The Democratic National Convention will be a little different this year, as the thousands of usual attendees will have to tune in from home due to the coronavirus pandemic. Originally planned for an in-person event in Milwaukee, the DNC will kick off (mostly) remotely this week over four nights from August 17-20, with virtual watch parties available to audiences in all 50 states. This year’s theme will revolve around “Uniting America,” with each night of the convention focusing on one aspect of that — from strong leadership to Americans rising up to make positive change together. 

Viewers who tune in to the convention can expect to hear from a variety of speakers, including former Democratic contenders South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Andrew Yang, as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, among many others. The event will also feature musical performances from The Chicks, Billie Eilish, John Legend, and more across all four nights of the convention, as the party will formally choose its nominees for president and vice president.

Delegates and superdelegates will come together at next week’s convention to officially decide on and nominate the Democratic Party’s leadership before heading into the general election. Former Vice President Joe Biden has solidified the number of delegates he needs to secure the nomination, and named California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate just this week. But delegates that still remain tied to former candidates will be handed over, along with what will surely be a number of big promises from within the establishment.

All in all, this DNC will be unlike any other for a number of reason: It’s the first election happening during a pandemic, and it’s the first time that Democrats are facing an opponent who is completely unhinged and trying to derail voting in the first place. The backlash to that — which is already aplenty — will surely surface even more in DNC speeches. So, if you’re looking to tune into this year’s convention, we’ve outlined all the ways you can watch, stream, and participate.

When Does The DNC Start?

The convention will officially kick off on Monday, August 17 and will go on for four nights. Each night’s programming is scheduled for 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.

Can I Watch The DNC On TV? Where?

Most major news networks will be airing the convention, so you can take your pick and watch the DNC on ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC News, and PBS News.

Where Can I Stream The DNC?

There are a lot of options for streaming the DNC, and perhaps the easiest way to tune in on desktop or mobile is on the Democratic National Convention website. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, and Amazon Prime will all also be live streaming the DNC.

What Happens After The DNC?

The convention will solidify the Democratic party’s candidates to take on President Donald Trump in November, and will basically be a moment for the establishment to introduce Biden and Harris on its official ticket. Later this month, Americans can expect to hear from Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the Republican National Convention from August 24-27, before both parties face off on the debate stage and at the ballot box.

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There are mounting concerns over being able to vote by mail in the upcoming presidential election — and for good reason. President Donald Trump has continued his attacks on the United States Postal Service, stripping it of funding and admitting to wanting to prevent nationwide mail-in voting in the coming months. But just one day after confessing to a plan to sabotage the USPS ahead of the election, photos of mailboxes being removed in cities across the country have gone viral on social media. 

Residents of Portland and Eugene, Oregon were shocked to learn at least 31 mailboxes had been taken off the streets on Thursday. The same was happening in New York City, and several towns across Montana, without any official communication from the Postal Service with state officials or residents about why the mailboxes were being removed or plans to accommodate people who rely on them. 

Montana Sens. Steven Daines and Jon Tester are asking USPS for more information by August 18 about why the collection boxes were removed, and how it will address accessibility issues, citing the needs of veterans, the elderly, and rural communities across the state who rely on USPS mail services. Likewise, the senators say the removal of collection boxes could “result in delayed mail delivery and reduced mail options for Montanans.” 

When reached for comment about the mailbox removals in Oregon, Ernie Swanson, a USPS spokesperson told The Oregonian the decision was made as a result of a decline in mail, particularly since the coronavirus pandemic. “That translates to less mail in collection boxes,” said Swanson.

But this is not the first time in recent weeks that a conservative government official or agency used COVID-19 as a reason to curtail the rights of Americans. Now that Trump’s made clear his intention to use the post office as a means for election interference, people aren’t buying that explanation. 

With the Trump administration escalating its position against expanding mail-in voting in November, the timing of this latest assault on USPS is impeccable. In the last week, USPS workers and union officials came forward with reports that at least 19 mail sorting machines from five processing facilities nationwide had either already been removed or were scheduled for removal, VICE’s Motherboard reported. 

