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Four people have died, and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses are without power in Texas following severe storms that struck the Houston area on Thursday night. Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña reported that two people were killed by fallen trees and one in a crane accident, though these causes are preliminary and not officially confirmed. No details were provided about the fourth death.
www.cnn.com
FBI special agents shot and killed a Utah man Wednesday while attempting to arrest him for allegedly making threats against President Joe Biden ahead of the president’s trip to the state. The man, Craig Robertson, was facing three federal charges, including threats against the president as well as influencing, impeding and retaliating against federal law enforcement officers by threat. Investigators noted that Robertson appears to owns “a sniper rifle” and several other firearms. Some of the threats happened just ahead of Biden’s planned trip to Utah on Wednesday evening. “I HEAR BIDEN IS COMING TO UTAH,” one threat read, according to prosecutors. “DIGGING OUT MY OLD GHILLE SUIT AND CLEANING THE DUST OFF THE M24 SNIPER RIFLE. WELCOM, BUFFOON-IN-CHIEF!” Robertson also posted online threats in recent months against other Democratic politicians and prosecutors who have brought cases against former President Donald Trump. The case comes amid heightened vitriol aimed at national and local leaders in the lead-up to the 2024 election and what FBI Director Christopher Wray has called an “unprecedented” level of threats against FBI agents. In a post on Monday Robertson said, “Hey FBI, you still monitoring my social media? Checking so I can be sure to have a loaded gun handy in case you drop by again.”
www.theguardian.com
Six people were killed in the unprecedented wildfires that tore through the Hawaiian island of Maui overnight, authorities said. The fires, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina, and left at least two dozen people injured, officials said at a press conference Wednesday. There have been 13 evacuations for three fires. Rescuers with the US Coast Guard pulled a dozen people from the ocean water off Lahaina after they had dived in to escape smoke and flames. Burn patients have been flown to the island of Oahu, officials said.
Delivering a win for abortion rights advocates, Ohio’s Issue 1 will fail, the Associate Press projects. The Republican-backed ballot initiative would have increased the threshold to amend the state's constitution, making it more difficult for a measure that would enshrine abortion rights into the state's constitution to pass later this year. A "yes" vote on Issue 1 meant that constitutional amendments, including the abortion amendment, would have needed 60% support, rather than the existing minimum of 50% plus one. The increased threshold would have been put into place immediately if Issue 1 had passed. Issue 1 also would have created more strict signature requirements for citizen-led measures to appear on the ballot. Currently, organizers must collect a number of signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election from half of Ohio’s 88 counties. If Issue 1 had passed, organizers would have needed signatures from all 88 counties.
www.voiceofeurope.com
The German prosecutor’s office found messages of illegal content, including Nazi symbolism, in chats involving five officers from three different police districts. These violations were uncovered during investigations in the North Rhine-Westphalia region. According to Annet Milk, the lead prosecutor in the investigation, these five individuals, aged 22 and 25, are suspected of exchanging Nazi symbolism in chats and possessing child pornography during their training. Three of the accused belong to the police department in Recklinghausen and one each to the police departments in Kleve and Borken. Milk stated that the chats were discovered during an investigation involving a sixth suspect. The prosecutor’s office has charged a former police officer with exchanging far-right extremist symbolism in chats and with possession and distribution of child pornography. He had worked at the police headquarters for some time after completing his training. Searches were conducted at the homes of three police officers last week.
www.theguardian.com
A dramatic brawl on the Montgomery, Alabama, riverfront pitted people standing up for a Black riverboat worker against a group of white people who began beating him for telling them to move their illegally parked pontoon. The Saturday night fight, which was captured in multiple videos posted to social media, appeared to unfold largely along racial lines. And many social media users celebrated footage of the riverfront dust-up, which showed the white assailants get the tables turned on them by Black people who rushed to the riverboat worker’s aid. “This is not … 1963 anymore,” read one comment, alluding to the year before the signing of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race. Montgomery police confirmed they responded to reports of a disturbance on the 200 block of Coosa Street in the area of the Montgomery riverfront park. They said officers had “located a large group of subjects engaged in a physical altercation”. “Several subjects have been detained, and any charges are pending,” a police statement added, without elaborating. The brawl appeared to start when a pontoon boat prevented a larger river boat from docking. When a Black riverboat worker objected, he was attacked by a group of white men. The conflict escalated when a group of about six Black men from the riverboat confronted the white party. Cheered on by bystanders, they beat three white men and two women, at least one of whom could be seen first striking others by running up and throwing her body into them from behind. At least two of the women jumped or were pushed into the river. A third was beaten over the head with a folding chair, video showed. After the arrival of police officers, the brawl subsided – and then briefly reignited before police began cuffing the participants, Black and white. NBC station WSFA of Montgomery reported that four arrest warrants have been issued in connection with the altercation and “there’s a possibility more will follow after the review of additional video”. Police also appealed to the public for help in determining what had happened.
