The second set of summer Democratic presidential debates will feature a rematch with a twist, plus the first showdown of leading progressives as the party wrestles with its philosophical identity and looks ahead to a 2020 fight against President Donald Trump.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris will take center stage in Detroit on July 31, barely a month after Harris used the first debates to propel herself into the top tier with an aggressive takedown of the 76-year-old Biden’s long record on race.

CNN, which is broadcasting the debates, assigned candidates randomly with a drawing Thursday night, with 20 candidates spread evenly over two nights, July 30-31.

This time, Harris, the lone black woman in the field, will be joined by another top black candidate, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who also has been an outspoken critic of Biden. Booker had denounced Biden for his recollections of the “civility” of working in a Senate that included white supremacists and for his leadership on a 1994 crime bill that the New Jersey senator assailed as a mass incarceration agent in the black community.

Meanwhile, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts lead the July 30 lineup, allowing the two progressive icons to compete directly for the affections of the party’s left flank. They will be joined by several more moderate candidates who are likely to question the senators’ sweeping proposals for single-payer health insurance and tuition-free college, among other plans.

Biden vs. Harris has quickly become the defining candidate-on-candidate juxtaposition in the early months of the contest. 

Although of different sexes, races and generations, the two rivals share the same broad path to the nomination, particularly the broad coalition of white and black voters necessary to win the Southern primaries that dominate the early months of the nominating calendar. 

Harris’ June attacks on Biden’s 1970s opposition to federal busing orders as a way to desegregate public schools was a way for her to stand out to liberal whites and to try to cut into Biden’s strength in the black community, where he is lauded as the loyal vice president to Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president.

To be clear, Biden aides say Harris’ broadsides sparked a new aggressiveness and determination for the former vice president, and he’s gone on a policy offensive in recent weeks, most notably on health care. 

A proponent of adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges, Biden almost certainly will try to pin down Harris on her support for Sanders’ “Medicare for All” proposal. Harris, though, has stopped short of Sanders’ explicit call for abolishing private insurance, and she insists that the plan can be paid for without any tax hikes on the middle class. 

Biden and Harris will be joined on the stage July 31 by Booker; New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; Colorado Gov. Michael Bennet; former Obama Cabinet member Julian Castro; New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Flanking Sanders and Warren on the stage July 30 will be Montana Gov. Steve Bullock; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; former Maryland Rep. John Delaney; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke; Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan; and author Marianne Williamson.

Delaney and Hickenlooper have been among the most outspoken moderates warning Democrats against a leftward lurch. Klobuchar, Bullock and Buttigieg also position themselves as more centrist than Warren and Sanders. 

A generational split also will be on display: Buttigieg, 37, and O’Rourke, 46, each have called for the party to pass the torch, while Sanders, at 77, is more than twice the young mayor’s age. Warren, meanwhile, recently turned 70.

It will be the first debate opportunity for Bullock, who takes the spot that California Rep. Eric Swalwell had in June before dropping out in recent weeks. Another late entry to the race, billionaire activist Tom Steyer, did not meet the polling or fundraising thresholds required for the July debate.

For several of the longshot candidates, the July debates are critical. The Democratic National Committee is doubling the polling and fundraising requirements to make the stage in the next round of debates, scheduled for September in Houston and October in a city yet to be announced. 

As of now, it’s likely those higher standards would mean many of the 20 candidates on stage in Detroit won’t have a place in Houston. 

President Donald Trump plans to nominate lawyer Eugene Scalia to be his new labor secretary. If confirmed, Scalia will replace Alexander Acosta, who resigned last week amid criticism of his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was indicted this month on charges of sexually abusing underage girls.

Born: October 25, 1963. He is one of late-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s nine children.

Education: University of Chicago Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review.

Professional experience: Served as a special assistant to then and now current Attorney General William Barr.

Served as chief legal officer for Department of Labor during the George W. Bush administration.

In 2006, he helped Walmart win a lawsuit against a Maryland law that would have required companies with more than 10,000 workers to spend at least 8% of their payroll costs on health care.

