The Daily 202: Taliban prisoners linked to killing U.S. troops are released ahead of 9/11 anniversary

That jarring split screen happened on the eve of the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which originated in Afghanistan, where the Taliban provided a safe haven for al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the plot that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“We’re getting along very, very well with the Taliban,” Trump said at a news conference earlier Thursday. 

The president announced that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will fly to Doha, Qatar, for the start of formal peace talks this weekend between the Taliban and the Afghan government. As the precondition for starting these talks, six Taliban prisoners accused of playing a role in the killings of American, French and Australian nationals were released from Afghan custody on Thursday and flown to Doha. Three of the six are accused of involvement in the deaths of U.S. troops in so-called insider attacks. “The negotiations are a result of a bold diplomatic effort on the part of my administration in recent months and years,” Trump boasted.

“Despite objections from U.S. allies to the transfer of the men accused of killing the foreign nationals, U.S. officials did not raise formal concerns,” my colleague Susannah George reports from Kabul. “The six men who landed in Doha are the last of thousands of Taliban inmates released by the Afghan government in a prisoner swap process that was the central issue delaying peace talks for months. The U.S.-Taliban deal called for the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters in exchange for 1,000 members of their security forces. … In Doha, the six prisoners will be kept under house arrest through November, after which their stay could be extended or they could be returned to Afghanistan … It is unclear if the prisoners would be placed under house arrest if returned to Afghanistan or if they would be set free like thousands of other Taliban fighters.”

As part of its deal with the United States government, the Taliban said it will cut ties with international terrorist groups. But there are concerns that the group is not upholding that pledge and cannot be trusted to do so in the future. Nevertheless, Trump has persisted in pushing to withdraw as many U.S. troops as possible from Afghanistan before the November election so that he can argue he kept his 2016 campaign promise to end America’s longest war.

The top American commander in the Middle East, Gen. Frank McKenzie, announced on Wednesday that the U.S. military will reduce the number in troops in Afghanistan from 8,600 to about 4,500 by early November. ”We don’t want to be an occupying force in this country, but we do have strategic interests, vital interests, that compel us to be certain that these entities such as al-Qaeda and ISIS can’t be guests there to attack the United States,” McKenzie told Voice of America.

U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan since the weeks after 9/11 when Mullah Omar, then the Taliban’s leader, rejected President George W. Bush’s demand to hand over bin Laden.

Biden said in an interview with Stars and Stripes on Thursday that he supports drawing down troops in the Middle East but promised that he would keep a small force in the region to prevent the reemergence of the Islamic State and to stop other anti-American extremists from finding safe harbor. “These ‘forever wars’ have to end,” the former vice president told the newspaper. “But here’s the problem: We still have to worry about terrorism.” 

The Democratic nominee added that conditions in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq are too complicated for him to commit to fully withdraw U.S. troops anytime soon. Stars and Stripes reported that he said there should be a maximum of “1,500 to 2,000” on the ground, which would a smaller force than what he would likely inherit from Trump. “I think we need special ops capacity to coordinate with our allies,” Biden said.

“However, Biden said the military should not meddle in the political dynamics of the countries where they operate. He said U.S. forces must be able to coordinate with allies to train and lead to ‘take out terrorist groups who are going to continue to emerge,’” according to the newspaper’s account of the telephone interview. “Despite the ongoing operations abroad, the pandemic at home, and increased government spending, Biden does not foresee major cuts to the Pentagon budget. In fact, he said defense spending could increase in a Biden Administration.”

On Thursday, Trump also nominated William Ruger to be the new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, a post that has been vacant since the last ambassador left in January. Ruger has been a strong proponent for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in his perch as a senior official at the Charles Koch Institute and the vice president overseeing foreign policy at Stand Together, the new name for the network of groups funded by the billionaire libertarian industrialist. Ruger, who served in Afghanistan and remains a Naval Reserve officer, said in a statement last year: “There is no longer a sound reason for the United States to continue sacrificing precious lives and treasure in a conflict not directly connected to our safety or other vital national interests.”

Meanwhile, six Senate Democrats introduced a bill on Thursday called the Russia Bounty Response Act of 2020. The measure is designed to force the Trump administration to respond to the Russian government’s reported program to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American and other allied troops in Afghanistan. Trump has said the intelligence is not solid enough to raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This legislation would require Trump to impose new sanctions on any Russian person, government official or entity involved in the program.