As of Friday, the USPS had also begun sending letters to states across the country — starting with Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Michigan — warning their ballots wouldn’t be delivered in time to be counted toward the presidential election, Weijia Jiang, a CBS News White House correspondent, reported Friday. Now, the Washington Post is reporting that a total of 46 states could face mail-in-voting delays, which would result in a mass of discounted ballots.

“The USPS is sending letters to some states warning mail-in ballots may not be delivered in time to be counted in the Presidential election because their deadlines are too tight,” Jiang wrote on Twitter. She also noted that among the originally targetted states, all three were “critical swing states.”

Trump’s blatant attacks on USPS this week should be cause for concern. Spokespeople for the institution say mailboxes were removed either due to a decline in mail, the coronavirus pandemic, or locations with duplicate boxes. But the move appears to be yet another escalation in the president’s continued efforts to prevent USPS from receiving the $25 billion in federal funding it will need to ensure everyone’s ballots are counted this November. That alone should sound the alarms for what’s to come this Fall.

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Michael Cohen, former lawyer and fixer to President Donald Trump released the foreword of his upcoming tell-all book, Disloyal, about his behind the scenes dealings for the president on Thursday. Describing Trump as “a cheat, a liar, a fraud,” to name a few, Cohen promises his upcoming book will shed light on the president’s shady business dealings, including allegations that Trump cheated to win the 2016 election. “I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them,” writes Cohen, who spent a lot of time with Trump behind closed doors and set up his communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

“Trump had colluded with the Russians, but not in the sophisticated ways imagined by his detractors,” Cohen claims. “Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything — and I mean anything — to ‘win’ has always been his business model and way of life.”

This might sound familiar, as Trump has long been accused of colluding with Russians during the 2016 election. Now, four years later, voting rights for millions of Americans are under attack, as in-person polling places shut down in counties nationwide while Trump is starving the US Postal Service of the resources it needs to ensure mail-in voting, with just ten weeks until the election. And Cohen’s tell-all — coming at the heels of his prison sentence — is reinvigorating a demand for answers.

The White House responded to Cohen’s upcoming book calling it “fan fiction.” White House deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern added, “[Cohen] readily admits to lying routinely but expects people to believe him now so that he can make money from book sales.” 

Americans watched the investigation into the president’s 2016 win unfold over two years as his opponents in Congress launched an investigation into possible Russian interference in the election. While the president repeatedly told the American public there was no collusion and that he had no dealings with Russia, Cohen writes, “He attempted to insinuate himself into the world of President Vladimir Putin and his coterie of corrupt billionaire oligarchs. I know because I personally ran that deal and kept Trump and his children closely informed of all updates.” 

But this isn’t the only bit of salacious information Trump’s former fixer is divulging. Cohen further outlines his own involvement in Trump’s affairs, saying that he doesn’t just know about them, but actively worked alongside the president to orchestrate and cover up his misdeeds. Cohen writes about his own involvement in snubbing contractors and business partners on Trump’s behalf, and lying to Melania about the president’s sexual affairs. 

Despite once being Trump’s “pitbull and personal attorney,” as he describes himself, Cohen notes that while the president might have millions of Twitter followers and acquaintances, Trump also has no friends.

Cohen, for his part, pleaded guilty in 2018 for campaign finance violations, among other infractions, including payments to two women who alleged having affairs with the president before he was elected. He was sentenced to three years in a minimum security prison, where he reportedly wrote the majority of his book on yellow legal pads. He has not yet revealed when the book will be published in-full, or who will be publishing it, though many — including government officials — anticipate the accounts he details to be a possible great impact on the upcoming election.

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It’s no secret that President Donald Trump opposes mail-in voting, or that his refusal to bail out the United States Postal Service is inherently intertwined with the upcoming election. For several months, the president has taken a hard stance against the practice of voting by mail as millions of people gear up to send in ballots due to the COVID-19 outbreak. But after months of railing against mail-in voting — with repeated false claims the practice causes widespread voter fraud — Trump just escalated his tirade against the USPS. 

