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PBC News & Comment: Most Americans Are Wary of Smart Phone Contact Tracing

As tech giants develop Covid tracking apps they say will protect user privacy, most Americans are unwilling or unable to participate…--trials in North Dakota and Singapore get limited acceptance

--Israeli firm sells software that can hack encryption of WhatsApp

--Rep. Justin Amash, Independent, conservative, libertarian from Michigan who opposes domestic surveillance and regime change wars, is running for president

--new fractures in Yemen show that Iran isn’t involved much—despite claims by US and Saudi—reports University of Michigan Prof. Juan Cole

--using pandemic as excuse, Israel considers asking US for double payment of arms funding this year

--Intercept reporter Akela Lacey details how Andrew Cuomo is using pandemic to consolidate power and punish progressives

--NYC Mayor DiBlasio personally led dispersal of Orthodox Jews at Rabbi’s funeral, now faces claims of anti-Semitism, and Buzzfeed’s Matt Berman adds context

--Fauci offers sunny skies on Remdisivir at same time he predicts dark skies in fall and winter

--restrictions will be extended in Louisiana, as neighbors in Texas and Mississippi lift them

--dying for cheeseburgers? Trump uses the law he avoided, Defense Production Act, to keep meatpackers open despite serious outbreaks

--Trump’s double game is clear: support of protesters and religious groups that clearly violate his official guidelines

--NY Times opinionator Frank Bruni says GOP leaders “drink the Kool-Aid” a phrase that’s sensitive to PBC

--Pentagon stalls on recommendation to re-instate Capt. Crozier on the Roosevelt

--in passenger plane manufacturing, both Boeing and Airbus face big losses

--in improved coverage, WashPost adds to coverage of Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden

--Buzzfeed reveals the Biden campaign talking points shared with Democrats

--video shows Biden dozing off during Hillary’s riveting endorsement statement

--in Kansas, Kris Kobach’s voter suppression rules are tossed out, again

--listener who prefers to be unnamed objects to our coverage of Planet of the Humans, and cites this critique by Cathy Cowan Becker