“Donald Trump’s silence in the face of reported Russian bounties on the heads of our troops is a complete dereliction of duty,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who became a double amputee in 2004 when Iraqi insurgents shot down the helicopter she was co-piloting over Iraq. “This bill will force Trump to act by putting important policies in place to ensure our nation addresses the threat of Russia’s alliance with the Taliban.”

Pompeo defended Trump’s push to get the Taliban to the table. “This opportunity must not be squandered,” he said in a statement after Trump announced his Doha trip. “Immense sacrifice and investment by the United States, our partners, and the people of Afghanistan have made this moment of hope possible. I urge the negotiators to demonstrate the pragmatism, restraint and flexibility this process will require to succeed. The people of Afghanistan and the international community will be watching closely. The United States is prepared to support as requested.”

The secretary of state butted heads last year with former national security adviser John Bolton, who opposed these talks and didn’t think the Taliban could be trusted to follow through on anything. Ahead of last year’s 9/11 anniversary, Trump planned to bring members of the Taliban to Camp David. But he canceled that summit in the face of blowback from hawks inside this administration. Bolton soon left the administration and wrote a memoir that includes sharp criticism of Trump’s approach to Afghanistan.

Christopher Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said that “remnants” of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization that launched the 9/11 attacks “remain active throughout the world,” but he added that “it is now possible to see the contours of how the war against al-Qaeda ends.”

“Al-Qaeda can still direct others to commit acts of violence, as seen by the heinous killing of three Americans in Florida at Naval Air Station Pensacola last year, but it is no longer capable of conducting large-scale attacks,” Miller writes in an op-ed for our newspaper today. “The group’s leadership has been severely diminished by U.S. attacks. Its sole remaining ideological leader is Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy on 9/11, who lives in hiding, no doubt fully aware of his vulnerability. … The defeat of these terrorists is near, but experience has taught us that prematurely declaring ‘mission accomplished,’ as we did with the war in Iraq in 2003, is to invite this Hydra-like beast to regenerate. The only counterterrorism truth is that constant pressure must be maintained on terrorist groups that have the intent or capability to attack us.”

In New York, disputes over coronavirus precautions led to split-screen remembrances on Friday morning, one at the 9/11 memorial plaza and another on a nearby corner. The Pentagon’s morning observance was so restricted that not even victims’ families could, though small groups can visit the memorial later in the day. “The New York memorial is changing one of its ceremony’s central traditions: having relatives read the names of the dead, often adding poignant tributes. Thousands of family members are still invited. But they’ll hear a recording of the names from speakers spread around the vast plaza,” the AP reports. “But some victims’ relatives felt the change robbed the observance of its emotional impact. A different 9/11-related group, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, set up its own, simultaneous ceremony a few blocks away, saying there’s no reason that people can’t recite names while keeping a safe distance. 

“The two organizations also tussled over the Tribute in Light, a pair of powerful beams that shine into the night sky near the trade center and evoke its fallen twin towers. The 9/11 memorial initially canceled the display, citing virus-safety concerns for the installation crew. After the Tunnel to Towers Foundation vowed to put up the lights instead, the memorial changed course with help from its chairman, former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.”

Biden and Trump are separately visiting Shanksville, Pa., where United Flight 93 crashed into a field. “The Sept. 11 attacks targeted the cities that molded the two men, Washington and New York, reinforcing the clashing worldviews they now offer the American electorate: Biden’s embrace of U.S. institutions and global alliances, Trump’s distrust of foreigners and insistence that America must go it alone,” Matt Viser reports. Biden pulled his commercials off the air for Sept. 11. It is unclear whether the Trump campaign did so, as well.

“The Trump administration has secretly siphoned nearly $4 million away from a program that tracks and treats FDNY firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11 related illnesses,” the New York Daily News reports. “The Treasury Department mysteriously started withholding parts of payments — nearly four years ago — meant to cover medical services for firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics treated by the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program … The payments were authorized and made by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which oversees the program. But instead of sending the funds to the city, the Treasury started keeping some of the money. … For some reason, Treasury decided to stiff the FDNY. Neither the Treasury Department nor the White House answered requests for comment.”

Half a million Oregonians – more than 10 percent of the state’s population – have been evacuated. Officials expanded evacuation zones in Clackamas County, as two wildfires were expected to merge and have the potential to advance toward some of Portland’s southeastern suburbs. Smoke is blotting out the sun in parts of Oregon and California. 

