Palestinians are being repressed and brutalised by their own government in collaboration with the Israeli state

We have to stop hoping the rightwing-controlled supreme court will have a change of heart. Instead we must prepare a worst-case-scenario battle planSince Roe v Wade was decided nearly 50 years ago, abortion opponents have been plotting its demise. Now the end may be near. Feminists need our own plan to advance reproductive freedom. That means preparing for a post-Roe world. That’s not a future any of us want – but it is one for which we must be ready.Related: Texas enacts most extreme abortion law in US after supreme court inaction – live Continue reading...

David Smith retained his Paralympic boccia title, Sammi Kinghorn won bronze in the T53 100m and there was high drama in the table tennis2.54pm BSTSome of the best photos from day eight:Related: Tokyo Paralympics 2020: day eight – in pictures2.45pm BSTAnd that brings an end to our Paralympics live blog for day eight. Congratulations to all today’s medallists, and indeed all the competitors who have worked so hard to get to a level where they can become Paralympians. There was drama in the boccia, in the table tennis, in the pool and on the athletics track for ParalympicsGB today: David Smith retained his boccia title, the men’s table tennis team progressed to the final in the 6-7 classes with a tense win against Spain. The women’s team took bronze in the 4-5 classes. Sammi Kinghorn took bronze in the T53 100m final and Becky Redfern claimed silver in the SB13 women’s 100m Breaststroke. Victoria Rumary also won archery bronze in the women’s individual W1 class. Well done to all.Elsewhere there were medals – and remarkable performances – from Jetze Plat in the H4 road race, Yiting Shi of China and Thailand’s Athiwat Paeng-nuea on the track, and of course another Paralympic gold medal for Markus Rehm of Germany. Continue reading...

President seeks to confront critics about handling of withdrawal while saying it is time to ‘turn the page’ on US role abroadGood morning.In a speech from the White House 24 hours after the last soldier left Kabul, Joe Biden said the bloody, often chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan should mark a new, less interventionist era in US foreign policy. Continue reading...

The FBI’s inadequate response to far-right violence results from a lack of will, not a lack of legal authorityOn 6 January, a mob including white supremacists and far-right militants stormed the US Capitol as lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. The attack followed mass shootings by white supremacists – like in El Paso in 2019 and a Pittsburgh synagogue the year before – and relatively unpoliced public violence by far-right militants at rallies across the country since Donald Trump’s election.The Biden administration now seeks to turn the attention of the post-9/11 counterterrorism enterprise toward “domestic violent extremists”. But in making this shift, it is vital that we learn from our mistakes rather than simply repeating them. Already officials are headed down the same problematic path we took 20 years ago, considering proposals to expand counterterrorism authorities and using ideology as an indicator of potential violence. Continue reading...

Schools like to pretend their athletes are also students. But we were never given the impression that we should concentrate on the classroomIn my four years with Purdue’s football team, I tore ligaments, broke bones, lifted four times my weight a hundred times over, studied football more than my academics, rose before the sun, and stayed up long past its fall in the hope of making it to the NFL. I wasn’t the only one. Everyone on the roster – around 85 other young men – made the same sacrifices with the same hopes. As my tenure was coming to an end, it became obvious that fewer than 10% of us would get an invite to an NFL training camp, let alone an actual contract offer.And even if you did get that contract, you were hardly set up for life. I was the highest-ranked prospect on our campus and one of the few players to be drafted by an NFL team … and my professional career last three years. I earned good money, but nowhere near enough to retire on – and I was one of the lucky few who got a chance to play professionally. For the players who don’t make it – and that’s the vast majority of them – there is hardly enough time, resources, or care to prepare them for a future beyond football. Continue reading...

Satellite photographs reveal the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US gulf coast. The storm killed at least four people, and has left about 1.3 million residents, most of them in Louisiana, without electricity Continue reading...