www.theguardian.com
Air pollution is helping to drive a rise in antibiotic resistance that poses a significant threat to human health worldwide, a global study suggests. The analysis, using data from more than 100 countries spanning nearly two decades, indicates that increased air pollution is linked with rising antibiotic resistance across every country and continent. It also suggests the link between the two has strengthened over time, with increases in air pollution levels coinciding with larger rises in antibiotic resistance. “Our analysis presents strong evidence that increasing levels of air pollution are associated with increased risk of antibiotic resistance,” researchers from China and the UK wrote. “This analysis is the first to show how air pollution affects antibiotic resistance globally.” Their findings are published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal. Antibiotic resistance is one of the fastest-growing threats to global health. It can affect people of any age in any country and is already killing 1.3 million people a year, according to estimates.
apnews.com
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — After days of silence, NASA has heard from Voyager 2 in interstellar space billions of miles away. Flight controllers accidentally sent a wrong command nearly two weeks ago that tilted the spacecraft’s antenna away from Earth and severed contact. NASA’s Deep Space Network, giant radio antennas across the globe, picked up a “heartbeat signal,” meaning the 46-year-old craft is alive and operating, project manager Suzanne Dodd said in an email Tuesday. The news “buoyed our spirits,” Dodd said. Flight controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California will now try to turn Voyager 2’s antenna back toward Earth. If the command doesn’t work — and controllers doubt it will — they’ll have to wait until October for an automatic spacecraft reset. The antenna is only 2% off-kilter. “That is a long time to wait, so we’ll try sending up commands several times” before then, Dodd said. Voyager 2 rocketed into space in 1977, along with its identical twin Voyager 1, on a quest to explore the outer planets. Still communicating and working fine, Voyager 1 is now 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, making it the most distant spacecraft. Voyager 2 trails its twin in interstellar space at more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from Earth. At that distance, it takes more than 18 hours for a signal to travel one way.
www.theguardian.com
For centuries, wolves have roamed the mountain ranges of Andalucía in southern Spain, but after years of decline the creature has been officially declared extinct in the region. Since 2003, the regional government has carried out a census of the wolf (Canis lupus signatus) population in an effort to monitor the species and reduce conflict with the local population, farmers in particular. However, in a report, the Andalucian government’s environment department says that “since 2020 there has been no sign of the wolf being present in Andalucía”, in spite of it being a protected species. Up until at least 2010 it was estimated there were six to eight wolfpacks in the region, mostly in the Sierra Morena, comprising up to 56 individuals. Despite the wolf being declared extinct only now, experts say there has not been any evidence of wolves in Andalucía since 2013, and probably no reproductive group since 2003. “This is bad news and it confirms the negative trend for the few existing wolfpacks in southern Spain, which are threatened through being physically and genetically isolated from wolves in the rest of Spain, by loss of habitat, poaching and illegal hunting,” said Luis Suárez, the conservation coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund in Spain.
www.nbcnews.com
"Last night we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy and belief in the importance of kindness," according to a statement posted to his Facebook. "Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit. A gifted and prolific talent, he will forever live in the comedy pantheon and in our hearts as a treasured friend and man of remarkable character and generosity of spirit."
www.theguardian.com
A voting rights group in Florida filed a lawsuit against the rightwing governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, saying his administration created a maze of bureaucratic and sometimes violent obstacles to discourage formerly incarcerated citizens from exercising their right to vote. Florida voters in 2018 overwhelmingly passed a constitutional referendum, called amendment 4, that lifted the state’s lifetime voting ban for people with felony convictions. Yet what ensued in the years since 2018 was an aggressive campaign, led by DeSantis, to sow confusion and fear among formerly incarcerated people. The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), which championed amendment 4, said state officials have continued to disenfranchise 1.4 million Florida residents – roughly a quarter of the state’s eligible Black voters.