Since April, the president has starved the USPS of federal financial assistance, refusing to bail out the institution in Congress’ $2 trillion stimulus package. At the time, the move was considered a blow to voting rights as millions of Americans would rely on the service this November when casting their ballots. Now, the president is making his position on the matter very clear. Speaking with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, Trump says his refusal to bail out USPS is tied to the fact that funding for the institution would serve mail-in voting in the presidential election. 

“[Democrats] want 3 and a half billion dollars for something that will turn out to be fraudulent, that’s election money, basically. They want three and a half billion dollars for the mail-in votes, okay, universal mail-in ballots,” Trump told Bartiromo. “Now they need that money in order to have the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.” He added that if the funding isn’t secured, “that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.” 

Many have wondered how Trump will attempt to sabotage mail-in voting and make good on his threat to delay the election. Though it seems now that Trump’s being quite upfront about that plan — and it’s going to be by stripping the USPS of financial support by all means.

But the battle against the post office isn’t a new one for Trump: The USPS has long been in financial trouble, and Trump has offered little support. In 2006, the Bush administration passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act to reorganize the agency. The law mandated that USPS pay employees health and retirement benefits in advance, expand delivery to six days a week, and prohibited the service from increasing the price of postage faster than the inflation rate. In the end, USPS lost more than $69 billion over an 11-year period. 

Without any federal assistance, the agency could collapse, contributing to nationwide voter suppression. In their proposed HEROES Act, a second stimulus package to address financial hardship and losses due to the pandemic, House Democrats asked for $3.6 billion in “election resilience grants,” and $25 billion in funding for USPS for lost revenue. The bill also outlined provisions mandating that U.S. voters receive ballots by mail in times of emergency, for instance, when the country is shut down due to a public health crisis.

But Trump is treating the measure as an attack on his presidency, and as such, has ramped up his efforts to starve USPS of any federal bailout. 

Still, Senate Democrats are fighting back. In a letter addressed to the Trump-appointed Postmaster Louis DeJoy, senators warned that any changes “made to long-standing practices of moving election mail just months ahead of the 2020 general election …. will cause further delays to election mail that will disenfranchise voters and put significant financial pressure on election jurisdictions.” It’s up to the people to continue that fight and keep up the pressure until November 3.

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The name on everybody’s lips is Kamala — and that includes Vice President Mike Pence, who said that he “can’t wait” for their first debate. While Pence didn’t quite admit that he was ready to be crushed by Sen. Kamala Harris, a notably proficient debater, many are already speculating what a Harris-Pence debate will really look like. Based on his comments, though, Pence feels he is prepared.

During an appearance on Hannity Wednesday night, the vice president said he’s looking forward to debating Harris in their first debate scheduled for October in Utah. “I just have to tell you, you know, I like the matchup,” Pence said. “It’s on, Sean. I can’t wait to get back out there.” 

Pence then went on to suggest the Democratic ticket had been taken over by the so-called “radical left” — an exciting new Trump administration talking point that has gained some traction among his supporters in the wake of nationwide protests against police brutality. “I think she is a skilled debater,” Pence told the Fox host. “But I can’t wait to get to Salt Lake City and be on the stage with her to compare Joe Biden’s nearly 50 years of public life, the agenda of the radical left, the agenda that she’s embraced throughout her political career.”

Many Republicans have made similar claims about Harris, painting her as a “radical left” and even “socialist” candidate. In a Fox appearance of her own this week, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said Biden chose Harris as his running mate to “placate the very far socialist left of [Biden’s] party.” Jason Miller, an advisor to President Trump echoed the same, tweeting that Biden’s VP pick proves the “radical left-wing mob has taken complete control of” his campaign. It seems Pence plans to continue this rhetoric and likely bring it onto the debate stage.

Despite the fear-mongering from conservatives over “socialism” and “anarchy” within the Democratic establishment, Harris isn’t exactly considered radical by the left. Harris may have a progressive voting record in Congress, and the California senator has been vocal in her support for abortion access and DACA, but many people have been critical of her prosecutorial record, including her support for an anti-truancy program that threatened to jail parents if their kids missed school, and her prior opposition to gender-affirming surgeries for incarcerated trans people. 