U.S. lawmakers have sent a clear signal to Cambodian leaders that they have to reverse course on limiting democracy or face consequences.

“The passage of the Cambodia Democracy Act is an important step toward holding Prime Minister Hun Sen and his cronies accountable for continuing to trample on the rights of the Cambodian people,” said Congressman Steve Chabot, a Republican from Ohio.

Republican Congressman Ted Yoho of Florida introduced the bill in January after Cambodian authorities

The United States sanctioned two Iraqi militia leaders and two former Iraqi provincial governors it accused of human rights abuses and corruption, the U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday.

The sanctions targeted militia leaders Rayan al-Kildani and Waad Qado and former governors Nawfal Hammadi al-Sultan and Ahmed al-Jubouri, the department said in a statement.

“We will continue to hold accountable persons associated with serious human rights abuse, including persecution of religious minorities, and corrupt officials who exploit their positions of public trust to line their pockets and hoard power at the expense of their citizens,” Sigal Mandelker, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said.

The department said many of the actions that prompted the sanctions occurred in “areas where persecuted religious communities are struggling to recover from the horrors inflicted on them” by Islamic State, the militant group that controlled parts of Iraq for several years.

Militia leaders

The Treasury Department said Kildani is the leader of the 50th Brigade militia and is shown cutting off the ear of a handcuffed detainee in a video circulating in Iraq last year.

It said Qado is the leader of the 30th Brigade militia, which engaged in extortion, illegal arrests and kidnappings. Sultan and Jubouri were designated for being engaged in corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, and other misdeeds, the department said.

Iraq in March issued a warrant for the arrest of Sultan, the former governor of Nineveh province, on corruption charges after at least 90 people were killed in a ferry accident in the provincial capital, Mosul.

As a result of the designation, any property the four persons hold in the United States would be blocked and U.S. persons are barred from business dealings with them.

Taliban insurgents assaulted a provincial police headquarters Thursday in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 60 others.

Officials said multiple heavily armed men wearing suicide vests stormed the well-guarded building in the center of Kandahar about 5 p.m. local time. The attack began with a suicide bomber detonating an explosives-packed vehicle at the main entrance to police headquarters.

A large number of civilians were said to be among the casualties because the security installation is near residential areas. The siege was ongoing six hours later, according to residents and insurgent officials.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the violence, saying they had killed and injured dozens of security forces, though insurgent claims are often inflated.

“Kandahar police headquarters initially came under a tactical bomb blast that enabled several martyrdom-seeking mujahedeen [holy warriors], equipped with heavy and light weapons, to enter the compound and launched [the] operation inside the [police] headquarters,” the group asserted in a statement.

Other attacks

This was the second deadly Taliban assault on government forces in as many days.

On Wednesday, authorities said an insurgent attack in Badghis province killed more than 30 U.S.-trained Afghan commandos and captured an unspecified number of others. The slain forces reportedly had been assigned to storm a Taliban-run prison to free inmates.

The spike in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan comes as the United States is negotiating a political settlement to the conflict with the Taliban.

Critics say the rise in Taliban attacks could be aimed at increasing its leverage in the months-long peace dialogue between the two adversaries in the war, the longest U.S. foreign military intervention.

Sudanese women were a driving force during months of protests that ousted veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir, but the sexual violence they endured risks being forgotten with the signing of a power-sharing deal, women’s rights activists said Thursday.

Action must be taken to address scores of rapes committed during a deadly crackdown by security forces in June and ongoing sexual harassment on Sudan’s streets today, they said.

“There has been much recognition for the role that women have played in Sudan’s revolution, but now no one is addressing the sacrifices we have made,” said Hala Al-Karib of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa.

“We have numerous cases of rape committed by security forces, but still the same perpetrators are out on the streets of Sudan today, harassing and intimidating women — and nothing is being done to stop them,” she said from Khartoum.