“Weather was expected to improve, with slackening winds compared with the howling gales that led to so many rapidly spreading blazes at once. However, according to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) and fire officials, active fire spread continues there as shifting winds allow some blazes to spread. … Brown said more than 900,000 acres have burned in 72 hours across her state,” Andrew Freedman and Timothy Bella report. “The fires have stretched state and local firefighters’ resources to the limit in Oregon, and Brown has requested a battalion of firefighters from the Defense Department as well as firefighters from other states to help gain control of the blazes. … In Mehama, Ore., a 12-year-old boy and his grandmother were killed trying to flee the Santiam Fire on Wednesday, which stood at 159,000 acres and zero percent containment … 

“In California, at least three people have died and 12 remained missing in the Bear Fire … That fire has damaged or destroyed about 2,000 structures … The fire is part of the larger North Complex Fire, which has rapidly become the state’s 10th-largest blaze on record, burning about 247,358 acres through Thursday morning, with 23 percent containment. … As of Thursday, California had seen more than 3.1 million acres burned this year, the largest amount of land on record.”

“California’s simultaneous crises illustrate how the ripple effect works. A scorching summer led to dry conditions never before experienced. That aridity helped make the season’s wildfires the biggest ever recorded. Six of the 20 largest wildfires in modern California history have occurred this year,” the New York Times reports. “Before now, many Californians assumed it would be an earthquake that might knock out their power, damage their homes and render their neighborhoods uninhabitable. Susan Luten, a retired lawyer in Oakland, lives near the Hayward fault, an area that seismologists warn is due for a major earthquake. But it is the threat of fire that prompted her and her husband to put their go bags by the door — shoes, a change of clothes, flashlights, whistles, medications, small bills and duct tape. ‘We have a rope inside the house in case we have to escape down the steep hillside on foot rather than by driving a car,’ Ms. Luten said. Her husband studied Google Maps for escape routes.”

• A couple of videographers who went to an Oregon town to take pictures of the fires encountered armed locals who thought they were antifa activists who were starting fires across the West Coast. (BuzzFeed News)
• In a rare bipartisan climate agreement, senators are forging a plan to slash the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas used in air conditioning and refrigerators, by 85 percent by 2035. (Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson)
• NASA is looking for companies to help mine the moon. The agency said it will pay up to $25,000 for a pound of the lunar surface in a bid to start the commercial exploitation of the moon that is part of a technology development program that would eventually help astronauts “live off the land.” (Christian Davenport)

“Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses,” Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey report. “Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course. … The once-lean Biden campaign is flush with cash, while the massive Trump operation is facing tough budgetary decisions down the stretch that have increased tensions around the president. Among those worried is Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who recently told the president she was concerned his ads were not on television in states such as Michigan and Florida where Biden was blanketing the airwaves … The president shared the concern … The decision to slash spending has been ordered by Trump’s new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who has been restructuring the budget since taking over the campaign operation in July, after it had already spent nearly $1 billion.”

Brad Parscale, who was demoted by Trump this summer from his job as campaign manager, had been assuming a large influx of smaller, online donations at the end of the campaign, which Stepien is less certain will arrive: “Republicans working on Senate and House races, however, have been alarmed, as they have seen Democrats take over the airwaves in parts of the country where lower-ranking candidates are depending on the president to carry them to victory. ‘There is actually a lot of frustration out there with the Trump campaign being dark, especially in places like Arizona and North Carolina,’ said a Republican strategist … 

“At the heart of the tension in Trump’s orbit are disagreements over what share of campaign spending should go toward getting out the vote on the ground vs. spending on television ads. … The Trump campaign has opened more than 280 offices around the country, compared with no dedicated offices for the Biden campaign, though the Biden campaign has been doing similar work virtually. The president has been annoyed with some of Parscale’s spending but has told other advisers he wants to keep Parscale on the team and doesn’t want him to go ‘off the reservation,’ in the words of one senior campaign adviser.”

“China and Iran are also attempting to penetrate the Microsoft email accounts of people affiliated with the political campaigns, though the efforts against the campaigns of Trump by Iran and Biden by China were not successful, the company said,” Ellen Nakashima and Dawsey report. “The Republican National Committee also was unsuccessfully targeted by Iran, said a person familiar with the matter. … The news is consistent with recent statements by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence about the three countries being active in the lead-up to the Nov. 3 election. However, according to current and former intelligence officials and industry analysts, Russia is the adversary with the intent and capability to cause the most significant potential disruption to the election.” 

