Bedugul Coffee: Friday Morning Briefing: U.S. immigrants' reunification deadline passes, lawyers turn to deportations

Highlights

A day after a court-ordered deadline for the U.S. government to reunite immigrant children and parents who had been separated by officials at the U.S.-Mexico border, rights activists will focus on helping families, together for the first time in weeks, facing deportation.

Trump said he did not know about the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Russians and his campaign staff including his son Don Jr, at which the Russians offered to provide damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Becky von Zastrow often votes Republican in her affluent central Ohio suburb - but her dissatisfaction with Trump has convinced her to back the Democrat in a special-election test for both parties next month. Strategists say winning over white, educated, suburban women in dozens of Republican-leaning districts will be key to Democrats’ efforts to retake the House of Representatives in Nov. 6 congressional elections.

Megan Revell

@mhannahrevell

The @ACLU paid Amazon’s face ID tool to compare every member of the U.S. Congress against 25,000 mug shots. The technology found 28 ‘matches’ with at least 80 percent confidence and disproportionately targeted African-American and Latino lawmakers. https://reut.rs/2NQA1rZ

02:46 AM - Jul 27, 2018

Zimbabwe

Whether you’re a foreign investor, a Western diplomat or a Zimbabwean voter, the hope was that after Robert Mugabe was ousted last year there would be a ‘free and fair’ election. While there have been reports of intimidation and coercion, analysts say it may be classed as ‘good enough’, when measured against the rigging and violent suppression that marred elections under Mugabe.

Joe Brock

@joebrock2

He queues to buy fried chicken, befriends evicted white farmers and is accused of involvement in a genocide. This is the president of #Zimbabwe and the narrow favourite ahead of Monday’s election #zimbabwedecides @Reuters @ReutersAfrica https://reut.rs/2LEmXIT

3:53 AM - JUL 27, 2018

World

Trapped dogs howled for their owners and rescuers paddled across a sea of mud in a sleepy Laos village after a nearby dam collapsed, devastating the area with an unstoppable force of water.

Commentary: Cambodia is home to the world’s longest-serving prime minister, and an authoritarian government that has consolidated and expanded its power on a foundation of corrupt, faux-democratic rule and unbalanced, “urban-led” economic growth. Will Sunday’s election finally bring change?

Sponsored by Barclays: Job security in the robot economy. As machine learning and AI become more commercially viable, will humans be replaced in the workplace? We don’t think so. Find out why.