Military council denies charges

The Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi was not immediately available to comment. The military council has previously denied that rape took place.

From students and academics to housewives and street traders, women came out in force to protest against al-Bashir’s 30-year rule, before he was replaced by the military in April.

But the protests didn’t stop as demonstrators demanded the ruling military council swiftly hand power to civilians, leading to a crackdown on June 3 in which at least 128 people were killed, according to the opposition. The Health Ministry put the death toll at 61.

Sides agree to investigation 

The military and an opposition alliance signed an accord on Wednesday aimed at leading the North African nation to democracy with elections in three years. The two sides also agreed to launch an independent investigation into the violence.

Al-Karib, who was active in the protests since they began in December, said the sexual violence was “retribution” for women’s role in the uprising, adding that there was an attempt to “push women back in the home” now that a political deal was in place.

The protests were sparked by hardships like soaring inflation and fuel shortages, and many women and girls saw the demonstrations as an opportunity to demand greater freedoms in the strict Islamic country, where women’s lives were tightly controlled by men.

Videos posted on social media showed women from Port Sudan in the east to Khartoum, dressed in headscarves, marching and chanting, clapping and singing songs.

But the military response was harsh.

70 cases documented

The Sudan Doctors’ Committee said it documented 70 cases of rape during the June 3 crackdown and that female students and street vendors reported ongoing harassment, including grabbing and the use of sexist and insulting language across Sudan.

Women’s rights groups across Africa called on the military council to end violations of women and urged the international community to ensure those responsible for the sexual violence were held to account.

“The council has overseen a raft of violations including merciless killings, brutal rape and sexual violence, meted out on peaceful demonstrators by state actors and state affiliates,” said the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights coalition.

“We call on the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, members of the diplomatic community and friends of Sudan to call for an end to these violations and for a peaceful transition in Sudan.”

Some Republicans are criticizing the chants of “send her back” by the crowed at a rally with President Donald Trump.
 
But none of those who have spoken so far are directly taking on Trump after he stirred up his supporters by reviling young Democratic congresswomen who’ve criticized him and suggesting they leave the U.S. Trump spoke Wednesday night in North Carolina.
 
The four lawmakers include a black woman, a Hispanic and two Muslims.
 
Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer heads the House GOP’s campaign arm, and told reporters Thursday “there’s no place” for such chants.
 
Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted that the crowd’s call was “ugly, wrong & would send chills down the spines of our Founding Fathers.”
 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says it’s time to “lower the rhetoric” about racism.

White House hopeful Elizabeth Warren is proposing new regulations on the private equity industry, pitching constraints designed to end what she decries as “legalized looting” by investment firms that take over troubled companies.

Warren’s plan, the latest in a series of policy ideas that have propelled the Massachusetts senator to the top tier of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, would hold private equity firms liable for debts and pension promises made by the companies they buy up. It would restrict the firms’ ability to pay dividends as well as high fees that shift money out of acquired companies.

The new private equity rules bring Warren’s detail-driven campaign back to the familiar ground that launched her political career — reining in Wall Street.

Warren, the former chair of the independent panel that oversaw the government’s 2008 bailout of major financial institutions, is a longtime foe of the financial industry who has underscored since launching her presidential run that she is a capitalist. But like democratic socialist Bernie Sanders , a rival for the Democratic nomination to challenge President Donald Trump, Warren is building her campaign around a promise of sweeping upheaval she says would spread around more of the benefits of economic growth.

“I am tired of big financial firms looting the economy to pad their own pockets while the rest of the economy suffers,” Warren wrote in a Medium post announcing her plan on Thursday. “I am done with Washington ignoring the evidence and acting as though boosting Wall Street helps our families. Financial firms have helped push our economy badly off track.”

Warren’s private equity proposals also include new rules that would require worker pay to take precedence over other obligations when companies declare bankruptcy as well as more open disclosure of investment firms’ fees, both of which are included in private legislation she’s set to introduce later Thursday alongside Senate and House Democratic colleagues. Her platform further calls for the restoration of dividing lines between commercial and investment banking that were repealed in 1999, a change that was part of both the Republican and the Democratic platforms during the 2016 presidential election despite Trump’s lack of emphasis on it during his campaign.

