Friends Like These: President Trump’s friend Tom Barrack, a former adviser, and the chairman of the former president’s inauguration committee, has been charged with illegal foreign lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates in what federal prosecutors say was an effort to influence both the 2016 Trump campaign and the subsequent administration.

  The distinctively bald-headed Barrack founded something called Colony Capital in 1991to buy bad real estate loans from broke savings and loans. He’s a billionaire.

  Barrack is charged in a seven-count indictment with acting as an agent of the UAE, as well as obstruction of  justice and making false statements to federal law enforcement agents. He and two other men are accused of using the advantage of his relationship with Trump to “advance the interests of and provide intelligence to the UAE while simultaneously failing to notify the Attorney General that their actions were taken at the direction of senior UAE officials.”

Viral News: Becca Meyers, a deaf and blind swimmer considered a gold medal favorite in the Paralympics in Tokyo announced she’s dropping out after being told she can’t bring her mother, who acts as her a personal care assistant. The US Olympic & Paralympic Committee say they don’t have space for her to bring an aide because of coronavirus restrictions. 

  Meyers won three gold medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics,  but she needs help getting around, like just finding the dining hall. 

  Canada is finally loosening up and re-opening the border to vaccinated Americans on August 9^th.

   But the pandemic is not over. The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus now accounts for about 80 percent of new infections. The vaccines work for the Delta variant, so new infections are almost entirely among the unvaccinated.

  Running counter to their “live free” colleagues at Fox News, morning host Steve Doocy and powerhouse Sean Hannity are now encouraging people to get vaccinated. Hannity said on the air, “Please take Covid seriously — I can’t say it enough.” He added: “I believe in the science of vaccination.”

  Doocy said of getting vaccinated, “It will save your life.” 

Sporting Life: The Milwaukee Bucks beat Phoenix last night to win their first NBA championship in 50 years. They were pretty excited about it.

  Over in Japan, Sweden crushed the US women’s soccer team 3-0 in the competition opener.

The Obit Page: Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose 2005 portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban sparked violent protests by Muslims and inspired the massacre at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which 12 people died, has died at age 86 in Copenhagen.

  Westergaard had been one of 12 artists invited by a Copenhagen newspaper to depict Muhammed “as you see him.” Many Muslims were outraged. Danish embassies around the world were attacked and a Somali man even tried to break into Westergaard’s home to kill him.

  Westergaard lived under threat for the rest of his life. He told an interviewer in 2009, “Many of the immigrants who came to Denmark, they had nothing. We gave them everything — money, apartments, their own schools, free university, health care. In return, we asked one thing — respect for democratic values, including free speech. Do they agree? This is my simple test.”

The Spin Rack: Haitian authorities have arrested three police officers in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. — Twelve people died in Zhengzhou, China after torrential rains flooded the subway. — For the first time, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition features a transgender model on the cover. Her name is Leyna Bloom. The swimsuit edition used to be known as the “cancel my subscription” edition because sports thought bikinis didn’t belong in the magazine. Let’s see what they say this time. — Visiting the White House with the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, quarterback Tom Brady joked that, “I think about 40 percent of the people still don’t think we won.” — Amazon founder and sensitive billionaire Jeff Bezos returned from his space joyride yesterday and said, “I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this.” 

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