Harris has since taken responsibility for the latter, and community organizers vow to continue holding her accountable if Biden and Harris win come November. And it looks like they might have a chance. The Democratic vice presidential nominee has a higher favorability rating than Trump, Pence and even Biden, according to a survey conducted by ABC News/Ipsos. 

But when it comes to the debate stage, Harris has proven time and again that she’s a force to be reckoned with. The California Democrat pressed Biden on his controversial record on civil rights, and she fervently questioned Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh over the sexual assault allegations brought against him in 2018. Based on her impressive debating alone, Pence should probably be more worried than excited for this match-up.

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Hasbro is removing a Trolls doll from store shelves following a number of complaints about an inappropriately placed button that some people say promotes child abuse. The company announced its decision to discontinue the doll on Wednesday thanks to an online petition that received more than 300,000 signatures. 

A now-viral video of the Trolls “Poppy” doll shows one button on its stomach, which is advertised on packaging and another, which led to confusion among buyers. It says clearly on the back of the box that if you press the first button on the stomach, the doll will say ten phrases and sounds. But there’s no mention of a button under the doll’s skirt placed on the “private area,” the video noted. When pressing that second button, the doll gasps and makes sounds like, “Whee!” and “Oh!” which people have complained are a disturbing sexualization of the children’s toy. 

The parent who made and shared the video said they felt it necessary to show the hidden button as issues related to child abuse, grooming, and child sex trafficking receive more national attention right now. The video she made, which garnered over half a million views, sparked an online petition to pull the Poppy doll from shelves entirely.

“This toy needs to be removed from our stores,” reads the petition, which was directed at Target, Walmart, Amazon, Dollar General, and Family Dollar Stores. “What will this toy make our innocent, impressionable children think? That it’s fun when someone touches your private area? That pedophilia and child molestation are ok? It’s not ok!” 

Children are not always learning about consent, inappropriate physical contact, and healthy ways to show affection starting from a young age — not just in relation to adults, but also in their friendships with other kids. Still, childhood sexual abuse is a widespread problem. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), an anti-sexual assault organization, one in 9 girls and one in 53 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse at the hands of an adult. Statistic likes these were reportedly a motivating factor in calling out Hasbro and the Trolls manufacturers for creating a doll with this specific button and function.

In response to the controversy, Hasbro had the Troll doll removed from major retailers and said in a statement to CNN that the doll was designed to laugh when seated, “but we recognize the placement of the sensor may be perceived as inappropriate.” Hasbro spokeswoman Julie Duffy added, “This was not intentional and we are happy to provide consumers with a replacement Poppy doll of similar value through our Consumer Care team.” Multiple retailers also immediately pulled the doll from shelves and removed it from accompanying Trolls World Tour collection items.

Hasbro isn’t new to controversies around its children’s toys, though. In 2016, as Star Wars began a new era with The Force Awakens, the company was widely criticized for excluding the protagonist — a young woman named Rey — from its merchandise. While the implications are different, in both cases, the company is failing kids with either a lack of positive gender representation or by allegedly sexualizing the dolls it markets to young girls.

But Hasbro isn’t the only toy company that has — whether purposely or not — sexualized its toys. Mattel and Sports Illustrated teamed up in 2014 to put a “sexy” Barbie on the magazine’s swimsuit edition, which is typically oriented toward men, despite the dolls being sold to children. At face value, it may seem like a bit of a stretch, but there’s something both creepy and also harmful about marketing a sexualized version of a children’s toy to adult men. The company has since made efforts to create better representation in their children’s toys, even introducing a gender neutral doll in 2019.

While the petition against Hasbro seeks to end any possibility of sexualization in the children’s doll, the company says they are taking swift action to mitigate the inappropriate censor placement. This is only one step in a larger conversation around the sexualization of children’s toys, though, and how companies must remain vigilant in their representation of products.

Refinery29 has reached out to Hasbro for comment. We will update this story as we know more.