www.cnn.com
Sinéad O’Connor knew the value of her music legacy. In a 2021 interview with People magazine to promote her memoir “Rememberings,” O’Connor said she had explained to her children the importance of protecting her music and finances. To that end, she said she told them to call her accountant before they telephoned 911 should she ever be found dead. “See, when the artists are dead, they’re much more valuable than when they’re alive,” she told the publication. “Tupac has released way more albums since he died than he ever did alive, so it’s kind of gross what record companies do.” “That’s why I’ve always instructed my children since they were very small, ‘If your mother drops dead tomorrow, before you called 911, call my accountant and make sure the record companies don’t start releasing my records and not telling you where the money is,’” she further explained. The Irish singer died this week after being found unresponsive at a home in London. She was 56. No cause of death has been released, but London police said Thursday it was not being treated as suspicious. O’Connor was the mother of four children. Her 17-year-old son Shane died last year after going missing in the days prior. She was a vocalist known for her pure and crisp voice, paired with exceptional songwriting abilities that evoked her views on politics, spirituality, history and philosophy. Her first album, “The Lion and the Cobra,” was released to critical acclaim in 1987, but it was O’Connor’s 1990 sophomore album, “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” which broke her through as a well-known artist.
The pile-on effect of mounting legal charges against former President Trump may be starting to take a toll, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saying they believe Trump has done "nothing wrong" dropped 9 points in the last month, from 50% to 41%. Trump also dropped 6 points in support with that same group when asked whether they were more likely to support Trump or another candidate, if he continues to run for president. Still, a solid majority — 58% — continue to say they would support Trump as their standard-bearer, so more polling and time would be necessary to see if this is a trend, if it continues and if it has a real effect on his chances in the GOP primary. He continues to lead the field by wide margins.
Three military veterans testified in Congress' highly anticipated hearing on UFOs Wednesday, including a former Air Force intelligence officer who claimed the U.S. government has operated a secret "multi-decade" reverse engineering program of recovered vessels. He also said the U.S. has recovered non-human "biologics" from alleged crash sites. But while the topic of "little green men" did come up, much of the discussion centered on improving processes for reporting unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs — the military's term for UFOs (increasingly, UAP refers to "anomalous" rather than "aerial" phenomena, to account for sightings in both air and water). There are also calls to remove the stigma for aviators who report UAP sightings and to ensure oversight of government programs that investigate them. Retired Maj. David Grusch, who went from being part of the Pentagon's UAP Task Force to becoming a whistleblower, told the House Oversight Committee's national security subcommittee that he had been denied access to some government UFO programs but that he knows the "exact locations" of UAPs in U.S. possession.
The Justice Department has launched an investigation into Memphis and its police department for its use of force, searches and arrests and potential discriminatory policing. Officials for the DOJ announced the launch of the civil inquiry Thursday saying the goal of the pattern or practice investigation was to find out if there are systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law by the Memphis Police Department. "Every person is entitled to constitutional and non-discriminatory policing in our country," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement. "Based on an extensive review of publicly available information and information provided to us, there are grounds to open this investigation now." She said this information included reports that Memphis police officers made racially discriminatory stops of Black people for minor violations. "The Justice Department will conduct a thorough and objective investigation into allegations of unlawful discrimination and Fourth Amendment violations. Unlawful policing undermines community trust, which is essential to public safety," she said. This all comes more than seven months after the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, who was beaten by officers from the Memphis Police Department.