Taliban soldiers inspected damaged aircraft and equipment at Kabul airport after the last US troops withdrew from a shattered Afghanistan. US troops destroyed more than 70 aircraft and dozens of armoured vehicles before they left. A day after their departure, Taliban supporters celebrated across the country, with even a mock funeral held with coffins draped with US, British and French flags

The committee has issued sweeping requests for Trump executive branch records related to the insurrectionCongressman Bennie Thompson, chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, is preparing an expanded inquiry into Donald Trump that will scrutinize whether the White House helped plan or had advance knowledge of the insurrection.The move amounts to an escalation for the committee as they embark on an inquiry into the events around the 6 January assault that could ensnare the former US president and some top allies in the White House and on Capitol Hill, portending an aggressive inquiry with far-reaching ramifications. Continue reading...

New infrastructure projects are all the rage, post-pandemic. But who benefits from a rising tide of concrete?Dig for victory: this, repurposed from the second world war, could be the slogan of our times. All over the world, governments are using the pandemic and the environmental crisis to justify a new splurge of infrastructure spending. In the US, Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure framework “will make our economy more sustainable, resilient, and just”. In the UK, Boris Johnson’s build back better programme will “unite and level up the country”, under the banner of “green growth”. China’s belt and road project will bring the world together in hyper-connected harmony and prosperity.Sure, we need some new infrastructure. If people are to drive less, we need new public transport links and safe cycling routes. We need better water treatment plants and recycling centres, new wind and solar plants, and the power lines required to connect them to the grid. But we can no more build our way out of the environmental crisis than we can consume our way out of it. Why? Because new building is subject to the eight golden rules of infrastructure procurement. Continue reading...

Staff defending building and equipment turned to repurposed water cannons as huge Caldor fire approachedAs the flames of California’s Caldor fire approached a popular Lake Tahoe-area ski resort, staff used every tool they could to protect the property, including snowmaking equipment.Staff at Sierra-at-Tahoe spent days preparing to defend the 2,000-acre resort west of South Lake Tahoe from the huge wildfire, which has rapidly advanced through the region. Before the blaze burned on to the property Sunday evening, they had created defensible space around buildings, sealed air ducts to keep out embers and repurposed water hydrants, normally used to make snow, to douse buildings in water, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Continue reading...

President says he takes responsibility for withdrawal but argues others must also shoulder blameJoe Biden has said he takes responsibility for the bloody, often chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and said it should mark a new era in US foreign policy, relying less on military muscle.Addressing the nation from the White House 24 hours after the last US soldier left Kabul, Biden sought to confront his critics about the handling of the withdrawal. He celebrated the evacuation of 124,000 civilians in the 17 days following the fall of the Afghan capital and said it was time to “turn the page” on the US role abroad, pointing to a less interventionist future. Continue reading...

The president appeared indignant and unwilling to concede defeat in a 26-minute speech that marked the close of a 20-year chapterVictory speeches are easy; conceding defeat is much harder. On Tuesday, Joe Biden tacitly blamed his predecessors for the failure of America’s longest war but implied that, against all odds, one winner had emerged: him.In a 26-minute speech at the White House, the US president fiercely defended his decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan and hailed the mass evacuation from Kabul as a triumph. He scored highly in making the case against forever wars and expressing compassion for US military families. Continue reading...

Bill, nearly identical to a measure that passed last week, gives poll watchers more power and prohibits 24-hour and drive-thru votingThe Texas legislature gave its final approval on Tuesday to a new bill that would impose substantial new restrictions on voting access in the state. Continue reading...

In a statement to the nation Joe Biden claimed that the US was ready for 'every eventuality' in its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan while taking responsibility for the execution of the abrupt, deadly and chaotic departure from Kabul.

More than 1m homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi without power but restoration could take weeksThe Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, has told those who fled their homes amid the aftermath of Hurricane Ida to not come home until officials say otherwise.Related: Man missing after alligator attack in Hurricane Ida floods, officials say Continue reading...