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President Donald Trump is again escalating tensions with China, this time with plans to ban the social media apps TikTok and WeChat from use within the U.S. in the next 45 days. Trump has long pushed measures against the Chinese government, taking actions to attack China on trade, defense, and technology, which have further destabilized diplomatic relations between the two countries. In two new executive orders, the president is now giving TikTok and WeChat 45 days to sell to a U.S.-owned parent company before they are completely ousted.

The executive orders seek to ban transactions between TikTok and WeChat’s parent companies, ByteDance and Tencent respectively, and U.S. citizens, citing national security concerns. Both apps could be cut off from receiving advertising from U.S. companies and could be forcibly removed from the Apple and Google app stores, according to NPR. Trump’s TikTok order further plays into the president’s ongoing “Red Scare” against Communism, arguing the app is censoring and spreading information in alignment with the Chinese Communist Party. 

Legal experts say the Trump administration couldn’t legally enforce a ban on TikTok, but “he can interfere so heavily with TikTok’s business that an American TikTok clone will replace it,” Kyle Langvardt, a law professor at the University of Detroit, told Business Insider. Likewise, a ban on the app wouldn’t necessarily impact the millions of people who have already downloaded it, unless the president enforced it at the network level. Such a ban would involve blocking communications between servers and users, which is also unprecedented under U.S. law.

TikTok echoed similar concerns, and said the ban would set a “dangerous precedent” and undermine “global businesses’ trust in the United States.” The U.S. government and TikTok have been in communications over the last year to find a solution to concerns over the company’s ownership. But the Trump administration has ramped efforts to ban the app since July, the New York Times reports. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on July 6 that the Trump administration was “certainly looking at” a TikTok ban, again suggesting that user data could end up “in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” The following day, Trump said a ban could be into effect as punishment for the coronavirus outbreak, again forwarding Sinophobic rhetoric. 

Over the last four years, the Trump administration has escalated tensions with China through a series of measures taken against the country’s government. Trump has put in place punitive tariffs on Chinese goods; blacklisted the Chinese tech company Huawei, with claims China was using the company to infiltrate U.S. telecommunications infrastructure; and more recently, pushed racist narratives about the coronavirus, blaming China for its spread. 

TikTok may be the president’s latest enemy in his ongoing technological war with China, but Trump’s proposed ban is about much more than the video-sharing social network, and things could get a lot worse.

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Fox News may have been on to something when they claimed in June that the Democratic Party has plans to attack and dethrone God. At least that’s what President Trump thinks. Ahead of a campaign stop at the Whirlpool Manufacturing Plant in Clyde, Ohio, the president addressed supporters with a warning: If Joe Biden wins, he is going to hurt God. You heard it here first!

In a campaign rally-style speech on the Cleveland airport tarmac, Trump told his supporters that Biden is “following the radical left agenda,” despite Biden’s center right politics. The president added that Biden will “take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible, hurt God.” 

A completely deranged Trump claims Joe Biden will "hurt God" if elected president pic.twitter.com/cJ8fbghmAm

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) August 6, 2020

Trump might feel strongly about protecting both God and the Bible from a Biden presidency, but, ironically, when previously asked to name some of his favorite Bible verses, he couldn’t, claiming it was “very personal” and he doesn’t “want to get into specifics.” For Trump, the Bible is both a reason to tear gas protestors and something that must be protected from Biden at all costs. 

But the Biden campaign, to our knowledge, has not tried to attack or “hurt God” in any way. Andrew Bates, a spokesperson for Biden said in a statement that the presumptive Democratic nominee’s faith “is at the core of who he is.” The statement added, “Donald Trump is the only president in our history to have tear-gassed peaceful Americans and thrown a priest out of his church just so he could profane it—and a Bible—for his own cynical optics.” 

Trump has gone after Biden for months with a line of strange and downright false attacks. Biden is “sleepy,” “corrupt,” and “weak,” according to the president, who wants his supporters to believe that despite it all, Biden also has the power to destroy God. Trump has repeatedly mocked Biden’s mental fitness, running Facebook ads with tiles like, “Joe Biden is clearly diminished,” and “Do you think Joe Biden has the mental fortitude to be president?” 