The private equity industry pushed back at Warren’s proposal on Thursday. American Investment Council President Drew Maloney, whose group represents private equity firms, said that the industry “is an engine for American growth and innovation — especially in Senator Warren’s home state of Massachusetts.”

“Extreme political plans only hurt workers, investment, and our economy,” Maloney said in a statement.

Private equity-backed companies headquartered in Warren’s home state employ nearly 400,000 people, the AIC said.

Warren is headed to Iowa for a two-day campaign swing during which she’s likely to tout her new private equity plan, the latest installment of a broader self-described “economic patriotism” agenda that also includes a $2 trillion investment in environmentally friendly manufacturing.

Besides bolstering her credentials as an antagonist of Wall Street, Warren’s new proposal also gives her the chance to tout her avoidance of high-dollar fundraisers and reliance on small donors to power her campaign. Sanders, a Vermont senator, has similarly vowed to forgo high-dollar fundraisers, but the private equity industry remains a notable supporter of several of their Democratic presidential rivals.

Federal Election Commission records show that employees of Blackstone, which leads Private Equity International’s ranking of top private equity firms, have donated a total of $102,100 to 11 Democratic presidential hopefuls this year, with South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg topping the list of recipients at $30,800. Neither Warren nor Sanders reported receiving contributions from the private equity giant’s employees.

A federal appeals court has upheld the securities fraud conviction against former drug company CEO Martin Shkreli.

Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison last year for looting a drug company he founded, Retrophin, of $11 million to pay back investors in two failed hedge funds he ran.

A message requesting comment was emailed to Shkreli’s legal team Thursday.

Before his arrest, Shkreli was best known for buying the rights to a lifesaving drug at another company in 2014 and raising the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

He also gained notoriety for attacking critics on social media under the moniker “Pharma Bro.” He was barred from Twitter for posts about a female journalist.

Fifty years after humans first set foot on the moon, the rock samples collected by Apollo astronauts are being studied by volcanologists who believe what they learn could help predict eruptions on Earth more accurately. Faith Lapidus reports.

Australia’s annual influenza season started unusually early in 2019, and already there are more than 144,000 confirmed cases. At least 231 people have died, so far, including some children, although most of the victims were frail, elderly Australians.

This year is likely to be one of Australia’s most severe for influenza, and the government, worried about a vaccine shortage, has ordered 400,000 more doses.

Dr. Chris Zappala, vice president of the Australian Medical Association, hopes the community can cope.

“We’ve had millions and millions of vaccines through the country already, and we hope it’s enough. I think we can put some trust in the epidemiologists who do this every year. Remember, what’s happened here is we’ve got an extremely wily organism that mutates and makes things difficult,” Zappala said.

Multiple flu viruses circulate each year, and they are broadly grouped into two types: A and B. A particularly potent strain may well be to blame for an early start to Australia’s influenza season. Experts hope it will end before its usual peak in August, the last month of winter.

But Professor Brendan Murphy, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, says it is hard to tell.

“The one thing you can say definitely about flu is that you can’t predict (it),” Murphy said. “This season may be a very early season that may fade away and not have the big, late winter peak or it may continue. We just don’t know. That is why we recommend everybody get vaccinated and be prepared.”

Australia suffered its worst flu season on record in 2017, when more than 250,000 cases were reported. More than 1,100 people died, slightly less than those killed in road accidents.

The government recommends that every Australian older than 6 months should get a flu shot every year.

Flu season in Australia usually runs from June to September, peaking in August.
 

A man screaming “You die!” burst into an animation production studio in Kyoto and set it on fire early Thursday, killing one person, leaving 12 others presumed dead and a dozen possibly trapped inside.

The blaze injured another 36 people, some of them critically, Japanese authorities said.

