Bloomberg fires reporter for ‘premature’ publication of Evan Gershkovich release – reports

At least one reporter appears to have been fired for a decision that would’ve been reviewed by senior editors

Bloomberg News said it had taken “disciplinary action” against a number of its editorial staff after the outlet “prematurely” published news of the historic prisoner swap between Russia and the United States last week that it said could have endangered the safety of the Americans being released.

In an email to staff on Monday, editor-in-chief John Micklethwait wrote that a number of staff members had been disciplined, although the company did not say who, how many or what their punishment had been. At least one reporter on the story appears to have been fired in a rare case where a journalist was punished for a decision to publish a major news story that would likely have been reviewed by senior editors at the outlet.

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Iran says it has duty to punish Israel over killing of Hamas leader in Tehran

Crisis meeting of Arab states this week may set agenda for retaliation as countries urge Iran to show restraint

Iran has called in foreign ambassadors based in Tehran to warn of the country’s moral duty to punish Israel for what it sees as its “adventurism” and law-breaking in assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, a week ago in the Iranian capital.

Iran has also secured an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday where it will try to press Arab states to back its right to take reprisal actions against Israel.

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Trump says he has ‘no choice’ but to back EVs after Musk endorsement

Ex-president, who previously denigrated electric vehicles, says they are suitable for a ‘small slice’ of the population

Donald Trump has for months denigrated electric vehicles, arguing their supporters should “rot in hell” and that assisting the nascent industry is “lunacy”. He now appears to have somewhat shifted his view thanks to the support of Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.

“I’m for electric cars, I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly,” Trump, the Republican nominee for US president, told supporters at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday.

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X to shut down flagship San Francisco office – report

CEO Linda Yaccarino reportedly said Bay Area employees would be relocated to Silicon Valley in an internal email

X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, will shut down its flagship San Francisco office “over the next few weeks”, the New York Times reported. The internal announcement comes after owner Elon Musk stated last month he would be moving the headquarters out of California.

In an email to employees obtained by the Times, chief executive Linda Yaccarino said Bay Area employees will be relocated to Silicon Valley, distributed between an existing office in San Jose and a new office to be built in Palo Alto.

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Clarence Thomas failed to disclose more private jet travel, senator says

Senate finance committee learned of additional undisclosed travel on Harlan Crow’s jet, says Ron Wyden

The conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose more private travel on a jet owned by the rightwing mega-donor Harlan Crow, a Democratic senator said on Monday, amid a swirling ethics scandal and demands for judiciary reform.

“I am deeply concerned that Mr Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant gifts, then writing off those gifts to lower his tax bill,” Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Senate finance committee chair, told a lawyer for Crow in a letter.

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US and UK expected to be drawn in as Iran prepares retaliation against Israel

Response from Tehran, which blames Israel for killing of Hamas leader, could risk wider regional conflict

As Israel braces for what appears to be a likely Iranian retaliation, it is almost certain western and regional powers will be drawn in. Overnight, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, briefed his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, discussing according to Israel’s readout “a series of scenarios” and corresponding “defensive and offensive capabilities” should Tehran attack.

Gallant held a similar discussion with the UK defence secretary, John Healey, on Friday, giving the new Labour minister “an operational situation assessment”, Israel said. A day later Britain indicated it was moving military assets into Cyprus to prepare for a possible evacuation of UK nationals from Lebanon. The need for heightened readiness in the Middle East will not be lost on the RAF and its Typhoon pilots stationed at the Akrotiri airbase, either.

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Trump hikes Mar-a-Lago membership to $1m raising concerns of selling access

Four new spots at his resort have opened at a 43% spike in a move seen as buying political influence

Donald Trump has set a million-dollar price tag for the ability to whisper in his ear should he win back the presidency in November, prompting ethics watchdogs to worry that the Republican nominee is selling access and political influence for personal gain.

Trump is making available four new and rarely available memberships at his exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he mingled freely with unvetted patrons during his first term of office and accepted policy advice from guests scrawled on cocktail napkins.

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US chip factory workers say it’s a ‘struggle to survive’ on their wages as industry booms

Companies stand to gain billions in federal funds and tax breaks as employees suffer in poor working conditions

As chip manufacturers grapple for billions of dollars in federal funds and tax breaks designed to boost the US semiconductor industry, they face growing calls from inside their factories to improve working conditions and pay.

Workers and labour unions are urging key companies in the sector to “do the right thing” and prioritize the wellbeing of employees over the wealth of their shareholders.

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Biden to meet national security team amid fears of Iranian attack on Israel | First Thing

US trying to calm tensions after assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders last week. Plus, far-right riots escalate in UK

Good morning.

Joe Biden will meet with his national security team on Monday, the White House has said, as the US sends more fighter jets and warships to the Middle East amid growing fears of a retaliatory attack by Iran on Israel.

What has Iran said? Iranian state TV reported that the country’s president described the assassination of Haniyeh as a “major mistake by the Zionist regime [Israel] that will not go unanswered”.

But when will we know? Harris’s announcement is expected by Tuesday at the latest, when she will appear at a rally in Pennsylvania with her pick.

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Climate change deniers make up nearly a quarter of US Congress

Climate denialists – 23 in Senate and 100 in House – are all Republicans and make US an outlier internationally

US politics is an outlier bastion of climate denial with nearly one in four members of Congress dismissing the reality of climate change, even as alarm has grown among the American public over dangerous global heating, an analysis has found.

A total of 123 elected federal representatives – 100 in the House of Representatives and 23 US senators – deny the existence of human-caused climate change, all of them Republicans, according to a recent study of statements made by current members.