More recently, Trump has gone after the former vice president with claims that he embraces “the policies of the radical left,” like amnesty for undocumented immigrants and police abolition. These claims are simply not true. Biden has taken the same stance as the president when it comes to militant protestors, previously stating they should be prosecuted. 

It’s entirely unclear what God has done to deserve Joe Biden’s alleged wrath, but it seems Trump feels that his opponent possesses much more power than we even knew!

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Imagine a world without the National Rifle Association. No, seriously, because in 2020 anything is possible (maybe even good things!) and the powerful gun rights advocacy group is facing a lawsuit that seeks to shut it down for good. New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose 2018 campaign vowed to investigate the organization’s non-profit status, is leading the effort to disband the group. On Thursday, James announced that she filed a lawsuit in New York state court accusing top NRA officials of redirecting millions of dollars from the organization for their personal use and financial gain. James’s lawsuit followed an 18-month investigation that found the NRA is “fraught with fraud and abuse,” she said.

“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said in a statement. For these reasons, the lawsuit will seek to dissolve the NRA.

James’ complaint names the NRA as a whole, in addition to Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, general counsel John Frazer, former CFO Woody Phillips, and former chief of staff Joshua Powell as defendants. All four stand accused of financial wrongdoing, including using NRA funds for family vacations and other private trips, private jets, and expensive meals. These alleged actions caused the organization to lose more than $64 million dollars in just three years.  

“In New York, we have a set of laws that every individual and entity must be held accountable to, regardless of its size, influence, power, or wealth,” said James. “No one is above the law, not even the NRA, one of the most powerful organizations in this country.” 

The NRA has been at the center of a number of legal battles and infighting in recent years. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden investigated the NRA’s alleged Russian ties last year, as the organization feuded with its top PR firm, Ackerman McQueen, and later with former NRA President Oliver North. The organization filed a lawsuit against Ackerman in April 2019 after the PR firm refused to cooperate with an audit launched by the NRA to get ahead of James’s lawsuit, Rolling Stone reported. 

But could this all actually lead to the organization’s shut down? Back in 2016, the NRA reportedly on the verge of a collapse, and would soon “be unable to exist.” And, suffice it to say, things have not been looking great for the gun rights group in years since. The NRA is already facing a dire financial situation. A secret recording obtained by NPR earlier this year revealed LaPierre telling attendees of an NRA board meeting that legal battles in 2018 and 2019 had cost the group $100 million. “I mean, that’s huge,” said LaPierre.

James’ complaint builds on the existing issues and accuses the NRA of violating laws governing its charitable status, false reporting to the IRS and on state filings, and improper income tax withholding. And the number of financial hits it has taken in recent years could have an impact on the organization’s powerful hold over American politics, too. In the midst of the NRA’s various legal battles, Trump tweeted the organization “must get its act together quickly, stop the internal fighting, & get back to GREATNESS — FAST!” Maybe that’s because the organization gave more than $30 million to the president’s 2016 campaign.

It’s entirely possible that James’ lawsuit could really bury the advocacy. But, if nothing more, the NRA going up in flames is probably the only surprise that 2020 actually needs. It might just save us all (literally).

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Facebook is finally taking action against the president’s falsehoods, despite Mark Zuckerberg’s previous firm stance to allow misleading content to continue deceiving its users. The social media giant on Wednesday deleted a video posted by President Donald Trump that wrongly asserted children are “almost immune” to the deadly coronavirus, as parents prepare for the new school year. 

The video was a clip from an appearance on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, during which the president said, “If you look at children, children are almost — and I would almost say definitely — almost immune from this disease.” Trump added, “They’ve got much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this. And they don’t have a problem. They just don’t have a problem.”  

Facebook removed the clip, stating that it “includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation,” a Facebook spokesperson said. Trump’s comments were also censored on Twitter after an account for his re-election campaign, @TeamTrump, posted the video. “The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again,” a Twitter spokesperson said. 

