1. It's not just for elections anymore

Russian hackers have had some remarkable success in interfering in elections around the world, so why stop there? Today, the U.S., Britain, and Canada accused hackers backed by Moscow of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a vaccine for COVID-19. Intelligence agencies in the three countries are warning scientists and pharmaceutical companies to be on the lookout for suspicious activity by the hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, which is said to be part of the Russian intelligence services. It is unclear whether any information has been successfully poached. —Associated Press

• — And just like that, it's gone. Previously public data about COVID-19 has already disappeared from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website, after the Trump Administration shifted control of the information to the Department of Health and Human Services. —CNBC
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• — Going in the wrong direction. As other states relent and institute mask mandates, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is taking the opposite approach. Yesterday, he issued an executive order prohibiting local municipalities from mandating masks in public, effectively voiding orders issued by at least 15 local governments across the state. —The Hill
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• — "Pretty shocked." Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is surprised to be the first governor to test positive for the coronavirus, saying he "feels fine." A maskless Stitt attended the president's campaign rally in Tulsa on June 20. —Tulsa World

2. Briant: What's next in the war on disinfo?

"Two years after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, propaganda, data misuse, disinformation, and strategic influence present some of the most complex and rapidly evolving challenges for researchers, civil society, and policymakers in our time. But how well are we tackling this problem, and what’s left to do?" —Brookings

Ed. Note: Dr. Emma Briant is a Bard College researcher and the author of "Propaganda and Counter-terrorism: Strategies for Global Change."

3. A 'tough day' at Twitter

Some of the world's wealthiest and most influential politicians, tech moguls, and celebrities—including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West—were the subject of a massive Twitter hack yesterday afternoon. Around 4 p.m. ET, similar tweets from their accounts asked followers to send money to a Bitcoin address. Whether the hackers have underlying motives beyond profit remains unclear.

• — In a statement, Twitter said it detected "a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools."
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• — Sen. Josh Hawley sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey requesting the company's cooperation with the Department of Justice and the FBI to secure the platform and investigate the hack. —CBS News

4. What happened to DACA?

That's what congressional Democrats want to know. In a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security Acting Sec. Chad Wolf this week, they call on Wolf to "immediately begin complying with the Supreme Court's decision" to reopen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows hundreds of thousands of people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to live and work in the country.

• — "Last month the Supreme Court ordered the Trump Administration to reopen DACA for new applicants. A month later, that still hasn't happened. This is unacceptable," Sen. Dianne Feinstein tweeted yesterday.
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• — The Supreme Court had given the government 25 days to reopen the program and start accepting applications again. That deadline passed this week. —Newsweek

5. Washington: How business can address BLM

"Doing better means cleaning up your own house. Racism is both systemic and personal. For organizations, it means talking to your Black employees first, before that Black Lives Matter press release goes public. You can't combat the system if you haven't addressed matters within your own network." —CNN

Ed. Note: Irving Washington is executive director/CEO of the Online News Association and co-host of Texts to Table, a YouTube series on race and leadership.

MORE: Footage of police body cameras offers devastating account of Floyd killing —The New York Times

6. Voting misinfo thrives on social media

Facebook's community standards ban "misrepresentation of who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information and/or materials must be provided in order to vote." Yet, according to a review of engagement data from the analytics tool CrowdTangle, false claims, including conspiracy theories about stolen elections or outright misrepresentations about vote-by-mail by President Trump and others, are often among the most popular posts about voting on Facebook. —ProPublica

• — RCV lives on in Maine. A veto effort to repeal ranked-choice voting in the state's presidential primary and general election failed to gain enough signatures to move forward to a vote, so RCV will be in effect for the Nov. 3 presidential election. —Independent Voter News
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• — Anti-gerrymandering petition gets a lifeline. An Oregon initiative called "People Not Politicians," aimed at creating a bipartisan redistricting process in the state, is a step closer to appearing on statewide ballots after a federal judge extended the deadline to gather signatures. —KDRV

MORE: Runoff elections show Texas not quite ready for November's main event —The Texas Tribune

7. The Economist: On press objectivity

"The danger is that advocates of moral clarity slide self-righteously towards crude subjectivity. This week Bari Weiss, a New York Times editor, resigned, criticizing what she said was the new consensus at the paper: 'that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.' Earlier [Tom Rosenstiel of the American Press Institute] warned...that 'if journalists replace a flawed understanding of objectivity by taking refuge in subjectivity and think their opinions have more moral integrity than genuine inquiry, journalism will be lost.'" —The Economist

MORE: Bari Weiss quits New York Times Opinion, alleging hostile work environment —The Wall Street Journal

8. Loyalty trumps competence and ethics

Are you loyal enough to President Trump? That's the most important qualification to work in the Trump Administration. Ensuring staff compliance, the White House’s presidential personnel office is conducting one-on-one "loyalty tests" with health officials and hundreds of other political appointees across federal agencies to root out threats of leaks and other potentially subversive acts ahead of the presidential election. —Politico

• — Ivanka's unethical love of beans. Government ethics watchdogs are calling out White House adviser and presidential daughter Ivanka Trump for tweeting a photo of herself holding up a can of black beans by Goya Foods, the Hispanic-owned business whose CEO controversially praised the president last week. —The Guardian

• — Yes, it's the "COVID burka" guy. Trump has announced his intent to appoint far-right radio host Sebastian Gorka to a four-year term on the National Security Education Board, despite Gorka's previous failure to obtain a security clearance. —The Independent
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• — The polls finally got to him. In a tacit acknowledgment of his recent poor showing in polls, Trump replaced his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, with Bill Stepien, currently the deputy campaign manager. Parscale will stay on as a senior adviser for data and digital operations. —The New York Times

9. Balfour: Populism is down but not out

"Given the poor performance of many populist governments in dealing with the coronavirus, populism looks like it could be magically swept away. But such wishful thinking ignores the reasons for the rise of populism and its likely endurance. To rid the world of populism, its root causes must be addressed." —Carnegie Europe

Ed. Note: Rosa Balfour is director of Carnegie Europe.

10. An American Story: A generous tip

Arnold Teixeira, the owner of the Starving Artist, a restaurant in Ocean Grove, N.J., was unsure if his restaurant would reopen this year due to the pandemic. However, one customer and his family restored the owner's faith when they left a $1,000 tip on a $43 bill.

• — The tip was accompanied by a note that read, "Thank you so much for working through this tough time. You are a big part of our [Ocean Grove] community. We are grateful for your delicious food, warm smiles, and great atmosphere ... Please know we appreciate you all very much. It wouldn't be a good summer without the Starving Artist."

• — The anonymous customer and his family ate their meal and left without saying a word, and their generous tip was split amongst staff.
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• — "This tip restored our hope in humanity. It made us feel so good about what we're doing. We go through a lot of steps to protect our customers, and it gets exhausting after a while, but now we know our efforts have actually been noticed," said Teixeira. —CNN

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