Scenes from South Lake Tahoe as the raging Caldor fire bears down on the popular resort city and fills the skies with orange smoke. Thousands of firefighters are battling to slow the blaze, which has already consumed an area larger than Chicago

After almost 20 years, America has ended its longest war. But its duties to Afghans endureThe histories are already being written, but for now, two moments encapsulate the closing moments of America’s longest war. One was the eerie, lonely night-vision image of the last US soldier boarding the military’s final flight from Afghanistan. The other came a day earlier, when a retaliatory strike targeting Islamic State reportedly claimed the lives of 10 civilians, including at least six children. Together, they convey the sense of hopelessness and waste, after almost 20 years and $2tn, the carelessness which too often characterised both the US presence and its withdrawal, and the costs to Afghans.Though Donald Trump set the clock for departure ticking, Joe Biden’s timing owed more to symbolism than pragmatism. The president promised that the US military would leave before 11 September – the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaida terrorist attacks that led the US to topple the Taliban. Continue reading...

2020 data identified 7,759 hate crimes, a 6% increase on 2019, with a surge in assaults on Black and Asian AmericansHate crimes in the US have risen to the highest level in 12 years, triggered largely by a surge in assaults on Black and Asian Americans, according to a FBI report.The 2020 data, submitted to the FBI by more than 15,000 state and local police agencies, identified 7,759 hate crimes, a 6% increase on 2019 and the highest number since 2008. Since 2014, hate crimes have risen by 42%. Continue reading...

Governor Ralph Northam said the men, tried by all-white juries, were not given due process at a time when only Black men received death sentences for rape in VirginiaThe governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, has granted posthumous pardons to seven Black men who were executed in 1951 for the rape of a white woman.The case attracted pleas for mercy from around the world and in recent years has been denounced as an example of racial disparity in the use of the death penalty. Continue reading...

• Letter seeks greater action on climate crisis and racial justice• Trump appointee’s term at Federal Reserve expires in FebruaryThe New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Democratic party’s progressive caucus have urged Joe Biden to replace Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve as part of a top-to-bottom makeover of the US central bank.“As news of the possible reappointment of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell circulates, we urge President Biden to re-imagine a Federal Reserve focused on eliminating climate risk and advancing racial and economic justice,” they said in a statement issued on Tuesday. Continue reading...

My Afghan relatives refuse to be forced back into their homes. Talking to them is heart-wrenching, but leaves me with hope

• Media watchdog raises alarm at primetime host’s comments• ‘Fox News, not Facebook, will be the driver of next insurrection’Fox News is driving political violence in the US, a media watchdog warned, after the primetime host Tucker Carlson predicted “revolt” against the Biden administration.In a Monday night monologue targeting the White House and military leaders over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Carlson demanded resignations. He also said: “When leaders refuse to hold themselves accountable over time, people revolt. That happens. Continue reading...

People keeping 80lb animal illegally as a pet called for help, and cougar was transported to wildlife refugeAn 11-month-old cougar was removed from a New York City apartment where it was being illegally kept as a pet, animal welfare officials said.The owners of the 79lb (36kg) female surrendered the animal last Thursday, said Kelly Donithan, director of animal disaster response for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Continue reading...

Murray was left angered by his defeat against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open but he should be cheered by how he playedAs Andy Murray reflected on the efforts that helped him to push the third seed Stefanos Tsisipas deep into a fifth set across nearly five hours of gripping, high-quality tennis at the US Open, his immediate reaction was of bitter disappointment.“I know I’m capable of playing that tennis,” Murray said after his 2-6, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat. “I need to spend time on the court, getting the chance to play against these guys. Ultimately when I get on the court with them, I need to prove it. I guess tonight I proved some things to a certain extent.” Continue reading...

GB’s Sarah Storey took time-trial gold, while Oksana Masters of the USA has now won golds at both summer and winter Paralympics2.34pm BSTRelated: Sarah Storey closes on outright British Paralympic record after time trial goldRelated: Afghan athlete evacuated from Kabul belatedly competes at ParalympicsRelated: Oksana Masters becomes Summer and Winter Paralympic champion with cycling goldRelated: ParalympicsGB roundup: Reece Dunn powers to third gold of GamesRelated: Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games: full resultsRelated: Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games: full medal tableRelated: Tokyo Paralympics 2020: day seven – in picturesRelated: Sign up for the Tokyo 2020 daily briefing: the best of the Paralympics2.27pm BST1 China 62 golds 38 silvers 32 bronzes (132 medals overall)

• Anti-parasitic drug used on horses can be dangerous• Jeffrey Smith, 51, to receive 30mg for three weeksA judge in Ohio ordered a hospital to treat a Covid-19 patient with ivermectin, despite warnings from experts that the anti-parasitic drug has not proved effective against the virus and can be dangerous in large doses.Related: Rand Paul: ‘Hatred for Trump’ blocks Covid study of horse drug ivermectin Continue reading...