There is evidence that children who contract COVID-19 might have milder symptoms than adults, but they are not immune from the virus and some children have become severely ill or died from it. Despite the lack of accessible and widespread testing options nationwide, 338,000 children had tested positive for coronavirus as of July 30. The president’s comments come as teachers worry about returning to in-person learning. Some teachers’ unions have been in talks to go on strike to prevent schools from re-opening. 

But at least Facebook is finally treating the president’s content with the scrutiny it deserves. The platform has been under fire in recent months for allowing Trump to repeatedly post harmful and misleading content without consequence. Zuckerberg earlier this year argued that Facebook should not be an “arbiter of truth” of what people post online, even when one of the most powerful people in the world shares content that is actively harmful. 

And that’s not the last time Facebook defended the president’s right to post. In May, when Trump threatened racial justice activists during uprisings following the police killing of George Floyd, Facebook said Trump’s statement was a warning rather than a threat because it came from a state actor. The post quoted a racist 1960s Miami police chief who said, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”  

It’s great that Facebook is finally stepping up to limit some of the falsehoods perpetuated by the U.S. president. But as Lisa Kaplan, founder of the disinformation-tracking firm Alethea Group told The Daily Beast, “At this point I give them a participation trophy and not applause.”

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In a heated exchange during a U.S. House subcommittee hearing about the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan repeatedly goaded Dr. Anthony Fauci into taking a stance against the ongoing protests to end police violence.

“Should government limit the protesting?” asked Jordan, a Republican. Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), correctly replied that it is not his position to determine how government can use force. “I don’t understand why you’re asking me as a public health official who should get arrested or not,” Dr. Fauci said, according to CBS News.

Dr. Fauci added that people should generally continue to avoid crowds because it can lead to transmission of the virus, particularly in cases where people are not taking the necessary precautions like wearing masks. “I don’t judge one crowd versus another crowd. When you’re in a crowd, particularly if you’re not wearing a mask, that induces the spread,” Dr. Fauci said.

Jordan pointed to canceled church services nationwide and state governments shutting down the economy — with the exception of essential businesses — to then ask Dr. Fauci why the regulations are seemingly inconsistent when it comes to protests. Dr. Fauci replied that there was “no inconsistency.” For the record, church services have emerged as a major source of coronavirus spread, while protests have not.

Jordan’s inappropriate line of questioning is just one example of how Republican lawmakers are launching aggressive attacks on the right to protest, using the disproven talking point that racial justice protests are contributing to the spread of coronavirus.

Despite efforts to push a narrative that protests are to blame for the spread of COVID, a study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research last month found “no evidence that net COVID-19 case growth differentially rose following the onset of Black Lives Matter protests.” Experts say this is likely because protestors are outside and most of them wear masks. Demonstrators at actions nationwide have commented on the ways people are keeping each other safe in the streets by handing out masks and hand sanitizer. Likewise, experts say people are more likely to spread the virus at parties and in workplaces than at protests.

But Republicans — who have repeatedly downplayed the deadly virus when it’s convenient for them — are now using it to curtail the rights of Black Lives Matter protestors, who have been harassed, assaulted, and criminalized since the uprisings first started across the country in late May. 

Jordan himself has been inconsistent on the matter of protests, seemingly preferring some over others. The congressman seemed to express support for those largely mask-less protestors who wanted to reopen the economy in April, calling sensible restrictions like those of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer an “attack on freedom.”

Both parties have attacked Black Lives Matter protestors over the last few months, making distinctions between “good” and “bad” protestors, and pushing dangerous narratives about “outside agitators” and “anarchists.” (It is neither illegal to be an agitator, nor an anarchist.)

These talking points have had harmful material consequences. In New York state, for example, anti-protest legislation was introduced last month that would heighten the legal penalties for rioting, and we’ve seen the ways that limiting the legal protections of demonstrators can lead to further violence against them. From Portland to New York City, law enforcement have both kidnapped and detained protestors without record. 

That a Republican congressman would demand for a top public health official to take a stance on the legality of protesting is alarming, to say the least. It’s equally alarming that Jordan seems hellbent on injecting a culture war — pointedly bringing up churches and denouncing racial justice protests — into a public health discussion. Based on the level of repression we’ve seen at protests in the last few months, it’s imperative to push back against a line of thinking that will only put more people in danger.