The fire broke out in the three-story Kyoto Animation building in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, after the suspect sprayed an unidentified liquid to accelerate the blaze, Kyoto prefectural police and fire department officials said.

One person died of severe burns, said fire department official Satoshi Fujiwara. Most of the 10 seriously injured had burns. Rescuers found 12 people presumed dead on the first and second floors, Fujiwara said.

As many as 18 others could be still trapped on the third floor, he said.

The suspect was also injured and taken to a hospital, officials said. Police are investigating the man on suspicion of arson.

Survivors who saw the attacker said he was not their colleague and that he was screaming “(You) die!” when he dumped the liquid and started the fire, according to Japanese media reports.

Footage on Japan’s NHK national television showed gray smoke billowing from the charred building. Other footage showed windows blown out.

“There was an explosion, then I heard people shouting, some asking for help,” a female witness told TBS TV. “Black smoke was rising from windows on upper floors, then there was a man struggling to crawl out of the window.”

Witnesses in the neighborhood said they heard bangs coming from the building, others said they saw people coming out blackened, bleeding, walking barefoot, Kyodo News reported.

Rescue officials set up an orange tent outside the studio building to provide first aid and sort out the injured.

Fire department officials said more than 70 people were in the building at the time of the fire and many of them ran outside.

Kyoto Animation, better known as KyoAni, was founded in 1981 as an animation and comic book production studio, and is known for mega-hit stories featuring high school girls, including “Lucky Star,” “K-On!” and “Haruhi Suzumiya.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made religious freedom a centerpiece of his foreign policy, met Wednesday with victims of religious persecution from countries like China, Turkey, North Korea, Iran and Myanmar.

Trump counts evangelical Christians among his core supporters and the State Department is hosting a conference on the topic this week that will be attended by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Four of the 27 participants in the Oval Office meeting were from China, the White House said: Jewher Ilham, an Uighur Muslim; Yuhua Zhang, a Falun Gong practitioner; Nyima Lhamo, a Tibetan Buddhist; and Manping Ouyang, a Christian.

Ilham told Trump her father was one of many Uighurs “locked up in concentration camps” in the Xinjiang region and that she had not spoken with him since 2017.

China sanctions possible

The Trump administration has been weighing sanctions against Chinese officials over the treatment of the Uighurs, including the Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, but has so far held back amid Chinese threats of retaliation.

Relations between the United States and China are already tense over a tit-for-tat trade war, with the United States alleging that China engages in unfair trading practices.

Reuters reported in May that the U.S. administration was considering sanctions on Chinese video surveillance firm Hikvision over the country’s treatment of its Uighur minority, citing a person briefed on the matter.

Nearly two dozen nations at the U.N. Human Rights Council this week urged China to halt persecution of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, where U.N. experts and activists say at least 1 million are held in detention centers.

The Chinese government has traditionally rejected any suggestion that it abuses religious rights and human rights.

Rohingya from Myanmar 

Also present at the meeting were Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, the White House said. On Tuesday, Pompeo announced sanctions against Myanmar military’s Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and other leaders it said were responsible for extrajudicial killings of Rohingya in 2017, barring them from entry to the United States.

Trump’s ambassador for religious freedom, Sam Brownback, said during Wednesday’s meeting that the administration would announce “additional measures” on religious freedom at the State Department meeting Thursday.

Among the other victims who met with Trump were Christians from Myanmar, Vietnam, North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Cuba, Eritrea, Nigeria and Sudan; Muslims from Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan and New Zealand; Jews from Yemen and Germany; a practitioner of Cao Dai from Vietnam; and a Yezidi from Iraq.

Police have begun arresting protesters gathered at the base of Hawaii’s tallest volcano, Mauna Kea, to stop the construction of a giant telescope on what they say is their most sacred ground.

Protest leader Kealoha Pisciotta told The Associated Press that police had arrested 30 elders, called kupuna in Hawaiian, on Wednesday.  

Some of the elders used canes and strollers to walk, while others were taken in wheelchairs to police vans. Those who could walk on their own were led away with their hands in zip ties.