In the vacuum left by the US, regional politics between Iran, UEA, Qatar and Saudi Arabia is bound to become more messyAs the US military finally leaves Afghanistan after 20 years, all eyes are rightly on the human tragedy and the political implications of the Taliban’s return to power. But to understand what may come next for both Afghanistan and the world, more attention needs to be paid to the tectonic shifts in the Arab and Iranian involvement in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001. Unless the regional contests for influence are accompanied by substantive and inclusive dialogue between these actors, turmoil will only increase for the country.Iran’s changing role is a case in point. Tehran was once eager to get rid of the Taliban. In 1998, the killing of diplomats at the Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif almost ignited a war. The murders took place in the chaos of the Taliban’s capture of the northern Afghan city. Tehran thus put the blame on the Taliban, which in turn pinned it on rogue elements. So it was unconventional – but certainly not odd – when Iran and the US emerged as implicit partners against the Taliban in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Tehran and Washington jointly backed the Northern Alliance – an alliance of warlords that held 10% of Afghanistan – as an anti-Taliban force. Continue reading...

The last evacuation flight out of Kabul airport marked the end of the US’s longest war, leaving Afghanistan to its fate

Today’s challenges demand radical action. The old orthodoxy of free markets and hands-off government won’t cut itAs western economies emerge from the pandemic, their governments face a choice: do they seek to address the profound problems that Covid exposed, or try to return to “business as usual” as quickly as possible? Their problem is that many of the issues exacerbated by the pandemic, such as wage stagnation, precarious work and rising inequality are not bugs in an otherwise well-functioning system, but inevitable outcomes of the way that western economies are now organised. So a business-as-usual approach simply won’t work. Much more fundamental change is needed.The US government seems to recognise this. Joe Biden’s economic plans are a radical departure from the era that stretches from Reagan to Obama, when governments sought to keep taxes and public spending low and focused principally on globalised trade and the education and training of the workforce. Unlike his predecessors, Biden is pursuing large-scale public spending and taking advantage of ultra-low interest rates to borrow for infrastructure investment. His stimulus plans target the climate crisis while creating green jobs and expanding health, education and childcare – the “social infrastructure” that is essential to the economy but has often been ignored by mainstream economists. Continue reading...

These emergency rulings – short, unsigned and issued without hearing oral arguments – undermine the public’s faith in the integrity of the courtLast week, it was Remain in Mexico. On Tuesday, the supreme court issued an order requiring the Biden administration to reinstate the Trump-era policy that required asylum seekers from Central America to stay across the border in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated. It was an uncommonly aggressive intervention into foreign policy, an area where previous courts have preferred a light touch, and it posed massive logistical, diplomatic and humanitarian crises at the border that will need to be rapidly resolved if the Biden administration is to comply with the order.Two days later, it was the eviction moratorium. On Thursday, the court blocked an extension of the federal emergency ban on evictions, gutting a 1944 law that gave the CDC the authority to implement such measures to curb disease, and endangering the 8m American households that are behind on rent – who now, without federal eviction protection, may face homelessness. Continue reading...

The governor’s rivals have only a fraction of his funds, but an unorthodox voting process throws the usual rules out the windowIf war chests won elections, Gavin Newsom would have nothing to fear from the effort to recall him as governor of California.As the campaign moves into its final frenzied phase ahead of 14 September, the official voting day, Newsom and his supporters have outraised the entire panoply of his would-be replacements by a wildly lopsided margin. Continue reading...