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Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed Ghislaine Maxwell sexually abused underage girls as young as 15 years old, according to 600 pages of documents newly unsealed Thursday night. Giuffre, who previously said she was recruited into Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring by Maxwell as a teenager, also alleged Maxwell and Epstein pressured her into being sexually abused by numerous powerful men, including Prince Andrew, defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, and U.S. politicians, among others. Both the prince and Dershowitz have denied these accusations. 

The documents were ordered unsealed on July 23 by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska and stem from a defamation suit Maxwell previously settled in 2017 with Giuffre, who claimed Maxwell recruited her into Epstein’s circle as a teenager to work as a traveling masseuse. Maxwell would send Giuffre to be sexually abused by men under the guise of giving them a massage, Giuffre said. “I think there are plenty of other witnesses that can attest to what massage actually means. And I’m telling you that Ghislaine told me to…give him a massage, which means sex.” 

In newly unsealed sworn testimony, which Giuffre gave in 2016, she described Maxwell and Epstein working as a team. “You have to understand that [Epstein] and [Maxwell] are joined at the hip, okay?” said Giuffre. “They trafficked me to many people. And to be honest, there is people I could name, and then there’s people that are just a blur. There was so much happening.” Later in her testimony, Giuffre said Maxwell “trained me as a sex slave,” and added, “she’s the one who abused me [physically and mentally] on a regular basis.”

The documents further detail Giuffre’s accusations that Maxwell herself participated in abusing girls estimated between the ages of 15 and 21, “virtually every day when I was around her.” She later described sexual encounters at Epstein’s Virgin Islands estate, “where orgies were a constant thing that took place,” and alleged she was made to perform oral sex on Maxwell in Epstein’s presence. 

Giuffre also described Epstein arranging for other young girls to be sent to various locations. Epstein allegedly had three 12-year-old girls brought to him from France as a “birthday present” from Jean-Luc Brunel, then a modeling scout. She went on to detail a visit from former President Bill Clinton, who she said stayed at Epstein’s private residence on Little Saint James island where he visited with Maxwell, Epstein, and “two young girls” present. 

She said she remembered wondering why Clinton was on the island. “I remember asking Jeffrey what’s Bill Clinton doing here kind of thing, and he laughed it off and said, well he owes me a favor,” Giuffre told her attorneys in 2011. “He never told me what favors they were. I never knew. I didn’t know if he was serious. It was just a joke.”

In addition to multiple lengthy depositions from Giuffre, the documents included communications between Maxwell and Epstein as recent as 2015. Maxwell’s attorneys have argued that she hadn’t been in contact with Epstein in over a decade. The January 2015 emails show Epstein telling Maxwell she has “done nothing wrong and I would urge you to start acting like it.” Epstein writes, “Go outside, head high, not as an escaping convict. Go to parties. Deal with it.” Maxwell later asked to be distanced from Epstein’s romantic life, and asked that “Shelly” (whose identity is unknown) come forward as his girlfriend from 1999 to 2002. Epstein responds: “OK with me.”

Emails between Epstein and Maxwell:

Epstein instructs Maxwell on how to deny allegations.

Epstein tells Maxwell:

She had “done nothing wrong.”

“Go to parties. Deal with it.” pic.twitter.com/vnAK2Y56ze

— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) July 31, 2020

Maxwell was arrested on July 2 in her remote New Hampshire mansion and charged with perjury and trafficking minors for Epstein. Prosecutors said that in certain cases she also “participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims.” She pleaded not guilty to the charges, and her lawyers said she “vigorously denies” them. Maxwell’s attorneys tried to prevent the release of the records, and accused Giuffre of leaking Maxwell’s depositions to the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.

“The court is troubled — but not surprised — that Ms. Maxwell has yet again sought to muddy the waters as the clock ticks closer to midnight,” Preska wrote in response to her attorney’s request to delay the documents’ release. 

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