WHAT'S BREWING
KANSAS CITY MAYOR CALLED RACIST SLUR AFTER DECLARING FACE MASKS MANDATORY Kansas City’s mayor said Monday that he was called a racist slur and told he should “swing from a tree” after he announced mandatory face masks in the Missouri city. Mayor Quinton Lucas, who is Black, on Twitter shared a screenshot of the texts, which came after he announced Friday that masks will be required in Kansas City when 6 feet (2 meters) of separation isn’t feasible. “You walked with RIOTERS not wearing a mask idiot,” a text read, according to a screenshot Lucas shared. “You should swing from a tree, I’m not threatening it, but would love to see it.” [AP]
SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO BLOCK FEDERAL EXECUTIONS The Supreme Court on Monday refused to block the execution of four federal prison inmates who are scheduled to be put to death in July and August. The executions would mark the first use of the death penalty on the federal level since 2003. The justices rejected an appeal from four inmates who were convicted of killing children. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor noted that they would have blocked the executions from going forward. The court’s action leaves no obstacles standing in the way of the executions, the first of which is scheduled for July 13. [HuffPost]
SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN CFPB LEADERSHIP The president has broad authority to dismiss the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a 5-4 decision along ideological lines. The court’s narrow ruling in Selia Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a short-term win for the financial industry that will nevertheless leave many consumer advocates breathing a sigh of relief. The agency will continue to operate, and the single director who oversees it will not be replaced by a bipartisan board of directors in which Republican appointees would be able to defang Democratic officials. [HuffPost]
WHY QANON IS FLOURISHING The COVID-19 emergency has turbocharged QAnon’s ability to spread tactical disinformation and attract new followers. As the online fringe movement seizes on public anxiety surrounding the virus to lure more people into its conspiratorial web, new data compiled by HuffPost reveals shocking spikes in traffic for dozens of the most influential QAnon accounts across social media. Many have more than tripled in size amid the crisis, claiming a “deep state” cabal of Satanist elites is running an international child sex trafficking ring, among an ever-expanding repertoire of other falsehoods. [HuffPost]
THE PANDEMIC COULD FINALLY USHER IN THE 4-DAY WORK WEEK Government employees of the small municipality of Guysborough, Nova Scotia, have worked half the week in the office and half the week at home for the last few months in order to reduce contact with each other and limit the spread of the coronavirus. Now, as the municipality plans to fully reopen its offices to the public, it’s decided to try something new: a four-day workweek. Employees were given the choice of staying on the old five-day schedule if they wanted to. But no one did. “People are more refreshed,” Barry Carroll, the chief administrative officer of Guysborough, told HuffPost. [HuffPost]
CHINA FORCES BIRTH CONTROL ON UIGHURS The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population. The campaign over the past four years in the far west region of Xinjiang is leading to what some experts are calling a form of “demographic genocide.” The state regularly subjects minority women to pregnancy checks, and forces intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion on hundreds of thousands, the interviews and data show. Even while the use of IUDs and sterilization has fallen nationwide, it is rising sharply in Xinjiang. [HuffPost] | 
