We, Women is a social impact photography project led by women and gender nonconforming artists across the US, examining issues including immigration, education, climate change, race and motherhood
Wildfires in several states are burning with worrying ferocity across a tinder-dry landscape
As fires propagate throughout the US west on the heels of record heatwaves, experts are warning that the region is caught in a vicious feedback cycle of extreme heat, drought and fire, all amplified by the climate crisis.
Firefighters are battling blazes from Arizona to Washington state that are burning with a worrying ferocity, while officials say California is already set to outpace last year’s record-breaking fire season.
Continue reading...Non-profit group sees apparent surge in number of migrant deaths this year
The bodies of an unusually large number of migrants who died in Arizona’s borderlands are being recovered this summer amid record temperatures in the sun-scorched desert and rugged mountains.
An increase in migrant deaths also has been noted in Texas, and rescues are up throughout the border with Mexico.
Continue reading...Jen Psaki said he will also ‘decry efforts to strip the right to vote’ as Republican state legislatures pass voter suppression bills
Joe Biden, who has been criticised for failing to use his “bully pulpit” to defend voting rights, is set to deliver on Tuesday an aggressive denunciation of Donald Trump’s “big lie” about a stolen election.
After months of sidestepping acrimony with his predecessor in a bid to lower the political temperature, Biden will argue that Trump’s false conspiracy theories led to the 6 January insurrection and a rash of voter restrictions, the White House said.
Continue reading...Texas Democrats fled the state as part of an all-out effort to block Republicans from passing new restrictions on voting in the state.
The move, first reported by NBC News, escalates one of the most high-stakes battles over efforts to make it harder to vote in America.
Continue reading...British soldier falls through roof of California house, crashing into the kitchen in a burst of insulation and roofing material
A British paratrooper whose parachute failed to open correctly sustained only “minor injuries” after a 15,000ft fall took him through the roof of a house in California, crashing into the kitchen in a burst of insulation and roofing material.
The soldier, who was not immediately named, jumped out of a plane during a High Altitude Low Opening (Halo) exercise, a technique used by special forces. He lost control as he approached the ground near Camp Roberts, in Atascadero.
Continue reading...Minnesota pet owners warned not to release fish into wild, where they wreak havoc on native species
Authorities in Minnesota have appealed to aquarium owners to stop releasing pet fish into waterways, after several huge goldfish were pulled from a local lake.
Officials in Burnsville, about 15 miles south of Minneapolis, said released goldfish can grow to several times their normal size and wreak havoc on indigenous species.
Continue reading...Police discover weapons at downtown hotel but FBI say ‘no reason to believe this incident was connected to terrorism’
Four people were arrested and more than a dozen weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition seized at a downtown Denver hotel close to several events planned in conjunction with the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The showpiece MLB event takes place on Tuesday at Coors Field. Festivities have been staged in and around the ballpark and downtown for the past several days.
Continue reading...State officials report ‘unprecedented’ deaths due to starvation as pollution and algal blooms take toll
More manatees have died already this year than in any other year in Florida’s recorded history, primarily from starvation due to the loss of seagrass beds, state officials have said.
The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that 841 manatee deaths were recorded between 1 January and 2 July, breaking the previous record of 830 that died during the whole of 2013 because of an outbreak of toxic red tide.
Continue reading...A new report has found that a policy standard would be most effective to reach the goal of 80% renewable energy use by 2030
A Biden administration plan to force the rapid uptake of renewable energy would swiftly cut planet-heating emissions and save hundreds of thousands of lives from deadly air pollution, a new report has found amid growing pressure on the White House to deliver a major blow against the climate crisis.
Of various climate policy options available to the new administration, a clean energy standard would provide the largest net benefits to the US, according to the report, in terms of costs as well as lives saved.
Continue reading...Blaze rushes north-east from the Sierra Nevada forest region after doubling in size as heatwave blankets US west
Firefighters struggled to contain an exploding northern California wildfire under blazing temperatures as another heatwave blanketed the west, prompting an excessive heat warning for inland and desert areas.
Death Valley in south-eastern California’s Mojave Desert reached 128 F (53C) on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service’s reading at Furnace creek. The shockingly high temperature was actually lower than the previous day, when the location reached 130F (54C).
Continue reading...Texans from across the ideological spectrum flocked to testify in person at public hearings convened by governor Greg Abbott
Hailee Mouch woke up at 2am Saturday morning so she could drive to her state’s capital city of Austin and testify at two competing public hearings on Texas’s restrictive voting bills.
She knew she had to return to the Dallas area to be at work by 6am Sunday. But she was determined to stay as long as possible to tell state lawmakers how their proposals would hurt democracy in the small city where she goes to college.
Continue reading...Authorities searching for victims of a deadly condo collapse in Florida said Sunday they hope to conclude their painstaking work in the coming weeks as a team of first responders from Israel departed the site.
The Miami-Dade county mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, said 90 deaths have now been confirmed in last month’s collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside, up from 86 a day before. Among them are 71 bodies that have been identified, and their families have been notified, she said. Some 31 people remain listed as missing.
Continue reading...Biden chief medical adviser says guidance may change in future as Pfizer suggests booster ‘may be beneficial’ after six months
Dr Anthony Fauci has said there is no immediate need for a Covid-19 booster for fully vaccinated Americans but remained open to the possibility in the future, as reports suggest that one major pharmaceutical company plans to lobby government officials to approve booster shots next week.
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced last week that it had observed that its vaccine, while effective against the virus, had “a decline in efficacy against symptomatic disease over time”. The company suggested that as new variants continue to emerge a booster shot after six months “may be beneficial”.
Continue reading...The five-year rule of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, who has died aged 53 after being assassinated at his home, was dominated by allegations of corruption and brutality. At the time of his death there was a dispute about the handover of power, and Moïse, who last year had dissolved the country’s parliament, was essentially running Haiti by decree, much as Napoleon had done more than 200 years before.
In 2016, Moïse inherited a country still trying to recover from the 2010 devastating earthquake as well as Hurricane Matthew, which had hit just a month before. However, under his presidency, Haitians endured worsening living standards, including rampant unemployment, in a nation where more than half the population live below the poverty line. Inflation spiralled upwards and food and fuel became scarcer.
Continue reading...• 2020 already a more deadly year on lakes than 2019
• Heatwaves and swimming lesson hiatus among factors
Rising numbers of drownings are being reported in lakes, rivers, backyard pools and other bodies of inland water across the US this summer, amid factors such as early season severe heatwaves and children having missed out on swimming lessons during the pandemic.
Almost three dozen drownings have been reported in the Great Lakes alone in the year up to the Fourth of July holiday weekend, at least 34 compared with 25 in the same period of 2020, according to statistics gathered by the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, a non-profit safety organization.
Continue reading...Eight-hour series about Nursultan Nazarbayev criticised for stoking cult of personality of 30-year ruler
Oliver Stone has interviewed Kazakhstan’s former president Nursultan Nazarbayev for a new eight-hour film series which has been attacked as a hagiography that contributes to the leader’s cult of personality.
In the film, Qazaq: History of the Golden Man, Stone employs the same non-confrontational approach to interviewing autocrats that has made him a favourite of Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych and others seeking to polish their reputations by sitting down with the Oscar-winning director of Platoon and JFK.
Continue reading...A poll finds American adults are happy with their partnerships, perhaps because lockdown has pushed couples to grow
From the earliest days of the pandemic, experts anticipated that the stress of Covid-19 would wreak havoc on romantic relationships (and in some cases, they were right). But one recent survey suggests what few people could have predicted: for many of the couples that persevered, the pandemic may have actually improved the relationship.
According to a national poll released in February by Monmouth University, a whopping 70% of romantically committed American adults are “extremely satisfied” in their relationships. This figure marks a more than 11-point increase over previous installations of the survey, which the university has conducted for more than six years.
Continue reading...The vice-president was handed what some saw as a poisoned chalice of leading the southern border response and faces ‘unique hurdles’ in the administration
Kamala Harris looked glad to be back at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington. “The first office I ever ran for was probably the most difficult campaign I’ve ever been in,” she recalled with laughter, “and that was freshman class representative of what was then called the liberal arts student council.”
Related: How Trump’s big lie has been weaponized since the Capitol attack
Continue reading...The billionaire, along with two pilots and three other passengers, will reach 55 miles above Earth for about an hour
British entrepreneur Richard Branson is set to fly to the edge of space in his Virgin Galactic passenger rocket plane on Sunday, days ahead of a rival launch by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as the two billionaires race to kick off an era of space tourism.
Branson’s extraterrestrial venture Virgin Galactic will send its space plane into sub-orbital flight on Sunday morning, aimed at reaching 55 miles above Earth at its peak altitude.
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