• The Treasury Department sanctioned a Ukrainian lawmaker linked to Rudy Giuliani for being “an active Russian agent for over a decade.” Andriy Derkach, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, was sanctioned for running an “influence campaign” against Biden. Trump’s personal attorney has met Derkach at least three times since last year and has publicized the Ukrainian’s claims on his podcast and elsewhere. (Paul Sonne, Dawsey and Karoun Demirjian)
• The FBI warned of an increase in election-related threats from domestic violent extremists across the ideological spectrum. (Yahoo News) 

Fears of the virus and doubts about the reliability of mail voting are weighing heavily on Americans as they decide how to safely ensure their vote will be counted, Amy Gardner, Emily Guskin and Scott Clement report. In 2016, about 4 in 10 ballots were cast early. Just over 3 in 10 Americans questioned in this latest poll say they are “very confident” that their vote will be counted accurately if they vote by mail, compared with nearly 7 in 10 who say the same about voting in person on Election Day. 

• Democrats are building an edge in early voting, holding a roughly 3-to-1 advantage over Republicans in absentee ballot requests in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The party is also leading in New Hampshire, Ohio and Iowa. In Florida, the Democratic lead stands at more than 700,000 ballot requests. Democrats who didn’t vote in 2016 are requesting 2020 ballots at higher rates than their GOP counterparts. (Politico)
• More than 2 million Michigan voters have already submitted absentee ballot applications for the election, the most requests for any election in the state’s history. (Detroit Free Press)
• The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the mailing of absentee ballots should be halted, for now, so justices can determine whether they should include the Green Party’s presidential ticket. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• The expansion of felon voting rights across the country has created a pool of as many as 2 million newly eligible voters, which means this voting bloc has the potential to swing close 2020 races. (Politico) 
• Leaked audio of a call between CNN chief Jeff Zucker and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen reveals that the network president once pitched a Trump “weekly show” before the 2016 election. (New York Magazine)
• Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly (D) apologized for a racially insensitive joke about his brother two years ago. (Arizona Republic)
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) faces his toughest reelection challenge in South Carolina. (Dawsey and Chris Dixon)

“Staring down reporters at a White House news conference in the wake of revelations from Bob Woodward’s new book, ‘Rage,’ Trump cast his deception as a virtue — a president instilling calm to protect the people. ‘I don’t want to jump up and down and start screaming ‘Death! Death!’ because that’s not what it’s all about. We have to lead a country,’ Trump said. He added, ‘There has to be a calmness.’ Trump evidently did not feel the same presidential obligation to imbue serenity a few hours earlier, however, when he sounded the alarm on Twitter about a number of other topics,” Phil Rucker reports. “‘If I don’t win, America’s Suburbs will be OVERRUN with Low Income Projects, Anarchists, Agitators, Looters and, of course, ‘Friendly Protesters,’’ Trump tweeted… Throughout his five years on the national political stage, Trump has used fear to acquire and keep power. Scare tactics are the hammer and screwdriver of his tool kit. … 

“As president, he has warned darkly — and with considerable hyperbole — of dangers he sees everywhere. At first, it was citizens of majority-Muslim countries bringing terror to the shores of the United States. Then it was MS-13 gang members overtaking tranquil communities. Then it was ‘caravans’ of ‘illegal aliens’ … ‘No one will be safe in Biden’s America,’ Trump declared. Instilling calm, this is not.”

“As the British government advised the British people in the face of World War II, keep calm and carry on. That’s what I did,” Trump said, explaining why he deliberately played down the dangers and lethality of the coronavirus. In fact, Winston Churchill rallied his countrymen by constantly highlighting the severity of the situation.

“Rose Jusino was waking up after working the graveyard shift at Taco Bell when a friend knocked on her door at the Star Motel. The electric company trucks were back. The workers were about to shut off the power again,” Greg Jaffe reports. “The motel’s owner had abandoned the property to its residents back in December, and now the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic was turning an already desperate strip of America — just down the road from Disney World — into something ever more dystopian. The motel’s residents needed to pay the power company $1,500. … They were still $525.12 short …

“The aging motels along Florida’s Highway 192 have long been barometers of a fragile economy. In good times they drew budget-conscious tourists … In tough times, the motels degenerated into shelters of last resort in a city where low-income housing shortages were among the most severe in the nation and the social safety net was collapsing. Now they were fast becoming places where it was possible to glimpse what a complete social and economic collapse might look like in America. … Up and down the highway, motel owners told the same story of mounting bills, customers who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for their rooms and buildings that were slowly falling apart because there was no money to fix them. The worst of them all was the Star … By early August, it was clear that it was just a matter of time before the motel was permanently shuttered. … Some searched nearby trailer parks for a place that might take them. Others tried to blot out their anxiety with drugs and liquor. Rose waited and tried not to worry. ‘Just gotta survive,’ she said.” 