Party members say their control of both the House and Senate is at risk if they do not pass new legislation to protect electionsDemocrats are pushing what may be their last chance to hold off voter suppression efforts by Republicans, and say that their control of both the House and Senate is at risk if they do not pass their new legislation to protect elections. Continue reading...

Nearly all of Louisiana lost electrical power on Monday after one of the strongest hurricanes to strike the region downed power lines, littered roads with debris and flooded isolated communities south of New Orleans in the US. After dumping a deluge of rain in Louisiana by late Monday afternoon and killing at least two people, Ida was downgraded to a tropical depression as its eye crawled through neighbouring Mississippi

The story of the congenitally amputated Nick Newell reconstructs the fights efficiently but overrides his real struggles with a sub-Rocky storylineThis mixed martial arts-based flick goes one further than kung-fu classic One-Armed Swordsman in being based on real events: the improbable rise of “Notorious” Nick Newell, who had a congenital amputation of the left arm, to his winning the Xtreme Fighting Championship (XFC) belt in 2012. Cody Christian, a little digital shimmer occasionally showing on his VFX-severed limb, puts in a committed shift as Newell in a brisk biopic that is a bit over-planed but can hardly fail to inspire.Encouraged by his mother, Stacey (Elisabeth Röhm), Newell joins his school wrestling squad, where he is nicknamed “Elbow” by students high on the douchebag scale. But it is only when bosom buddy Abi (Cameron James Matthews) is killed in a motorbike accident, while the pair are battling through local MMA qualifying rounds, that Newell gains enough self-belief to make a career of combat. As he climbs through the XFC rankings, he hits an even bigger obstacle than his disability: other fighters’ unwillingness to step into the ring with him in the belief that it’s a lose-lose situation. Win, and it’s a victory over a one-armed man; get beaten, and the same applies. Continue reading...

The NBA champion since our days playing each other in college. He was vilified throughout his career but I always saw a man trying to do his bestIn 2013 I was part of a trip put on by the NBA Players Association to Africa. Among my fellow players on the tour was Metta Sandiford-Artest, then known as Metta World Peace. It was nearly a decade removed from The Malice At The Palace, when players and fans had fought at a game between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers. The NBA came down heavily on Metta, who was suspended for 86 games and fined $5m for his part in the incident.On the trip, Metta and I talked a lot. We reminisced about our days in college, when my Syracuse team and his St John’s team battled on court. Metta was the same player in college as he was in the NBA: fiery and passionate. I asked him about an incident that stayed in my memory. When we beat St John’s in the dying seconds at Madison Square Garden, Metta approached one of the refs about a missed call. The ref shrugged him off and said something to the effect of: “The game is over, shut up and go home.” Continue reading...

Tension was already high between leaders in the south and networks in the north and east – then came the Kabul bombingThe attack against Kabul’s airport reminded the world that the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) remains active in Afghanistan and has not signed any peace deals. The US retaliated with two controversial drone strikes. After these episodes, ISKP may appear to be the most serious challenge to the Taliban right now, but the Taliban’s internal rivalries make it, in many ways, its own worst enemy.The Taliban may appear powerful, with about 85,000 mobilised fighters, but they are also stretched thin all over Afghanistan, with a large part of their strength committed to securing the cities. This is 10 times the number of fighters who are loyal to ISKP, and maybe 20 times as big as the handful of loosely organised “resistance” militias based in the north-eastern province of Panjshir, who claim to be the main opposition to Taliban rule. But numbers do not tell the whole story. The Taliban have weaknesses that their enemies are seeking to exploit – and the group is showing a distinct lack of effective leadership, with rival leaders split into northern, eastern and southern factions pulling it in different directions. Continue reading...

Crews using helicopters and airboats conduct search and rescue missions after at least two people killed

As sovereign nations, Indigenous groups are using their authority to make their own rules to protect students and teachersNative American tribes across the handful of US states with bans on school mask mandates have asserted their powers as sovereign nations to defy the orders, with many also implementing their own testing and vaccine directives for tens of thousands of students and faculty in schools on their reservations as Covid-19 cases surge.