1. Californians Flee More History-Making Fires

Struggling with historic fires that have burned nearly a million acres, California is requesting help from as far away as Australia. “We’re putting everything we have on this,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom, but nearly 12,000 firefighters are overwhelmed by lightning-ignited flames. Mainly located in mountainous areas north of the San Francisco Bay Area, two of the conflagrations are the second and fourth largest in state history, spreading smoke as far away as Nebraska. Two people have died, and tens of thousands of evacuees now face the possibility that they’ll contract the coronavirus in shelters.

Sources: LA Times, NYT, USA Today

2. Story of the Week: It’s in the Mail

The United States Postal Service stands ready. At least that’s what Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said to reassure senators worried about processing ballots for November’s presidential election. But CNN reports that USPS employees were told not to revive mail-sorting machines that were mothballed by DeJoy, a donor and appointee of President Donald Trump. Trump has admitted he doesn’t want to help the Postal Service deliver mail-in ballots that he maintains, without evidence, will allow widespread voting fraud. But DeJoy told a Senate hearing Friday that he’s “extremely, highly confident” that any ballot mailed within seven days of its deadline will arrive on time.

Sources: CBS, CNN, AP

3. Coming Up: GOP to Meet at the Pandemic’s Edge

This week, digitally distanced Democrats nominated Joe Biden as their presidential candidate. Starting Monday, it’s Republicans’ turn, but their job won’t be easy. President Trump wanted an in-person nomination, but the rules in virus-wary North Carolina will limit attendance to 336 delegates, six from each state and other localities. It’s not clear whether Trump will attend the modest gathering, augmented by other delegates appearing on video, controversially from various federal properties, like the White House, where Trump will accept the nomination on Thursday. He’s also adding uncertainty, holding back decisions on such details as who will second his nomination.

Sources: NYT, Reuters, Fox News, Politico

4. Allies Refuse to Help US Isolate Iran Economically

If you had wanted to use the Iran nuclear agreement, perhaps you shouldn’t have trashed it two years ago. That seems to be the sentiment of letters from 13 members of the U.N. Security Council over U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Thursday declaration, after council members balked at extending an Iran arms embargo past October, that Tehran had violated the 2015 deal. Seeing even allies like Britain and France refusing to help, Pompeo said that the U.S. is prepared to impose economic and other sanctions unilaterally.

Sources: Reuters, The Guardian, CNBC

5. Also Important …

A flight from Russia carrying opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in a coma supporters believe resulted from poisoning, has arrived in Berlin. The head of the World Health Organization says that the pandemic may persist for two years. And U.S. authorities have arrested a former Army Green Beret captain, accusing him of spying for Russia from the start of his military career.

In the week ahead: A pandemic-delayed and spectator-free Indianapolis 500 auto race is set for Sunday. And during sentencing proceedings beginning Monday, Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant will face families of 51 people he murdered during his March 2019 shooting attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. And civil rights activists from across America will gather Friday for the Get Your Knees off Our Necks Commitment March in Washington, D.C.

Get caught up with The Carlos Watson Show! This week, Carlos got the low-down on Kamala Harris from Democratic power brokers and prompted a reality TV superstar, a groundbreaking comedian and a basketball legend to reveal some surprising episodes from their lives and loves. Click here to watch, and don’t miss new episode drops by subscribing to the OZY Media YouTube channel.

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1. How Your Denims Victimize Women

If you’re wearing brand-name jeans, there’s a good chance they came from a factory in Lesotho, an enclave nation within South Africa. There’s also a chance that the woman who helped cut the fabric was abused by a supervisor who demanded sex in exchange for temporary workers’ hours. While strides have been made in recent years to stop the abuse, the pandemic isn’t helping. With some factories going unpaid for orders from big clothing companies, the problem’s getting worse: Work is drying up, increasing abusers’ leverage.

Source: The Guardian

2. The 22-Year-Old Fomenting Revolt in Belarus

Stsiapan Sviatlou is only 22, but his messages from exile in Poland have disseminated evidence of corruption to his fellow Belarusians. He has 3 million YouTube views of his documentary on dictator Alexander Lukashenko. What might have seemed futile is now in full flower: Sviatlou’s Nexta Live Telegram channel is rallying some 2 million people across Belarus as they demonstrate for free elections after the Aug. 9 poll widely believed to have been fixed. In spite of threats to his life, Sviatlou vows to continue as a unifying information source in a country where traditional sources are firmly in Lukashenko’s grasp.

Source: The Atlantic

3. The Virus Is Winning Germany’s Mask Battle

On the meadows of Berlin’s parks, partygoers shrug as police spotlight their nocturnal gatherings that substitute for a night out at a pandemic-restricted club. Authorities are even more helpless when it comes to enforcing mask requirements on public transit or in shops. After more than 9,000 deaths, and restrictions that flattened the curve, officials say Germans have become too relaxed about reopening. Infections are mounting, sometimes topping 2,000 a day, making the looming concern not whether there will be a second wave, but a third and a fourth. And if Germany can’t get it right, who can?

Source: Der Spiegel

4. The Tweeter Taking Times Typos to Task

It all started in 2017, when belt-tightening fomented the dissolution of the copy desk at the New York Times. That inspired the creation in October 2019 of @nyttypos, a Twitter account maintained by an anonymous and avowedly “persnickety” lawyer who insists on holding the Gray Lady’s typographical feet to the fire. Subject-verb agreement, misspelled words and misplaced commas are ruthlessly targeted, with the overriding indictment that “virtually each and every piece of content” features some sort of mistake. For Times editors, there is little to do but take their lumps, especially, as one observed, “he’s almost always right.”

Source: The Ringer

5. Pakistan’s Unlikely Esports Star

He could have been an accountant. But having run away to a gaming arcade at age 4, Arslan Ash had other ideas, OZY reports. Now 24, he's a giant of the fighting game Tekken, having won a national tournament a decade ago and reducing his mother to tears when he gave up a college accounting curriculum in favor of esports. But that gamble has paid off, with Ash busting the Japan- and Korea-dominated Tekken world wide open, winning championships and being named 2019 ESPN esports player of the year — enabling him to buy his mom an air conditioner.

Source: OZY