“The vote was 52-47, far short of the 60 votes that would have been needed for the measure to advance. Democrats were united in opposing the legislation; all Republicans voted in favor except Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.),” Erica Werner, Seung Min Kim and Tony Romm report. “Next steps — if any — toward the kind of bipartisan deal that would be needed to actually pass a bill to provide new assistance were unclear. … On a conference call with House Democrats following the failed vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended Democrats’ negotiating position in response to a question from Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), head of the centrist New Democrat Coalition. Kilmer had expressed frustration about the failure to get a deal and underscored the need to renew expired unemployment benefits. ‘We don’t want to go home without a bill, but don’t be a cheap date,’ Pelosi told her members … 

“The failed GOP bill would have authorized new money for small businesses, coronavirus testing and schools, and $300 in enhanced weekly enhanced unemployment benefits. The measure included roughly $650 billion in total spending, but it would repurpose roughly $350 billion in previously approved spending, bringing the tally of new funding to around $300 billion. The measure did not include a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks for individual Americans, even though that’s something the White House supports. It also excluded any new money for cities and states, a top Democratic priority.” 

“The United States now reports about 100,000 fewer daily tests than it did in late July,” the Atlantic reports. “Some of this decline is due to reduced demand: The surge of infections across the South and West has subsided, and when fewer people are sick, fewer people seek out tests. Yet this cannot explain all of it. …The decline in reported tests has come just as other changes have hit the testing system. … The CDC now recommends against testing asymptomatic people, the group that may spread the virus the most. At the same time, new antigen-testing technology is rolling out nationwide. While quicker tests in greater numbers should help curb the virus, they are also decentralizing data collection. So far, the U.S. has reported only about 200,000 antigen-test results. But some evidence suggests that these tests are being used on a much wider scale than is understood: Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of antigen tests may already be happening every day without their results appearing in any public data.” 

• Chinese researchers have begun human trials for a nasal spray vaccine. Some promising animal trials have suggested that a nasal vaccine could work as an alternative to an injection, including a Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis study that found this type of vaccine was more effective than an injection in protecting mice from covid-19. (Katie Shepherd)
• Israel will enter a second nationwide lockdown following a surge in infections across the country. This new lockdown will last for at least two weeks. (Jennifer Hassan)

“The number of patients complaining of coughs and respiratory illnesses surged at a sprawling Los Angeles medical system from late December through February, raising questions about whether the novel coronavirus was spreading earlier than thought, according to a study of electronic medical records,” Ben Guarino reports. “The authors of the report, published Thursday in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, suggested that coronavirus infections may have caused this rise weeks before U.S. officials began warning the public about an outbreak. But the researchers cautioned that the results cannot prove that the pathogen reached California so soon, and other disease trackers expressed skepticism that the findings signaled an early arrival. The debate about the findings underscores just how much remains to be known about the coronavirus, which has killed at least 187,000 people in the United States.” 

• Trump continues pushing universities to keep students on campus despite outbreaks. He said his administration reviewed data from more than 20 colleges and found that “not a single student” who tested positive has been hospitalized. There have been reports of college students hospitalized from covid-19, however the number remains low compared to nationwide rates. (CNBC) 
• One in five young people who are hospitalized with covid-19 need ICU care, Harvard researchers found, with 10 percent of young patients needing a ventilator and 2.7 percent dying. (Shepherd)
• Florida will reopen bars starting Monday after nearly three months of shutdowns. Bars will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity. (Orlando Sentinel) 
• Maryland bought 250,000 rapid-dection coronavirus tests for mass screenings at nursing homes across the state. (Metro team) 
• Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) will end nearly all of the state’s social distancing restrictions on Monday even as the number of new cases has trenched upward over the last few months. (AP) 