The elders were among about 2,000 people blocking the road to the summit of Mauna Kea in an attempt to stop construction material and workers from reaching the top. 

The $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope is expected to be one of the world’s most advanced. 

Opponents of the the telescope say it will desecrate sacred land. According to the University of Hawaii, ancient Hawaiians considered the location kapu, or forbidden. Only the highest-ranking chiefs and priests were allowed to make the long trek to Mauna Kea’s summit above the clouds.

Supporters of the telescope, however, say it will not only make important scientific discoveries but bring educational and economic opportunities to Hawaii. 

The company behind the telescope is made up of a group of universities in California and Canada, with partners from China, India and Japan.  

Astronomers hope the telescope will help them look back 13 billion years to the time, just after the Big Bang, and answer fundamental questions about the universe.

The U.S. Air Force has a warning for the more than 1 million people who have signed up to “storm Area 51” in search of aliens as part of an internet joke that has gone viral. 

“Any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged,” the Air Force said in a statement Wednesday. 

The Air Force said it does not discuss its security measures and that the test and training range, known as Area 51, provides “flexible, realistic and multidimensional battle space” for testing and “advanced training in support of U.S. national interests.”

The Facebook event “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us,” invites people to attempt to run into the mysterious site at 3 a.m. September 20. 

“If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets,” the event description says, referring to a Japanese manga character known for running with his arms stretched out backward and his head forward. 

Area 51 is part of the vast Nevada Test and Training Range. It has been the subject of conspiracy theories that say the U.S. military keeps aliens and UFOs there.

After decades of government officials refusing to acknowledge Area 51, the CIA released declassified documents in 2013 referring to the 20,700-square-kilometer installation by name and locating it on a map near the dry Groom Lake bed. 

Zimbabwe’s ban on foreign currency, and the nation’s record inflation, has spurred demand for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to try to preserve wealth. Zimbabwean authorities last year banned banks from processing bitcoin and is warning that cryptocurrencies are open to hacking. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.

WASHINGTON — Fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. declined by 5.1 percent in 2018, according to preliminary official data released Wednesday, the first drop in two decades. 
 
The trend was driven by a steep decline in deaths linked to prescription painkillers. 
 
“The latest provisional data on overdose deaths show that America’s united efforts to curb opioid use disorder and addiction are working,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said, though he cautioned the epidemic would not be stopped overnight. 
 
The total number of estimated deaths dropped to 68,557 in 2018 against 72,224 the year before, according to the figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
 
But that number is still far higher than the 16,849 overdose deaths in 1999, a figure that rose every year until 2017, with a particularly sharp increase seen from 2014 to 2017. 
 
Deaths attributed to natural and semisynthetic opioids, such as morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone and oxymorphone, which are prescribed as painkillers, saw a drop from 14,926 to 12,757, or 14.5 percent. 
 
That was the steepest drop for any category of drug, though deaths linked to synthetic opioids excluding methadone (drugs like tramadol and fentanyl) continued to rise sharply, while cocaine deaths also increased slightly. 

Overprescription
 
The U.S. opioid epidemic is rooted in decades of overprescription of addictive painkillers. 
 
The crisis is responsible for about 400,000 deaths involving prescription or illicit opioids, including high-profile victims such as pop icon Prince and rocker Tom Petty. 
 
But there are some signs the tide is beginning to turn.  
 
In recent months, federal and state authorities have taken on drug giants in court for allegedly bribing doctors to prescribe their medicines or for deceptive marketing that downplayed the risks of addiction. 
 
The overall opioid prescribing rate peaked in 2012 at 81 prescriptions for every 100 Americans and had dropped to 58 by 2017, according to data suggesting that health care providers have become more cautious. 
 
But the amount of opioids prescribed per person is still around three times higher than it was in 1999, according to the CDC, which uses a unit called morphine milligram equivalents (MME) to account for differences in drug type and strength. 

The United States is officially removing Turkey from its F-35 stealth fighter jet program after Ankara accepted the Russian delivery of its S-400 missile defense system.

“Unfortunately, Turkey’s decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible,” the White House said in a statement Wednesday. “The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.”

U.S. officials believe NATO ally Turkey’s decision to use Russian advanced radar technology could compromise the alliance’s military systems in the country. The S-400 could potentially be used to target NATO jets in Turkey, including the U.S.-made F-35, which is NATO’s newest stealth fighter jet.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next secretary of defense slammed Turkey’s acceptance of the S-400, parts of which were delivered last week, as “wrong” and “disappointing.” 

Mark Esper told lawmakers he emphasized in a phone call to Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar that “you can either have the S-400 or the F-35. You can’t have both.”

A Russian transport jet delivered the first parts of the $2.2 billion missile system last Friday to a Turkish military air base outside Ankara.

Washington’s decision to cut Turkey out of the F-35 problem means delivery of the aircraft has stopped, and Turkish firms will lose contracts to build significant parts of the expensive and complex U.S. jet.

Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense has said its purchase of the S-400 defense systems was “not an option but rather a necessity.” 

The ministry said last week that Turkey was still assessing the bid to acquire U.S. Patriot air defense systems.

But the White House countered Turkey’s assertion on Wednesday.

“The United States has been actively working with Turkey to provide air defense solutions to meet its legitimate air defense needs, and this administration has made multiple offers to move Turkey to the front of the line to receive the U.S. PATRIOT air defense system,” the White House said.

The White House added that Turkey has been a “longstanding and trusted partner and NATO Ally for over 65 years,” but that “accepting the S-400 undermines the commitments all NATO Allies made to each other to move away from Russian systems.”

Turkish officials argue Turkey is in a complicated geopolitical region, as it borders Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Three years ago, the Turkish presidential palace was bombed by rogue elements of its military in an attempted coup, and some analysts suggest the missiles could be used to protect Turkish President Erdogan.

While the S-400 is widely recognized as one of the most advanced missile systems in the world, its practical use is in question, given its incompatibility with the rest of Turkey’s NATO military systems.

“From a military perspective there is no logic,” said retired General Haldun Solmazturk, who now heads the Ankara-based 21st Century Institute research institution. “This is not only a problem between Turkey and the United States, but it is a problem between Turkey and the rest of the 28 NATO members, so it’s a serious problem.” 

Finland’s defense ministry says a Russian aircraft is suspected of having violated the Nordic country’s airspace.

The ministry said in a short statement that the alleged violation took place Wednesday morning on the Baltic Sea near the town of Porvoo, east of Helsinki. It provided no further details and said the Finnish Border Guard is investigating the matter.

Spokesman Kristian Vakkuri separately told Finnish newspaper Iltalehti that the alleged violation by a Russian aircraft lasted for about two minutes, entering about one kilometer (0.6 miles) into the airspace of Finland, which is not a member of NATO.

It was the second reported air violation of Finland’s airspace this year.
 
In April, the Portuguese Air Force said one of its surveillance planes unintentionally strayed into Finnish airspace during a NATO mission over the Baltic Sea.  

 

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner had reeled in a big political fish.

A major government agency, the Bureau of Land Management, was moving to his state and marking a victory years in the making for one of the Senate’s most vulnerable Republicans. But Gardner’s moment of triumph rolled out Monday in the shadow of President Donald Trump’s racist tweets calling for four congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they came from. Republicans, perhaps Gardner most of all, struggled to respond.

A conservative radio show host wanted to know: Had Gardner heard about Trump’s tweets?

“We have been working on the BLM move, and that’s basically everything we’ve been trying to get done,” Gardner replied.

“I translate that as `I don’t want to talk about it,”’ chortled Denver host Steffan Tubbs.

It’s a feeling widely shared among Republicans in Congress weary of answering for Trump’s assorted provocations about Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants, people of color, women and more.

But as Gardner’s response showed, Trump’s pass-or-fail loyalty tests don’t leave “no comment” as much of an option for the Republican senators running for reelection in 2020. The president has a record of helping unseat “disloyal” members of the GOP in the House and the Senate. Love, hate or tolerate Trump, Gardner and other endangered Republicans will need his support as the president amps up his own bid for reelection.  

There was a sense this week that Trump’s “go home” controversy marked an intensifying phase in the president’s approach and that Gardner may have offered an early clue for 2020 campaigns on how to respond when the president steps on an accomplishment. The answer: blandly and minimally, with relentless pivots back to issues.

On Sunday, Trump launched an unapologetic stream of tweets suggesting that the four women leave the United States and casting them as haters of America, Jews and Israel. He didn’t name the members of the self-styled “squad,” but his remarks were in clear reference to liberal freshmen Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Condemnation rolled in from Democrats and a few Republicans, and Trump offered no apologies.

Then came what was supposed to be Gardner’s rollout Monday, when he tweeted midafternoon that he was “thrilled” to announce that the administration was moving the agency from Washington to Grand Junction, Colorado. The Interior Department, which oversees the bureau, said about 300 jobs would move to Western states, with about 85 jobs for Colorado.

“This is a victory for local communities, advocates for public lands and proponents for a more responsible and accountable federal government,” Gardner said in a statement.

By Tuesday, Gardner offered up a more on-point answer to the question of whether and how much he supports Trump’s racist tweets.

“I disagree with the president,” Gardner told Denver-area KOA NewsRadio. “I wouldn’t have sent these tweets.”

But asked by CNN later at the Capitol, he would not say whether he thought Trump’s tweets were racist.

His caution may have been informed by the election math. Gardner was elected to the Senate by a little under 2 percentage points in the Republican wave year of 2014, while Democrats swept statewide offices in Colorado last year, winning the governorship by 11 percentage points. Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in Colorado by 5 percentage points in 2016. Voter registration in the state is divided more or less evenly three ways, among Republicans, Democrats and independents.

That makes Gardner perhaps the most vulnerable GOP senator in the country as Republicans defend 22 seats and their Senate majority.

Like many in his party, Gardner has a complicated history with Trump. Gardner briefly endorsed the reality television star-turned-presidential candidate in 2016 but rescinded that backing after the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted of groping women.

This time, Gardner has already endorsed Trump’s reelection campaign.

He’s had to walk a political tightrope. To win another term, Gardner will need to hold the votes of Colorado’s Trump-allied Republicans who remain suspicious of the senator’s rescinded endorsement in 2016, while winning over independents who reject the president but are wary of the Democrats’ agenda.  

Gardner has occasionally chastised the president after controversial moments – notably after Trump praised “both sides” following a confrontation between neo-Nazis and activists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that left a counterprotester dead – and he’s carved out a distinct path on immigration. But Gardner has also voted for most of Trump’s priorities. He’s supported the president’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, his tax cut, both his Supreme Court justices and several other federal judges, along with most of his Cabinet.

Gardner, who has a sunny disposition, has also embraced elements of Trump’s incendiary remarks. In a speech at a conservative gathering in Denver on Friday, Gardner, who has bemoaned Democrats’ embrace of “socialism,” slammed what Republicans describe as the leftward drift of Democrats.

“Since when did wearing the Betsy Ross flag become akin to wearing a swastika?” Gardner asked. “Since when did men and women trying to protect our borders and keep our country safe become Nazis running concentration camps?

Gardner’s approach apparently passed Trump’s loyalty test and by late Tuesday was being cited as an example for others in the party.

“Sen. Gardner is rightly focused on policies, not personalities,” said Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, chairman of the Senate’s Republican campaign arm. “If we do that, we win.”

But Trump’s efforts to rally his base of supporters can flip well-laid plans, said one pollster.

“It’s difficult to have that be an effective strategy when the president decides to blast away at four women of color,” GOP pollster David Flaherty said of Gardner’s efforts to focus on a pro-Colorado agenda.