www.cnn.com
Sen. Dianne Feinstein had to be corrected and told to vote during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday. The California Democrat, who has been in frail health following a shingles diagnosis in the spring, has appeared confused at times since her return to the Capitol. Feinstein, who at 90 is the oldest member serving in the US Senate, has faced questions about her health in recent years, and members of her own party called on her to resign her Senate seat after an extended absence earlier this year following the shingles diagnosis. She returned to Washington in June. During Thursday’s hearing, Feinstein was meant to cast her vote on the Defense Appropriations bill, requiring her to say “Aye” or “Nay,” when her name was called. When she didn’t answer, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state tried to prompt her. “Say aye,” she said, repeating herself three times to Feinstein. Feinstein then started to read from prepared remarks, and was interrupted by an aide whispering in her ear. “Yeah,” Murray said once again. “Just say ‘aye.’” “OK, just,” Feinstein replied. “Aye,” Murray repeated once more. Then Feinstein sat back in her chair. “Aye,” she said, casting her vote. A Feinstein spokesperson later said, “Trying to complete all of the appropriations bills before recess, the committee markup this morning was a little chaotic, constantly switching back and forth between statements, votes, and debate and the order of bills.” “The senator was preoccupied, didn’t realize debate had just ended and a vote was called,” the spokesperson said. “She started to give a statement, was informed it was a vote and then cast her vote.” Feinstein announced earlier this year that she will not run for reelection in 2024. During her absence this spring, Democrats publicly worried her absence would slow the process of confirming nominees through the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Feinstein is a member. At the time, Feinstein disputed that characterization, saying that judicial nominations had not been significantly delayed.
www.theguardian.com
Trump says DoJ gave 'no indication of notice' to his lawyers Donald Trump said his attorneys had a “productive” meeting with the Department of Justice this morning, and that “no indication of notice” was given during the meeting. Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote: >My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country. No indication of notice was given during the meeting — Do not trust the Fake News on anything! It was reported earlier today that Trump’s lawyers were seen entering the offices of special counsel Jack Smith, a week after the former president said he had received a target letter from Smith. According to NBC, Trump’s attorneys were told to expect an indictment against him.
theintercept.com
Summary: As Actors Strike for AI Protections, Netflix Lists $900,000 AI Job As Hollywood executives insist it is "just not realistic" to pay actors more, they are spending lavishly on AI programs. ~ In one case, Netflix is offering as much as $900,000 for a single AI product manager. ~ Just after the actors' strike was authorized, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced "a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors' digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members." The offer prompted comparisons to an episode of the dystopian sci-fi TV series "Black Mirror," which depicted actress Salma Hayek locked in a Kafkaesque struggle with a studio which was using her scanned digital likeness against her will. Among the striking actors' demands are protections against their scanned likeness being manipulated by AI without adequate compensation for the actors. "They propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day's pay and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation," the chief negotiator for the actors' union, SAG-AFTRA, said. Entertainment writers, too, must contend with their work being replaced by AI programs like ChatGPT that are capable of generating text in response to queries. Writers represented by the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since May 7 demanding, among other things, labor safeguards against AI. A screenwriter for films like "Big Fish" and "Charlie's Angels," explained that the WGA wants to make sure that "ChatGPT and its cousins can't be credited with writing a screenplay." ~ $300 for two hours of work "express[ing] different emotions" and "improvis[ing] brief scenes" to "train an AI database to better express human emotions." The posting is specially catered to attract striking workers, stressing that the gig is for "research" purposes and therefore "does not qualify as struck work". ~ "The 'research' side of this is largely a red herring." ~ "OpenAI is the nonprofit that created AI programs like ChatGPT and DALL-E. "Download everything on the internet and no worries about copyrights, because it's a nonprofit and research. ~ "Netflix's posting for a $900,000-a-year AI product manager job makes clear that the AI goes beyond just the algorithms that determine what shows are recommended to users. ~ "Artificial Intelligence is powering innovation in all areas of the business," including by helping them to "create great content." A research section on Netflix's website describes its machine learning platform, noting that while it was historically used for things like recommendations, it is now being applied to content creation. "Historically, personalization has been the most well-known area, where machine learning powers our recommendation algorithms. We're also using machine learning to help shape our catalog of movies and TV shows by learning characteristics that make content successful. ~ In another job posting, Netflix seeks a technical director for generative AI in its research and development tech lab for its gaming studio. Generative AI is the type of AI that can produce text, images, and video from input data — a key component of original content creation but which can also be used for other purposes like advertising. Generative AI is distinct from older, more familiar AI models that provide things like algorithmic recommendations or genre tags. "All those models are typically called discriminatory models or classifiers: They tell you what something is". ~ "Generative models are the ones with the ethics problems, explaining how classifiers are based on carefully using limited training data to generate recommendations. Netflix offers up to $650,000 for its generative AI technical director role. Video game writers have expressed concerns about losing work to generative AI, with one major game developer, Ubisoft, saying that it is already using generative AI to write dialogue for nonplayer characters. ~ Crime Stories," centered around crime stories, "uses generative AI to help tell them." ~ In one, the entertainment giant is looking for a senior AI engineer to "drive innovation across our cinematic pipelines and theatrical experiences." ~ "In fact, we're already starting to use AI to create some efficiencies and ultimately to better serve consumers, as recently reported by journalist Lee Fang. ~ While striking actors are seeking to protect their own IP from AI so is Disney. "AI isn't bad, it's just that the workers need to own and control the means of production!"
www.cnn.com
The White House condemned Fox News on Tuesday over remarks made by one of its top hosts about the holocaust, denouncing the comments as a “horrid, dangerous, and extreme lie” that “insults the memory of the millions of people who suffered from the evils” committed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. The comments, made by prime time host Greg Gutfeld, came during a discussion Monday on “The Five” about Florida’s new Black history standards that requires instruction for students include “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Jessica Tarlov, a liberal-leaning co-host on “The Five,” expressed disapproval of the new history standards and questioned whether arguments used to defend them would ever be made in regard to the Holocaust. “I’m not Black, but I’m Jewish,” Tarlov said. “Would someone say about the Holocaust, for instance, that there were some benefits for Jews? That while they were hanging out in concentration camps, they learned a strong work ethic? That maybe you learned a new skill.” Gutfeld replied, asking if Tarlov had read the “Man’s Search for Meaning,” a bestselling book written by psychiatrist Viktor Frankl who was imprisoned during the Holocaust and described the atrocities committed in concentration camps. In his book, Frankl detailed how people can cope with suffering and find meaning in the most horrific of circumstances. “Frankl talks about how you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful,” Gutfeld told Tarlov. “Utility! Utility kept you alive!” Gutfeld’s assertion immediately ignited criticism, including from the Auschwitz Memorial, which said in a statement, “Being skilled or useful did not spare [Jewish people] from the horrors of the gas chambers.” On Tuesday, the White House weighed in, blasting the right-wing channel over its silence on Gutfeld’s comments. “What Fox News allowed to be said on their air yesterday — and has so far failed to condemn — is an obscenity,” Andrew Bates, deputy White House press secretary, said in a statement to CNN. “In defending a horrid, dangerous, extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of Americans who suffered from the evil of enslavement, a Fox News host told another horrid, dangerous and extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of people who suffered from the evils of the Holocaust,” Bates continued. “Let’s get something straight that the American people understand full well and that is not complicated: there was nothing good about slavery; there was nothing good about the Holocaust. Full stop,” Bates added. “Americans deserve to be brought together, not torn apart with poison. And they deserve the truth and the freedom to learn, not book bans and lies.” A spokesperson for Fox News did not respond to a request for comment. Fox News has faced criticism in recent years for giving air to extreme rhetoric. The Anti-Defamation League has repeatedly — and sharply — criticized the network for mainstreaming “fringe” rhetoric. During the presidency of Donald Trump, the network trafficked in right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories — including giving air to dangerous lies about the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Fox News debuted its revamped prime time lineup just last week, after inexplicably firing Tucker Carlson earlier this year. The new lineup, featuring a bloc of pro-Trump hosts, features Gutfeld helming the 10 p.m. ET hour.
www.cnn.com
Speaker Kevin McCarthy in recent weeks has heard similar advice from both a senior House Republican and an influential conservative lawyer: prioritize the impeachment of President Joe Biden over a member of his Cabinet. Part of the thinking, according to multiple sources familiar with the internal discussions, is that if House Republicans are going to expend precious resources on the politically tricky task of an impeachment, they might as well go after their highest target as opposed to the attorney general or secretary of homeland security. And McCarthy – who sources said has also been consulting with former House GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich on the issue – has warmed up to an idea that has long been relegated to the fringes of his conference. This week, he delivered his most explicit threat yet to Biden, saying their investigations into the Biden family’s business deals appear to be rising to the level of an impeachment inquiry. Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, McCarthy signaled that Republicans have yet to verify the most salacious allegations against Biden, namely that as vice president he engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national in order to benefit his son Hunter Biden’s career, an allegation the White House furiously denies. But he said that launching an impeachment inquiry would unleash the full power of the House to turn over critical information, mirroring an argument advanced by House Democrats when they impeached then-President Donald Trump in 2019. “How do you get to the bottom of the truth? The only way Congress can do that is go to an impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy said Tuesday, stopping short of formally moving to open such a probe.
www.theguardian.com
A Republican-backed spending bill threatens to end national access to mail-order abortion pills and cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) that provides low-income families with food benefits. The legislation is part of a spate of appropriations bills that lawmakers will debate this month, and which Congress must reach a decision on by the end of September in order to pass a budget for the 2024 fiscal year and avoid a federal shutdown. It was already approved by a House appropriations subcommittee in May, while being condemned by Democrats and causing internal rifts among Republicans. Republicans have added several provisions to the bill that would have wide-ranging effects on reproductive rights, health policy and benefits. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, at the Capitol in May. The food and agriculture spending bill is the latest front in the rightwing campaign against reproductive rights. In the year since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, Republicans have passed bills in more than a dozen states that ban or severely restrict abortion access. Ending access to mail-order pills that induce abortions would complicate and limit efforts from abortion rights groups and physicians to provide care for people in states with abortion bans. Specifically, the bill would reverse a 2021 Food and Drug Administration policy that allowed people to get the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone – which can be used up to 10 weeks after conception – through the mail rather than via in-person visits to providers. The FDA had temporarily lifted restrictions on the drug during the Covid-19 pandemic, before later making those changes permanent. But the drug, which is widely used for abortion and can also be used for managing miscarriages, has been the center of legal challenges and rightwing attempts to prevent its use ever since. House Republicans’ messaging on the bill claims that their provision “reins in wasteful Washington spending” and “protects the lives of unborn children”. The bill would also decrease the Snap benefit program – formerly known as food stamps – by $32bn compared with 2023 levels, as well as prevent the health and human services department from putting limits on the maximum amount of nicotine in cigarettes. The approaching fight over spending bills has echoes of the standoff over debt ceiling negotiations earlier this year, when Democrats accused Republicans of holding the government hostage in an attempt to exact sweeping cuts to federal programs. Hardline Republicans similarly pushed to shift their party towards far-right policies during those negotiations as well. Democrats are eager to prevent a government shutdown such as the one in 2018 during the Trump administration that left about 800,000 government workers without pay and lasted longer than any previous closure in US history. But some have called for establishing red lines around what compromises they are willing to make, with a number of House Democrats such as the Massachusetts representative Jim McGovern pushing back against attempts to cut Snap funding and other conservative provisions in recent legislation. House Democrats previously tried to add two amendments to the food and agriculture spending bill that would have eliminated the anti-abortion provision, but both failed. Several Republicans have also spoken out against the food and agriculture bill, including the New York representative Marc Molinaro, who told Politico he will vote against the legislation if it comes to the floor. Molinaro, along with another New York Republican lawmaker, previously denounced a conservative Texas judge’s ruling that threatened to remove FDA approval of mifepristone. Molinaro’s opposition to the bill highlights a rift within the Republican party over just how far to push an anti-abortion agenda that has proven nationally unpopular and contributed to electoral losses in many states. skip past newsletter promotion Start the day with the top stories from the US, plus the day’s must-reads from across the Guardian Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Abortion policy has divided the GOP as hard-right Republicans, as well as powerful Christian conservative activist groups, have demanded far-reaching bans on abortion access. Others, such as the South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace, have warned that Republicans need to “read the room” on abortion or face defeat in elections. The Republican speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, has meanwhile been left scrambling to manage the different factions of his party as votes on must-pass appropriations bills loom. In addition to limiting abortion access and benefits, far-right Republicans have sought to use spending bills to greatly reduce military aid to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll from earlier this year saw that support for abortion access was at an all-time high, and included a finding that about one-third of Republicans also broadly back the right to abortion access.
www.livescience.com
A vital ocean current system that helps regulate the Northern Hemisphere's climate could collapse anytime from 2025 and unleash climate chaos, a controversial new study warns. The Atlantic Meridional Ocean Current (AMOC), which includes the Gulf Stream, governs the climate by bringing warm, tropical waters north and cold water south. But researchers now say the AMOC may be veering toward total breakdown between 2025 and 2095, causing temperatures to plummet, ocean ecosystems to collapse and storms to proliferate around the world. However, some scientists have cautioned that the new research comes with some big caveats. The AMOC can exist in two stable states: a stronger, faster one that we rely upon today, and another that is much slower and weaker. Previous estimates predicted that the current would probably switch to its weaker mode sometime in the next century. Related: Gulf Stream could be veering toward irreversible collapse, a new analysis warns But human-caused climate change may push the AMOC to a critical tipping point sooner rather than later, researchers predicted in a new study, published Tuesday (July 25) in the journal Nature Communications. "The expected tipping point — given that we continue business as usual with greenhouse gas emissions — is much earlier than we expected," co-author Susanne Ditlevsen, a professor of statistics and stochastic models in biology at the University of Copenhagen, told Live Science. "It was not a result where we said: 'Oh, yeah, here we have it'. We were actually bewildered."