The Chiefs, one of a handful of NFL teams permitting fans to attend at the start of the season, were operating with the stadium at 22 percent capacity and had an announced crowd of 15,895. The defending Super Bowl champions beat the Houston Texans, 34-20. Fans booed a demonstration for racial equality at the start of the game. (Mark Maske and Des Bieler)

• The Navy football team didn’t tackle during preseason camp and lost by 52 against BYU. Now, the coach says, “touch football is over.” (Kareem Copeland)
• At least 13 members of the Boston College’s women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams tested positive, causing the school to shut down its program for at least two weeks. (Boston Globe)

“The four men have said in court documents that they all thought someone else was in charge of the scene on May 25 — with rookie officers arguing they were deferring to a veteran, and the veteran saying he was simply assisting in an arrest that was in progress. All have said in court documents that the relationship between the veteran officer — Derek Chauvin — and the others is at the heart of the issue, as each officer perceived their role, and who was in charge, quite differently. Chauvin was the officer shown with his knee on Floyd’s neck as he struggled to breathe in videos of the ill-fated arrest,” Holly Bailey reports. “‘There are very likely going to be antagonistic defenses presented at the trial,’ Earl Gray, a lawyer for Thomas K. Lane, wrote in a legal motion filed here this week. … Gray and lawyers for Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao have been arguing to separate the former officers’ cases for purposes of trial, citing competing stories from their clients about the events that led to the 46-year-old Black man’s death. The officers are scheduled to appear in court Friday as a judge takes up that question; prosecutors have been asking for a joint trial.”

Breonna Taylor’s case will go before a grand jury. “The case will be presented before a grand jury in Louisville at an undisclosed location,” NBC News reports. “Once the grand jury makes a decision, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is expected to make a public announcement to share his office’s investigative findings and the grand jury’s decision on possible indictments for the three officers who fired their weapons that night. … Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was killed after midnight on March 13 when officers broke down her door seeking evidence in a narcotics investigation. The target of the probe did not live at the location.” 

A dozen Black and Latino men accused an NYPD officer of humiliating, invasive strip searches. He kept getting promoted. “Christopher McCormack is one of the New York Police Department’s highest-ranking officers,” ProPublica reports. For years, “police leaders were privy to an ever-growing list of complaints against McCormack, signs that his harsh tactics and heated temperament were pushing the limits. Some of the grievances were made in lawsuits that the city eventually settled. … What stands out, though, is how often Black and Latino men accused him of invasive, humiliating searches. They say he pulled down their pants in public, exposing their genitals; some said he used his fingers to search for drugs around and inside their anal cavities or directed his officers to do so.”

The racial reckoning is global, as well: At least seven people died and hundreds were injured in violent demonstrations in Colombia following the death of a man who police had shocked repeatedly with a stun gun during a dispute over social distancing. Protesters in Bogotá set fire to police stations and vehicles over the course of Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, and crowds also gathered in other cities. (Adam Taylor)

“A special three-judge panel out of New York wrote that the president’s argument that undocumented immigrants should not be counted runs afoul of a statute saying apportionment must be based on everyone who is a resident of the United States,” Tara Bahrampour reports. “The judges found that all residents must be counted for apportionment purposes regardless of their legal status. The ruling declared the president’s July 21 memorandum to be ‘an unlawful exercise of the authority granted to the President,’ and it blocked the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau from including information about the number of undocumented immigrants in their reports to the president after the count is completed. The ruling is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court.”

A review by The New York Times of more than 900 officials and executives in prominent positions found that about 20 percent identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, multiracial or otherwise a person of color. But more than 40 percent of Americans identify with one of those groups: “The most powerful people in the United States pass our laws, control Hollywood’s studios and head the most prestigious universities. They own pro sports teams and determine who goes to jail and who goes to war. … Even where there have been signs of progress, greater diversity has not always translated to more equal treatment.”

Trump is going all in on mixing “protesters” and “criminals.” The president and his campaign have increasingly conflated Biden’s support for peaceful protests with scenes of turmoil, violence and vandalism. Here’s the latest example:

This is the crowd that met Trump in Michigan:

In response to Trump’s confession that he willfully misled the American people about the danger of the contagion, Seth Meyers noted that everyone is “super chill” right now, if you don’t count the growing death toll and economic chaos:

Trevor Noah said Trump is a terrible cheerleader: 

It’s finally Friday, and our food editor Mary Beth Albright is here to teach you how to make a JFK daiquiri because you deserve it:

We will have seven more episodes, one per week through Election Day, on how to make presidents’ favorite drinks.