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Weather tracker: Flooding may hit Florida and Georgia as Storm Debby intensifies

Japan suffers under extreme heat but cooler conditions in Europe provide welcome reprieve at Olympics

Significant flooding may be about to hit parts of Florida and Georgia. Over the weekend, Tropical Storm Debby developed and intensified in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, moving slowly northwards off the west coast of Florida. At the time of writing, forecast models were indicating that the storm was likely to develop into at least a category 1 hurricane before making landfall on Monday, with sustained winds in excess of 75mph. As the storm encounters the very warm coastal waters off western Florida, it may briefly develop into an even stronger storm.

The eye of the hurricane is expected to landfall around the Florida Big Bend region before crossing northern Florida, Georgia, into the eastern Carolinas, and into the Atlantic, during Tuesday and Wednesday. As well as potentially damaging winds, storm surge warnings are in place in coastal regions of Florida. Rainfall totals in excess of 10-20in (250-500mm) may lead to serious flooding across parts of northern Florida, south-east Georgia and South Carolina.

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Shares in New York and London tumble on fears of US recession

FTSE 100 on track for its lowest close since April and Japan’s Nikkei suffers biggest fall since crash of 1987

Shares on Wall Street and in London have fallen heavily amid a global stock market rout triggered by fears of a recession in the US.

The tech-focused Nasdaq index dropped by 6% as trading in New York opened on Monday, while the broader S&P 500 index fell by 4.2% in a sell-off triggered by weak US jobs data. The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 1,100 points, a 2.8% decline.

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RFK Jr says he was behind mystery of dead bear dumped in Central Park with bicycle

In a video on X, the independent presidential candidate said he and his friends thought the prank in New York would be funny

Robert F Kennedy Jr released a bizarre video on Sunday in which he admitted that, a decade ago, he dumped a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park and staged the scene to make it look like a bicyclist had run over the animal.

The video was apparently an effort to combat an upcoming New Yorker story that he predicted will be a “bad story”.

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Cooler weather helps fire crews corral a third of California’s largest blaze of year

Firefighters make advances on wildfire that has burned 627 sq miles, but return of high temperatures may help it grow

Fire crews battling California’s largest wildfire this year have corralled a third of the blaze aided in part by cooler weather, but a return of triple-digit temperatures could allow it to grow, fire officials said Sunday.

Cooler temperatures and increased humidity gave firefighters “a great opportunity to make some good advances” on the fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Chris Vestal, a spokesperson for the California department of forestry and fire protection.

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Neuralink has implanted second trial patient with brain chip, Elon Musk says

Founder says procedure, aimed at helping paralyzed people use digital devices by thinking alone, went ‘extremely well’

Neuralink has successfully implanted in a second patient its device designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, according to the startup’s owner Elon Musk.

Neuralink is in the process of testing its device, which is intended to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move a cursor on his laptop.

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Trump ally calls GOP attack on Harris’s racial identity a ‘phony controversy’

Florida representative Byron Donalds spars with ABC host over Republicans’ questioning of vice-president’s heritage

Donald Trump ally Byron Donalds and ABC host George Stephanopoulos sparred on Sunday over Republicans’ attack line questioning Kamala Harris’s racial identity.

During an interview on ABC’s This Week, the Republican Florida representative called the issue a “phony controversy” and said “I don’t really care.” He then proceeded to double down on the issues – which the former president brought up earlier this week at the NABJ conference – by saying: “When Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was AP that said she was the first Indian American United States senator … Now she’s running nationally, obviously the campaign has shifted. They’re talking much more about her father’s heritage and her Black identity.”

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Justice Neil Gorsuch: Americans are ‘getting whacked’ by too many laws

Supreme court justice says ‘too much law’ impairs liberties and talks about importance of an independent judiciary

US supreme court justice Neil Gorsuch has said ordinary Americans are “getting whacked” by too many laws and regulations in a new book that underscores his skepticism of federal agencies and the power they wield.

“Too little law and we’re not safe, and our liberties aren’t protected,” Gorsuch told the Associated Press in an interview in his supreme court office. “But too much law and you actually impair those same things.”

Guardian staff contributed.

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Democratic primary in Arizona’s third district remains too close to call

Congressional race could head for recount as Yassamin Ansari leads Raquel Terán by 67 votes as of yesterday

The Democratic primary in Arizona’s third congressional district still remains too close to call and could be headed for a recount.

Former Phoenix city council member Yassamin Ansari led former state lawmaker Raquel Terán by 67 votes with nearly 44,000 ballots counted as of Saturday evening.

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Gaza: airstrikes on schools and a hospital kill 30 amid ‘heated’ US-Israeli talks

Two schools and a hospital complex struck as Palestinian stabs two Israelis to death in a city near Tel Aviv

Israeli airstrikes hit two schools and a hospital complex in Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 30 people, amid reports of heated disagreements between US and Israeli leaders about a possible ceasefire deal.

Inside Israel, a Palestinian stabbed two people to death in a city near Tel Aviv, adding to tensions as the country braces for Iran’s response to the assassinations of key allies this week.

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White House will work ‘every single day’ to free US teacher from Russian prison

Aide says US had tried to include Marc Fogel in prisoner swap and officials will do ‘what they can’ to bring him home

Deputy US national security adviser Jonathan Finer said Sunday that the White House worked hard to get Pennsylvania schoolteacher Marc Fogel included in the recent landmark prisoner swap involving Russia and western American allies – and though those efforts were unsuccessful, government officials continue doing “what they can” to bring him home as soon as possible.

Appearing on CBS News’s Face The Nation, Finer declined to provide further details about Fogel’s case and what his return to the US may entail. But he did assure the US is doing “novel things” to ensure US nationals will not be detained in Russia – like Fogel – or elsewhere in the future.

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