.

Ghislaine Maxwell, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan yesterday to charges of abetting serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. US District Judge Alison Nathan also denied Maxwell’s request for bail, agreeing with prosecutors that she might try to flee and go back into hiding. This week the Mail on Sunday, a British tabloid, reported that Maxwell was being moved from cell to cell to avoid potential assassins.

New research published in the journal Nature Communications blames car tires for microplastic pollution that is chocking the world’s oceans. More than half a million tons of particles smaller than one-tenth of a millimeter fall onto roads from car tires and brakes. Those particles then get blown around by the wind. Roughly half make their way to the oceans. They also contaminate the food supply, yum yum.

An unnamed European rich person purchased a private island off the south coast of Ireland for eight point five million dollars, and never once set foot on it. The wealthy buyer relied on online video to make their decision. That’s according to the Guardian, which says the island comes with seven houses, a pier, a tennis court, and a helipad. And no guillotines.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report.

July 15, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn