US school students return amid threat of Delta disruption – live

  • First day of school for students in some parts of America
  • Over 180,000 Covid cases in children between 12 and 19 August

The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, is monitoring the latest updates on Afghanistan.

Responding to repeated questions about civilian casualties from a drone strike on Kabul on Sunday, the Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby said: “We are not in a position to dispute it right now, and ... we’re assessing, and we’re investigating.”

The US health department is preparing to launch an office focused on the climate crisis as a public health issue, something it outlined in a January executive order.

The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, said resources for the new Office of Climate Change and Health Equity are being assembled now. The WSJ reports:

The new office is likely to spur initiatives touching on many aspects of healthcare, according to people briefed on the planning and White House releases. It is expected to offer protections for populations most at risk—including the elderly, minorities, rural communities and children—and could eventually lead to policies compelling hospitals and other care facilities to reduce carbon emissions, the people said.

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US intercepts rockets targeting Kabul airport as key diplomats fly out

Islamic State claims responsibility for attacks in final hours of western evacuation of Afghanistan

US anti-missile defences have intercepted as many as five rockets targeting Kabul airport as key American diplomats flew out of the Aghan capital in the final hours of the western evacuation under the threat of further Islamic State attacks.

Officials told Reuters that core US diplomats had on Monday joined the 122,000 foreign nationals and Afghans to be evacuated since mid-August, although it was not clear whether the acting ambassador, Ross Wilson, was among them.

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China urges nations to ‘actively guide’ Taliban government

US should work with international community to help Afghanistan run government functions, Wang Yi says

China’s top diplomat has urged the international community to engage with Afghanistan’s new Taliban government and “guide it actively”, in a phone call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Wang Yi, Chinese state councillor and foreign minister, also said that Washington should work with the international community to help the new regime run governmental functions normally, according to a statement. He added that the US’s “hasty withdrawal” could allow terrorist groups to “regroup and come back stronger”.

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New Orleans battered by Hurricane Ida as storm claims first victim in Louisiana

A million households without power as governor says system of levees overhauled after Hurricane Katrina will face ‘most severe test’

One person has died as Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US, knocked out power to all of New Orleans, reversed the flow of the Mississippi River and blew roofs off buildings across Louisiana.

Related: Hurricane Ida live updates: first death in Louisiana as New Orleans loses power

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International talks aim for consensus on Taliban government

Western G7 powers are meeting Turkey, Qatar and Nato in Doha to discuss how Kabul airport could be reopened

Talks are due in Doha and New York to try to reach an international consensus on the conditions for recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. There are signs of tensions between superpowers after Russia called on the US to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month.

“If our western colleagues are actually worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by freezing gold and foreign exchange reserves,” said the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.

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Chaos as Caldor fire forces unprecedented evacuation of Tahoe tourist town

Cal Fire chief warns of ‘fire activity that we have never seen before’ as fleeing residents clog roads

Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate the tourist town of South Lake Tahoe as the raging Caldor fire draws closer, prompting chaotic scenes and clogged roads as residents rush to leave the area.

Monday’s fresh evacuation orders, unheard of in the city, came a day after communities several miles south of the lake were abruptly ordered to evacuate as the wildfire raged nearby.

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Rand Paul: ‘Hatred for Trump’ blocks Covid study of horse drug ivermectin

Kentucky senator tells constituents he is ‘in the middle’ on use of deworming medication FDA has implored Americans not to take

Federal researchers will not objectively study ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19, the Kentucky senator Rand Paul claimed, because “hatred for Donald Trump” has tainted their view of those who say the drug used to deworm horses can aid the fight against the pandemic.

Related: Florida radio host who called himself ‘Mr Anti-Vax’ dies of Covid-19

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Hurricane Ida: flooding and devastation as historically powerful storm makes landfall – video report

One person has died as Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US, knocked out power to all of New Orleans, reversed the flow of the Mississippi River and blew roofs off buildings across Louisiana. Across the state, more than a million households were without power, and the outage in New Orleans had left the city more vulnerable to flooding – 16 years after Hurricane Katrina caused devastation.

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Cape Cod: eight great white sharks seen feeding on humpback whale carcass

  • Expert marvels at ‘biggest smorgasbord a shark could dream of’
  • Researchers monitor unusual humpback mortality event

For those aboard a recent whale watching cruise off Cape Cod, the decomposing carcass of a year-old humpback calf floating in the waters of the Stellwagen Bank national marine sanctuary made for a heartbreaking sight.

Related: Experience: I was attacked by two sharks at once

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‘Selling a promise’: what Silicon Valley learned from the fall of Theranos

The company’s collapse has changed the startup environment, but some say the industry still hasn’t faced a ‘true reckoning’

A charismatic young leader, billions of dollars in valuations and a technology that promised to change the world but failed to deliver: the meteoric rise and fantastic fall of the medical tech startup Theranos has been seen by many as an indictment of the hype-train attitude of Silicon Valley.

Nearly 20 years after Theranos’s launch, its CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, is headed to trial, charged with defrauding clients and investors. Silicon Valley is facing a public that’s wary of its methods and intentions – but the verdict is still out on whether startup culture has fundamentally changed.

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Biden meets remains of 13 troops killed in Kabul as US promises more strikes

The White House on Sunday reasserted its promise to capture or kill the perpetrators of the deadly attacks on Kabul airport, as Joe Biden travelled to Delaware for the repatriation of the bodies of the 13 US troops who died.

Related: Pentagon names troops killed in Kabul – some were babies at time of invasion

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Ed Asner, who played Lou Grant in two hit shows, dies aged 91

  • Actor shone in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and spin-off
  • Spell as Screen Actors Guild president ended over liberal views

Ed Asner, a burly and prolific character actor who became a star in middle age as the gruff but lovable newsman Lou Grant, first in the hit comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show and later in the drama Lou Grant, died on Sunday. He was 91.

Related: Ed Asner obituary

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Porcelain seized by Nazis goes up for auction in New York

Prized collection smuggled across Europe by Jewish owners in 1930s expected to fetch more than $2m

A collection of prized Meissen porcelain smuggled across Europe after its Jewish owners were forced to flee the Nazis and later procured for Hitler before being uncovered in a salt mine by the “Monuments Men”, is to be auctioned in New York next month.

The extraordinary journey that the 18th-century artworks have undergone, reflecting the turmoil of the second world war years, has been reconstructed by art historians and restitution lawyers before their sale by Sotheby’s, the international auction house.

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California: mother fights off mountain lion with bare hands to save 5-year-old son

The mountain lion, which dragged the boy across his front lawn, was later killed by wildlife officers

A mountain lion that attacked a 5-year-old boy in southern California has been shot and killed by a wildlife officer, authorities say.

The 65-pound (30kg) mountain lion attacked the boy while he was playing near his house on Thursday in Calabasas and “dragged him about 45 yards” across the front lawn, said Captain Patrick Foy, a spokesman with the California department of fish and wildlife, on Saturday.

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Forget the Alamo review: dark truths of the US south and its ‘secular Mecca’

Three Texas authors expose the myth that the 1836 battle at a San Antonio mission was about freedom. It was about slavery

As the ancient American struggle over how much truth to tell about the traditional oppression of minorities bubbles over, with arguments over everything from the teaching of Critical Race Theory to the mention of anything gay in the presence of anyone under 18, this engaging new book about the history of the Alamo arrives at the perfect moment.

Related: Our Own Worst Enemy review: a caustic diagnosis of America after Trump

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Republicans scent blood as Biden assailed over Afghanistan pullout

The chaotic evacuation has dented the president’s image of empathy and competence but political attacks may have limited shelf life

For Republicans it was a day of thoughts and prayers – and political opportunity.

Related: Kabul airport atrocity offers a glimpse of the chaos to come in Afghanistan

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Elizabeth Holmes: from Silicon Valley’s female icon to disgraced CEO on trial

Once the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire, the former head of Theranos is facing fraud charges and possible jail time

The rise and fall of the blood testing startup Theranos turned the tech world upside down and captured the attention of millions beyond Silicon Valley, inspiring multiple books, documentaries and a television series.

Theranos set out to revolutionize the medical testing space, reaching a valuation of $10bn before the capabilities of its core technology were revealed to be largely fabricated. Now, its founder and former leader, Elizabeth Holmes, is about to face the music.

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Hurricane Ida: New Orleans hunkers down beneath category 4 storm

  • Storm hits land on 16th anniversary of Katrina
  • Louisiana governor confident levees will hold

Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday as a brutal category 4 storm, slamming the coast with 150mph sustained winds as it trudged towards New Orleans and Baton Rouge, threatening devastation.

Related: The Katrina survivors who fled devastation only to freeze in Texas

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Unvaccinated teacher infected half her students with Covid, CDC finds

An unvaccinated teacher in a California elementary school infected half her students and 26 people in total when she contracted the Covid-19 Delta variant, researchers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.

Related: US intelligence couldn’t resolve debate over Covid origins – official report

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