Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: 08/15/22

Playbook PM: Georgia becomes the center of the political universe

Aug 15, 2022

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BREAKING — "Justice Department subpoenas former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann," by Betsy Woodruff Swan

Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference.

Fulton County investigators are now targeting Rudy Giuliani in a criminal investigation, per the NYT. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

WHAT'S GOING ON IN GEORGIA — Three big stories up today put Georgia in the spotlight as the Fulton County investigation into DONALD TRUMP's attempts to overturn the 2020 election heats up, and new information is uncovered about the Trump team's efforts.

1. RUDY GIULIANI is the "target of a criminal investigation" in Georgia over Trump's efforts to interfere with the election, NYT's Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim scoop. "Mr. Giuliani, who spearheaded efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power as his personal lawyer, emerged in recent weeks as a central figure in the inquiry being conducted by FANI T. WILLIS , the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., which encompasses most of Atlanta. Earlier this summer, prosecutors questioned witnesses before a special grand jury about Mr. Giuliani's appearances before state legislative panels in December 2020, when he spent hours peddling false conspiracy theories about secret suitcases of Democratic ballots and corrupted voting machines."

"Mr. Giuliani is scheduled to appear before the special grand jury on Monday at a downtown Atlanta courthouse. His lawyer, ROBERT COSTELLO, disclosed in an interview that prosecutors told him Monday that Mr. Giuliani was a target. Mr. Costello said Mr. Giuliani would probably invoke attorney-client privilege if asked questions about his dealings with Mr. Trump. 'If these people think he's going to talk about conversations between him and President Trump, they're delusional,' Mr. Costello said."

2. Where the Fulton County investigation is moving next: A federal judge has ordered Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) to testify in the Fulton County investigation. Graham had been fighting the subpoena, but this morning, "U.S. District Court Judge LEIGH MARTIN MAY ruled that there are 'considerable areas' of the grand jury's inquiry that fall outside of the Constitution's 'Speech or Debate' clause, which shields members of Congress from testifying about legislative business," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Tamar Hallerman reports.

Graham's testimony has been scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 23.

— What investigators want to hear about: "Investigators intend to query Graham about two phone calls with Georgia election officials, at the same time Trump was attempting to subvert his defeat, that included a discussion of the process for counting absentee ballots," our colleagues Kyle Cheney, Nicholas Wu and Josh Gerstein write.

— What the judge said: "[T]hough other Georgia election officials were allegedly present on these calls and have made public statements about the substance of those conversations, Senator Graham has largely (and indeed publicly) disputed their characterizations of the nature of the calls and what was said and implied. Accordingly, Senator Graham's potential testimony on these issues … are unique to Senator Graham."

Graham released a statement through his Senate office that he intends to appeal the ruling.

3. New details on Trump's efforts: "A team of computer experts directed by lawyers allied with President DONALD TRUMP copied sensitive data from election systems in Georgia as part of a secretive, multistate effort to access voting equipment that was broader, more organized and more successful than previously reported, according to emails and other records," WaPo's Emma Brown, Jon Swaine, Aaron Davis and Amy Gardner report.

— The details: "As they worked to overturn Trump's 2020 election defeat, the lawyers asked a forensic data firm to access county election systems in at least three battleground states, according to the documents and interviews. The firm charged an upfront retainer fee for each job, which in one case was $26,000."

— The path: "Attorney SIDNEY POWELL sent the team to Michigan to copy a rural county's election data and later helped arrange for them to do the same in the Detroit area, according to the records. A Trump campaign attorney engaged the team to travel to Nevada. And the day after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol the team was in southern Georgia, copying data from a Dominion voting system in rural Coffee County."

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Good Monday afternoon. We're not really sure why the video of MEHMET OZ skewering President JOE BIDEN over the price of crudités is going viral right now ( it's originally from April! ). But anyway, let us know your favorite part of a crudité platter: gross@politico.com. I'm always reaching for the carrots first.

ALL POLITICS

WHERE ELECTION DENIERS ARE RISING — WaPo's Amy Gardner is up with a big look at the election deniers who are ascendant in some of the nation's most critical swing states, like secretary of state candidate KRISTINA KARAMO in Michigan, and GOP gubernatorial nominees DOUG MASTRIANO in Pennsylvania and KARI LAKE in Arizona.

By the numbers: "Across the battleground states that decided the 2020 vote, candidates who deny the legitimacy of that election have claimed nearly two-thirds of GOP nominations for state and federal offices with authority over elections, according to a Washington Post analysis."

The stakes: "Had those candidates held power in 2020, they would have had the electoral clout to try something that the current officeholders refused: overturning the vote and denying Biden the presidency. Whether they could have succeeded in practice is a matter of vigorous debate among scholars, who cite the potential for court challenges and other means of upholding the results.

"But the experts agree on one thing: A close presidential contest that comes down to the outcome in states where officials are willing to try to thwart the popular will could throw the country into chaos. It would potentially delay the result, undermine confidence in the democratic system and sow the seeds of civil strife on a scale even greater than what the nation saw on Jan. 6, 2021."

DIVERGING DYNASTIES — Much has been written about Rep. LIZ CHENEY's primary. The outspoken Trump critic is expected to go down to challenger HARRIET HAGEMAN in Tuesday's primary. AP's Becky Bohrer examines the different path of another Republican Trump critic who faces voters on Tuesday: Sen. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-Alaska).

Like Cheney, Murkowski supported Trump's impeachment following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Unlike Cheney, she's expected to win reelection — benefitting, in part, from a new voting format in her state this year. In Alaska, "[w]inner-take-all party primaries, like the one Cheney is facing, have been replaced by a voter-approved process in which all candidates are listed together."

How it'll work: "The four who get the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election in which ranked voting will be used. Murkowski benefits from avoiding a Republican primary, 'which she would have had a zero percent — I mean zero percent — chance of winning,' said Alaska pollster IVAN MOORE."

INDIANA ENDORSEMENT — DEAN SWIHART, husband of the late Rep. JACKIE WALORSKI (R-Ind.), has endorsed RUDY YAKYM for her seat representing Indiana's 2nd District, he said in a statement released by her office. "Outgoing State Representative CURT NISLY, former State Representative CHRISTY STUTZMAN and former Indiana Attorney General CURTIS HILL are also reported to be considering runs for Walorski's seat," reports MNC.

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

POLICY CORNER

CLIMATE FILES — AP/NORC have some interesting new polling on how Americans view the climate crisis. ( One note: The survey was conducted before the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.)

Level of concern: "Overall, 35% of U.S. adults say they are 'extremely' or 'very' concerned about the impact of climate change on them personally, down from 44% in August 2019. Another third say they are somewhat concerned. Only about half say their actions have an effect on climate change, compared with two-thirds in 2019."

Who bears responsibility: "Roughly two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. federal government, developed countries abroad and corporations and industries have a large responsibility to address climate change. Fewer — 45% — say that of individual people."

— CNN's Casey Tolan has an investigation on the heels of the devastating flooding in Eastern Kentucky that offers "a warning for other communities around the US that once-unthinkable floods are becoming more common due to climate change."

The stepback: "Federal flood zone maps used by the insurance industry substantially underestimate the risk in many parts of the country, and the nation as a whole is underprepared for the financial ruin left in the wake of powerful floods, experts say."

— "New climate deal spurs hopes of more carbon storage projects," by AP's Mead Gruver

— "Tensions grow over lack of a water deal for the shrinking Colorado River," by L.A. Times' Ian James: "Interior Department officials have warned they are prepared to impose cuts if necessary to protect reservoir levels. Managers of water agencies say they have been discussing proposals and will continue to negotiate in hopes of securing enough reductions to meet the Biden administration's demands, which would mean decreasing the total amount of water diverted by roughly 15% to 30%. But some observers worry the talks could fail, saying they see growing potential for federal intervention, lawsuits and court battles."

— "In America's fastest-growing metro, a rising fear water will run out," by WaPo's Karin Brulliard in Leeds, Utah

— "Northeastern farmers face new challenges with severe drought," by AP's Jennifer McDermott

WHAT WALL STREET IS READING — "Biden's Regulators Take a Harder Look at Wall Street Deals," by WSJ's Dave Michaels and Ryan Tracy: "Under Chairwoman LINA KHAN , the Federal Trade Commission is questioning mergers that likely would have gone unchallenged in years past — a change Ms. Khan says is needed to prevent companies from building up too much power and stifling competition."

BIG COURT CASE TO WATCH — "Whole Foods' Battle Against Black Lives Matter Masks Has Much Higher Stakes," by Bloomberg's Josh Eidelson: " JENNIFER ABRUZZO, general counsel at the NLRB, is seeking a ruling that would give U.S. workers something more like free speech."

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THE ECONOMY

THE VIEW FROM WALL STREET — "Investors Are Betting Yet Again That Inflation Will Cool," by WSJ's Matt Grossman

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

MONKEYPOX LATEST — The rollout of the monkeypox vaccine has been choppy and riddled with missteps in communities all across the country. Local and state officials are placing the blame squarely at the feet of the federal government, NYT's Apoorva Mandavilli writes. "Officials in at least 20 states and jurisdictions have complained about the delivery of the vaccine, called Jynneos. (More than half are led by Democrats, including California, Washington, Connecticut and Michigan, suggesting that their grievances are not politically motivated.)"

INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

AFGHANISTAN LATEST — U.S. officials have decided not to "release any of the roughly $7 billion in foreign assets held by Afghanistan's central bank on U.S. soil and has suspended talks with the Taliban over the funds" after the killing of al Qaeda leader AYMAN AL-ZAWAHRI, report WSJ's Jessica Donati in Washington and Margherita Stancati in Rome . "The decision reverses early indications of progress in talks between the U.S. and the Taliban and deals a blow to hopes of an economic recovery in Afghanistan as millions face starvation a year into the group's rule."

GRINER LATEST — "Brittney Griner appeals her conviction on drug charges in Russia, her defense team says," by NYT's Ivan Nechepurenko

RUSHDIE LATEST — "Iran denies involvement but justifies Salman Rushdie attack," by AP's Jon Gambrell

FOR YOUR RADAR — "China's surprise rate cut, economic slowdown send oil prices plunging," by WaPo's Hamza Shaban

HEADS UP — "U.S. reports drone strikes on Tanf base in Syria, no casualties," by WaPo's Sarah Dadouch

PLAYBOOKERS

MEDIA MOVE — John Yearwood is now editorial director for diversity and culture at POLITICO. He previously was global news editor.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Vanessa Santos is launching a new firm called Red Renegade Public Relations. She previously served as director of media relations at Javelin for nearly 10 years.

TRANSITIONS — Siran Faulders has joined Cozen O'Connor's state attorneys general group. She most recently was at Troutman Pepper. … Jonathan Bond has rejoined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a partner. He previously served as an assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General.

California Today: Why the ‘Big One’ could be something other than an earthquake

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Continue reading the main story

August 15, 2022

By Raymond Zhong

It's Monday. A new report finds that climate change has increased the risk of a monthlong superstorm. Plus, jockeying for Nancy Pelosi's coveted position is well underway.

The New York Times

Drought and wildfire are the horrors dominating headlines this time of year. But California also faces the threat of another kind of calamity, one that could affect the whole state and cause more economic damage than a big San Andreas Fault earthquake.

New research by climate scientists has found that the risk of a monthlong superstorm, one that would pummel both Northern and Southern California with rain and snow in astounding quantities, is rising rapidly because of human-caused global warming. The chances each year of one occurring are already around one in 50, the study estimates. And the likelihood keeps growing the more we pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Warmer air holds more moisture, which means atmospheric rivers — the storms that sweep in from the Pacific and are sometimes called "Pineapple Express" events — can carry bigger payloads of precipitation.

California has been struck by giant atmospheric-river-fueled storms before. A particularly devastating one in 1861-62 transformed the Central Valley into an inland sea, and Sacramento was flooded so severely that Gov. Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his inaugural events in January 1862, according to the Sacramento History Museum. The State Legislature also temporarily moved to San Francisco.

The state has since dammed up its rivers and built bypasses to whisk floodwaters away from population centers. If that 19th-century storm hit today, all of this infrastructure would make it less likely to cause destruction. Still, the state is also far more developed — with bigger cities, more valuable farms and businesses, and many more people — which means the consequences could still be great.

Continue reading the main story

If there's good news to report in any of this, it's that plenty of planners and policymakers are aware of the risks. As I wrote in The New York Times on Friday, the Department of Water Resources is planning to use the new scientific findings to update the state's flood plans. With the help of supercomputers, they will map out in detail how all of that precipitation will flow through waterways and over land.

California is also working to strengthen levees in urban areas of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys to provide protection against 200-year storms, or those with a 0.5 percent chance of occurring in any year.

As I found while reporting this interactive story, however, there's another side to all of these preparations, which is that they've turned flood risk into something many Californians never think about.

On one level, that's progress: Most of us have better things to do each day than worry about nature's wrath. But there are also perils to not thinking you live in a danger zone. You might ignore evacuation orders, downplay storm forecasts, decline flood insurance.

Continue reading the main story

"When the government is involved with these levees, most homeowners trust that we're doing the right thing, and that it's safe for them to put their life savings in a home," Ricardo Pineda, a retired engineer for the state, told me as we toured Sacramento's flood-management works recently.

"They love to walk their dogs on the levee," Pineda said. But "are they prepared for the economic consequences of New Orleans-type flooding?"

In Lathrop, near Stockton, the River Islands planned community sits in an area on the San Joaquin River that flooded terribly during a 1997 storm. The developer built extra-wide levees, without using government funds, to protect the charming homes and tidy streets.

Susan Dell'Osso, president of River Islands Development, told me that many of her buyers were from the Bay Area and asked tough questions about schools and life in the Central Valley.

Continue reading the main story

"They never ask questions about flooding," Dell'Osso said. She tries to educate them about it, she said. But "they don't even realize, I think, that there's a risk."

Christine Pelosi taking a selfie with her mother, Nancy, in May at a newly unveiled statue of former Mayor Ed Lee in San Francisco.Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle, via Associated Press

If you read one story, make it this

Would-be candidates, donors and activists are already busily plotting what a race to succeed Nancy Pelosi would look like — albeit almost entirely in secret.

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Jared Blumenfeld will be stepping down as California's secretary for environmental protection.Paul Kitagaki Jr/The Sacramento Bee via AP, Pool

The rest of the news

Environmental regulator: California's top environmental regulator is stepping down at the end of the month, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Flash flooding: A flash flood forced a San Bernardino County sheriff's search and rescue team to help seven hikers trapped near Forest Falls, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Jail deaths: San Diego County supervisors are considering emergency orders aimed at reducing the number of in-custody drug overdoses and improving inmate health care, The Los Angeles Times reports.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

Yosemite: Jan van Wagtendonk, a longtime federal scientist at Yosemite National Park who is credited with advocating the use of prescribed fire in managing forests, died last month, The Associated Press reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Settlement: The city of Sacramento agreed to pay $1.7 million to the parents of Stephon Clark, an unarmed Black man who was shot seven times by city police officers in March 2018.
Kaiser strike: About 2,000 mental health workers in Northern California are planning to go on strike Monday because they say patients are suffering from understaffing, The Mercury News reports.
Wildfires: Firefighters continue to battle Northern California wildfires amid hot, dry conditions, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Author: Elana Dykewomon, a gregarious, cerebral author, poet and activist who spent decades exploring her identity as both a lesbian and a Jew, died on Aug. 7 at her home in Oakland.

Carne asada and arroz rojo are just two elements of a festive, low-effort spread.Johnny Miller for The New York Times.

What we're eating

Taco recipes for the most delicious (and easy) summer party.

Homes reflected in Big Bear Lake.Ann Johansson for The New York Times

Where we're traveling

Today's tip comes from Jack Flanders, who lives in Arlington, Texas. Jack recommends Big Bear:

"With a beautiful lake and mountains, lots of places to hike, fish and plenty of water activities, also lots of live music and good restaurants. And you never know who you might see having a meal or strolling through the village. Can't beat Big Bear."

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

An abandoned homestead that was once the home of Melody Gutierrez, now a reporter at The Los Angeles Times.Melody Gutierrez

And before you go, some good news

In June, an image of a crumbling sky blue structure with wood-trimmed windows was featured in an online magazine article on abandoned homesteads in the heart of the Mojave Desert. The house was once the home of Melody Gutierrez, now a reporter at The Los Angeles Times.

Gutierrez recently wrote about growing up on five acres in the desert, catching iguanas and rattlesnakes. In 1990, her parents moved her and her two siblings into a 714-square-foot house in Wonder Valley, just east of Twentynine Palms, to try to secure a safer and more affordable life.

Gutierrez and her siblings walked a half-mile to a bus stop to go to school. Her family carved their names into concrete they poured on the front patio. They took short showers because there wasn't always money to fill the water tank perched on the roof.

But after seven years, they moved away. And Gutierrez didn't ever return to where she had grown up — until last year.

When Gutierrez visited the sky blue home again, she found her old Barbie among the debris. She spotted a sign her dad had painted and recognized the blinds he had put up. It conjured emotions she hadn't been expecting.

Childhood homes, especially those people live in between the ages of 5 and 12, tend to have an especially strong pull, with adults wanting to see them again, Jerry Burger, a retired Santa Clara University psychology professor, told Gutierrez.

"It seems to be those are key years," he said. "For many people their identity is tied up with that place, with that time."