Kavasutra is a dimly lit bar in Lantana, Florida, with a rotating cast of characters: the magician, the repo man, the metalhead picking Slipknot on his unplugged Stratocaster. On a recent Friday night, there's about a dozen other patrons drinking, flirting, swiping at their phones. What's not here is booze. The bar serves only nonalcoholic botanical drinks. And tonight, like most nights, one drink is clearly winning out: jumbo plastic cups filled with icy kratom tea. Kavasutra is among thousands of U.S. businesses that sell kratom, an herbal supplement that's spurring debate in statehouses and courtrooms nationwide over how it should be classified and regulated. And there are dozens of wrongful death lawsuits that have been filed over the product and how it is marketed. Last week, a jury in Washington state awarded a $2.5 million verdict in the first kratom wrongful death trial in the U.S.
www.theguardian.com
The US Department of Justice has sued the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, over his refusal to remove a floating barrier placed on the Rio Grande to stop migrants entering the US from Mexico. Texas state troopers watch as migrants cross the Rio Grande near the site where large buoys to be used as a border barrier are being deployed near Eagle Pass, Texas, Monday, July 10, 2023. Advocates have raised concern that the barriers may have an adverse environmental impact. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Texas trooper says they were told to push children into Rio Grande and deny migrants water Read more The move is the latest in a growing political spat between Abbott and the Biden administration, heightened by Republican attempts to scaremonger over immigration as the 2024 presidential election looms. The lawsuit filed by the federal government asks a court in Texas to force the state to remove the roughly 1,000ft line of bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys the Biden administration says raises humanitarian and environmental concerns. The suit also says Texas unlawfully installed the barrier without permission, near the border city of Eagle Pass. The suit was filed on Monday, after Abbott refused to comply with instructions to remove the barrier. “Texas will fully utilise its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused,” Greg Abbott wrote to Joe Biden in a letter reported by CNN and other outlets. “Texas will see you in court, Mr President.” It was the latest confrontational move by a governor who for more than two years has escalated measures to stop migrants entering the US, pushing legal boundaries along the 1,200-mile border with Mexico. Blowback over the tactics is widening, including from within Texas and particularly in light of a state trooper’s account of razor wire leaving asylum seekers bloodied and officers denying migrants water in 100F (37.7C) heat and being told to push children into the river. Last week, the US justice department told Texas to remove the river barriers, citing federal laws against obstructing waterways and imposing a Monday deadline. On Monday, Abbott said that in refusing to comply, he was “assert[ing] Texas’s sovereign interest in protecting [its] borders” in his role as the “commander-in-chief of [the] state’s militia”. Repeating a common Republican talking point, the governor also wrote to Biden: “If you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws. By doing so, you can help me stop migrants from wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande.” Saying migrants could attempt to use legitimate ports of entry, Abbott said: “While I share the humanitarian concerns noted in your lawyers’ letter, Mr President, your finger points in the wrong direction. Neither of us wants to see another death in the Rio Grande … Yet your open-border policies encourage migrants to risk their lives by crossing illegally through the water, instead of safely and legally at a port of entry. Nobody drowns on a bridge.” A White House spokesperson said Abbott’s behavior was “ making it hard for the men and women of border patrol to do their jobs of securing the border and putting both migrants and border agents in danger”. Biden’s border enforcement plan, the spokesperson added, had “led to the lowest levels of unlawful border crossings in over two years. Governor Abbott’s dangerous and unlawful actions are undermining that effective plan. “If Governor Abbott truly wanted to drive toward real solutions, he’d be asking his Republican colleagues in Congress why they voted against President Biden’s request to increase funding for the Department of Homeland Security and why they’re blocking the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures that would finally fix our broken immigration system.” The White House also said Republicans “have no plan and are just playing political games”. Criticism of Abbott is growing within his own state. Speaking to the Associated Press, David Donatti, an attorney for the Texas American Civil Liberties Union, said: “There are so many ways that what Texas is doing right now is just flagrantly illegal.” Aron Thorn, a Texas Civil Rights Project attorney, described “a very strong correlation” between Abbott’s border policy and “the Trump and post-Trump era in which most of the Trump administration’s immigration policy was aggressive and extreme and very violative of people’s rights and very focused on making the political point. “The design of this is the optics and the amount of things that they sacrifice for those optics now is quite extraordinary.” In Eagle Pass, Jessie Fuentes, a kayaker, has filed his own lawsuit over work done on the river. On Monday that suit, Epi’s Canoe & Kayak Team v State of Texas, was cited in the suit filed by the federal government. Citing measures including floating barriers and shipping containers and razor wire placed along riverbanks cleared of vegetation, Fuentes recently told the Eagle Pass city council: “The river is a federally protected river by so many federal agencies, and I just don’t know how it happened.” A member of the Eagles Pass council, Elias Diaz, told the AP: “I feel like the state government has kind of bypassed local government … and so I felt powerless at times.” Hugo Urbina, a farmer whose land abuts the river, said he supported efforts to reduce border crossings via the Rio Grande. But Urbina said Abbott and his administration “do whatever it is that they want … breaking the law and … making your citizens feel like they’re second-hand citizens”. The Texas land office has said it will permit “vegetation management” on the banks of the river as part of anti-migration efforts. The state military department has cleared out carrizo cane, which the land office has called an invasive plant. Environmental experts are concerned changes to the landscape will affect the flow of the river. Tom Vaughan, co-founder of the Rio Grande International Study Center, said: “As far as I know, if there’s flooding in the river, it’s much more severe in Piedras Negras” – on the Mexican side – “than it is in Eagle Pass because that’s the lower side of the river. “And so next time the river really gets up, it’s going to push a lot of water over on the Mexican side, it looks like to me.”
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It was a legitimate surprise when the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court ordered Alabama’s conservative-dominated state government last month to redraw its congressional map and include either a second majority-Black congressional district or something quite close to it. It may be equally surprising that Alabama appears to have said no. Instead of simply complying with the Supreme Court’s order in the Allen v. Milligan case, Alabama’s legislature redrew the congressional map to lower the Black voting-age population in the existing Democratic seat held by Rep. Terri Sewell from about 55% to just over 50% and then increased a second district’s Black population percentage to about 40%. The new map approved by Alabama’s legislature and governor will go before federal courts for review in August, so this story is far from over. And it will combine with fights over congressional maps in other states, especially New York, in such a way that control of the House could very much be at stake.
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Spain appears destined for painful political negotiations after Sunday’s elections, when no single party won enough parliamentary seats to form a government. Prospects for coalition-building now remain uncertain. With over 99% of the vote counted, the center-right Partido Popular (PP) is set to come in first, winning 136 seats. The upstart far-right Vox party, a possible coalition partner to PP, is forecast to win 33 seats. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s ruling center-left Socialist party meanwhile is on course to win 122 seats, with likely coalition partners Sumar at 31 seats.
www.reuters.com
WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while Ukraine has recaptured half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv faced "a very hard fight" to win back more. "It's already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized," Blinken said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. "These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough," he said, adding: "It will not play out over the next week or two. We're still looking I think at several months." Late last month, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that the counteroffensive's progress against Russian forces was "slower than desired." Ukraine has recaptured some villages in the south and territory around the ruined city of Bakhmut in the east, but has not had a major breakthrough against heavily defended Russian lines. When asked if Ukraine will get U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, Blinken said he believed it would. "And the important focus is on making sure that when they do, they’re properly trained, they’re able to maintain the planes, and use them in a smart way." A coalition of 11 nations will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 fighter jets in August in Denmark, and a training center will be set up in Romania. Ukraine has long appealed for the Lockheed Martin-made (LMT.N) F-16s, but U.S. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan, said last month there was no final decision on Washington sending the aircraft. U.S. officials have estimated it would take at least 18 months for training and delivery of the planes. The United States has given Ukraine more than $41 billion in military aid since Russia invaded in February 2022. Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
